Just to help balance the thread, and to let posters know of one of the many good Jewish groups; here is IJAN's latest Anniversary Bulletin:
Anniversary Bulletin:
IJAN's First Year
Support the Gaza Freedom March
Demand Dayton to exit Palestine
Challenge Islamophobia in the U.S. judicial system
Tell IGLTA that Apartheid Israel is not for LGBT Leisure Tourism!
IJAN is a growing international network of Jews whose Jewish identities are not based on Zionism but on a plurality of histories and experiences. We share a commitment to participation in the legacy of struggles against colonization and imperialism. As such, we struggle against Zionism and its manifestation in the State of Israel’s historic and ongoing ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people and the confiscation of their land.
www.ijsn.net
Anniversary Bulletin
This bulletin comes out on the eve of IJAN’s first anniversary. Please join us in welcoming in the new year with action that reflects our commitment to Palestinian liberation. In the bulletin below, are some words of reflection about the current state of affairs in which our work occurs. You will also find four suggestions for simple actions you can take this week to move the work forward in the coming year. Please participate in these efforts to: support an international campaign to end the siege on Gaza, remove US General Dayton from the West Bank, provide solidarity for a US citizen facing 60 years in prison for false charges by an Islamophobic state, and support activists in Israel attempting to keep Israel from being promoted as a travel destination. We look forward to another year of working together toward the liberation of Palestine and justice for all.
IJAN’s First Year
As we approach the first anniversary of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN), we remember the anniversary of Sabra and Shatila and over 61 years of Palestinian struggle against ethnic cleansing. We are reminded that the latest siege and blockade of Gaza is part of this ongoing colonization of Palestine. Through our actions over this anniversary we intend to honor the second intifada, which reignited the international solidarity movement from which our network emerged…
Much has changed since the release of the founding Charter of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network on 29 September 2008. The Palestinian call for boycott of, divestment from, and sanctions against Israel (BDS) is gaining in presence and impact, both internationally and inside Israel. Israel’s barbaric assault on Gaza has inspired humanitarian efforts to break the siege, calls for prosecuting Israeli war criminals, and the breaking of diplomatic ties by Venezuela, Bolivia, and Mauritania.
Against the backdrop of this increased oppression, we are witnessing efforts to resume a negotiated ‘peace’ brokered by the United States. The alleged ‘peace plan’ picks up where the Oslo Accords left off. That project was successfully interrupted by second intifada, and it must not be permitted to reemerge in the form of a series of separate and caged Palestinian bantustans on 22 percent of historic Palestine….
The work ahead is to hold our own governments accountable for their support and funding of Israeli apartheid and colonization, and to mobilize public opinion to achieve this goal. To this end, the increasingly successful BDS campaign is our most powerful tool. In our second year, IJAN hopes to continue its work with those committed to the liberation of the Palestinian people as part of the broader struggle against racism, colonialism, and imperialism worldwide.
Click here to read the full statement, including IJAN’s accomplishments in our first year and our plans for the following year.
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Support the Gaza Freedom March
>> Cliquez sur ici pour lire notre rapport de support en FRANÇAIS.
The framework of the Gaza Freedom March to take place in January, 2010, was initially challenged by highly-respected Palestinian activists. Their criticisms led to a compromise that satisfied both the Palestinian critics and most of the initial organizers. This compromise was reflected in a "Statement of Context" that is now part of the call and locates the struggle to lift the siege on Gaza within the broader context of the 60 plus year history of colonization of Palestine and Palestinian resistance. Since then, there has been an outpouring of support for the March from Palestinian civil society. IJAN endorses the March and is partnering to make it a success. IJAN France is organizing a delegation.
Click here to read IJAN’s full statement of support on Electronic Intifada.
Click here to endorse or join the March.
If you are interested in organizing a delegation, please contact the organizers of the March at
info@gazafreedommarch.org, and CC
ijan@ijsn.net so that we can coordinate together.
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Call for US IJAN Action:
Demand Dayton to Exit Palestine
IJAN endorsed the call of the US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) to decry the U.S. and Israel exploitation of internal Palestinian divisions through the supplying, training, and supervising of Palestinian Authority security forces to quell Palestinian resistance in the West Bank. As the USPCN notes, liberation struggles throughout the world have been subject to these same imperialist tactics. And, like solidarity activists before us, our responsibility lies in attempting stop history from repeating itself.
Please join the US Palestinian Community Network in calling for a withdrawal of Dayton and an end to US-funded death squads in the West Bank.
Click here to read and sign the statement.
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Call for US IJAN Action:
Challenge Islamophobia in the U.S. Judicial System
Help IJAN reach its goal of sending 250 letters to the sentencing Judge!
The US War on Terror uses Islamophobia to justify the targeting of Muslim, Arab, and South and West Asian individuals, communities and organizations. Many of those serving time have been targeted simply for their participation in organizations or religious institutions that are deemed a terrorist threat without any clear evidence of actual participation in anything remotely connected to harming civilian populations. This is the case with Ehsanul Sadequee (Shifa).
On April 17, 2006, 19 year old Ehsanul Sadequee (Shifa), an American born Muslim, was kidnapped from Bangladesh under the direction of the Bush administration and handed over to the US on alleged charges of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorism and is currently awaiting trial. Shifa has served over three years in solidarity confinement without trial or having been convicted on an offense. He has been subjected to physical abuse, psychological torture, and health ailments have been ignored and exacerbated by federal prison staff. More information can be found at
http://www.freeshifa.com/.
PLEASE TAKE 10 MINUTES TO SEND A LETTER TO REQUEST A REDUCTION OF THE SENTENCE SHIFA IS FACING—UP TO 60 YEARS IN PRISON FOR INVALID CHARGES OF TERRORISM.
Click here for a sample letter.
Tell IGLTA that Apartheid Israel is not for LGBT Leisure Tourism!
On October 10-16, 2009, the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association (IGLTA) is planning to hold a tourism conference in Tel Aviv, Israel, aimed at boosting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) leisure tourism to Israel. The audience of this conference is expected to be made up mostly of travel agents who specialize in promoting LGBT tourism. With this conference IGLTA, in cooperation with an Israeli LGBT organization, the Aguda, will give its symbolic and financial support to a state that continually occupies, oppresses and dispossess millions of Palestinians and murders and imprisons many thousands of them. Queer activists and groups in Canada, Israel and the United States are calling on LGBTQI people and friends around the world to demand that IGLTA cancel its planned conference in Israel and cease any promotion of tourism to this country.
Please email International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association, calling on it to cancel its planned conference in Israel and any promotion of tourism to this country.
Click here to read the full statement, and see a sample letter with a full list of addressees.
International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Canada :: Europe :: India :: Israel :: Latin America :: Morocco :: United Kingdom :: United States
ijan@ijsn.net ::
www.ijsn.net
© International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.