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Anti-Zionist Study Group

Chicago's chapter of the International Jewish Anti-ZionistNetwork (Chicago IJAN) is running an anti-Zionist study group! Folks who were involved in the last studygroup are encouraged to return, and new folks are invitedto join.

The International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) hopes to buildon legacies of study groups using political education to inform our anti-Zionist andPalestine solidarity work.

Though organized by a Jewish-identified collective, the study group is open to everyone, and thematerials are not Jewish-specific.

We will be exploring four topics, with three sessionsdevoted to each topic. Participants are encouraged to commit to coming toall three sessions of a particular topic, but need not commit to the full 12sessions/4 topics.

The four topics are:

* History of Zionism

* Palestinian History and Resistance

* South African Apartheid and the BDS Movement

* Arabs in America and Islamophobia

Participants are expected to read or engage with media for1-2 hours a week outside of meeting times. Group memberswill take turns facilitating. The reading group materialwill include academic articles, poetry, creative nonfiction, film, and artwork.

For a syllabus or to find out about attending the biweeklystudy group, please contact us at chicago@ijsn.net(We are completing the first section, focused on the History of Zionism; thenext installment focusing on Palestinian Resistance is slated to begin Mondayevening, June 6^th).

Stop the JNF Campaign

This letter invites environmental justice organizations to learn more about and get involved in the Stop the JNF campaign. It also has links to the eBook Greenwashing Apartheid: The Jewish National Fund's Environmental Cover Up and to the campaign's Plant-a-Tree in Palestine Project.

People’s Climate Mobilization and Stop the JNF Update

In light of the People's Climate Mobilization (PCM) in New York City during the weekend of September 21, said to have been the largest climate justice march in history with over 400,000 attendees, it is important to recognize the shifting landscape of the environmental movement. From a movement that has been largely white and middle class, there is an emerging movement that recognizes the importance of centering the leadership and issues of people of color and poor people most impacted by the climate crisis. Equally imperative, the framing of environmental issues should always include anti-colonial struggles and indigenous rights and sovereignty, as concerns over the environment can never be separated from indigenous struggles for land, resources and decolonization, as was laid out very clearly by indigenous organizers and activists of the PCM. In the PCM’s effort to cast a wide net and include a broad range of people and groups concerned about climate change, it also brought in some organizations that do not belong in movements advancing an agenda of environmental and social justice. The PCM put out a statement explaining that it “will bring together a spectrum of people with a broad range of perspectives." Yet the net was cast so wide that it attracted Zionist organizations to participate in the climate justice rally, including the Green Zionist Alliance (GZA), a classic greenwashing organization, whose stated purpose is "to educate and mobilize people around the world for Israel's environment [and] to protect Israel's environment," which includes "planting millions of trees" in Israel.