As the Batsheva Dance Company winds its way across North America, the media has clamored to laud the show on its artistic merits, glossing over the political implications of the group’s visit. However dozens of protestors welcomed the group to Brooklyn this weekend, calling attention to its role in the Brand Israel program which seeks to take attention away from the Israeli occupation.
Some 10,000 protesters gathered in Battery Square Park in lower Manhattan, to listen to an array of speakers; from grassroots organizers Linda Sarsour of Mpower Change and Steven Choi of the New York Immigration Coalition to New York State Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand.
Just a day after newly-sworn President Donald Trump vowed to make good on his campaign promises to build a US-Mexico border wall and ban Muslim immigrants, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) of New York organized an “emergency rally for Muslim and Immigrant Rights.” Chanting ‘No ban, no wall!’ more than 3,000 people gathered in Washington Square Park in New York last night in a show of solidarity with Muslim and immigrant American communities.
An anti-war bloc that included Students for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace, CODEPINK and Witness Against Torture demonstrated at police checkpoints at the Trump inauguration yesterday, in solidarity with Palestinians at checkpoints and expressing sorrow for Muslim victims of American attacks.
On Wednesday June 15, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s recent anti-BDS executive order galvanized a diverse coalition of nearly 200 —Palestine solidarity activists, civil liberties defenders, faith organizations, elected officials, antiwar groups and more—to travel from across the state to Albany on Wednesday to deliver a petition calling on Governor Cuomo to rescind the order. Mark Mishler, an activist with the Albany chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, called Cuomo’s actions “frightening,” but marveled at the organized activist pushback. “What Governor Cuomo did is gave us all strength to come together,” Mishler told Mondoweiss. “Whether we all agree on everything or not, we certainly all agree that it is wrong for Governor Cuomo to think that he can silence people who are speaking up for human rights.”
Hundreds of protesters descended on New York State Governor Cuomo’s midtown Manhattan office on Thursday, June 9 to stand against state-sanctioned suppression of the right to boycott. Adalah NY, Jewish Voice for Peace and Jews Say No! organized an emergency response to Cuomo’s June 5 executive order attacking the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement in the State of New York. Rani Allen, president of the Palestine Solidarity Alliance of Hunter College, called Cuomo’s decision “an act of retaliation.” “I think it’s a sign of our success,” Allen told Mondoweiss. “It’s a response based on fear of our movement which has been getting larger and larger with time.”
Tying together a long history of Jewish social justice activism, Jewish Voice for Peace and Jews Say No! gathered in Rockefeller Plaza on the first night of Chanukah to call for an end to the virulent and growing Islamophobia facing Muslims in the United States.
On October 15, representatives of the Iqrit Community Association Shadia Sbait and Ameer Toume spoke to Congressional representatives in room 221 of the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill. Sbait and Toume, both Palestinian citizens of Israel, have been making the case for Palestinian right of return on a month-long tour of the United States. The fact that members of the audience included Congressional staffers suggests an interest by some members of Congress on changing the discourse on Palestine.