![Palestine: Human Rights and Humans Wronged On the International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian Political Prisoners, two of Palestine’s leading human rights defenders will discuss conditions on the ground, the […]](https://uspcn.ipower.com/wp/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/shawan-600x300.jpg "Palestinian human rights giants in DC 4-17; Stop the JNF in Chicago 4-18")
Palestine: Human Rights and Humans Wronged
On the International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian Political Prisoners, two of Palestine’s leading human rights defenders will discuss conditions on the ground, the status of human rights and their violations, and the future facing Palestinians, moderated by IPS’s Phyllis Bennis.
Sunday, April 17 @ 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Join us to hear from two of Palestine’s leading human rights defenders who will discuss conditions on the ground, the status of human rights and their violations, and the future facing Palestinians. IPS’s Middle East expert Phyllis Bennis will moderate the conversation with Raji Sourani, founder and director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) in Gaza, and Shawan Jabarin, director of al-Haq in Ramallah. Katherine Gallagher of the Center for Constitutional Rights will introduce the program.
This visit to the United States is the first for Raji Sourani in many years, due to U.S. visa restrictions and his inability to leave the besieged Gaza Strip. Besides his work at the PCHR, Sourani works with a wide range of global human rights movements, and was the recipient of the 2013 Right Livelihood (also known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize”) award.
Shawan Jabarin has also been subjected to years of travel bans by the Israeli authorities, and this is only his second visit to the U.S. in more than a decade. He directs the oldest Palestinian human rights organization, is Vice-President of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), a member of Human Rights Watch Middle East and North Africa Division Advisory Committee, and International Court of Justice Commissioner.
Sponsored by: Institute for Policy Studies, Center for Constitutional Rights, and Busboys and Poets, and co-sponsored by: US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, CodePink, American Friends Service Committee, The Palestine Center, Peace Action, Sabeel DC Metro, Jewish Voice for Peace DC Metro, Washington Peace Center, Arab Studies Institute, Amnesty International USA, and US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN).
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On Tax Day, Take Action to Stop the Jewish National Fund!
WHEN: Monday, April 18th, 2016, at 12 Noon
WHERE: 637 S. Dearborn Street, Chicago, IL
Join us to deliver a petition to the JNF, in tandem with actions in the Bay Area, the Twin Cities, and Washington, D.C.–organized by the Stop the JNF Campaign.
Details: Join us on Monday, April 18, 2016, at 12 Noon in front of 637 S. Dearborn Street in Chicago, to march to Federal Plaza for a symbolic petition delivery to the IRS office, calling on it to investigate the Jewish National Fund’s 501(c)3 status!
We’ll be heading over at noon sharp – it’s about a 10 minute walk. At Federal Plaza there will be a brief speaking program, and we’ll symbolically drop the petitions into a giant mock JNF donation box. This one is a little different – instead of urging you to “help make the desert bloom,” it points out that “Ethnic Cleansing and Land Theft are Not Tzedakah (Charity).”
Background: On Palestine Land Day March 30, the National Lawyers Guild, in partnership with the Stop the JNF Campaign, helped file a regulatory challenge to the IRS to pressure it to investigate the JNF’s tax-exempt status.
The JNF enjoys tax-exempt status as a charitable organization in the United States even though the reality of its work — green-washing ethnic cleansing by planting trees and parks over bulldozed Palestinian villages — is anything but charitable. In fact, the JNF’s mandate is to promote racist and discriminatory policies such as forcibly displacing Palestinians from their lands to make way for Jewish-only housing developments.
Can’t make the petition delivery? Support by spreading the word to your networks and signing the online petition to pressure the IRS to investigate the JNF!
The Stop the JNF Campaign is led nationally by the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) and the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, with support from American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), USPCN, the National Lawyers’ Guild (NLG), and the Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA). International organizers of the campaign include IJAN, the Boycott National Committee (BNC), Stop the Wall, Palestinian Farmers Collective, Scottish PSC, & Friends of the Earth Scotland.
Local co-sponsors of the petition delivery include the Arab-Jewish Partnership for Peace and Justice in the Middle East, the Committee for a Just Peace in Israeli and Palestine (CJPIP), Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA), Jewish Voice for Peace – Chicago, American Muslims for Palestine-Chicago, and USPCN.
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Support our work by making a tax-deductible donation to USPCN (c/o the WESPAC Foundation)!
