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On the anniversary of the Nakba, stand for Palestine: Events across the country

uspcn — Tue, 15 May 2012 12:17:58 +0000

On the 64th anniversary of the Nakba, commemorating the occupation of Palestine and the dispossession and ethnic cleansing of its people, when over 800,000 Palestinians were made refugees by armed Zionist forces seeking to establish an exclusionary Jewish state on the land of Palestine, we stand with our community in the US and our people in Palestine and everywhere in exile and diaspora, to demand our rights, particularly the right of Palestinian refugees to return.

We salute the ongoing resistance of our Palestinian people, which has never been crushed or silenced through over 64 years of oppression, apartheid, occupation and dispossession, and in particular the leadership, steadfastness and strength of the nearly 5,000 Palestinian prisoners inside Israeli jails. Mass imprisonment has been one of the key weapons in the ongoing Nakba. The prisoners’ – over 3000 – engaged in a mass open hunger strike since April 17 for basic rights and dignity, including an end to solitary confinement and family visits for Gaza prisoners, which had been blocked for years. They joined long-term hunger strikers Thaer Halahleh, Bilal Diab, Hassan Safadi, Omar Abu Shalal, Jafar Izzedine, Mahmoud Sarsak, Mohammed Taj and Kifah Hattab demanding an end to administrative detention and their freedom.

While all details of the agreement to end the hunger strike are not yet clear, the prisoners have achieved -on the anniversary of the Nakba – a historic victory in securing their key demands, through unity and steadfastness, and have once more filled the streets of Palestine and the conscience of the world with the call of Palestinian prisoners for justice, freedom, dignity and liberation.

Events are taking place around the country – and the world – in commemoration of the Nakba and saluting the prisoners today. We encourage all to join the following events, organized by USPCN chapters or Palestinian communities in cities across the US and stand on this 64th anniversary of the Nakba for return, liberation and an end to the ongoing Nakba. Please send us your events at uspcn@uspcn.org.

Washington, DC | Chicago | San Francisco | Los Angeles | New York City

Washington, DC

Nakba Remembrance 2012 – Washington, DC
May 15, 2012
6:30pm
In front of the White House, Washington DC
Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/217906588324074/

BRING BLACK UMBRELLAS, PLEASE.

To the memory of all who have lost their land, homes, lives during the Nakba and to this day,
May Palestinians around the world never lose hope.

In Their Name…..
We Remember
The NAKBA
Come congregate with us….531 of us (1 for every village lost) for a memorial
In front of the White House on
May 15, 2012
6:30pm-Sunset
We will be joined by local students on a Hunger Strike in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners.
-Reading of Village Names
-Testimonials of Survivors
-Display of Antiquities from the Nakba…..Old Village Key, Diary
-Mobile Art Exhibit – “Faces of Nakba”
Mobile Slide Show of the Nabka – LED truck will circle the White House
And… At Sunset….1 person, 1 candle, 1 village…..531 candles lit in remembrance & hope with a reading of Mahmoud Darwish’s Poem “I Come From There”

Sponsored by Ad Hoc Committee for Nakba2012

Chicago

Nakba: Telling the Story. Palestinians remember, retell, resist
May 15, 2012
6:30 pm
Grace Place
637 S. Dearborn
For updates, join the Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/447521655264898/

Join the Chicago Movement for Palestinian Rights (CMPR) and several local organizations in commemorating Nakba Day (May 15) with a night of story-telling, art displays, spoken word, music and Palestinian dabkeh. We will remember a pivotal moment in Palestinian history and celebrate Palestinians’ continued resistance to colonialism since 1948. Snacks and refreshments will be provided.

Confirmed speakers include:

Iymen Chehade, Adjunct Professor of Humanities, History and Social Sciences at Columbia College
Fatima Mahmoud Radwan, survivor of Deir Yassin Massacre during the Nakba
Hasan Kishta, Nakba survivor from Ijlil, near Yafa
Ghada Talhami, D.K. Pearsons Professor of Politics, Emerita, at Lake Forest College
…plus local youth speakers and performers!

Sponsored by: Chicago Movement for Palestinian Rights, Palestine Solidarity Group-Chicago, US Palestinian Community Network-Chicago, American Muslims for Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace-Chicago, Arab-Jewish Partnership, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network-Chicago, Students for Justice in Palestine-University of Chicago, Students for Justice in Palestine-DePaul University, Students for Justice in Palestine-Columbia College, Students for Justice in Palestine-School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Students for Justice in Palestine-Northwestern University and Students for Justice in Palestine-Loyola University.

For more information, please e-mail chicagompr@gmail.com.

and on May 20 in Chicago…

NATO is meeting in Chicago this month, and the United States Palestinian Community Network (USPCN, uspcn.org) is calling on all of you to join with thousands on May 20th in Grant Park to stand up to its agenda of unrestricted war and occupation, especially against our people in the Arab and Muslim Worlds.

On Sunday, May 20th, Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, our supporters, and the CANG8 Palestine Solidarity Working Group will join in a contingent with the National Boricua Human Rights Network (NBHRN, boricuahumanrights.org), the Committee to Stop FBI Repression (CSFR, stopfbi.net), the Committee Against Political Repression (CAPR), and the Coalition to Protect People’s Rights (CPPR).

