The Tayyar International Conference has been organized as part of the founding process of the Progressive National Democratic Movement (PNDM - Tayyar). The Tayyar was initiated as a positive response to the need to reform the Palestinian political system to continue the battle of national liberation and independence, and to effectively defend their legitimate rights and human dignities. Its members are from diverse backgrounds and are working within their parties or as independent activists on community and national levels. The Tayyar sides with the issues of the workers, the peasants and the poor, it struggles with the sons and daughters of our people’s middle class, and it joins forces with all those who fight corruption, which affects the interests of the overwhelming majority of our people. The Tayyar is part of the Arab and international anti-imperialist and anti-Zionist movement for a new global order. More information can be found at http://tayyar-internationalconference.blogspot.com/2009/06/declaration-of-establishment-of.html .

IJAN has submitted to the conference the following statement of support:

The International Jewish anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) is a growing network of Jews whose identities are not based on Zionism but on long histories of Jewish participation in liberation struggles from Eastern Europe and Iraq to Brooklyn. IJAN's solidarity with this conference reflects our commitment to these legacies and to our participation in current struggles against racism, colonization, and imperialism. Central to this commitment is solidarity with Arab liberation struggles against US imperialism and Zionism.

More specifically, we stand in solidarity with Tayyar's commitment to resistance and liberation through "a national progressive democratic project based on pluralism, tolerance, and openness in a society which believes in social justice, equality between men and women as well as respect for human rights and personal and collective democratic freedoms." We support this historic effort to overcome the externally orchestrated divisions of Palestinian society between people living in the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, inside of Israel and in Diaspora.

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Below you will find various activities IJAN is organizing or collaborating on over the coming weeks in response to or in conjunction with the World Conference Against Racism, otherwise known as the Durban Review Conference (DRC). For example, IJAN is cooperating with the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions National Committee in their sponsorship of the Israel Review Conference, a two-day conference in Geneva preceding the DRC. On April 18, there will a mass demonstration in Geneva against racism and xenophobia. IJAN is co-sponsoring this event and supporting coordinated demonstrations (see below) in cities around the world. IJAN's campaign to resist racism, apartheid and genocide will also be kicking off at this time in both London and Geneva and will develop through the year. This participation reflects IJAN's understanding of Zionism not only as a form of racism and colonialism in Palestine and the region, but as working hand in hand with racist policies and practices in the United States and Europe. It is an expression of our commitment to working at the intersection of Palestine liberation and broader anti-racist and anti-colonial struggles.

Demonstrators at the first World Conference Against Racism held in Durban, South Africa in 2001.

 

The United Against Racism Coalition, an allied call to end the US boycott of the World Conference Against Racism and for genuine justice for Palestine, issued an open letter to the Obama Administration urging United States participation in the upcoming United Nations Durban Review of the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAR), to be held in Geneva, Switzerland April 20 - 24.

The United Against Racism coalition consists of a broad range of individuals and organizations concerned with the application of civil and human rights protections for immigrants and the communities of Arab, Indigenous, Jewish, African, and Latin descent within the US. The open letter calls on President Obama to apply his campaign themes of hope, change and renewed international diplomacy to this global forum to address issues of racial injustice domestically and internationally.

This letter reflects a growing coalition of grassroots Palestinian, immigrant and indigenous rights, and racial and economic justice organizations who are committed to building a united struggle against racism at home and abroad.

Please add your individual signatures and organizational endorsements to this letter by clicking here: http://www.unitedagainstracism.net/

We can then also include you and your organization as this effort continues to build.

Yours,

United Against Racism Coalition, adhoc coordinating committee:

Cindy Wiesner, national organizer, Grassroots Global Justice
Darryl Johnson, staff, American Friends Service Committee
Gabriel Camacho, staff, American Friends Service Committee
Jaime Veve, organizer, NYC Transit Workers Union
Kali Akuno, national organizer, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement
Mariana Viturro, co-director, St. Peter's Housing Committee
Merrie Najimy, staff American-Arab anti-Discrimination Committee
Monadel Herzallah, national organizer, USPCN
Monamie Maulik, staff, Desis Rising Up & Moving
Nadeen Elshorafa, member, Arab Resource and Organizing Center
Noura Erakat, national coordinating committee member, USPCN
Rabab Ibrahim Abdulhadi-AMED, professor, San Francisco State University
Sara Kershnar, international organizer, IJAN
Tammy Luu Bang, organizer, Labor Community Strategy Center

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Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are threatened by a humanitarian crisis created by a two-year-old economic blockade that further exacerbates the effects of 60 years of ruthless colonial oppression. In the past two weeks, the blocking of all food and medical supplies to Gaza raises this humanitarian crisis to a level that rings with the threat of annihilation.

We are outraged but not surprised by this escalation.  As predicted by political writers such as Ilan Pappe and Toufic Haddad, Israeli’s unilaterally designed and implemented disengagement from Gaza prepared the terrain. With this withdrawal, Israel maintained control of the borders, air and water space, and completely isolated Gaza practically and politically. This has been accomplished with unconditional support from the United States and its allies and the complicity of the broader international community and Gaza’s neighbors.

The warnings about Gaza are similar to others throughout history. Mordekhai Gebirtig, the great Yiddish poet, wrote his famous song ‘S’brent’ (It Is Burning) in 1938. He wrote the song in response to the 1936 pogrom in the town of Przytyk, warning against the coming catastrophe that would befall the Jews in Europe.

The end of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas - Israel’s justification for belligerence - was in fact provoked by Israel during the United States presidential election. Israel is acting in bad faith, attacking Gaza’s civilians and using the Palestinian response to justify ratcheting up the suffering. Israel’s actions in Gaza are an assault on life itself. They are an unconscionable crime against humanity and a form of collective punishment.

Israel has taken a lesson from the Nazi government in Warsaw and other oppressive regimes by kidnapping and holding hostage humanitarian aid workers and international human rights observers. Such a tactic prevents their witnessing of and communication about what is happening in Gaza.

The latest naked display of violence by Israel and the arrogant contempt of Israel’s leaders for the humanity of the people of Gaza and therefore for the humanity of us all should move world bodies, non-governmental organizations, faith-based groups, and all people of conscience to take immediate action.

Those who have supported Israel’s refusal to deal with the democratically elected Hamas government should now understand that the starving of Gaza is the inevitable outcome of that support.

Stop the assault on and blockade of Gaza now! Stop the holding of humanitarian aid workers and human rights observers hostage!

Only a campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel has a chance of stopping Israel’s violence.

If Mordechai Gebirtig, the Jewish artist and revolutionary, were alive today, he would be writing ‘S’brent’ for Gaza.

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We need your leadership!

With the launch of the network, we are hoping anti-Zionist Jews will take up the Charter and Call-to-Action in ways that are relevant to their location and in partnership with existing Palestine solidarity work. Share your current work and support the building of international campaigns and strategies to collectively confront Zionism.

For the past two years, we have been building an international network of anti-Zionist Jews to support existing and seed new Jewish anti-Zionist organizing in solidarity with Palestinian resistance. The enemy we face is international, and what we can do is limited unless we find ways to work together across boundaries and regions.

We are building an international voice which challenges Zionism and its claim to speak on behalf of Jews worldwide. As an international force, we can contribute to the movement to defeat Israeli colonialism. Click here to read more about the history of IJAN.

Charter of the International Jewish anti-Zionist Network

We are an international network of Jews who are uncompromisingly committed to struggles for human emancipation, of which the liberation of the Palestinian people and land is an indispensable part. Our commitment is to the dismantling of Israeli apartheid, the return of Palestinian refugees, and the ending of the Israeli colonization of historic Palestine.

From Poland to Iraq, from Argentina to South Africa, from Brooklyn to Mississippi, Jews have taken up their quest for justice, and their desire for a more just world, by joining with others in collective struggles. Jews participated prominently in the workers' struggle of the depression era, in the civil rights movement, in the struggle against South African Apartheid, in the struggle against fascism in Europe, and in many other movements for social and political change. The State of Israel's historic and ongoing ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people from their land contradicts and betrays these long histories of Jewish participation in collective liberation struggles.

Zionism-the founding and current ideology that manifested in the State of Israel-took root in the era of European colonialism and was spread in the aftermath of the Nazi genocide. Zionism has been nourished by the most violent and oppressive histories of the nineteenth Century, at the expense of the many strains of Jewish commitment to liberation. To reclaim them, and a place in the vibrant popular movements of our time, Zionism, in all its forms, must be stopped.

This is crucial, first and foremost, because of Zionism's impact on the people of Palestine and the broader region. It also dishonors the persecution and genocide of European Jews by using their memory to justify and perpetuate European racism and colonialism. It is responsible for the extensive displacement and alienation of Mizrahi Jews (Jews of African and Asian descent) from their diverse histories, languages, traditions and cultures. Mizrahi Jews have a history in this region of over 2,000 years. As Zionism took root, these Jewish histories were forced from their own course in service of the segregation of Jews imposed by the State of Israel.

As such, Zionism implicates us in the oppression of the Palestinian people and in the debasement of our own heritages, struggles for justice and alliances with our fellow human beings. (Read more)

Call-to-Action

Our pledge in the Charter will be carried out through our commitments to: 1) solidarity with Palestinian self-determination, 2) participation in global movements to end imperialism, and 3) the extrication of Jewish history, politics, community, and culture from the grip of Zionism.

To these ends, in this historical moment, the IJAZ Network will be a clear anti-Zionist Jewish point of reference to set an ideological pole, open space for non-Jewish anti-Zionist voices, and broaden support for Palestinian liberation.

Towards fulfilling this strategic role, we are calling anti-Zionist Jews to take up the following actions in the world. (Read more)

From Jewish immigrant labor organizers in New York City, to revolutionaries in Europe and Latin America, to the Black Panthers - many organizations have used study as an integral part of building movements.  The International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) hopes to builds on these legacies, using political education to inform our anti-Zionist and Palestine solidarity work.  It is with this vision that we are developing our Study to Action program. 

IJAN's Political Education and Leadership Development work group is in the process of revising the syllabus that was piloted during our 2007-2008 study groups, offering more political analysis, multimedia and curricular tools, as well as tools for facilitators and study group organizers.   To access the outline of the revised syllabus, click here. We welcome your input and ideas for study materials and curricular tools.

In Fall 2007, IJAN hosted six study groups around the United States, using a syllabus developed by the IJAZ Network activists Ora Wise, Haley Pollack, and Ryvka bar Zohar.  Participants in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, Miami, New York, Detroit and Philadelphia came together to explore the history of Zionism and the development of Palestinian resistance, as well as histories of Jewish resistance that have been erased by Zionism.  To access the 2007 syllabus click here .

Through political education, we are working to build a framework for a shared understanding of imperialism, colonialism, and Zionism, and locate our work within different political ideologies, tendencies, and movements, and within a history of anti-Zionist and anti-imperialist struggle and strategy.   We will use study to inform our campaigns and tactics and assess our context, conditions, and strategic role.  We hope that through this process we will build relationships within the network, and deepen our strategy and practice as we support our personal transformation and emotional divestment from Zionism.

For support in organizing a study group in your region, email .

This is an ongoing project. If you would like to start or join a study group in your area, click here to contact us.

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We are calling for a week of coordinated actions across the world that confront Zionism and support the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) call from Palestine. We are therefore mobilizing practicing and secular Jews across the globe to honor the second intifada and the high holidays by taking action to divest economically, politically, emotionally and spiritually from Zionism and from Israel.

UPDATE: Due to a growing interest in participation in launch in regions across the globe, we are extending the Week of Action to a Month of Action (October 1 - October 31). 

Click here to find out more, to add your ideas for what these actions might look like and to bring additional ideas.

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We stand with the majority.
We will not be silent on Gaza.

