USPCN is circulating a Pledge to Defend Civil and Human Rights and calls upon all of its members and supporters to both sign the petition online  and distribute the hard-copy form at your events and activities. Send the signatures you collect to defend_peoples_rights@uspcn.org! 

United States Palestinian Community Network (USPCN)

Strategic Planning Meeting

January 6^th-8^th, 2012

Santa Clara, CA

Standing Up for Our Rights!

Whereas, the USPCN’s mission statement includes the upholding of Palestinian rights around the world, including the protection of democratic rights in the U.S.;

And whereas, the FBI raids on homes and offices, and confiscation of property, in Chicago and Minneapolis, and the grand jury subpoenas served to 14 individuals in the Midwest, including one USPCN National Coordinating Committee member, in September of 2010, constituted an escalation of historical attacks on the Palestinian community, the Palestine solidarity movement, the anti-war movement, and democratic rights in the United States;

And whereas, the nine (9) grand jury subpoenas served in December 2010 were to six (6) additional Palestinians, all members and leaders of Chicago’s USPCN chapter, and 3 Palestine solidarity organizers;

And whereas, the FBI raid on Carlos Montes’ home in Los Angeles in May of 2011 constituted an additional attack on a leading immigrant rights, Chicano liberation, and Palestine solidarity organizer;

And whereas, Department of Justice and other U.S. government repression is being utilized to stifle critique of U.S. foreign policy and Israeli violations of the human, civil, and national rights of the Palestinian people, as evidenced by the cases of the Irvine 11, the Holy Land Foundation 5, Abdelhaleem Ashqar, Sami Al-Arian, and many others;

Therefore be it resolved that the USPCN calls on all Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims to sign the Pledge to Defend Civil & Human Rights at http://uspcn.org/pledge-to-defend-civil-and-human-rights/ and the petition to support Carlos Montes at http://www.stopfbi.net/petition/national;

And be it further resolved that the USPCN calls on all of its chapters and other Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, and solidarity institutions across the U.S. to establish Emergency Response Plans in preparation for the possible indictments and arrests of any of the Palestinians or Palestine solidarity activists raided and/or subpoenaed;

And be it further resolved that the USPCN calls on all of its chapters and other Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, and solidarity institutions across the U.S. to identify supportive U.S. Congresspeople in their respective districts, and call on these legislators to demand from Attorney General Eric Holder and U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald an end to this investigation;

And be it further resolved that the USPCN calls on its chapters to help organize a speaking tour of the U.S. for one of its Chicago members, to build support around the case;

And be it finally resolved that, even in the face of the attacks on our movement, the USPCN calls on all Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, and other people of conscience in the U.S. and around the world to continue organizing for, and demanding, self-determination, independence, full equality, and the Right of Return for the Palestinian people; and freedom for Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, and Palestine solidarity political prisoners in Israeli, Palestinian Authority, U.S., and all other jails.

US PALESTINIAN COMMUNITY NETWORK

COMMUNITY FORUM

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Hyatt Regency, 5101 Great America Parkway, Santa Clara, CA

Reflecting the strategic need for nurturing open spaces of conversation amongst Palestinians in the US, the US Palestinian Community Network is excited to announce its first of a continuing series of Community Forums to be held across the US on Saturday, January 7, 2012 in Santa Clara, CA.  This all-day Forum, part of a weekend of strategic organizing for the National Coordinating Committee of the USPCN, will offer attendees an opportunity to hear about the work of USPCN and participate in developing its plans for 2012 to advance a strong Palestinian voice in the diaspora and within the national movement. The Forum is a new initiative aimed at strengthening communication between the national coordinating committee and local chapters in order to advance participatory democratic practices within USPCN; coordinate amongst Palestinian associations in the US; and establish and develop local chapters of USPCN in Palestinian communities.