As well as protesting NATO, we will be calling for: 1) an end to the investigation of the 23 anti-war and international solidarity organizers and activists who were raided and / or subpoenaed to a federal grand jury at the end of 2010; 2) the dropping of all charges against Carlos Montes (see specific information about his case below); and 3) freedom for Oscar Lopez, Puerto Rican political prisoner (http://boricuahumanrights.org/second-phase-of-oscars-campaign/), who has been in U.S. jails for over 30 years.

On Sunday, May 20, 2012
at 12 Noon

As representatives from Palestinian and Palestine solidarity groups, we will be joining the network of activists, community groups, and allies to protest the role of NATO in maintaining the occupation of Palestine and supporting the apartheid policies of the state of Israel. While Israel ignores international law in its refusal to (1) end the occupation; (2) grant full equality to Palestinian-Arab citizens of Israel; and (3) guarantee the Right of Return, NATO continues to support the Israeli state; actively fund apartheid policies; and engages in joint military exercises and the sharing of intelligence with the state of Israel.

As supporters of the liberation of Palestine, we invite you to join us in our resistance to the Chicago NATO summit.
Occupy the streets, not Palestine!

Meet us at the Northeast corner of Columbus Drive and Jackson Boulevard, directly behind the Petrillo Bandshell in Grant Park (near the Jackson Blvd street curb)–under the banner “OPPOSING WAR IS NOT A CRIME!” and near our massive Palestinian flag. You will also see our big banner both before and during the rally at 12 Noon, so you can find us when it is time to march!

Email cppr@aaan.org to join our contingent, or for more information. Bus and other transportation information will be available soon.

San Francisco

Nakba Commemoration Vigil
Union Square at Powell Street
Tuesday, May 15
7:00pm until 9:00pm
Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/208504025933831/

The Palestinian Nakba continues….

Please join us for Silent Vigil to Commemorate the 64th year of the Palestinian Nakba…and the thousands of Palestinian Political prisoners that have been on hunger strike for more than two months!

In 1948, nearly 800,000 Palestinians were uprooted from their lands and dispersed across the world as a result of the Zionist Colonization of Palestine. In the process, 532 villages erased off the face of the map. Today, nearly 70% of Palestinians live in exile from their homeland, prohibited from their return. Hundreds of thousands live in refugee camps in surrounding Arab countries and in occupied Palestine. 5 million Palestinians live under Israeli occupation in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and 20% of the Israeli population are Palestinians, many of which considered internally displaced, who live as second-class citizens in the apartheid, racist state.

~PLEASE WEAR ALL BLACK or Brown to show that you stand with the Palestinian political prisoners!

Sponsored by: Al-Awda, Arab Cultural and Community Center (ACCC), Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Initiative (AMED), Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC), General Union of Palestinian Students – SFSU (GUPS), Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA), Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), and United States Palestinian Communities Network (USPCN)

Los Angeles

Nakba Demonstration – No Return = No Justice = No Peace!
Zionist Consulate
11766 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90025
Tuesday 5/15/2012
3:00 pm-7:00 pm
Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/events/355013614547317/

The Nakba (“Catastrophe” in Arabic) of 1948 refers to the planned ethnic cleansing when the vast majority of Palestinians were ruthlessly attacked, massacred and driven from their homes into refugee camps by Zionist terror groups, and not allowed to return in violation of international law. This is the foundation upon which “Israel” was established and upon which its entire existence is built and remains structurally unsteady, morally corrupt, and legally culpable.

The Nakba continues to this day. Please join Al-Awda Los Angeles as we mark the 64th year of Al-Nakba. Until Return.

Sponsored by: Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, Almoubadara (USA), PAWA (Palestinian American Women’s Association), Jewish Voice for Peace – LA, American Muslims for Palestine – Southern California and The Dump Veolia -LA Campaign.

Additional organizational co-sponsorship and further information, contact:
mazenalmoukdad@hotmail.com

New York

Commemorating Al Nakba
May 15, 2012
5:00 pm
Union Square – 14th and Broadway
Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/171394766321940/

Remembering Al Nakba Day as well as celebrating the steadfastness of the Palestinian people, we will also stand in solidarity with the 1000′s of Political Prisoners currently on Hunger Strike in Palestine.
We would ask all to please wear all brown or at least a brown T shirt/shirt/jacket to represent our Palestinian brothers and sisters made to wear brown in Israeli Dungeons. We will start at Union Square at 5pm until 6pm and then march over to Times Square. We need volunteers so if anyone can help in advance (printing info to hand out etc) please let us know

To endorse – please email: questions@existenceisresistance.org

Bring Flags, signs, leaflets etc. Organized by Existence is Resistance

May 20: Join USPCN at the Palestine Contingent to Protest NATO!

uspcn — Sat, 12 May 2012 19:28:25 +0000

On Sunday, May 20, 2012

at 12 Noon

Meet us at the Northeast corner of Columbus Drive and Jackson Boulevard, directly behind the Petrillo Bandshell in Grant Park (near the Jackson Blvd street curb)–under the banner “OPPOSING WAR IS NOT A CRIME!” and near our massive Palestinian flag. You will also see our big banner both before and during the rally at 12 Noon, so you can find us when it is time to march!

Email cppr@aaan.org to join our contingent, or for more information. Bus and other transportation information will be available soon.

________________________________________________________________

OPPOSING WAR IS NOT A CRIME!

Drop the charges against Carlos Montes!

www.StopFBI.net

Join Carlos Montes in solidarity! Join the CSFR Contingent at the NATO Protest in Chicago, Sunday, May 20, 12 Noon!

