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The 2010 US Assembly of Jews: Confronting Racism and Israeli Apartheid

Inthe United States, IJAN spent the first half of the year preparing for andhosting the first national anti-Zionist Jewish gathering, "The US Assembly ofJews: Confronting Israeli Apartheid and Racism," from June 19-22 in Detroit. The Assembly wasa great success with over 200 participants exploring and developinganti-Zionist Jewish politics, organizing and activism. Our gathering securedover fifty endorsements from organizations in the US and internationally, wasintergenerational, and included partners from the Palestinian liberationmovement and other anti-racist, anti-imperialist struggles.

Following theAssembly we participated in the US Social Forum which brought together over15,000 activists and community members. IJAN was part of the National PlanningCouncil and with the US Palestinian Network built relationships betweenconfronting Zionism and movements against racism and imperialism, for economic,gender and environmental justice, and immigrant and indigenous rights.

Click HERE to go to the Assembly web site.

Click HERE to seevideo clips, audio excerpts and blog entries.

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14-City Never Again for Anyone Tour

We started 2010 with our Never Again for Anyone tourwith events in fourteen cities across Europe. Dr. Hajo Meyer, an 86-year old survivor of Auschwitzand member of IJAN Netherlands, spoke to his perspective on the Zionist "Misuseof the Holocaust for Political Purposes." For most of the tour his talk was accompanied by a video presentation orlive discussion with Dr. Haidar Eid, professor and activist with the OneDemocratic State Group in Gaza.Drawing on his experience in Nazi Germany, Dr. Meyer identifies many parallels inthe role of dehumanization and discrimination in the preparation of the Germancitizens to participate in the Nazi genocide of many and the preparationofIsraeli society to accept and participate in the ethnic cleaning ofPalestinians.

IJAN Students support Campus Divestment Campaigns

As momentum around campus BDS continued to build over this pastyear, IJAN offered strategic defense support to divestment campaigns. LastSeptember, the student network published an Open Letter to Members of University Communities around theWorld calling on Jews ofconscience to join campus BDS campaigns and stand firmly against the upsurge ofIslamaphobia at universities, to which we're still collecting signatures. IJAN activists in the Bay Area were directly involved in UC Berkeley'sdivestment campaign and also stood in support of the divestment efforts at UCSan Diego. While these struggles have not yet been successful in winningdivestment from Israeli apartheid, together they served as an incredibleinspiration to Palestine-solidarity student activists across the country andcontributed significantly to shifting the terms of national debate on the stateof Israel. The overwhelming success of the student referendum in support ofdivestment at Evergreen was another inspiring moment of the past year and ishelping to sustain the momentum generated by all these efforts. IJAN'sstudent network is in the process of accessing the current moment in campus BDSwork and determining how we can most strategically support this work asanti-Zionist Jews. We welcome the participation of others interested tojoin us in these efforts.