Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network extends its deepest condolences to Khalida, Ghassan and Yafa Jarrar upon the tragic passing of Suha Jarrar, who died on Sunday, July 11 at the age of 31.

Suha, Khalida and Ghassan’s daughter, Yafa’s sister, was a tireless advocate for Palestinian rights and liberation, speaking around the world to advance Palestinian freedom.

At this horrendous moment for her and her family, Khalida Jarrar, Palestinian leader, feminist, parliamentarian and organizer, remains imprisoned in Israeli jails as a political leader, denied even the comfort of her loved ones. We extend our condolences to all who knew, loved and honored Suha and demand the immediate release of Khalida Jarrar to be among her family at this time.

Sign the petition to demand Khalida’s immediate release.

Update your Facebook profile with a frame demanding Khalida’s release.

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Al-Haq, the Palestinian human rights organization, where Suha Jarrar worked, has filed an urgent appeal with UN Special Procedures for Khalida Jarrar’s immediate release.

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We are also joining in the below appeal circulated by many Palestinian groups and organizers:

Instead of surrendering to the belief that revolutionary leader and former Palestinian Legislative Council member Khalida Jarrar will be denied the right to bury her daughter Suha, whose death was announced this evening, let us work locally and internationally to form the necessary pressure that will make it possible.

Khalida is a Palestinian political prisoner, who was arrested for her national political activism. She has the right to participate in her daughter’s funeral.

Khalida has been incarcerated for nearly two years and is due for release within two months. She has been arrested by the Israeli regime on many occasions, during which time she has been subjected to various forms of abuse and persecution.

The Israeli regime’s prison administration should release Khalida as soon as possible so that she can bury and mourn her daughter and exercise her most fundamental human rights.

Freedom for Khalida Jarrar

TAKE ACTION: 

Sign and Share the Petition!

We urge all supporters of Palestine sign the petition to demand Khalida Jarrar’s immediate release and seek worldwide support: https://www.change.org/freekhalida

This petition addresses the United Nations and calls on human rights organizations like Amnesty International to take a stand for Khalida’s immediate freedom. Please note, if this petition site (Change.org) asks you to donate, any funds go to the petition site for promotion, not to Samidoun or to Khalida Jarrar’s family. We are not seeking publicity donations.

Join the Social Media Campaign

Post with the #FreeKhalidaJarrar hashtag and join Palestinians and supporters of justice around the world!

• Update your Facebook profile with a frame demanding Khalida’s release.
• Use the posters below to share!

Protest at the Israeli Embassy or Consulate in Your Country!

Join the many protests taking place around the world — confront, isolate and besiege the Israeli embassy or consulate in your city or country of residence. Make it clear that the people are with Palestine! Send us your events at samidoun@samidoun.net.

Take to the streets: Organize a protest in solidarity with Palestine!

Hundreds of thousands – millions of people – around the world have marched and protested with Palestine, its people and its liberation over the past week. Your protest and organizing is also key to highlighting the campaign to free Khalida!  Take to the streets and join the actions on our full list of events, which is constantly being updated as new actions are announced! Organize your own if there is none in your area, and send us your events at samidoun@samidoun.net.

Boycott Israel!

The international, Arab and Palestinian campaign to boycott Israel can play an important role at this critical time. Local boycott groups can protest and label Israeli produce and groceries. During Ramadan, Israeli dates from stolen Palestinian land are marketed around the world while Israel attempts to force Palestinians from Jerusalem, demolish homes, and imprisons thousands more. By participating in the boycott of Israel, you can directly help to throw a wrench in the economy of settler colonialism.

Demand Your Government Sanction Israel!

The racist, settler colonial state of Israel and its war crimes against the Palestinian people are enabled and backed extensively by the over $3.8 billion each year given to Israel by the United States — targeted directly to support the Israeli occupation military killing children, women, men and elders throughout occupied Palestine. From Canada to Australia to the European Union, Western governments and imperialist powers provide ongoing diplomatic, political and economic support to Israel as well as selling billions of dollars of weaponry to the settler-colonial state. Meanwhile, they also purchase billions of dollars in weaponry from the Israeli state. Governments in league with imperialist powers, such as in the Philippines, Brazil, India and elsewhere, also buy weapons and “security” services — all “battle-tested” on the Palestinian population. Call your representatives, MPs, political officials and demand your government sanction Israel now, cut off all aid, expel its ambassadors, and stop buying and selling weapons!