Carlos Montes is going on trial on Tuesday, May 15, 2012. We are days away now and Carlos Montes urgently needs your solidarity. Please join our contingent at the NATO protest in Chicago. The Committee to Stop FBI Repression in coordination with the protest leaders will march towards the front in a prominent position. We are hoping Carlos Montes will lead our contingent, but he may be unavailable due to the trial. Either way we will have a loud and visible presence opposing war abroad and political repression at home.

Carlos Montes has dedicated his life to opposing war and racism. Carlos Montes has led anti-war protests in Los Angeles from the days of the Chicano Moratorium against the Vietnam War, up to today, forming Latinos Against War to oppose U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Carlos Montes is a hero.

Along with 23 other anti-war and international solidarity activists, Carlos Montes home was raided by the FBI, his papers stolen, belongings ransacked, and now he is going on trial for his decades of activism. Carlos Montes is a well-known Chicano leader and long-time anti-war, labor and immigrant rights activist in Los Angeles. This attack on Carlos Montes is an attack on our movements for peace, justice, and equality. This is an attack on all that is good and progressive.

In addition to marching in the contingent, we are also asking you to call District Attorney Steve Cooley in Los Angeles and demand he drop the charges against Carlos Montes now. Call Steve Cooley at 213-974-3512, 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM Pacific time, Monday thru Friday. Say, “Drop the charges against Carlos Montes now!”

Please also help by taking a minute to share a couple things with your networks on Facebook, Twitter etc. Please use the hashtag #handsoffcarlos and link to stopfbi.net.

This is powerful YouTube video about Carlos which includes a number to call the LA District Attorneyhttp://youtu.be/LIYixWlA0nY

This is a link to the new petition supporting Carlos Montes and sending your message directly to the LA District Attorney;
http://www.stopfbi.net/petition/national

Sample Tweet:
Powerful new video on Carlos Montes’ life long fight for justice. http://youtu.be/LIYixWlA0nY #handsoffcarloshttp://www.stopfbi.net. Please RT

Sample Facebook Post:
Powerful new video on Carlos Montes life long fight for justice. http://youtu.be/LIYixWlA0nY. Watch the video and sign the petition. http://www.stopfbi.net/petition/national #handsoffcarlos

_____________________________________________________________________

PROTEST THE CHICAGO NATO SUMMIT

FREE PALESTINE!

END THE OCCUPATION!

JOIN THE PALESTINE SUPPORT CONTINGENT

May 20, 2012 - 12 Noon

As supporters of the liberation of Palestine, we invite you to join us in our resistance to the Chicago NATO summit.

Occupy the streets, not Palestine!

CANG8 Palestine Solidarity Working Group

DC Palestinian Film and Arts Festival: Showcasing Subjectivity

uspcn — Sat, 12 May 2012 19:17:54 +0000

DC Palestinian Film and Arts Festival: Showcasing Subjectivity

by Noura Erekat, from Jadaliyya

In September 2011, a group of young Arab women, myself included, conspired to organize a DC Palestinian Film and Arts Festival (DC-PFAF). Inspired by the gigantic models established in Toronto, Chicago, London, Houston, Ann Arbor, and Boston, we decided to emulate this model in Washington, DC. We believed it would also provide an on-going artistic project for young Palestinian organizers, many of whom are active with the US Palestinian Community Network-DC (USPCN-DC).

The USPCN is a network of Palestinians in the North American diaspora committed to three national principles: self-determination and equality, the end to the occupation, and Palestinian refugees’ right of return within the meaning of UN Resolution 194. The network’s primary focus has been to resuscitate a self-empowered Palestinian national body that is able and committed to represent its own interests.

We proposed the idea of a film festival, motivated in part to avert the risk of atrophy among the local chapter during political lulls. DC-PFAF is now becoming a registered independent non-profit organization, and its organizers overlap significantly with USPCN-DC.

In its conception, we meant DC-PFAF to have the capacity to narrate. This led us to construct a project based on the identity of the filmmaker as opposed to the subject of the film. Conceivably, many Palestinian film festivals featured films about Palestine–about its hostile roads, the brutalities and deprivations of military occupation, the violence of forced exile, and the endemic insecurity of its subjects wherever they reside. The purpose of such festivals is to tell stories that are otherwise marginalized by political and national interests and, in doing so, to challenge those norms embodied in society’s mainstream ethos. Though we supported this motive, we also recognized the imperative of centering subjectivity. Palestinians have diverse identities beyond their political condition and affirming those is integral to the political project of resistance.

Nadia Daar, a DC-based Arab-Canadian, and a founding member of the DC-PFAF, explains her conviction about the importance of centering the festival on the filmmaker rather than the film’s content. She explains, “This Festival, instead of highlighting the story, shines the spotlight on the storyteller. Palestinians, whether they are living in occupied lands, in refugee camps in Lebanon or Jordan, or in Europe or North America, all have different stories to tell. But they share common histories, language, cultural elements, and potentially a common future. This is the common thread that links the artists together and shapes the stories they tell.”

In our conversation, I recalled to Nadia my experience at Hany Abu Assad’s premiere of “Paradise Now” at the National Geographic Theater in Washington, DC in 2006. After the close of the Oscar-nominated film, the Palestinians in the audience were largely indignant. Frustrated that this opportunity to amplify their narrative may have been squandered by Abu Assad’s emphasis on the aesthetics of dignity, they asked why he did not show more tanks. He replied then that he sought to capture “the beauty” of Palestinian lives. Arguably, this was a beauty—a humanization—that made Palestinians more indistinguishable from all other persons. The audience would not have it: a film about Palestinians should be a film about Palestine.

This reaction reflects a popular social ideology that emphasizes displacement and dispossession as demonstrative of a persistent colonial condition. The desire to present and to see Palestinians (in their suffering) as exceptional often foregoes a discussion about an evolving community, globally dispersed, uniquely tied, and rife with the most extraordinary and the most banal events of life. We wondered whether it is necessary to ask not only where those Palestinians have been displaced from but also, where are they now? Is there value in evaluating the varied meanings of being Palestinian, even if it does not have a direct impact on, or pay explicit homage to, a liberation movement?

As a group, we endorsed the value of this endeavor and organized the first Festival in September 2011. Between our first organizing meeting and the launch of the Festival, we had expanded it to include Arts as well as film. The group agreed that highlighting subjectivity meant featuring performance and visual artists as well. We included social media personalities like Ahmed Shihab Eddine, formerly of Al Jazeera’s “The Stream,” Yousef Erakat of “FouseyTube,” as well as musicians, including Huda Asfour, one of the Festival’s founding and leading members, However, the Committee did not manage to include visual artists in its inaugural debut. Nadia explains that is why the organizers plan on hosting a visual arts exhibit at this year’s Festival. She said, “Artists tell stories through a variety of media and we really want to explore this idea through this Festival, so while there is indeed a strong emphasis on film, there will also be significant space for other forms of art.”

During the first Festival, our commitment to Palestinian agency and subjectivity drew criticism and praise alike. We opened the week-long series of events with Mahmoud Al Massad’s film, “This Is a Picture of Me When I Was Dead.” The film featured the grown up son of an assassinated Palestinian leader. Bashir Mraish, who was four at the time, remembers his father’s assassination and pieces together his story as a twenty-nine-year-old man. Mraish is a cartoonist living in Jordan shown endearingly caring for his mother who yearns to see him marry. He is not particularly charming or admirable. The viewing audience is somewhat confused as they search for the Festival’s thematic motive. By the second day, and the second introduction, it is clear: we want to affirm the agency of Palestinian artists to narrate regardless of what they say.

[This Is My Picture When I Was Dead by Mahmoud Al Massad, 2010]

Nadia gushes that her favorite film of the 2011 Festival was Mahdi Fleifel’s “Arafat & I.” Fleifel, who directed and starred in the film, portrays a hopelessly romantic young British Palestinian man navigating his love for Palestine embodied in former PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat while searching for young love in London. The film included a scene with partial nudity, which generated chagrin among the audience. “Some in the audience didn’t like the explicit nudity. It completely caught them off guard.” Nadia explained that due to its progressive overtones, the film managed to challenge the Arabs in the audience as much as it did the ambivalent sympathizer with the Palestinian cause. She explained that this served a less explicit purpose of the Festival, “This is a project as much about disrupting misconceptions about Palestine and Palestinians as it is about pushing our own social boundaries as Palestinian and Arab communities. We are proud to be pushing the boundaries with this Festival.”

[Arafat and I by Mahdi Fleifel, 2008]

Perhaps this social agenda reflected the composition of the organizers whose core included half a dozen woman and two men. Familiar with the enduring tension between national and gender liberation in our varied experiences as political and grassroots activists, we sought to reconcile it in practice and without fanfare. Due to the exceptional number of women filmmakers in our Festival’s collection, we dedicated a night to featuring their work. In 2011, we highlighted the films of Dana Abourahme and Mahasen Nasser-Eldin, who each, in turn, highlighted women subjects. Abourahme’s “Kingdom of Women: Ein el Hilweh,” tells the story of seven women who enabled their families to survive in the aftermath of Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon that destroyed the camp and led to the imprisonment of their male counterparts. Nasser-Eldin’s two short films each focused on a single Palestinian woman. While “From Palestine with Love” documented the tale of a young dancer eager to begin her life with her Swedish boyfriend in Stockholm, her film “Samia” celebrates the life of a 71-year old woman who has ceaselessly fought, and continues to fight, for her community’s right to education and residency in Jerusalem.

We also featured May Odeh’s “Diaries” on a separate night. Odeh is a Palestinian young woman who travels to Gaza and finds herself sealed in by its arbitrary siege. Though she only intended to stay a few short weeks, her inability to leave forces Odeh to remain in Gaza for nearly three months. She documents her stay as a subject while also following the intricate lives of three young women. Odeh manages to delicately portray a struggle against a double-siege, one imposed by the Israeli military occupation, and the other imposed by a conservative society and a quasi-religious political authority. To celebrate resilience, which draped Odeh’s “Diaries,” we ended the evening’s program with spoken word, testimony, music, and poetry from locally and internationally-based women artists and activists.

[Diaries by May Odeh, 2011]

The Festival also featured one of Palestine’s most prominent filmmaking storytellers, Elia Suleiman. Suleiman embodies the theme of our festival as a Palestinian artist who tells the story of a nation by talking about himself. “The Time that Remains” is the third installment of his loose trilogy that examines his life, along with his family, as dispossessed Palestinians who never left their homes and became the second-class citizens of a Jewish Israeli state. The film includes little dialogue and is as poignant for its story as it is for its breathtaking images recreated by the film’s artistic director, renowned artist, Sharif Waked. “The Time that Remains,” which earned substantial acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival, also attracted DC’s artistic community, who, though perhaps uninterested in Palestinians or Palestine, were drawn to its auditory, visual, and narrative prowess.

[The Time That Remains by Elia Suleiman, 2009]

The complete 2011 Festival spanned five days and nights, held at four different locations, featured four feature length films, eight short films, poetry, live music, and comedy. In the process, it also cultivated a dedicated group of young organizers eager to share this message of agency, empowerment, and diversity. In that spirit, this year’s Festival will also feature a category of amateur youth-made films to showcase the work of up and coming artists. Nadia adds, “There are few spaces dedicated to featuring the work of youth filmmakers, let alone young Palestinian filmmakers.” Indeed, even in its nascent stages, the DC Palestinian Film and Arts Festival is continuing to grow and to push the boundaries of engagement with the question of Palestine. The Second Festival will take place in the Fall 2012.

[This article originally appeared in Badil’s Arabic-language publication, Haq Al Awda]

May 14, Chicago: Candlelight Vigil in Support of Palestinian Political Prisoners on Hunger Strike in Israeli prisons

uspcn — Sat, 12 May 2012 19:14:13 +0000

On the 64th anniversary of Al-Nakba: there is no more time to wait, there is no more time to spare, NOW is the time for action!

https://www.facebook.com/ events/237334053037149/

WHAT: Candlelight Vigil in Support of Palestinian Political Prisoners on Hunger Strike in Israeli prisons

WHEN: Monday, May 14th, 2012
7:30 PM

WHERE: The Water Tower Park
806 N. Michigan Ave.
(corner of Chicago & Michigan Aves.)

WHY: In support of the prisoners’ demands:

1. An immediate end to administrative detention, the Israeli policy of imprisoning Palestinian activists and organizers for months, and sometimes years, without any formal charges.

2. An end to the policy of solitary confinement and isolation, which have been used to deprive Palestinian prisoners of their rights for more than a decade.

3. To allow the families of prisoners from the Gaza Strip to visit. This right has been denied to all families for more than 6 years.

4. An improvement in the living conditions of prisoners and an end to the “Shalit” law, which outlaws prisoners’ access to newspapers, learning materials, and many TV channels.

5. An end to the the policies of humiliation which are suffered by prisoners and their families, such as strip searches, nightly raids, and collective punishment.

Convened by the United States Palestinian Community Network (USPCN)-Chicago, along with American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), Chicago Movement for Palestinian Rights (CMPR), Palestinian American Youth League (PAYL), and Palestine Solidarity Group (PSG)

The condition of the 2500+ Palestinian political prisoners on hunger strike is rapidly deteriorating. Two of the prisoners, Bilal Diab and Thaer Halahleh, have passed their 70^th day refusing food, putting them in critical condition and close to death. The people of Palestine have stood in solidarity with the strikers; on May 9^th, Palestinian youth blocked the UN offices in Ramallah, demanding that the U.N. take a stand to save the lives of the striking prisoners. Take action now to support the demands of the prisoners, which are basic and all in accordance with Geneva Conventions.

The forces of the Israeli occupation in the prisons, known as the Israeli Prison Service, have done everything they can to crush the strike, including cutting off the inmates from their lawyers and refusing the strikers access to the medical clinic unless they end the hunger strike. In addition to these measures, they have also instituted a system of collective punishment of strikers, which includes solitary confinement, daily fines up to 500 NIS ($131 USD), confiscation of salt for water, denial of electrical supplies, and random body and cell searches.

Also, the prison service has unsuccessfully tried to undermine the unified Higher Committee of the Leadership of the Strike by attempting to meet individually with members of the committee. This ploy was rejected immediately and unequivocally by the committee members approached.

Despite all of this repression, the prisoners remain steadfast, most recently stating in their fourth official communication: “We vow to live with dignity or die.”

In addition, today’s report from Palestine: https://www.popularstruggle.org/content/thousands-march-support-prisoners-hunger-strike

April 9, NYC: BE HEARD – Palestinian Youth Representation

uspcn — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 17:17:29 +0000

RSVP on Facebook

ASWATNA, NYU Students for Justice in Palestine, The Civic Drive for Palestinian Registration, and USPCN Present:

BE HEARD

Palestinian Youth Representation in the Next Palestinian National Council Elections

Join Professor Bashir Abu Manneh (Columbia University) in a discussion on the importance of an inclusive, unified Palestinian voice, and the international grassroots campaign to include Palestinian diaspora voters in the next Palestinian National Council Elections.

This event is concurrent with several others around the world to launch this initiative, so come find out how YOU can get involved!

MONDAY, April 9th at 7:30 PM (Doors open at 7 pm)

Location: 238 Thompson Street – NYU Global Center – Room 369

Questions? Contact: PalestiniansRegisterNYC@gmail.com

Chicago activists protest “Brand Israel” Batsheva Dance Company

uspcn — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 16:50:13 +0000

Chicago Palestine solidarity activists made their voices heard on Saturday, March 17, during a protest of the opening night of Batsheva Dance Company’s two-night performance at Roosevelt University’s Auditorium Theater.

Chants included “All your dancing can’t erase! Apartheid’s ugly face!” and in a tribute to St. Patrick’s Day, “Occupation is a crime! From Ireland to Palestine!”