We write with grief and rage as we watch the horrifying Israeli air and ground attacks on Gaza. As Jews committed to ending Zionism, the founding ideology of Israel, and all forms of colonialism, we stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people, who continue to struggle in the face of these attacks, much as they have against more than 60 years of ethnic cleansing and racism. As Joseph Massad recently wrote, Gaza is in uprising against genocide, and is receiving today the same indifference from the capitals of the West that the rebels in the Warsaw Ghetto received in 1943.

We stand with the hundreds of thousands who have taken the streets in solidarity with Gaza’s resistance. We stand with all those who struggle against racism, dispossession and genocide.

We stand with the majority. We will not be silent on Gaza.

We reject Israel’s pretense to act in response to rocket attacks on Israel by Hamas. Israel broke the ceasefire on November 4, 2008, while world attention was focused on U.S. elections.

What the Israeli government calls “security” is fundamentally opposed to the real safety of all people living in the region. Residents of Sderot and other towns bordering Gaza have begged the government of Israel to maintain the cease-fire and accused it of “wasting that period of calm, instead of using it to advance understanding and begin negotiations.” With United States, European Union, and Egyptian collusion, Israel imposed a siege and blockade for over two years, intentionally preventing its economic recovery, degrading its civilian infrastructure, attempting to dismantle self-governance, and preventing travel and obstructing humanitarian aid. That siege, which was and continues to be a gross violation of human rights and a crime against humanity, led directly to the present escalation. As of today, Israeli forces have killed over 700 people and injured thousands. Israel has bombed mosques, universities, police headquarters, roads, office buildings, and residential neighborhoods, and schools, causing indescribable and horrible destruction. This isn’t defense. This isn’t a war between two sides. This is terrorism. This is genocide.

We stand with the majority. We will not be silent on Gaza.

As Jews, we have an additional responsibility to speak and to act against these despicable acts, because we are heirs to the victims of a genocide, because Israel is claiming to “defend” us through the ethnic cleansing of Palestine with the ultimate goal of erasing the Palestinian people, and also because of the role played by the Jewish organizations in the United States and the West in justifying, perpetrating, and escalating Israeli state terrorism against Palestinians.

We recall that the violence in Gaza today is the inevitable outcome—the latest link in a chain of terror—that results from an ideology based on the dispossession of the indigenous people of Palestine in favor of European Jews. Just as the ideology of White racism was the backbone of Apartheid in South Africa, so the ideology of Zionism explains the history of violence in Palestine, the ethnic cleansing of 1948, the occupation of the West bank and Gaza in 1967, and the many massacres that Israel perpetrated periodically since 1948 to the present one in Gaza. The maintenance of the Israeli state as a state founded on and perpetuating Jewish privilege requires the denial and attempted annihilation of the Palestinian people.

We recall that unless this ideology is delegitimized and defeated, the violence in the Middle East will continue to escalate until either Palestinian or Jewish existence in the area ends, and possibly both. Racism and colonial domination will never be the basis for peace.

We stand with the majority. We will not be silent on Gaza.

We insist on an immediate end to Israel’s assault, a complete withdrawal of all Israeli forces, a complete and unconditional end to the siege, and the restoration and extension of the ceasefire. We insist on the establishment of a special international tribunal for investigating the crimes of the Israeli leadership of this siege.

We affirm the urgent need for Jewish resistance to Zionism and stand committed to the extrication of Jewish history, politics, community, and culture from the grip of Zionism.

We situate our work in a long legacy of Jewish people throughout history who have stood in solidarity with others in common struggles against all forms of racism, empire building, and repression. As a growing sector of the Palestine solidarity movement, we call upon all Jews of conscience to take a strong stand against the current escalation of violence, as well as the murderous ground upon which Zionist ideology and the Israeli state has been constructed. We call on Jews to put an end to complicity, to break the silence, and to confront the fallacy of a Zionist consensus. We call on anti-Zionist Jews around the world to organize in escalation against the massacres on Gaza, and to continue to support Palestinian resistance through campaigns of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions, and through actions that target their own governments’ financial and political support for Israel.

