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The holiday of Tu B'Shvat, Planting Trees in Palestine and Stopping the JNF

After more than 100 years, the JewishNational Fund (JNF) still plays an integral part in the ethnic cleansing andcolonization of Palestine. Aninternationally coordinated campaign against the JNF is about to launch and IJANis helping to build the campaign in the US and the UK, with additional activistsinvolved in several European countries. Campaign organizers recently returnedfrom a delegation to Palestine to build relationships with Palestinian, Bedouinand Jewish organizations in the lands occupied in 1948 (Israel) and in 1967(the West Bank) in preparation for partnering in the campaign against theJNF. Look out forevents marking the international launch of the Stop the JNF campaign on LandDay, March 30, 2011.

Also, join us thisweek in celebrating Tu B'Shvat. TuB'Shvat, known as the "New Year of Trees", is a Jewish holiday with along history. In ancient times, it was when farmers gave a portion of theirfruits and nuts to the poor. In the 17th century, Jewish mystics started havingservices, or seders, on Tu B'Shvat, eating symbolic foods.

In the 20th century, Tu B'Shvat was co-opted by the JewishNational Fund (JNF) as an occasion to raise money for the creation of the stateof Israel. The Jewish National Fund buys land in Palestine/Israel exclusivelyfor Jewish use. Through calling on Jews worldwide to donate and "plant atree in Israel", the JNF has helped create an apartheid system inPalestine/Israel where Jews are able to buy land and houses while non-Jews,including indigenous Palestinians, cannot. After 1948 and until today, the JNFplants forests and parks over Palestinian and Bedouin villages depopulated bythe Israeli government. This exploitation of ‘environmentalism' is a way togreenwash atrocities against Palestinians.

International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network Says: Never Again For Anyone

The Israelis tried to dehumanize thePalestinians, just like the Nazis tried to dehumanize me." -- Dr. HajoMeyer, Holocaust Survivor

"My grandmother was ill in bed when the Nazis came to her home town. AGerman soldier shot her dead in her bed. My grandmother did not die to providecover for Israeli soldiers murdering Palestinian grandmothers in Gaza." --Sir Gerald Kaufman, MP

"The world said we would never allow that to happen again. The uprising ofthe Warsaw Ghetto -- the Intifada of the Jewish prisoners in Poland in 1943 --actually inspires us here in Gaza." -- Dr. Haidar Eid, Al-Aqsa University,Gaza

For more than six decades, Zionists have dominated global discussion of theNazi genocide. By their account, the Holocaust unleashed a level of sufferingunmatched by any other event in history.

The lesson, they claim, is that Jews require a separate state in which they area demographic majority and exercise legalized supremacy over the non-Jewishindigenous population.

This Zionist narrative withstands neither historical nor moral scrutiny.

Far from being the unique tragedy Zionists have proclaimed it, Jewish sufferingunder the Nazis has numerous historical parallels. The Holocaust itselftargeted and massacred not only Jews, but also millions of others whom Nazislikewise regarded as "subhuman," including Roma, Slavs, gay people,and people with disabilities.

IJAN-TC Statement of Support for Dr. Waziyatawin

In early January 2011, Dakota activist, scholar and author Dr. Waziyatawin was called by the FBI and questioned about her beliefs and a speech she gave at Winona State University in November '10. IJAN-TC, in our work against racism and colonialism, viewed this call from the FBI as an attempt to isolate and intimidate a member of our community for Truth Telling.