Protesters carried picket signs reading “No art for apartheid’s sake” and “Don’t buy brand I$rael.”

The action was part of a national campaign to boycott Batsheva, which is sponsored by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs in an effort to use cultural production to whitewash Israeli war crimes, occupation and apartheid. Batsheva has been protested throughout its North American tour.

Inspired by activists in the Bay Area, protesters distributed a mock program to concert attendees, highlighting the Brand Israel campaign and Israel’s apartheid policies.

Protesters also distributed a comic flyer about the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. The majority of those taking flyers understood and supported the comparison between the BDS movement against apartheid South Africa and the current academic and cultural boycott of Israel. Reinforced by our “program” describing Batsheva’s funding by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, event goers were very surprised that the troupe was funded as a “Brand Israel” campaign by the Israeli government.

Because of the protest, the performance started much later than scheduled, as security thoroughly went through attendees’ possessions, apparently fearing that the event would be disrupted.

View this release on our website: http://psgchicago.org/?p=602

The action was co-sponsored by:

Palestine Solidarity Group – Chicago www.psgchicago.org – info@psgchicago.org
Chicago Movement for Palestinian Rights www.goo.gl/PSW5Z – chicagompr@gmail.com
USPCN-Chicago www.facebook.com/groups/USPCN.Chicago/ – uspcn@uspcn.org
Jewish Voice for Peace – Chicago www.jvpchicago.org – www.jvpchicago.org/contact

Electronic Intifada: US Palestinians organize as government renews threats to indict solidarity activists

uspcn — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 06:58:33 +0000

The following article, by Maureen Murphy, ran in the Electronic Intifada, on February 6, 2012, focusing on USPCN’s efforts to push back against FBI repression and defend the human and civil rights of the Palestinian community. Click here to sign the pledge:

The US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) is asking supporters to sign a pledge to defend civil and human rights as it was revealed last week that the lead government prosecutor of the Holy Land Five has been assigned to the ongoing secret investigation against anti-war and international solidarity activists across the US.

USPCN is a Palestinian formation aimed at unifying Palestinians in the Shatat (exile) in support of self-determination and the right of return and ending the Zionist occupation and colonization of Palestine.

USPCN has rallied around Palestine solidarity and anti-war activists who are beingtargeted as part of an investigation into material support for foreign terrorist organizations. I am one of almost two dozen activists in Chicago and the Minneapolis/St.Paul areas who have been subpoenaed to a federal grand jury as part of this investigation.

The FBI and other federal agencies, in a coordinated raid in September 2010, burst into the homes of prominent organizers in the Midwest and harassed activists across the country. In the following months, subpoenas were delivered to a total of 23 activists; all of us have refused to testify, saying that we are being targeted because of our political work which is protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

Veteran Chicano liberation, anti-war and immigrant rights activist Carlos Montes was also raided by the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department last May. Montes is named in one of the search warrants served in Minneapolis in September 2010, and when he was in custody the FBI questioned him about his political associations.

He was charged with trumped-up technical firearms code violations related to his participation in protests decades ago. (For more information about Montes and this attack on him, see this good backgrounder by Chris Hedges: “Carlos Montes and the Security State: A Cautionary Tale.”)

Readying for national day of action

The USPCN’s pledge in support of the activists reads:

In solidarity with the 23, we will defend our constitutional rights of freedom of speech and assembly. We will stand up to any escalation of the attacks on human rights activists.

We will join in the National Day of Protest when any of the 23 human rights activists are ordered to appear in front of the Chicago Grand Jury or indicted.

The Committee to Stop FBI Repression, which formed in the wake of the September 2010 raids, also has a petition that has already been signed by thousands of individuals. There is also a national petition in support of Carlos Montes.

Lead prosecutor of Holy Land Five now part of secret investigation

It was revealed last week that not only is the the investigation into the anti-war and solidarity activists ongoing, but Barry Jonas, the lead prosecutor of five men associated with the Holy Land Foundation, is now working on the investigation under US District Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald in Chicago.

The Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), once the largest Islamic charity in the US, was shut down by the Bush administration in December 2001 and indictments came down a few years later. After a first trial resulted in a hung jury that favored toward acquittal, a second trial resulted in the conviction of the five men, who were given sentences ranging from 15 to 65 years in prison.

The US government alleged that the HLF was providing material support to Hamas, a Palestinian political party on the US State Department’s designated foreign terrorist organization list. As is summarized in Alia Malek’s excellent book Patriot Acts: Narratives of Post-9/11 Injustice:

The HLF was not accused of directly financing terrorist violence, but of supplying funds to Hamas-controlled charitable societies and committees. The US government has argued that providing humanitarian aid to victims of war or natural disasters is a crime if provided to or coordinated with a group labeled as a foreign terrorist organization.

The charitable groups, known as Zakat Committees, identified in the indictment have been funded by the US and the defense denied that the committees are controled by Hamas. The Hamas party won a majority of seats in the 2006 Palestinian Legislative Council elections and the Gaza Strip has been subjected to a devastating siege of collective punishment following the Hamas government’s takeover of the territory’s internal affairs.

All of the major Palestinian political parties, except for Fatah, are on the State Department’s terrorist organization list, essentially criminalizing an entire people. Of course I don’t have to point out the hypocrisy of criminalizing Palestinian political groups while the US funds the Israeli occupation to the tune of $3 billion a year and provides Israel with diplomatic cover at the United Nations.

Charity treated as “local face of terrorism”

Holy Land Foundation co-founder Ghassan Elashi is currently serving a 65-year sentence in a Communications Management Unit — self-contained detention centers where communication is severely restricted and monitored, and which are disproportionately populated by Arabs and Muslims. He provides a revealing testimony in Patriot Acts, describing how the HLF and his family company, InfoCom, which was raided days before the 11 September 2001 attacks, became the “local faces of terrorism.” It was at one point even speculated whether the 11 September attacks were in reprisal for the raid on the company.

Elashi also describes how the government agencies who raided the HLF’s offices in December 2001 had neither a search warrant or a court order to seize its contents.

The injustices against the HLF continued during the trials. During the first trial, Elashi recounts, “the prosecutors focused on the killing of Israeli soldiers and civilians by Palestinian elements, and specifically Hamas, as opposed to the actions of the HLF or the defendants themselves.”

Elashi adds:

One government witness testified in detail about suicide bombings claimed by Hamas, and prosecutors were also allowed to present to the jury numerous images and statements made by individuals other than us. For example, they showed pictures of the aftermath of suicide bombs, and videos of Palestinian school ceremonies in which children played the roles of suicide bombers, complete with suicide belts. None of the videos came from the HLF’s files. The videos depicted events that happened years after the HLF closed, and there is no evidence that the defendants attended these ceremonies.

Yet all attempts by our attorney to show the jury fundraising videos demonstrating the HLF’s charity work were met with objections from prosecutors and the judge. The judge even deemed the evidence irrelevant.

Like in the Chicago trial of US Palestinians Muhammad Salah and Dr. Abdelhaleem Ashqar a few years back, the prosecution’s star witness in the HLF trial was an “anonymous expert who worked with the Israeli secret intelligence.” His real name was not revealed to the court and the defense attorneys were severely limited in what they were allowed to ask during cross-examination. “This is the first time in history the US court had allowed an expert witness to testify with an anonymous name,” Elashi recounts inPatriot Acts.

Elashi also recalls that after the first trial, none of the defendants were found guilty of any of the 197 counts against them. However, the prosecution had more tricks up its sleeve, as Elashi recalls:

Prosecutors then asked the judge to poll the jurors. The judge agreed, and one of the jurors changed their mind. Suddenly there was confusion in the court. Some of the marshals told us that they had never seen such a thing in their lives.The judge then ordered the jurors to go back to the deliberation room and come out with a final verdict … This time one of the jurors changed their minds … the final verdict was a hung jury on all counts for all defendants, except [Mohammad] Elmezain, who was acquitted on all counts, with a hung jury on one count. The judge then announced a mistrial. A mistrial meant of course that prosecutors decided to retry the case.

A second trial resulted in guilty verdicts on all counts and lengthy prison sentences for the five men.

Palestine solidarity construed as material support for terrorism

The injustice of the trial, convictions and sentencing of the Holy Land Foundation five gives an idea of what anti-war and international solidarity activists are in for should they be put on trial.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts’ Privacy Matters blog published a spot-on analysis last week on “International solidarity and the First Amendment in the crosshairs,” saying that government prosecutor Barry Jonas’ involvement “suggests thatcriminalizing support for Palestine could be at the top of the grand jury’s agenda.”

The post also states:

Since the Holy Land Foundation case was decided, prosecutors have obtained a new weapon to use against international solidarity activists like those at the receiving end of grand jury subpoenas. The Supreme Court ruling in June 2010 in the case of Holder v. the Humanitarian Law Project was the culmination of 12 years of litigation over the interpretation of the “material support to terrorism” provision of the 1996 Anti Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, which was expanded by the USA PATRIOT Act to include the categories of giving “expert advice or assistance,” training, service and personnel.

The case revolved around groups that were helping the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) develop non violent ways of getting its message across and an organization that maintained that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) should be the recipient of aid for northern Sri Lanka in the aftermath of the deadly tsunami.

In a 6-3 decision written by Chief Justice John Roberts, the Court in June 2010 carved out a frightening new exception to the First Amendment. Basically it says that if a person or organization has carried out some kind of activity that was somehow “coordinated” with a group that has been listed by the Secretary of State as a terrorist organization, then that person or organization can be prosecuted for giving “material support” to terrorists. That activity can be wholly peaceful, have peacemaking or humanitarian relief as its goal, and involve nothing more than words.

The Supreme Court’s constitutionally vague decision gives the government a powerful tool to prosecute international solidarity activists. As the ACLU-Mass blog notes:

If the African National Congress were still on the State Department’s list — it was taken off by an Act of Congress as a 90th birthday present to Nelson Mandela in 2008 — then, theoretically at any rate, anyone from this country who worked with Mandela, or enabled Mandela’s voice to be heard could have faced criminal charges.

While in its June 2010 decision the Supreme Court declared that it was not criminalizing independent advocacy of ideas or opinions, ACLU-Mass notes that this was “overlooked in Boston where, in December 2011, a federal jury found Tarek Mehanna guilty of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists without any kind of demonstrated link being made to a terrorist organization.”

Ideological war

The (mis)application of anti-terror legislation is something that I have been scrutinizing on my blog, focusing on the case of three young North Carolina Muslim men who were indicted, convicted of and received decades-long sentences for conspiracy to provide material support for foreign terrorist organizations and, in two of their cases, for conspiracy to kill, kidnap, harm or maim persons in a foreign country.