إطلاق حملة #الحرية_لخالدة_جرار محلياً ودولياً
بدلاً من أن نسلّم بأن المناضلة القيادية عضو المجلس التشريعي سابقاً خالدة جرار لن تودّع ابنتها سهى، والتي أعلن عن وفاتها مساء اليوم، وإذ تقبع جرار في سجون الاحتلال منذ ما يقارب عامين، ومن المفترض أن تنهي حكمها خلال شهرين، لنعمل محلياً ودولياً لتشكيل الضغط اللازم على إدارة سجون الاحتلال لتطلق سراح جرار في أقرب موعد حتى يتسنّى لها وداع ابنتها، وممارسة أبسط حقوقها الإنسانية.
جرار مناضلة فلسطينية، معتقلة على خلفية نشاطها السياسي الوطني، اعتقلت لدى قوات الاحتلال عدة مرات وصدر بحقها أمر إبعاد وأوامر منع سفر، وتعرضت لأشكال مختلفة من التنكيل والاضطهاد بنّاءً على نشاطها السياسي ودورها الوطني.
لخالدة الحق في أن تشارك في مراسم تشييع جثمان ابنتها.
الحرية لخالدة جرار

Liberté pour Khalida Jarrar

Au lieu de nous rendre à l’évidence que la leader révolutionnaire et ancienne membre du Conseil législatif palestinien Khalida Jarrar se verra refuser le droit d’enterrer sa fille Suha, dont la mort a été annoncée ce soir, travaillons localement et internationalement pour créer la pression nécessaire qui rendra cela possible.

Khalida est une prisonnière politique palestinienne, qui a été arrêtée pour son militantisme politique national. Elle a le droit de participer aux funérailles de sa fille.

Khalida est incarcérée depuis près de deux ans et doit être libérée d’ici deux mois. Elle a été arrêtée par le régime israélien à de nombreuses reprises et a subi diverses formes d’abus et de persécutions.

L’administration pénitentiaire du régime israélien doit libérer Khalida dès que possible afin qu’elle puisse enterrer et pleurer sa fille et exercer ses droits humains les plus fondamentaux.

Liberté pour Khalida Jarrar !

En lugar de aceptar el hecho de que a la líder revolucionaria y ex miembro del Consejo Legislativo Palestino Khalida Jarrar se le negará el derecho a enterrar a su hija Suha, cuya muerte fue anunciada esta noche, trabajemos local e internacionalmente para formar la presión necesaria que lo haga. posible.

Khalida ha estado encarcelado durante casi dos años y será liberado dentro de dos meses.

La administración penitenciaria del régimen israelí debe poner en libertad a Khalida lo antes posible para que pueda enterrar y llorar a su hija y ejercer sus derechos humanos más fundamentales.

Khalida es una prisionera política palestina, que fue arrestada por su activismo político nacional. Tiene derecho a participar en el funeral de su hija.

Posters and Resources

Source: Samidoun

The long war between the native people of Palestine and the brutal Western colonial-settler project called Israel is more than a local battle. Like the Black Lives Matter uprising that swept the U.S. and the world after the murder of George Floyd, it is part of the global struggle between oppressor and oppressed, exploiter and exploited, colonizer and colonized. 

Pentagon brass routinely refer to the Israeli occupation regime as “our unsinkable aircraft carrier,” a term Israeli leaders embrace. To Wall Street bankers and their military and political servants, the Zionist state is a vital weapon in their long war to monopolize the world’s energy reserves and keep the world’s petrodollars flowing into their coffers. Control of the region they call the Middle East is key to their wealth and power.

While the corporate agents in Washington pour arms and money into the Israeli war machine, oppressed people around the world stand with the people of Palestine. That solidarity has been loud and clear in cities across the United States in the weeks since Israel’s latest assault on the imprisoned people of Gaza.  

In the New York metropolitan area, tens of thousands have taken to the streets of every borough and such neighboring cities as Paterson and Teaneck, N.J., and Yonkers and White Plains, N.Y., to support Palestinian resistance and demand an end to U.S. aid to the occupation regime. 

Those who marched were overwhelmingly young. Many were Palestinian or from other Arab communities. But the crowds reflected the diversity of New York City’s working class and oppressed communities. 

The December 12 Movement and other Black liberation organizations mobilized in solidarity. Flags of Bangladesh, Colombia, Haiti, Mexico, Morocco, Pakistan, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Senegal, Yemen and the Black liberation flag were among those that flew alongside the red, black, green and white colors of Palestine. 