We stand with the majority. We will not be silent on Gaza.

>> Mobilize creative actions to disrupt and confront pro-Israel events, propaganda and businesses. Zionists and their supporters should not have their events, propaganda or business contributions in support of Israel go without confrontation. Creative actions are those which use creative tactics, visuals and art to convey a message about the reason for the disruption such as die-ins, projections of images on the outside of Zionist organizations, public art displays, street theater, etc. Targets may include Zionist organizations that have been mobilizing a lot of support for this attack, events to fundraise for the siege on Gaza, or billboards or poster campaigns to justify Israeli violence.

For people in North America: The United Jewish Communities Federation of North America is sponsoring a Rallies Across North America: A week of solidarity with Israel.  Click here for a list of activities to disrupt.

Other ways to take action…

>> Join or organize emergency protests and direct actions in partnership with Palestine solidarity and social justice organizations in your area.

>> Donate money for Middle East Children's Alliance (MECA) cargo of medical supplies and their delivery. IJAN is partnering with MECA in collecting funds and organizing pressure to allow over 5 tons of medical supplies into Gaza through the Rafah border with Egypt. The current conditions in Gaza medical facilities are dire. Please DONATE to MECA now! In the next week IJAN will send an update out about the shipment, please be prepared to organize any necessary pressure in response to this update.

>> Contact government officials and call on them to act by denouncing the attacks and demanding an immediate cease-fire.

>> Flood Israeli embassies and consulates with letters and calls decrying the attacks. Find contact info for Israeli embassies around the world.

>> Continue circulating the petition in support of UN General Assembly President Father Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann who has spoken out to condemn Israeli "Apartheid" and call for boycott, divestment and sanctions. He has received death threats for his statement.

>> Call to Jewish Students: Efforts are underway to make visible and support the activism of Jewish students who condemn Israel's actions in Gaza and who support the movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions.  Join the "Jewish Students Condemn Israel, Support BDS Campus Campaigns!" Facebook cause.  Email to be added to the contact list for when IJAN student campaigns are launched and send reports for the website about Jewish student participation in Gaza solidarity actions.

 

Click here for additional Gaza action materials including stickers, posters, media talking points, press advisories and fact sheets: 

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Only days after the Canadian Arab Federation (CAF) criticized the Canadian government for its one-sided support of Israel's violent incursion in Gaza, the Harper government cut off all federal English-as-a-second language (ESL) funding to CAF. Harper's spiteful move against CAF was not an isolated incident. George Galloway, the world-renowned anti-war orator and solidarity activist, was banned from speaking in Canada, while George Bush and Bill Clinton, noted war criminals, were permitted to earn huge fees to speak in Toronto and Calgary. At the same time, students and faculty at many Canadian campuses who have identified the policies and practices of the State of Israel as apartheid, are being targeted for harassment, surveillance, and intimidation.  (read more...)

La mort de Bassem Abu Rahma, tué par l’armée israélienne le vendredi précédent la conférence, lors de la manifestation pacifique hebdomadaire du village, a plané sur toute la conférence. Ce jeune homme de 30 ans était en quelque sorte l’âme de la jeunesse du village et participait chaque vendredi à la manifestation en insistant auprès de ses camarades sur son caractère non-violent. Ce grand gaillard que le village appelait familièrement « El Phil » (l’éléphant) était très écouté et cailloux et lance-pierres restaient souvent dans les poches. L’émotion était vive et nous, ainsi que tous les participants, l’avons profondément ressentie.

 

L’ouverture de la conférence, mercredi 22 avril, s’est faite en rendant hommage à Bassem.  (read more...)

On May 4, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) published an article that materially misquoted and misrepresented the positions of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN). (Berlin, May 4-Iran must lead global anti-Zionist campaign: French Jewish activist).