Based upon requests from Palestinian community members across the US, the Forum will also inaugurate a series of skill-building workshops for 2012 in order to develop community organizing skills and mobilization training.  We are delighted to announce that the inaugural workshop will be on Communication Strategies and led by Salah Asad, a national coordinating committee member of USPCN and an established expert on strategic communication skills.

The Forum concludes with a conversation on Palestine Amidst the Uprisings, featuring guests As`ad Abu-Khalil, professor at California State, Stanislaus, and Omar Barghouti, a member of the Boycott National Committee and a leader in the Palestinian-led movement for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Against Israel.

The Forum is open to the Palestinian and Arab community. Non-USPCN members may register to become members (and attend) at the Forum. Attendees will be asked for a $25 donation to cover costs.

Register online here: http://uspcn.org/register-here-for-uspcn-community-forum-january-7-2012/

Agenda for the Forum can be found here: http://uspcn.org/uspcn-community-forum-program-january-7-2012/

We look forward to the conversation and building ahead.

Until Liberation and Return!

Dear friends and supporters:

We are calling on folks to take a few minutes to respond to ABC 7 reporter Chuck Goudie’s inaccurate and irresponsible reportage on OccupyChicago, OWS in general, and the Palestine support movement, as well as his continued attacks on Palestinian community organizer Hatem Abudayyeh. The link to Goudie’s report: http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/iteam&id=8407349

Below is a letter you can send to Goudie and others on the ABC 7 news team. Or draft your own letter. If you would, please b.c.c. defend.dissent@gmail.com so we can get an accurate estimate of the movement’s response to this alert.

Take action!

Email: chuckgoudie@gmail.com

Carleen Mosbach, assignment editor, carleen.r.mosbach@abc.com

Jeff Marchese, night-side assignment editor, jeff.a.marchese@abc.com

Assignment Desk, wls.desk@abc.com

Jennifer Graves, news director, via news desk, wls.desk@abc.com

Fax: general news assignment, 312-899-8019

general assignment, 312-750-7381

***ALSO–Call in day to WLS TV / ABC 7 Chicago Assistant News Director Joyce Fisher

Friday, October 28th, 2011

9 AM to 7 PM

312.750.7380

See the letter below and demand that she pull the piece off the web and apologize for the inaccurate statements and borderline libel against the OWS and Palestine support movements.

Thank you,

Shirien Damra (Coalition for Palestinian Rights)*

Joe Iosbaker (Committee Against Political Repression)

Maureen Murphy (Palestine Solidarity Group)

Rocky Pyskoty (OccupyChicago)

Shira Tevah (International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network)

* organizations listed for identification purposes only

____________________________________________________________________

Sample Letter:

October 27, 2011

WLS-TV / ABC 7 Chicago

190 North State Street

Chicago, Illinois 60601

To Whom It May Concern:

Last night, you broadcast an irresponsible and uninformed report by Chuck Goudie (http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/iteam&id=8407349). Goudie asserted that the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement has a “vein of anti-Semitism flowing through [it],” and used the presence of Palestine solidarity activists in the movement to “prove” his argument. The Occupy Wall Street movement has the support of tens of thousands of Americans in cities across the country, and is growing rapidly, because Americans are suffering from an economic crisis brought about by Wall Street and big banks. As the OWS movement describes it, the “99%” experience extreme economic inequality, where millions are unemployed without meaningful help, while bankers in trouble are bailed out.

While there have been unfortunate anti-Semitic statements made by individual protesters at OWS actions that should and have been challenged as dangerous and divisive, the vast majority of the movement does not espouse these opinions. Media reports, including Goudie’s, have inflated these unrepresentative views for the purpose of discrediting two movements—OWS and Palestine solidarity. Instead of substantiating his false claim that anti-Semitism is a pervasive problem in the OWS movement, Goudie uses the presence and involvement of Palestinians and Palestine solidarity activists at OccupyChicago and elsewhere to “prove” the movement anti-Semitic.

By smearing the OWS movement and Palestinian community and solidarity activists, Goudie blatantly avoids discussing the real issues that are bringing tens of thousands of Americans to the streets in cities and towns across the country.