On May 4 and May 11, protesters took over the streets of midtown Manhattan. On May 15, Nakba Day, 50,000 people packed the streets of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, home to New York’s largest Arab community. On May 13, young people confronted a Zionist hate rally in Times Square. Police attacked and arrested several people when they defended themselves against anti-Arab bigots.

The following Saturday, May 22, 20,000 people shut down Queens Boulevard and marched for hours through the streets of the city’s second-largest borough, from Sunnyside through Astoria to Jackson Heights. 

On May 29, thousands traveled to Washington, D.C., for a rally and march called by American Muslims for Palestine.

On Memorial Day, May 31, thousands marched through the streets of the Bronx. While cops in riot gear tried to intimidate the marchers, the people of the borough greeted the marchers with cheers and horns honked in solidarity. Black Liberation Army veteran and 33-year political prisoner Sekou Odinga was among those who addressed the crowd. 

Police arrested three young people for the “crime” of raising the Palestinian flag atop a railroad bridge. Cops later attacked a crowd that had gathered outside the 41st precinct to await their release and arrested and brutalized three more people.

Most of the protests were organized by NY4Palestine, a coalition comprising Al Awda NY: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, Within Our Lifetime-United for Palestine, American Muslims for Palestine, Existence is Resistance, Jews for the Palestinian Right to Return, Labor for Palestine and Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network. Within Our Lifetime has taken the lead in organizing protests in every borough. 

Early on Sunday, June 6, several hundred people blocked the gate of Maher Terminal in Elizabeth, N.J., where an Israeli ship, ZIM Tarragona, was being unloaded. Two days earlier, Port Authority police detained two activists for giving flyers to workers at the port. 

It was the first action of the newly formed NY-NJ Block the Boat Coalition as part of the International Week of Action to Block the Boat called by the Arab Resource and Organizing Center in the Bay Area. 

Members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union refused to cross AROC-led picket lines in Oakland, Calif., forcing the Israeli ship ZIM Voltan to leave without unloading.  

Later that day hundreds of community members confronted a “salute to Israel” anti-Palestinian hate parade in Teaneck, N.J. 

On June 9, a WOL-led car caravan started at the Zim shipping offices and drove across Staten Island. 

SLL photos

On May 18, in response to Israel’s attempted expulsion of Palestinian families from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in Jerusalem, the continued attacks on the Aqsa Mosque as well as Israel’s bombing of the Gaza Strip with more than 1,050 air raids, the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions – Gaza Strip (PGFTU) urged the global trade union movement to support Palestinians and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

The PGFTU appeal called for labor unions to:

– Boycott Israel’s racist occupation, including a refusal to unload its ships;

– Demonstrate and put the apartheid state of Israel on trial for war crimes;

– Affirm Palestinians’ right to freedom and independence, the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, and the right of Palestinians to return to their homes and villages.

The appeal was answered forcefully in the Port of Oakland, Calif., site of the most successful labor action to date against the atrocities in Gaza.

The Israel-based ZIM ship Volans left the Port of Oakland on June 5 unworked after reportedly “meandering in circles, outside of the port,” reports an Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC) press statement. The ZIM ship was unable to navigate through the united protest of community and labor.

ZIM is the world’s 10th largest shipping company. ZIM is a major transporter of weapons to and from Israel.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 10 and the ship’s clerks in ILWU Local 34, as well as the Port Truckers, honored picket lines coordinated by the Block the Boat Coalition, at times numbering over a thousand protesters. ZIM ships left the port unloaded after 16 days of picket lines.

“We are sending a strong message that profiteering from Israel’s apartheid and ongoing violence against the Palestinian people will not be welcome in the Bay Area,” said Lara Kiswani, executive director of AROC.

#BlockTheBoat actions protesting various Israeli ZIM ships have been planned in numerous other cities, including Los Angeles, Seattle, Houston, New York, Detroit and Philadelphia.

One labor statement at the end of May read, “The ILWU Northern California District Council stands in solidarity with Palestine and Palestinian communities across the world who are fighting for justice.”

On June 6, in Elizabeth, N.J., hundreds defied heavy police pressure and joined a community picket and blocked the gate leading to the terminal where the ZIM ship Tarragona docked.

International solidarity

Workers’ organizations responded to the appeal of the Palestinian union federation as news of the horrendous Israeli massacre and courageous Palestinian defense circled the globe.

Protests took place in Italy, Greece, Ireland, Canada and South Africa. Over 100 labor and community organizations nationally and internationally endorsed #BlockTheBoat actions!

The International Dockworkers Council issued a statement strongly condemning the massacre of civilians and children in Palestine.

Recognizing apartheid in Israel, South African dockworkers heeded the PGFTU call and refused to offload ZIM cargo.

Italian dockworkers in Livorno refused to load an arms shipment onto a ZIM ship.

The Doro-Chiba rail workers union of Japan wrote, “We full-heartedly salute Local 10 for refusing to handle the freight from the ZIM ship Volans.”

Local 10 and Black union leadership

Speaking on the Local 10 action, retired ILWU leader Clarence Thomas said, “We affect the global economy.” 

He said, “It was the longest action taken against an Israeli vessel using community blockades at the Port of Oakland.

“The first Local 10 action was in response to the killing of unarmed people in international waters on board the ship Mavi Marmara, which was attemp­ting to bring humanitarian aid to the ­Palestinian people in 2010.”

In August 2016, an action to stop ZIM ships from unloading at the Port of ­Oakland was organized by Block the Boat for Gaza, a coalition of about 70 organi­zations led by AROC. 

The action became a movement. A gigantic ZIM ship left the Bay Area of California unworked at that time. Rank-and-file members of  Local 10 honored community picket lines for four days. Other ports from Los Angeles to Tacoma joined the “Block the Boat Movement.”

At the June 4 mass picket in Oakland, Local 10 President Trent Willis discussed the history of the ILWU in terms of fighting racism against the Palestinians as well as against African Americans.

Call for the MWM

When it initiated the Million Worker March in 2004, ILWU Local 10 called on rank-and-file union members to “Mobilize in Our Own Name,” the title of Clarence Thomas’ new anthology.

African American union leaders from Local 10, joined by others in the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, organized the MWM with demands to fight racism, sexism, economic injustice and war. 

They said that the only way workers can successfully struggle for their democratic rights is to organize independently from political organizations controlled by the bosses.

In 2004, the AFL-CIO leadership, in collusion with the Democratic Party, took national measures to sabotage the MWM by dishonestly claiming that it would interfere with union support for John Kerry’s presidential election campaign.

In July 2020, the country erupted with protests, labor strikes and shutdowns against the police murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and numerous others.

The AFL-CIO “Racial Justice Task Force” announced a plan for “taking concrete action to address the long history of racism and police violence against Black people.”

Last week the AFL-CIO quietly released its report, calling for police unions themselves to be the primary mechanism for reforming police practices. As spokespeople for the police unions often voice the loudest support for racist killer cops, the AFL-CIO report amounts to a hostile rejection of calls from progressive members for the federation to kick out police unions.

The progressive demand to exclude police organizations from the AFL-CIO rightfully asserts that workers’ unions must be organized independently from the bosses and the repressive forces of the state that represent them. After all, who are the ones to bust workers’ heads when they protest for a living wage?

The call to “Mobilize in Our Own Name” is the only way that workers can unite internationally against capitalist exploitation and U.S. imperialist aggression in support of Israeli apartheid.

Block the Boat actions hit U.S./Israeli interests at the “point of production” and prove that workers are in the most powerful position to enact change.

https://www.facebook.com/AROCBayArea/videos/181969900514605

Footage of just 1 of 6 gates that community and workers held down in solidarity with Palestinian workers.

Los Angeles — On May 22, Black and Brown organizations joined forces with the Palestinian movement across the world, demanding that Israel end the seige of Gaza and Sheikh Jarrah, an end to the illegal occupation of Palestine and to all U.S. funding and arming of Israel. 

Palestinian organizations, including Al-Awda: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition and the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), which led massive demonstrations in the city a week prior, were invited to speak at the action.

Initiators of the rally, march and car caravan included the Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice, Unión del Barrio, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Black August Los Angeles, American Indian Movement Southern California, Central American Resource Center, All-African People’s Revolutionary Party, Puerto Rican Alliance, National Young Lords Organization and members of the Socialist Unity Party Black Caucus.

These organizations, responding to Israel’s catastrophic war crimes, felt the need to highlight and activate the power coming from the fundamental role historically played by Black and Brown organizations in the U.S. in fighting injustice, racism and white supremacy, with an understanding of the potential power those battles can have in building solidarity with other victims of U.S. imperialism abroad.

Many in the Palestine movement note that the current shift towards solidarity with the Palestinian people is partly a result of the recent struggles for Black lives here in the U.S., helping to build the consciousness necessary to emphasize that Palestinian lives and the lives of all oppressed peoples subject to racism and genocide matter.

