We had a latke- and dreidle-filled dance party with fabulous music by DJs Ang and Mika and raised money for the Gaza Freedom March. Funds raised were split between the March and the One Democratic State Group.
Fierce IJAN t-shirts for sale! We have some fabulous IJAN screen-printed t-shirts which we are selling for $10. Let us know if you want one!
Bekah Wolf from the Palestine Solidarity Project (PSP) was hosted by IJAN Chicago and La Voz de los de Abajo. Bekah gave a talk about unarmed resistance happening within rural areas of the West Bank, and shared suggestions for how to support these struggles. Click here for a video of part of the talk. The lecture was followed by music by La Voz musicians, and we raised money to send back to the Palestine Solidarity Project.
PSP is a Palestinian project dedicated to opposing the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land through non-violent direct action. It was founded in the village of Beit Ommar in the Southern West Bank during the summer of 2006.
During the High Holy Days, Jews observe a ritual called tashlich, in which we symbolically cast our sins into a moving body of water. This year, Chicago IJAN gathered to cast away the sins of the occupation of Palestine, the colonial Zionist project, and the complicity of the U.S. government and U.S. Jewish community in the ongoing oppression of the Palestinian people. Together, we acknowledged these wrong-doings, and recommitted ourselves to making them known and making them end. Using materials from AJJP in Philadelphia, we conducted the ceremony at rush hour across from the Israeli consulate, at one of the busiest intersections in Chicago, on a bridge over the Chicago River.
Supper Club Fundraiser for Viva Palestina featuring poems, reflection, and a reading by our own Noah Lepawsky from his play about his time in Palestine. Viva Palestina succeeded in its goals to:
1) Distribute necessary medical aid to the Palestinian people,
2) Highlight the inhumanity of the continued siege of this devastated area, and
3) Amplify the shift in public policy and growing solidarity of people around the world towards greater support of the Palestinian struggle.
Chicago IJAN organized a counter-demonstration at the Chicago Walk with Israel. Our lively demonstration countered the idea that there is only one Jewish voice, a Zionist one.
| Anti-colonialist Israeli citizen appeals to UNESCO to revoke Israel's membership |
Confronting Racism and Israeli Apartheid
for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel
