Submit a Poster to the "This Is Aparthied" Poster Contest

Visit www.itisapartheid.info for more information.

Art has always been an important part of liberation struggles. It can inspire and convey concepts beyond words. www.itisapartheid.org and its primary partner, Lajee Center, are sponsoring a competition for artists and graphic designers who are invited to submit posters on the theme of “Israeli Apartheid.” These posters should reflect the nature, realities, and/or consequences of apartheid policies in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. Posters will be judged by a panel of distinguished activists and artists. The winning entries will be featured in an online poster gallery and disseminated widely on the internet and various other venues. Youth from refugee camps in Gaza and the West Bank will participate in the contest.

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As we welcome the Jewish new year, we look back at the year behind us to address our complicity in the many injustices of our time by recommitting to our collective responsibility for justice and humanity. In particular, we reflect on the common plight and struggle of political prisoners and the many people across the world whose dignity is denied and liberty is threatened by mass incarceration and military blockades.

We are inspired in our struggle for justice by the sacrifice and courage of so many in the year behind us - the late Troy Anthony Davis, the Georgia prison strikers, Mumia Abu Jamal, Ahmad Sa'adat, Leonard Peltier, the people of Gaza confined to an open-air prison - and in front of us: the Palestinian prisoners and those jailed at Pelican Bay State Prison and other California prisons on hunger strike and carrying out civil disobedience in defense of the most basic of dignity and rights.

On September 30, 2011, Palestinians across occupied Palestine - from the West Bank to the State of Israel to Gaza - put out a call for solidarity with Palestinian political prisoners.  In response to this call, we Jews of conscience intend to start our fast of atonement a day early, on Friday, October 7, and take action to demand:

• An end to the isolation of Ahmad Sa'adat - General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine;
• A meeting of the demands of the civil disobedience and hunger strike of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons;
• An end to the death penalty in the United States and all other places it remains a State practice
• A meeting of the demands of the hunger strike at California state prisons
• An end to the Israeli blockade on Gaza and unconditional and permanent opening of the Rafah crossing

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As Jews committed to confronting racism, we regret that the Simon Wiesenthal Center is on the wrong side of justice yet again: It has demanded that Germany withdraw from the international meeting scheduled September 22, 2011, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action on Racism (Durban Review).  The Simon Wiesenthal Center is using its clout and undeserved reputation to whitewash Palestinian dispossession and provide cover for racism and apartheid.

We urge the government of Germany to pursue its obligation to stop the racism of today and redress the injustices of yesterday by re-committing to its participation in the Durban Review.

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It is with gratitude, respect, hope and inspiration that the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network is participating in this First Forum for Solidarity with Arab revolutions. 

IJAN is an international network of Jews who are uncompromisingly committed to human emancipation. To this end we focus on the struggle for the liberation of the Palestinian people and land. We are committed to ending Israel apartheid and colonization and to the right of return of Palestinian refugees. 

Beginning with the struggle to dismantle Zionism and confront Islamophobia, we participate in local and international movements against all forms of racism, exploitation, and militarism, and for economic, political, social, cultural and environmental rights. We organize as an international network that is active across the United States, the UK, Canada, Argentina, India, France, Switzerland, Spain, the Netherlands, and in Israel itself.

We have appreciation and deep gratitude for the risks taken in so great a challenge to imperialism and Zionism. The most effective way for people in the core imperialist countries to act in solidarity and defend the Arab revolutions is to extend them to Europe and to the US. The crisis that has been the catalyst for revolution in the region is global.

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On January 29, 2011, the Never Again tour visited the Rutgers campus in New Jersey. Prior to the event, hate blogger Pamela Geller and Zionist pundit David Horowitz put out a call for demonstrations. Rutgers Hillel, with support from the local Jewish Federation, called for protest of the event. They objected to the humanitarian message of the event - Never Again for Anyone, including Palestinians.

They were threatened by the clear voices of criticism of Israel by Auschwitz survivor Hajo Meyer and holocaust refugee Hedy Epstein. Both condemned the exploitation of the holocaust by Israel and Zionist to justify the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. Not able to reasonably argue with the universal message of our common rights and dignity, protesters looked for a technical issue on which to challenge the event.

A week prior to the event Rutgers changed the contract over to one of the national sponsors, American Muslims for Palestine. In doing so two things happened: the room cost went up to $1200 (more than all of the other venues put together) and sponsors were able to charge for the event. The additional cost of the room and the cost of additional security necessary due to the call for protest resulted in a decision to charge a minimum admission fee of $5.

The video below shows the organizers of the protest offering for Rutgers Hillel to reimburse those who pay the $5 to attend the event. Contrary to claims that Jews were not allowed into the event, the video shows that anyone was allowed in if they were willing to pay the admission fee. Of course, Jews organized the tour, attended the event and were on the platform, including two Jewish survivors of the holocaust as well as the co-coordinator of IJAN.

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Women the world over suffer the daily impact of the global market, of chess games played with our lives by the rich and powerful over who has access to political power and resources, of military economies, and of the criminalization and other violences inflicted on those who stand in the way of power and profit.

The Zionist state of Israel participates in all of these violences.  The impact on women, children and families of building an exclusive, Jewish state in Palestine takes so many forms:

Palestinian women visiting, defending and supporting there sons, brothers, fathers, and uncles who are the 60 percent of Palestinian men who end up as political prisoners at some point in their lives.  Women who maintain the Palestinian culture that Zionism tries so hard to destroy. Women who confront Israeli soldiers on a daily basis who are attempting to take their land, their houses, their families.  Women who rebuild life after Israel's assault on Gaza.

Meanwhile, Israeli families are being imbued with, implementing and inheriting nationalist messages of racism, fear and hate, and spreading around the world is the Islamophobic discrimination and targeting that Zionism promotes and encourages.

In all of our movements for justice across the globe, including the incredible bursts of hope and possibility spreading across North Africa and Southwest Asia now, women, queers and trans people, and moreso those of color, make movement happen.  We, all in our own and specific ways, understand so viscerally the impact of bigotry, chauvinism and racism that fuel and justify the creation of haves and have nots.  This understanding has always given us the motivation, courage and strength to survive and resist, and to not be interested in the kind of power that is used against us, but to be the foundation of the mass movements that are the power behind our collective liberation. 

Because academic, cultural and commercial boycotts, divestments and sanctions of Israel:

• are being called for by Palestinian civil society in response to the occupation and colonization of their land,
• are a moral tool of non-violent, peaceful response to more than sixty years of Israeli colonialism, and,
• rightfully place accountability on Israeli institutions (and their allies and partners) that use business, cultural, and academic ties to white-wash Israel’s responsibility for continuing crimes against humanity,

The undersigned organizations and individuals stand firm in our support of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) initiatives against Israel until it meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law.

 

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The International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) salutes the courage and resolve of the Egyptian people and honors the martyrs of the people's struggle. We see the increasing mobilization, determination, boldness and joy of those who every day learn more of what they want and how to get it, and are teaching all of us.

Every day we are witness to the arrogant rulers plotting against it and growing fearful of the power of the movement and what it is accomplishing against them and for all. May the Egyptian example set fire in the heart of people and may the revolution that started in Tahrir Square advance and be the mother of many revolutions all over the world.

As the Tunisians before them, the people of Egypt has risen up against the tyrannical and brutal imposed on them by the United States in conjunction with the Zionist regime of Israel and their collaborators, a larcenous rule that condemned the Egyptian people to decades of poverty, torture, and humiliation. For three decades, Egypt has been the second largest recipient of US aid after Israel, monies that were invested in oppression and corruption and generated poverty and misery for Egypt while facilitating Israel’s continuing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. As Israeli politicians and their allies in the US flock to support Mubarak’s tattering regime, the world can see what the phrase, “the only democracy in the Middle East,” really stands for.

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(NEW YORK 1/30/2011) -- Yesterday, right wing counter protestors disrupted an event honoring the memory of the Nazi Holocaust, ignoring the event’s message of support for all who continue to fight for their rights and for collective humanity. Concerned with protecting speakers and audience members, police closed the event for more than one hour, with the result that a number of interested participants were unable to enter.

Rutgers Hillel, Young Americans for Freedom, the Zionist Organization of America and other Zionist organizations have falsely charged that Jews were excluded from the Never Again for Anyone tour stop at Rutgers University in New Brunswick on January 29. The false allegations of anti-Semitism have been made repeated by right-wing blogger David Horowitz, the Jerusalem Post, JTA, WorldNet Daily, and similar websites -- none of whom requested to speak with event organizers.

"The accusation that anyone was excluded from this event due to his or her ethnicity or political views is a complete fabrication," said Sara Kershnar of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network. "Many of the organizers and participants of this event are Jewish, and anyone who paid the nominal $5 admission was welcome," she said.

The tour's purpose is summarized as follows: 'In the face of the on-going ethnic cleansing of Palestine, attacks and persecution of Muslim and Arab communities in the U.S. and Canada, and on-going attacks against the rights of other communities and immigrants, we assert a commitment to collective humanity against the application of “never again” to only a few.'[1]

The protest was organized by campus Hillel and publicized by Pamela Geller,[2] a prominent anti-Muslim and anti-Arab opponent of the Park51 Islamic Cultural Center in Lower Manhattan.  (read more...)

The Israelis tried to dehumanize the Palestinians, just like the Nazis tried to dehumanize me." -- Dr. Hajo Meyer, Holocaust Survivor
 
"My grandmother was ill in bed when the Nazis came to her home town. A German soldier shot her dead in her bed. My grandmother did not die to provide cover for Israeli soldiers murdering Palestinian grandmothers in Gaza." -- Sir Gerald Kaufman, MP
 
"The world said we would never allow that to happen again. The uprising of the Warsaw Ghetto -- the Intifada of the Jewish prisoners in Poland in 1943 -- actually inspires us here in Gaza." -- Dr. Haidar Eid, Al-Aqsa University, Gaza
                                                                                                    
For more than six decades, Zionists have dominated global discussion of the Nazi genocide. By their account, the Holocaust unleashed a level of suffering unmatched by any other event in history.
 
The lesson, they claim, is that Jews require a separate state in which they are a demographic majority and exercise legalized supremacy over the non-Jewish indigenous population.
 
This Zionist narrative withstands neither historical nor moral scrutiny.
 
Far from being the unique tragedy Zionists have proclaimed it, Jewish suffering under the Nazis has numerous historical parallels. The Holocaust itself targeted and massacred not only Jews, but also millions of others whom Nazis likewise regarded as "subhuman," including Roma, Slavs, gay people, and people with disabilities.  (read more...)

After more than 100 years, the Jewish National Fund (JNF) still plays an integral part in the ethnic cleansing and colonization of Palestine.  An internationally coordinated campaign against the JNF is about to launch and IJAN is helping to build the campaign in the US and the UK, with additional activists involved in several European countries. Campaign organizers recently returned from a delegation to Palestine to build relationships with Palestinian, Bedouin and Jewish organizations in the lands occupied in 1948 (Israel) and in 1967 (the West Bank) in preparation for partnering in the campaign against the JNF.  Look out for events marking the international launch of the Stop the JNF campaign on Land Day, March 30, 2011.

Also, join us this week in celebrating Tu B'Shvat.  Tu B'Shvat, known as the "New Year of Trees", is a Jewish holiday with a long history. In ancient times, it was when farmers gave a portion of their fruits and nuts to the poor. In the 17th century, Jewish mystics started having services, or seders, on Tu B'Shvat, eating symbolic foods.

In the 20th century, Tu B'Shvat was co-opted by the Jewish National Fund (JNF) as an occasion to raise money for the creation of the state of Israel. The Jewish National Fund buys land in Palestine/Israel exclusively for Jewish use. Through calling on Jews worldwide to donate and "plant a tree in Israel", the JNF has helped create an apartheid system in Palestine/Israel where Jews are able to buy land and houses while non-Jews, including indigenous Palestinians, cannot. After 1948 and until today, the JNF plants forests and parks over Palestinian and Bedouin villages depopulated by the Israeli government. This exploitation of ‘environmentalism' is a way to greenwash atrocities against Palestinians.

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Targeting of the anti-war and Palestine solidarity movement in the United States took a new turn on September 24^th with coordinated raids that swept the Midwest, involving scores of federal agents. Fourteen subpoenas were delivered to anti-war, labor and solidarity activists. On 3 and 8 December, five new subpoenas were issued in the Chicago area – all to Palestine solidarity activists.  IJAN’s statement of solidarity is below. 

For more information, visit the Committee to Stop FBI Repression at http://www.stopfbi.net/ .

 

The International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network condemns the federal government's accelerating use of the anti-democratic Grand Jury to harass and threaten the Palestine solidarity movement.  We will not be deterred in seeking justice for Palestinians or for those who defend their rights.

The activists subpoenaed in Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota can count on our continued support as they face government repression for speaking out against violations of rights, unnecessary suffering and needless loss of life. 

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Stop the Wall and ItIsApartheid.org

invite you to participate in judging

THE INTERNATIONAL ISRAELI APARTHEID

SHORT FILM CONTEST

Visit our website until December 15 to watch and vote!

www.itisapartheid.tv

Sponsors:

Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights. Code Pink -  Women for Peace, USA.    Palestine Freedom Project.  Friends of Sabeel North America. ICAHD USA. Al-Rowwad USA.  American Muslims for Palestine.    AJJP Boston.  USA,Palestine Campaign for the Cultural and Academic boycott of Israel.

Endorsers:

Cooperative SUTTVUESS (audiovisual production and postproduction), Italy. IJAN (International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network), Australians for Palestine  Woman for Palestine,  Melbourn  Australia. Palestine Solidarity Committee, South Africa. Al-Alwad  Palestinian Right of Return Coalition, USA. Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid, Canada. Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Afro-Middle East Center, South Africa, Congress of South African Trade Unions. Tadamon,   Montreal  Canada.

The International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) proudly stands alongside the organizations targeted by the Anti-Defamation League's (ADL) blacklist of "Anti-Israel Groups In America" -- the ADL's derogatory code words for supporters of Palestinian human rights.
 
While presenting itself as a civil rights agency, the ADL has a long history of trying to intimidate and silence those who challenge racism and injustice.
 
In the 1950s, it collaborated with McCarthyite witch-hunts against trade unionists and social justice activists.
 
In the past two decades, it has participated in the surveillance of over one thousand social justice and human rights organizations, including opponents of South African apartheid, the United Farm Workers, the Vanguard Public Foundation, Labor Council/AFL-CIO, U.S. Peace Council, NAACP, MADRE, Greenpeace, and the Center for Constitutional Rights.  (read more...)

On October 10, 2010, the Israeli government proposed a bill obligating non-Jewish naturalized citizens to swear loyalty to a "Jewish and democratic state." The International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) deplores this attempt to demand recognition of Israel as a Jewish state - a state whose existence is premised on the removal of the indigenous people of Palestine.

In response to this bill, members of the Zionist "Left" in Israel issued a "declaration of independence from fascism." Announced at a rally in Tel Aviv, the Middle East's most ethnically cleansed city (indigenous population: four percent), the declaration asserts that the proposed law "violates [Israel's] basic commitment to the principles of equality, civil liberty and sincere aspiration for peace -- principles upon which the State of Israel was founded."

The Zionist "Left" is distancing itself from this policy, but the proposed oath is entirely consistent with Israel's racist foundations and continued ethnic cleansing - all of which the Zionist "Left" has played a central role in perpetrating and whitewashing.

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The International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (http://www.ijsn.net) adds its voice to the loud call from people around the world to release Ahmad Sa'adat, General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and member of the Palestinian Legislative Council. 

Sa'adat is one of 10,000 Palestinian political prisoners - women, men, children, organizers, activists and leaders - abducted and currently jailed by Israeli forces. He is serving time for his legitimate and courageous commitment to freedom and justice for his people and land.    

Sa'adat was jailed in 2002 by the Palestinian Authority under pressure from the US, for his leadership role in the Palestinian movement to end the occupation, and held in jail in Jericho. In 2006, Israeli forces abducted him and moved him to an Israeli prison. An Israeli apartheid tribunal subsequently sentenced him to 30 years in prison. Sa'adat is organizing in jail and has been put repeatedly in solitary confinement.  (read more...)

Dear Fellow International Solidarity Activist,

We are calling on our international allies to take action in support of long-time peace and human rights activists who have come under attack for their work against U.S. occupation and military intervention abroad.

On September 24^th, 2010, the FBI subjected about a dozen anti-war activists and activists working in solidarity with struggles in Palestine and Colombia to searches and raids of their homes in Illinois, Minnesota and Michigan.  Activists in California, Wisconsin and North Carolina were also harassed.

The activists in Illinois, Minnesota and Michigan were served with Grand Jury subpoenas.  They are refusing to testify, a brave choice which could land them in jail. The illegitimate Grand Jury process, which began on October 5, must be stopped. The raids and Grand Jury process constitute an FBI abuse of power clearly designed to create a climate of fear among those who dare to fight for peace and justice.  We must be vigilant in our defense of these activists and their right to continue their important international solidarity work without harassment.

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On 24 September, the FBI subjected about a dozen anti-war and international solidarity activists to raids of their homes, subpoenas and searches in Illinois, Minnesota and Michigan.  Activists in California, Wisconsin and North Carolina were also harassed. These raids on activist communities should be deeply troubling to all social justice activists, whether their work is focused within the U.S. or internationally.

The International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) joins the chorus of international condemnation of the US government attempt to silence people in the United States who act for human dignity and justice and who speak out against war and occupation.  

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 Excerpted for IJAN's statement on Islamophobia:

"As the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) enters its third year of work, we identify the struggle against Islamophobia as a priority. Being committed to the liberation of Palestine, we note how Islamophobia provides cultural and ideological currency to Western support for Israel. As part of movements against war and military occupation, we condemn the role that Israel plays in the US-allied military agenda and economy. As allies in the struggle against racism in our countries and communities, we assert that the adoption of Zionism by Western governments and political elites carries a high price in terms of the well-being and safety of all people. 

Zionism is bound up with Islamophobia, which, in addition to targeting Muslims and other Arab and Middle Eastern people, including Arab Jews, spreads bigotry and produces an environment of racist and ethnic discrimination. Zionism's impact on our societies is to feed and strengthen already pervasive conservative, right wing and fundamentalist political and social trends toward discrimination based on cultural, racial and ethnic difference, social exclusion, and violence that lead to poverty, restriction of movement, loss of employment, incarceration, separation, deportation and death."

To read the whole statement, click here or below.  

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