For example, some OWS protestors, including American Jews, have brought to the protests Palestinian flags and signs condemning US military aid to Israel. The US gives $3 billion a year in aid to Israel, which is used to carry out its policies of military occupation, inequality and ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people.

And in an ad hominem attack, Goudie also falsely accused Palestinian-American community organizer Hatem Abudayyeh of advocating for the destruction of Israel because he spoke in support of Palestinian freedom and self-determination at a Chicago anti-war rally earlier this month.

Holding a Palestinian flag and advocating for Palestinian human rights, civil rights and equality should never be equated with anti-Semitism. By doing so, Goudie attempts to smear a just movement and evade discussing the real issues: unequal economic policies in the US and unrestricted military and diplomatic support to the human rights-abusing state of Israel.

Finally, Goudie also claimed last night that OccupyChicago did not provide a response to his emailed questions, but as an example of how disingenuous and unprincipled his whole process behind this piece has been, the questions were not sent to OccupyChicago’s spokespeople until after 8 PM, less than 2 hours before the broadcast. OccupyChicago did eventually respond, and WLS-TV posted the statement on the page linked above.

We call on Goudie and WLS-TV/ABC 7 Chicago to immediately apologize for the story’s false statements about Hatem Abudayyeh and mis-characterization of the Palestinian flag and struggle for freedom as symbols of anti-Semitism.

Sincerely,

Your Name
City, State

Chicago, IL: Israeli Consulate, 111 East Wacker Dr.  8:30am

San Francisco, CA:  Montgomery St. BART Station, 456 Montgomery St.  8:30am

New York City, NY: Liberty Park Square.  6:00pm

(Chicago, IL; San Francisco, CA; NY, NY) Palestinians, Jews, and prisoner solidarity activists of all backgrounds are responding to calls from Palestine to support the nearly 6,000 political prisoners and people across California State prisons who are on hunger strike to change humiliating and demeaning conditions.  The International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network has specifically called on Jews of conscience to fast for 48 hours, from Thursday sundown October 6^th to Saturday October 8^th, as part of their Yom Kippur observance.  Yom Kippur is traditionally a time to acknowledge injustices and speak out against them.

The International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN), and the US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) are holding rallies to protest the conditions that Palestinian prisoners face, and connecting those injustices to the situation of US prisoners.  The message from their call-to-action states: “We stand with people all over the world whose daily lives are terrorized and unjustly controlled by policing and incarceration.”

The demands of the activists are these:

1)      End isolation of Ahmad Sa’adat – General Secretary, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine;

2)      End solidarity confinement of all prisoners;

3)      Meet demands of the civil disobedience and hunger strike of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons and of prisoners at California state prisons;

4)      End the death penalty in the US and all places it remains a State practice; and

5)      End the Israeli blockade on Gaza and a permanent opening of the Rafah crossing.

For more information contact:

Sara Kershnar, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network

skershna@earthlink.net

(510) 685-5347

Monadel Herzallah, US Palestinian Community Network

mmonadel@hotmail.com

(408) 849-7977

USPCN is a member of the Durban+10 Coalition, a peoples’ initiative to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Durban conference. Download the flyer (PDF).

The Durban + 10 Coalition presents:
Recognition, Justice, and Development:
A Civil Society Conference in support of the 10th Anniversary of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action (DDPA).

Monday, September 19th – Wednesday, September 21st

The Durban + 10 Coalition is composed of over 40 organizations from throughout the world that affirm the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action (DDPA) and have joined together to ensure its full implementation by all the governments of the world.

