Dear Editor:

I am shaken and outraged by Israel's violent and deadly assault on the humanitarian activists aboard the ships of the Freedom Flotilla as it carried 10,000 tons of aid to Gaza.

 As a Chicago resident and participant in a related delegation this past January, the Gaza Freedom March, I cannot help but envision myself aboard that ship as civilians were attacked with live gunfire by one of the most technologically advanced militaries in the world. Why attack in the middle of the night? Why in international waters? Why with live ammunition?

Let the world not be silent yet again in the face of a people abandoned.

As a member of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN), I call on civil society everywhere to break the siege of Gaza and to join the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel until its policies reflect human rights and Palestinian self-determination.

Lee Gargagliano

Chicago, IL

http://www.suntimes.com/news/commentary/letters/2342544,CST-EDT-vox02a.article

(scroll down to the second letter)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CHICAGO (May 2). Noah Lepawsky, a member of the Chicago chapter of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN), was arrested today at a pro-Israel march sponsored by the Jewish United Fund of Chicago.

The annual "Walk With Israel" was interrupted by about 10 protesters from Chicago IJAN. Their message was that Jewish opinion is not, in fact, united in support of Israel.  Protesters signs drew on their experiences of being Jewish, and read: "Jews Reject Discrimination: End Israeli Apartheid," "Jews Know Displacement: Right of Return for All Palestinian Refugees," "Jews Recognize a Ghetto: Free Gaza," and "Jews Remember Ethnic Cleansing: Remember the Nakba." Nakba is the Arabic word for "catastrophe" and is commonly used to describe the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians in 1948.  

"Israel's history is one of ongoing ethnic cleansing," said Noah Lepawsky of Chicago IJAN. "Starting with the destruction of over 400 villages and the forced exile of 750,000 Palestinians, Israel continues to pursue apartheid policies.  We will not let this be erased from history." When the march began, four protesters staggered along the walk's route, holding up their signs but allowing marchers to proceed around them.  The remaining protesters stood across the street. Security for the Walk with Israel called police, who demanded the protesters move.  When Lepawsky, the marshal for Chicago IJAN, attempted to ascertain the rights of the protesters from the police, he was arrested and cuffed by a man dressed as private security. 

Chicago IJAN continued the protest across the street.  Protesters chanted: "As Jews we stand for justice, no matter who it's for!  We won't forget the Nakba at Zionism's core!" and "Never again, not in our name!  Israel's violence is our shame!"  The protest continued until all Walk participants had filed by. 
 
"As Jews of conscience, it is our duty to vocalize that as long as the brutal occupation of Palestine continues, no celebration of Israel is benign," said Lee Gargagliano of IJAN. "We will be back next year." 
 
Lepawsky was charged with disorderly conduct and released later that afternoon. 
 
"The charge of disorderly conduct is completely spurious," said Jeannette Perkal, another member of Chicago IJAN.  "We are awaiting an answer as to why the arrest was made by private security employed by the Jewish United Fund, not an officer of the law."  Perkal went on, "We were disturbed to learn that the JUF and the CPD find it necessary to work in collusion, both in this instance and generally. The second annual meeting of both organizations recently took place in Israel, assuring that the two share oppressive tactics and strategies for silencing dissent."  (For more information, see http://www.juf.org/news/israel.aspx?id=57594.)

With local affiliates from Chicago to the Bay Area to London and Geneva, IJAN is a growing international network of Jews whose Jewish identities are not based on Zionism but on a plurality of histories and experiences. The network is uncompromisingly committed to struggles for human emancipation, of which the liberation of the Palestinian people and land is an indispensable part. Their commitment is to the dismantling of Israeli apartheid, the return of Palestinian refugees, and the ending of the Israeli colonization of historic Palestine.

Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is an annual international series of events held in cities and campuses across the globe. The aim of IAW is to educate people about the nature of Israel as an apartheid system and to build Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns as part of a growing global BDS movement. IAW 2010 takes place following a year of incredible successes for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement on the global level. Lectures, films, and actions will highlight some of theses successes along with the many injustices that continue to make BDS so crucial in the battle to end Israeli Apartheid. Check Out These Events Happening in Chicago!  (read more...)

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.

Chicago IJAN co-sponsored and participated in a large demonstration against a fundraiser for the Israel “Defense” Forces.

Chicago IJAN co-sponsored and participated in the highly successful counter-protest to Ehud Olmert's speech at University of Chicago. Click here to check out the amazing video of this event. This action received substantial media attention both locally and within Israel.

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Jewish immigrant labor organizers in New York City, to people working for social justice in Europe and Latin America, to the Black Panthers-- many organizations have used study as an integral part of building movements. Chicago IJAN has worked to build on these legacies, using political education to inform our anti-Zionist and Palestine solidarity work. Our ten-session study group began in September and will go until mid-January. We hold meetings every two weeks for two hours at a time. The material includes academic articles, poetry, creative nonfiction, film, and art work. Group members take turns facilitating. Our study group has been an overwhelming success, and have about 10 core participants. Plans are percolating for future continuations and new versions of the study group!

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.

We marched to celebrate dyke, queer, and trans visibility and resilience. The Dyke March took place in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood which has a fierce history of immigrant, labor, anti-gentrification and queer activism - we drew connections between the struggle for Palestinian liberation and the struggles being fought by companer@s in Pilsen against displacement, gentrification, and oppressive border and immigration control.

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.

Members of Chicago IJAN participated in a picket at the performance of the Bat Sheva Dance Company, a group sponsored by the Israeli government. The demonstration’s theme was “Don’t dance on Gaza’s graves.” This action was in solidarity with the call for a cultural boycott of Israel, a campaign that has drawn compelling parallels between the need to boycott Israeli-supported events and the boycott against South African government-sponsored groups during Apartheid in South Africa.