The article implied that IJAN expects Iran to be "the vanguard of the confrontation [against Zionism and Israel]." The article also failed to report criticism of Iran's engagement that our speaker clearly expressed, creating the false impression that IJAN awaits and accepts Iran's leadership in the struggle against Zionism. To correct the misconception about IJAN that the article in question promoted, we wish to make the following clarifications.

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PEOPLE UNITED AGAINST RACISM

Civil Society Forum 2009 for the Durban Review Conference
17-19 April 2009, Geneva, Switzerland

 Geneva 2009 Declaration Against Racism
FROM THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE GENEVA CIVIL SOCIETY FORUM 2009

A Time to Speak Out

We participants of the Civil Society Forum for the Durban Review Conference 2009 held in Geneva 17 to 19 April strongly welcome the holding of the Durban Review Conference and reaffirm our full and dedicated support for the Durban Declaration and Plan of Action (DDPA) adopted by the 2001 World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance.

We commit ourselves to renew our efforts and intensify our work for the implementation of the 2001 landmark programme which constitute a solid foundation in the struggle of humankind against racism and racial discrimination.

We express our deep concern over the decision by some powerful countries to boycott this important conference which falls short of their Charter obligations to combat racism and promote human rights for all.

We are appalled by the many obstacles that have been put in the way of preparing and holding of the Durban Review Conference as a result of lack of political will resulting in the erosion of support for the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action among some member states which also has been reflected in the lack of United Nations support and encouragement for Civil Society preparations for the Review Conference.

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We are appalled by the concerted effort, led by Israeli officials, Zionist organizations and apologists, to derail the Durban Review Conference. We condemn the use of the memory of the Nazi genocide, as Jewish organizations did during the Durban Review week, in the defense of Israel's systematic domination and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. We are shocked by the cynical pretense of defending human rights, for example in Darfur and Rwanda, by organizations and groups that are only interested in silencing Palestinian demands for accountability and redress and have no serious commitment to human rights. The brazen exploitation of genocides and racialized violence in Africa for the purpose of protecting and extending colonial domination in Palestine is itself an instance of colonial racism. It is only tolerated due to the strength of racism inside the institutions of global governance.

Racism is one of the legacies of colonialism and a fundamental injustice in societies all over the world. The World Conference Against Racism in Durban 2001 took a belated small step toward recognizing the impact of colonialism and racism on Africa and initiating a global discussion about the crime of slavery and the need for restitution; it also addressed many other instances of racism that must be addressed. It is beyond obvious to us that a conference about racism, and especially a conference that seeks to address the legacy of colonial oppression, must discuss Israel, since Israel is a settler-colonial state that systematically oppresses and denies basic human rights to millions of Palestinians. Israel's attempt to derail this important conference in order to avoid being examined and called to account is an affront against all the victims of racism all over the world, including the six million Jews who perished in the Nazi genocide.

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Visit: http://israelreview.bdsmovement.net

United Against Racism, Dignity & Justice for All - is the slogan of the United Nations' Durban Review Conference to be held in Geneva between 20 and 24 April 2009.

United Against Apartheid, Colonialism and Occupation, Dignity & Justice for the Palestinian People - is the slogan of those who believe that international law can and should become relevant for the people and governments in the Middle East.

 

 

The Israel Review Conference

The Israel Review Conference will take place in Geneva on 18 - 19 April, two days before the United Nations' Durban Review Conference will examine the progress made in implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action (DDPA) adopted by the World Conference Against Racism (2001) and strengthen its recommendations.

The Israel Review Conference will bring together internationally renowned experts and actors for social and political justice who will:

• examine how the UN anti-racism instruments apply to Israel's policies and practices regarding the Palestinian people; and,
• develop practical recommendations on how to make Israel accountable to international law and protect the rights of the Palestinian people.

The second day of the conference will be reserved for self-organized workshops and planning meetings of the global Campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it complies with international law.

IJAN will be organizing a panel on the Jewish National Fund campaign with Habitat International Coalition, the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Committee and the Palestinian BNC as well as a panel with United Against Racism on building joint struggle across grassroots movements and Palestine liberation in the United States.