Monday, September 19th
Brecht Forum
451 West Street, NYC
6 pm Doors Open

Opening Event and Cultural Performance by Masauko Chipembere Band at 7 pm

Tuesday, September 20th

Day Program
Community Church of New York
40 East 35th Street, NYC
9 am – 2 pm

10 am – 12 pm The Importance of the DDPA to the Global Fight against Racism

• Ejim Dike, Human Rights Project of the Urban Justice Center
• E. S. Reddy, former UN Assistant Secretary General for the Center Against Apartheid
• Mireille Fanon-Mendes France, Frantz Fanon Foundation and Member of the UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent

12 – 2 pm Immigration, Displacement and Globally Accelerating Racism after 9/11

• Azadeh Shahshahani, National Lawyers Guild (NLG)
• Charo Mina Rojas, Black Communities’ Process (Colombia)

Evening Program
CUNY Grad Center Student Lounge
365 5th Avenue, NYC

6 – 9 pm Standing Up to the Anti-DDPA Campaign

• Sara Kershner, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN)
• Bina Ahmad, BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights
• Ajamu Baraka, Black Left Unity Network (BLUN)
• David Gespass, National Lawyers Guild (NLG)

Wednesday, September 21st

Day Program
Community Church of New York
40 East 35th Street, NYC
9 am – 5 pm

10 am – 1 pm The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, Slavery, and Reparations

• Roger Wareham, December 12th Movement (D12)
• Sam Anderson, Black Left Unity Network (BLUN)
• Jan Lonn, World Against Racism Network (WARN)
• Verene Shepherd, University of the West Indies (Jamaica) and Member of the UN Working Group of Experts of People of African Descent

1 pm – 2:30 pm Racism, Mass Incarceration, and Political Prisoners

• Efia Nwangaza, Malcolm X Center for Self-Determination
• Lamis Deek, Al Awda NYC
• Carl Dix, Network to Stop Mass Incarceration

3 – 5 pm Experiences Implementing the DDPA

• Jorge Guerrero Veloz, Afro-Venezuelan Network
• Brazilian Representative

Evening Program
CUNY Grad Center Student Lounge
365 5th Avenue, NYC

6 – 9 pm Where Do We Go From Here?

• Edna Roland, General Rapporteur of the 2001 World Conference Against Racism and UN Eminent Expert on DDPA Implementation
• Malaak Shabazz, Malcolm and Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center
• Mireille Fanon-Mendes France, Frantz Fanon Foundation
• Saladin Muhammad, Black Workers for Justice (BWFJ)

For more information visit www.durban10coalition.com or email Durban10Coalition@gmail.com.

OPEN THE RAFAH CROSSING

PERMANENTLY AND UNCONDITIONALLY

A deadly siege on 1.6 million people living in Gaza has been imposed by Israel since 2006.  It was partially and momentarily lifted when the revolutionary Egyptian movement ousted Hosni Mubarak and made clear that emancipation and the freedom of Palestine were joint and connected goals.

Yet today, and daily, approximately 35,000 people wait to cross the border. Meanwhile, Israeli air strikes last week on ‘the largest open air prison on earth’ killed at least 15 people, including 2 children, and injured at least 50 more. The denial of freedom of movement for Palestinian people is also an offense to the immense ongoing struggles of the Egyptian people in pursuit of human rights and dignity.

Join the growing calls from Egypt for: recalling the Egyptian ambassador from Tel Aviv, expelling the Israeli ambassador from Egypt, opening the Rafah Crossing unconditionally, halting all moves for normalization with Israel and halting trade of natural gas between the two countries.

CALL TO ACTION

On Friday, August 26, South Africans will deliver the petition to their Egyptian embassy.

Starting on August 26 and for the next four Fridays, until September 30, join in international actions in solidarity with Gaza and in support of the on-going Egyptian people’s movement:

Request that the Egyptian Supreme Council of the Armed Forces

 honor the human dignity and freedom of its own people and the people of Gaza and

OPEN THE RAFAH CROSSING PERMANENTLY AND UNCONDITIONALLY.

Take action

1. Organize a delegation to deliver the petition to your Egyptian embassy, consulate or representative office on a Friday.