However, the government did not identify which specific groups the men were plotting to provide material support for. The indictment instead uses the word jihad over and over again, as though that was a specific crime codified in US law, and refers to genericmujahideen (repeatedly mis-transliterated from Arabic as mujihadeen in the indictment, revealing US attorneys’ complete ignorance with the subject matter). Mujahideen roughly translates to “holy warrior” but does not refer to any specific group of people.

During the sentencing hearings for the three young North Carolina men, which I covered for The Electronic Intifada, statements made by government prosecutors suggested that it was ideology on trial. One of the defendants’ sympathies with Iraqis resisting US occupation forces in Fallujah was treated as evidence of him being sympathetic with terrorism. In one of the other men’s hearing, a US attorney referred to the US military as the “arm by which we have fought radical Islam all over the world.”

The North Carolina defendants were conflated with parties fighting the US military overseas, suggesting that the US government views the prosecution of US Muslims as the “domestic” front of the war on terror, and that ideological opposition to US foreign policy is “evidence” of “terrorist” leanings.

Never-ending “war on terror”

The dangers posed to civil liberties by the indefinite, ideological “war on terrorism,” which has no geographic boundaries, have been particularly felt by Arab and Muslim communities in the US. Environmental and animal liberation activists have also been treated as domestic terrorists, and now Palestine solidarity activists are under threat of being prosecuted under anti-terrorism legislation. (Of course, Palestine activism in the US has been criminalized for decades — see this story I co-authored with my colleague Nora Barrows-Friedman for a bit of that history.)

The US State Department has said more than once that organizers with the US Boat to Gaza may be investigated for violations of material support to foreign terrorist organizations. US Congress late last year introduced a bill seeking to investigate the US Boat to Gaza.

Meanwhile the flow of money and arms to Israel goes unabated, and groups raising money to fund Israeli settlements enjoy tax-exempt status, just to identify but some of the double standards of what constitutes material support for “terror.”

The situation on the ground grows ever worse in Palestine, and Arab and Muslim communities face increased injustice in the US. It’s our job to raise our voices both in support for boycott, divestment and sanctions measures on Israel — including cutting off US aid — and in support of the civil liberties of those being repressed in the US.

Standing Up for Our Rights! USPCN Pledges to Defend Human and Civil Rights

uspcn — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 18:10:02 +0000

The US Palestinian Community Network passed the following resolution at its planning meeting on January 6-8, 2012, committing itself to work for the civil and human rights of the Palestinian community, particularly those targeted for FBI repression and a grand jury investigation. Those targeted in the case include labor activists, antiwar organizers, and seven Palestinian USPCN members and leaders in Chicago. For more information on the case, please see the website of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression.

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.

January 10: National Palestinian Youth Conference Call on Democratic Representation

uspcn — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 20:41:41 +0000

NATIONAL CONFERENCE CALL FOR PALESTINIAN YOUTH IN THE US

ON DEMOCRATIC REPRESENTATION

TUESDAY, JANUARY 10, 2012, 4pm EST/1pm EST

On January 10^th 2012, Palestinian youth will be meeting in cities throughout Palestine and the shatat to discuss the next steps towards achieving genuine democracy and representation for all Palestinians through direct elections to the Palestinian National Council (PNC), the highest legislative body of the PLO.

These meetings build upon the demonstrations, assemblies, forums, rallies and sit-ins, inside and outside Palestine, which youth have been organizing since January of 2011. Again and again, it has been youth who have raised the banner for genuine unity and a re-claiming of the PLO through direct elections to the PNC. And so, one year on, young Palestinians around the world will be holding a conversation together with one aim:

How do we ensure that all Palestinians can exercise their inalienable right to participate in elections to our Palestinian National Council? What next steps can we as youth take to ensure that PNC elections actually happen?

Reflecting the Palestinian youth commitment to overcoming the geographic fragmentation imposed upon us, the meetings will take place in succession on the same day, January 10. Each conversation builds upon those before it, creating clarity and strength on the next collective steps required towards democratic enfranchisement.

In the United States, the US Palestinian Community Network will be facilitating a National Conference Call for Palestinian Youth on Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 4pm EST/1pm PST. Any and all Palestinian young people are invited to participate in this important and educational conversation.

In order to get your own conference call-in number, and to gain access to the conversation room, you MUST register here: http://myaccount.maestroconference.com/conference/register/EK7SNHHTIHNMVPT

We will be joined by youth organizers of the international campaign, who will participate in the discussion and answer questions, as well as members of the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) branch in the US.

All throughout the day, meetings by Palestinian young people will be held in:

Ramallah, Palestine

Beirut, Lebanon

Rome, Italy

London, UK

Madrid, Spain

Stockholm, Sweden

Santiago, Chile

Other groups of youth will be meeting elsewhere around the world, before and after January 10^th, and will be sending in their suggestions and ideas to be part of the conversation. If you’re unable to make the call, follow the conversation at:

Twitter: #votepnc

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/events/129824823801784/

For more information, and technical help, please contact USPCN at pnccampaign@uspcn.org

Announcing First USPCN Community Forum – Santa Clara, CA – January 7, 2012

uspcn — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 22:58:05 +0000

ANNOUNCING THE FIRST

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.

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!