An open letter signed by over 250 members of the Jewish Voice for Peace Academic Advisory Council asks the U.S. State Department to revise its definition of anti-Semitism in order to prevent the charge of anti-Semitism from being misused to silence critics of Israel.
As Palestinians commemorate the Nakba, the catastrophe in 1948 when more than 700,000 indigenous Palestinians were ethnically cleansed from their homes by Zionist militias and later the State of Israel, life in the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip is reaching a fatal tipping point, as the UN has warned. Given the human catastrophe that Gaza is facing and Israel’s threats of more atrocities, a coalition of Palestinian NGOs calls on governments and international bodies to take immediate action.
Palestinian rights activists are celebrating Lauryn Hill’s announcement that she is cancelling her concert in Tel Aviv, which was scheduled for May 7. The singer posted the announcement on her Facebook page Monday, writing: “It is very important to me that my presence or message not be misconstrued, or a source of alienation to either my Israeli or my Palestinian fans. For this reason, we have decided to cancel the upcoming performance in Israel, and seek a different strategy to bring my music to ALL of my fans in the region.”
After students express their concerns to the dining staff of the products connections to human rights abuses, University of California, Riverside provides alternative hummus brand in its campus store.
The courts ruled that Pamela Geller has the right to put up her virulently anti-Muslim ads on public buses. As a community, we will make our voices heard as forcefully as we can in protest of Islamophobic hate speech. –Jews Against Islamophobia Coalition
On April 22, following three weeks of deliberation, the Student Senate of Earham College passed a resolution in support of divestment from companies directly involved in the Israeli Occupation of Palestine. The resolution, presented by Boycott Divestment Sanctions Earlham (BDS Earlham), calls for divestment from three major companies profiting from the Occupation: Motorola Solutions, Hewlett Packard, and Caterpillar. This Senate Victory was a unique one. As opposed to a voting-based model, the Earlham Student Senate utilizes a consensus-based decision making model, which requires that all members of Senate feel comfortable moving forward with any decision.
Combatants for Peace respond to a recent Mondoweiss report, “Marking Memorial Day in Tel Aviv with Kahanists and Combatants for Peace.”
Yesterday, members of the Baltimore chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace interrupted a Yom Ha’Atzmaut party held at a downtown bar, denouncing it as a celebration of ethnic cleansing and confettiing it with educational flyers about the Nakba.
The UN Relief and Works Agency sent along this first picture of escapees from Yarmouk…
Students for Justice in Palestine at Los Angeles Valley College: “We urge that the Student Senate for California Community Colleges, that has the privilege of representing all 112 of California’s community colleges, to stand on the right side of history by urging divestment from companies that profit from human rights abuses in Palestine—in which our tuition dollars is invested, and to send a message that human rights abuses is unacceptable no matter where they may be.”