2.   Contact your Egyptian embassy.  In the US, fax, phone or email the DC Embassy:
Fax: (202) 244-4319; Phone: (202) 966-6342; Consulate@egyptembassy.net

3.   Sign and circulate the petition.

4.   “Like” and “Share” the Facebook page with your friends and organizations.

Send an email about your activities to: rafahcrossingcampaign@gmail.com

Post your activities on the campaign Facebook page.

For more information, contact us at: rafahcrossingcampaign@gmail.com

Download flyer (English) | Download flyer (Arabic)

Palestinians everywhere are mobilizing to remind the world of their right to self-determination. In New York we are marching to the UN because the world’s attention is focused on the vote on Palestine scheduled to take place there.

For over six decades, the UN has approved numerous resolutions promising Palestinians their basic rights, none of which have been implemented. We come to the UN to demand: Sovereignty, Equality, and the Right of Return for Palestinians NOW!

Rally and March to the UN, Thursday, September 15th!
End All US Aid to Israel!
End the Occupation!
Support Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions!

4:30 pm: Gather at Times Square
5:30 pm: March to Grand Central and then over to the UN

For more information, email palestineun@gmail.com
Sponsored by the Palestine UN Solidarity Coalition

Endorsed by: Abna’a Albalad Center for the Right of Return-Damascus, Syria, Action for a Progressive Pakistan, Adalah-NY, Al-Awda NY, alqudsday.org, American Iranian Friendship Committee, American Muslims for Palestine, Arab American Union Members Council, BAYAN-USA, Bergen County Green Party, Coalition for Palestinian Rights (Minneapolis), CODE PINK-NYC, Concerned Families of Westchester, Delaware Valley Veterans For America, Desis Rising Up and Moving, Existence is Resistance, Fight Imperialism Stand Together,Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment (FiRE), Freedom Socialist Party, Global Exchange, Harlem Fightback Against War at Home & Abroad, International Action Center, ICAHD-USA, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, International League of People’s Struggle-NY LOC, International Socialist Organization, Jewish Voice for Peace-Westchester and NYC chapters, Jews Say No!, Labor for Palestine, May 1st Coalition for Worker & Immigrant Rights, Middle East Crisis Response, New York City Labor Against the War, Nodutdol for Korean Community Development, Northeast Al Quds Day Committee, NYC Queers Against Israeli Apartheid, Pakistan USA Freedom Forum, Progressive Democrats of America, Radical Women, RAHA: Iranian Women’s Collective, September15.org, Socialist Action, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) Temple U. and NYU chapters, Union of Palestinian Women Committees-Palestine, United National Antiwar Coalition, US Palestinian Community Network, Veterans for Peace, War Resisters League, WESPAC, West Queens Greens, Women Against Military Madness: Mideast Committee (Minneapolis), Women in Black Union Square, Workers World Party

الفلسطينيون يقولون للعالم:

 السيادة تعني ضمان كل حقوقنا

الفلسطينييون في كل مكان يحشدوا لتذكير العالم بحقهم في تقرير المصير. وفي نيويورك سوف نسير الى الامم المتحدة لان انظار العالم ستكون متجهة نحو القضية الفلسطينية في الامم المتحدة .

ومنذ ما يزيد على ستة عقود، شرّعت الامم المتحدة العديد من القرارات والتي وعدت الفلسطينيين بحقوقهم الاساسية المشروعة ولم يتم تطبيق اي منها حتى الان . اننا جئنا الى الامم المتحدة للمطالبة بما يلي:

السيادة ، المساواة ، وتطبيق حق العودة للاجئين الفلسطينين ،

شاركوا في المسيرة الحاشدة والمهرجان الفلسطيني امام الامم المتحدة

يوم الخميس الموافق  15 ايلول / سيبتمبر/2011

اوقفوا الدعم الامريكي ” لاسرائيل”

