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LA Liberation Seder

A large and diverse crowd of more than 80 Angelenos, ranging in age from 18 to 88 and many attending their first seder, gathered for IJAN-LA's second ever Liberation Seder on April 3, 2010. It was held at the Mt. Hollywood Congregational Church in the Los Feliz/East Hollywood section of LA. The seder, using IJAN's own Palestinian Liberation Haggadah, combined traditional Passover rituals, political commentary on Palestine and other liberation struggles, and music and poetry.

BDS Campaign Thirsting for Justice picks up steam in LA

Drawing inspiration and momentum from Omar Barghouti's speaking event in the Fall of 2009, BDS-LA for Justice in Palestine launched the "Thirsting for Justice" campaign. Members of IJAN-LA have continued to organize with other activists in Los Angeles on this local campaign to support the Palestinian call for BDS against Israel and contribute to the global movement for water justice in Palestine. The Thirsting for Justice campaign calls on the City of Los Angeles and the LA Department of Water and Power to end its Memorandum of Understanding with Kinrot, an Israeli Water Technology company. BDS-LA has been seeking endorsements from a wide range of community organizations for the campaign and is planning to target members of the LA City Council, including through a community event this fall featuring Palestinian activist-academic Lisa Taraki. For more information, see www.bds-la.org.

IJAN US Year-in-Review

IJAN has grown in thepast year to include five chapters across theUnited States. We are also active in IJAN's labor work group, and have active academicand student work groups. We are buildingwork groups to focus on anti-Zionist Jewish organizing in queer, Jew of Colorand spiritual sectors.

The firsthalf of 2010 focused on organizing and hosting the 2010 US Assembly of Jews - Confronting Racism & Israeli Apartheidand participation in the organizing of the US Social Forum. The Assembly andSocial Forum were opportunities for us to come together and build our sharedpolitics, direction and relationships to create anagenda to do so. This work includes our continued participation in BDS,demonstrations and public education; the launching of an international campaignagainst the Jewish National Fund; acall for confronting Islamophobia and political repression against those whospeak out against the War on Terror; and continuing to bring a clear anduncompromising Jewish complaint against Zionism.

Announced as avictory by its newest member, J-Street, the World Zionist Organization came out with its agenda forthe next three years: secure US support for Israel even if doing so meansaccepting a Palestinian State (whose borders, air space, water andcommunication systems Israel controls) and a freeze to further development ofsettlements (despite that they are now protected by the Apartheid wall). IJAN isready to organize an agenda to challenge the "special relationship" between the US and Israel, that J-Street's agenda reflects, with support and pressurefrom our international comrades and partners.

This winter we willbring Hajo Meyer to the US to continue our challenge to the misuse of the Nazigenocide to justify the occupation of Palestine by drawing connections betweenthe Nazi genocide and other histories and current experiences ofdehumanization, including Palestine. This follows a successful IJAN Europe tour with Hajo Meyer last winter.