The Israel Review Conference is open to the public. It will be held at the Hotel Le Grenil, Avenue Sainte-Clotilde 7, 1205 Geneva.

For more information, updates, and a detailed program of the conference, please visit:
http://israelreview.bdsmovement.net

The Israel-Review Conference is sponsored by the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) in cooperation with the:

• European Coordinating Committee on Palestine (ECCP)
• International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN)
• International Coordinating Network on Palestine (ICNP)

To contact the organizers, please write to:

To register online, visit: http://israelreview.bdsmovement.net/node/29

Note: The Israel Review Conference is open to the general public. The purpose of this registration is to help the organizers in planning for the conference.

To contact the organizers, please write to:

Demonstrations

In solidarity with the grassroots movements demonstrating at the World Conference Against Racism to demand accountability for the role of governments in racism, we are organizing a global day of action.

On April 18th, join with others across the globe in taking another step toward a united front against racism!

Join with the families of 10,000 Palestinian political prisoners being held in Israeli prisons and detention centers.

Join with families of political prisoners and immigrants held in detention in the United States and Guantanamo.

Join with the international community gathering in Geneva for the World Conference Against Racism to demand international accountability for racism, anti-immigrant policies and colonization.

Organize a rally, demonstration or educational event in support of local struggles for racial and economic justice, immigrant and indigenous rights, and in solidarity with the people of Afghanistan, Iraq, Haiti and Palestine struggling against occupation.

For more information, contact or .

For full call-to-action and background information: www.unitedagainstracism.net.

Presentations by and discussion with Eric Hazan and Marc Ellis

April 19 is the date commemorating the uprising of the Warsaw ghetto in 1943; on April 20, the World Conference Against Racism begins. In conjunction with these two events, we are organizing this public discussion in order to encourage, with the help of our panelists, a reflection on the exploitation of those Jews who were murdered in the Nazi genocide in service of the continued colonization of Palestine. This discussion will include reflections on our responsibilities towards this memory as well as to Palestinian resistance to the ethnic cleansing that is justified in the name of this memory.

 

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Please support us in sending delegations of anti-racist activists to the World Conference Against Racism. On April 20-24, Geneva will host the Durban Review Conference (DRC), an evaluation of the progress made in implementing the Durban Declaration and Program of Action (DDPA) adopted by the World Conference against Racism in 2001.

The United States, Canada, and Israel have withdrawn from the Durban Review, despite the participation of all other UN member states as well as hundred's of advocacy and activist organizations. Their withdrawal is based a claim that it is "antisemitic" to challenge Israel on its undeniably racist policies - a central issue at the Durban Review. The US boycott is also based on a refusal to participate in conversations about reparations to African Americans for slavery. This highlights the relationships between the United States and Israel-one of a shared commitment to maintaining State exploitation and repression of people based on race for the purposes of continuing to secure economic, military and political dominance.

These false claims are an attempt to circumvent the growing criticism and condemnation of Israel's utter disregard for international law, human rights, and humanity. Furthermore, they allow the Canadian and United States' governments to avoid processes designed to hold them accountable. By not attending, they leave unanswered the demands made of them in 2001 for reparations and amends for their own histories of colonization of indigenous people and land, slavery and on-going discrimination against African Americans, and the targeting of immigrants.

We are supporting a delegation of eight organizers - anti-Zionist Jews, African Americans and Palestinians - to challenge the US boycott against the conference and expose the relationship between the US support for Israel and its own deep history and practice of racism. To challenge a strong Zionist presence being mobilized in Geneva, we are also supporting a European delegation of anti-Zionist Jews to protest the boycott of the conference based on the inclusion of Palestinian rights. This will also is an opportunity for us to further build IJAN's work in the region.

The Zionist protest of this conference and denial of Israel's accountability for its racist policies and practices is well resourced. Our resources are few but our voice and organizing is critical at this international forum and in this historic moment. Click here to support us in making these delegations possible.

Our April bulletin is available here for mailing or downloading.  (read more...)