 انهاء الاحتلال فوراً

ادعموا حملة المقاطعة وسحب الاستثمارات وفرض العقوبات

التجمع الساعة الرابعة والنصف- 4:30  في تايم سكوير

الخامسة والنصف – 5:30 -  أمام مبنى الامم المتحدة

للمزيد من المعلومات نرجو الاتصال على البريد الالكتروني

palestineun@gmail.com

برعاية التحالف الفلسطيني لمسيرة الامم المتحدة

End the Occupation of Palestine -
Support the Right of Return - Take action against the Jewish National Fund

On May 15, 2011, the 63^rd commemoration of the catastrophe of 1948, during which nearly 800,000 Palestinians were expelled to establish an Israeli state in Palestine, Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, Syria, Gaza and the West Bank headed toward home. Tracing the footsteps of their parents and grandparents, they marched on borders, checkpoints and military lines that separate them from each other and from their places of origin.

On June 5, every year, refugees from the villages of Beit Nuba, Imwas and Yalu march from Ramallah toward “Canada Park” where the JNF plants trees in order to camouflage the Israeli destruction of their villages in 1967.

Plant a Tree in Palestine
In Palestine, rebuilding and replanting are acts of daily resistance. This project seeks to support the on-going struggle of Palestinians to sustain and rebuild their land by providing resources for villages to plant trees that are indigenous to Palestine’s natural environment and agricultural life. Show solidarity on June 5 by planting a tree in Palestine.

This joint project of the Middle East Children’s Alliance, the Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign (Stop the Wall), the Palestinian Farmers Union, and the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network is part of the Stop the JNF campaign.

Read about the JNF’s Environmental Cover Up
Greenwashing Apartheid: The Jewish National Fund’s Environmental Cover Up, Volume 4 of the Jewish National Fund eBook Series, is available free online and was published by IJAN. It documents evidence that the JNF is not an environmental organization but rather an instrument of ethnic cleansing and complicit in war crimes. Contributors are from the USA, UK, Canada and Palestine, with an afterward by American writer and environmental activist Joel Kovel. In the book, Akram Salhab describes the environmental disaster by the JNF’s draining of Lake Hula and Corey Balsam analyses the ideological role of tree planting. David Schwartzman makes the connection between the JNF, the siege of Gaza and climate security, while Coya White Hat-Artichoker, a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, contributes a speech on First Nations-Palestinian solidarity.

For more information about the campaign, visit us at www.stopthejnf.org or email us atus@stopthejnf.org.

Many media were there and his arrest was caught on tapes as he was just at the scene peacefully. Mazin himself was videotaping the protest before his abduction (please see video below). He is currently being held at the Israeli military compound near Rachel’s Tomb; his cell phone battery died, but he communicated with his family early Monday morning to say that while the arrested internationals would allegedly be released, he and his fellow Palestinian detainees would not be.

Mazin expects no release for days; he is an American citizen and a co-founder of the USPCN, and we ask members, friends and supporters to call your elected officials and the US State Department at 202-647-4000  and urge them to advocate for Mazin’s release and an end to US aid to Israel. When you call the State Department, ask to speak with “Overseas Citizens Services Duty Officer” and let them know you need info on Mazin’s case, and make sure to emphasize that he is an American citizen.

Mazin’s detention comes as part of an all-out assault on mass unarmed protests and marches by Palestinian refugees demanding the implementation of their right to return, denied for 63 years. 15 Palestinians were murdered by Israeli occupation forces as they marched to the borders of their homeland and hundreds more injured.

In Al-Walaja, Israeli forces a bombarded the protest with tear gas, forcing protesters to find refuge in the village’s houses. The original village of Al Walaja was expelled in 1948 and gradually resettled across the valley, near Beit Jala in the Bethlehem district. The march today planned to march from the newly settled Al Walaja to the village’s original lands, which is now forested with a nature reserve.

The last time he was arrested by Israeli forces for participating in a peaceful demonstration, he was treated with brutality and held long periods bound and denied simple things like water. Please see the video below to view the Al-Walaja demonstration as filmed by Mazin before his abduction: