Sunday, June 5
End the Occupation of Palestine –
Support the Right of Return – Take action against the Jewish National Fund
On May 15, 2011, the 63rd 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.
It is not only the dictatorships of the region whose power is being challenged. The US government rightly recognizes the growing threat to its power in the region. Likewise, Israel and the Zionist institutions that sustain the ongoing occupation of Palestine are under increasing pressure. The work of international solidarity is to continue to support the self-determination, true democracy and, in the words of Egyptian journalist, Hossam el-Hamalawy, socio-economic emancipation struggles of Palestinians, Egyptians and the other people’s movements of region while we continue to draw inspiration from these movements.
One of the institutions increasingly under public scrutiny around the world for it’s role in the colonization of Palestine is the Jewish National Fund (JNF). In support of the campaign to Stop the JNF,* the US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) and the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN), call on people in the US to hold actions in solidarity with Palestinians from the three villages, and with all Palestinian refugees.
- Organize a creative action to expose the JNF
- Organize a teach-in
- Flyer at public places (materials are below)
Join actions in the West Bank, Britain and Canada on June 5.
Read the call for June 5th action and solidarity.
Download the Stop the JNF factsheet and poster.
Tell the Stop the JNF campaign about your solidarity action: [email protected].
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 at[email protected].