Uplifting show of unity

At MacArthur Park in downtown LA — in a community predominantly made up of oppressed people of color — a large rally drew at least six television crews covering the event. 

It began with many speakers addressing the need to highlight the historic bond between Black organizations and the Palestinian right to self-determination, and their dedication to continue to call out and fight against racism and imperialism there and here.  

Many rally participants were uplifted by the show of unity between the many Black and Brown organizations that came together and spoke in one united voice of support. 

Regarding the horror of the most recent Israeli war crimes, Harold Welton, former Black Panther and member of Black August Los Angeles, said: “Over 60 Palestinian children have been killed and the corporate news seems to dance around that fact. Our tax dollars are being used to send precision-guided missiles and high-tech bombers targeting civilians.” 

Ron Gochez of Unión del Barrio, addressing the rally participants and the Palestinian people, declared: “The leftist movements of Latin America, of Nuestra America, the movements in Africa, the movements all over Asia and all over the world, are with you. The only people that side with Israel are those aligned with the colonial imperialist U.S. government.”

Speakers from Al-Awda and the PYM conveyed the reality of the continued siege in Gaza and Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and pledged their support to fight racism here against Black and Brown peoples.

This action also had a very natural feel with speakers whose experiences paralleled the situation of Palestinian people. Xochilt Sanchez, organizer with the Central American Resource Center said: “As a Salvadoran American, I empathize with the pain and loss of the Palestinian people. I see my own family’s pain reflected in their struggle against land occupation, state violence and forced displacement. 

“I stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people because, as a Central American, my people have also been massacred and driven off their lands. Historically and throughout modern history, Central Americans have suffered bombardments and mass killings by the hand of the police and military, backed and funded by the United States.”

Palestine and Black liberation

That sentiment was reinforced by Rebecka Jackson of the Socialist Unity Party Black Caucus, who had visited occupied Palestine: “The struggle of Palestine is the struggle for Black liberation. Occupied Palestine is a place where Afro-Palestinians are treated as second-class citizens or subjected to apartheid. Our struggles are inextricably linked. We are being systematically exterminated by the same poison of white supremacy and capitalism. 

“The struggle for Palestine is one of Indigenous rights, of native Semitic peoples, Muslim, Jewish and Christian, who had lived in peace and solidarity before Western intervention,” Jackson explained.

“This is not a struggle of religion. This is a struggle against white supremacy. Israel is a white supremacist, capitalist state that viewed the indigenous people of Palestine as less than human and sought to eliminate them as they fulfilled the same ‘master race’ philosophies originated by Jim Crow and then by Nazi Germany. 

“In Israel Black people are met with the same brutality and genocide as in the U.S. The Israelis have their own word for n*****, though they won’t hesitate to adopt the English term when they just want to say it either. 

“When African Jewish refugees arrive, they keep them in cages like animals, calling them ‘terrorists,’ and they are often held without food, water or facilities. Sound familiar? The Israeli state is the apartheid state — and so is the U.S. state. They are an echo of the same anti-Blackness and anti-Brownness. 

“As Palestine has always supported our liberation struggles, as they sent us solidarity to Ferguson and Minneapolis and Louisville let us send the same support back,” said Jackson. 

“As people around the globe have lifted up the names of Michael Brown, George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, let us today lift up the names of Haftom Zarhum and Babikir Ali Adham-Abdo, who were beaten to death by racist Zionists. And Solomon Teka and Yehuda Biadga, who were murdered by Israeli police.

“Why do we love Palestine, why do we fight for Palestine? When we are united in struggle we beat with the same heart and fight with the same fist. If we can free Palestine, we can free us all. 

“From Mandela, to the Black Panther Party to Che Guevara — we are all revolutionary socialists dedicated to smashing imperialism and capitalism and liberating the world. None of us are free until we all are free,” she concluded.

We are grateful to the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) educators who drafted and passed area motions in support of the people of Palestine. This motion builds on UTLA’s history and tradition of commitment to educational equity and racial justice. In standing with Palestinian educators and students, you will affirm the right of young people to grow up and learn in an environment free of surveillance, over-policing, and military occupation. In rejecting the systematic treatment of Palestinians as second-class citizens within their own schools, you will take a stand against racism and discrimination that Palestinian students and educators face every day because of their national origin. Your position will send an important message to today’s youth who will go on to become the leaders and decision-makers of tomorrow.

Education is not a neutral force in young people’s lives, but an active agent of change that has a profound effect on students’ worldview and moral compass. This motion — if passed — will help call attention to that fact. Israel has violated numerous international human rights laws and has been officially designated as an apartheid regime, including by Human Rights Watch and Israeli human rights organization B’tselem. In the past month, entire apartment buildings in Gaza have been leveled in seconds, with entire families being wiped out in single airstrikes. The direct link between our taxes and Israel’s military makes these atrocities possible, demonstrating U.S. complicity and our responsibility as citizens to stand against this injustice.

The U.S. currently sends $3.8 billion taxpayer dollars in military funding to Israel every year. Just a few weeks ago, President Biden signed off on a $735 million weapons deal with Israel as the heavy bombardment of Gaza was taking place. As our besieged people in Gaza continue to suffer under the fire of bombs and the misery of the blockade, that same injustice is being funded — indeed, single-handedly being made possible — by the taxes we filed this month. Those are tax dollars that could be going to health care, public education, mental health services, housing or a host of other services that are helping to build communities up rather than engage in endless warfare or further the engineered suffering inflicted against Palestinians by the Israeli occupation.

For too long, friends and allies of Palestine have had accusations of anti-Semitism leveled at them for taking a stand on Palestinian rights. These false accusations rely on a disingenuous conflation of Israel and Jews that is intended to silence and criminalize Palestinians by portraying their resistance to occupation and ethnic cleansing as a form of bigotry or irrational hatred. This tactic is intended to stifle speech critical of Israel when its brutal actions are, on their own terms, indefensible. It is not anti-Semitic to criticize the state of Israel for its acts of military aggression and its ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people. Taking a principled moral stance on a situation of clear injustice is in no way a form of racism or prejudice as has been alleged. There is a critical difference between criticizing Israel as a violent nation state and attacks on Jewish people because of their identities. Anti-Semitism makes a home in white supremacy, not in a grassroots movement for justice for all.

Many Palestinian students and their families in our schools are affected by the censorship and silencing around Palestine. Not only are they constantly silenced for speaking about Palestine: they are told within the classroom setting that their country does not exist and frequently find themselves confronting racist stereotypes about Arabs, Muslims and Palestinians, which often have a direct and lasting effect on their mental health and school performance. As their families are directly impacted by this disparate treatment, it is important that teachers support them, especially while they are grieving and dealing with horrific violence inflicted upon their relatives in Palestine.

In the spirit of maintaining UTLA’s commitment to an equitable workplace for teachers and students alike, this motion is a gesture toward the same values of dignity and self-determination upon which the union was originally founded in 1970. Born out of a strike and tax revolt, UTLA’s early years were rooted in a commitment to racial and economic justice that pushed back against unjust taxation and teachers’ vastly inferior bargaining power in California. A vote in favor of this motion would build on that history and extend the same key concerns internationally, where much of our tax dollars go.

The Palestinian Youth Movement would be honored and humbled to support UTLA in any way possible, in expressing support for Palestine and in passing this motion. Many other educational organizations around the world — including the National Union of Teachers in Europe and San Francisco Teachers Union — have already taken a vocal stance in support of the Palestinian people and against Israeli apartheid and occupation. We are immensely grateful to see that UTLA, a union that consistently takes stands for justice and for the communities of Los Angeles, is on a path to joining them. We extend our deepest gratitude to you again.

Palestinian Youth Movement – Los Angeles-Orange County-Inland Empire Regional Chapter

Elizabeth, N.J., June 6 — On the heels of a historic victory in Oakland, Calif., where the Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC) sent apartheid-profiteering Zim Shipping’s ship, the Volans, back to sea without being unloaded, hundreds of protesters set up a militant picket line at the Maher Terminal’s employee entrance to encourage dockworkers not to unload the Zim Tarragona.

The action at the Maher Terminal was the first ever pro-Palestine protest held in the Port of New York/New Jersey. It was part of an International Week of Solidarity called for by AROC to “Block Zim Everywhere.”

In the days leading up to the action, organizers were met with harassment and attempts at intimidation by Port Authority police and private security personnel, when they were simply handing out flyers to the dockworkers. This was followed by attempts by police to silence and contain our action away from the gates of the terminal. New York and New Jersey community participants chose to defy the pressure from the police and security forces and marched their way to the terminal gate, facing down police in riot gear.

The #BlockTheBoat victory in Oakland, today’s New York-New Jersey mobilization, and similar mobilizations around the world, are an example of what powerful worker and international solidarity looks like. The #BlockTheBoat movement answered the call directly from Palestinian trade unions in Gaza asking workers across the world to refuse to handle Israeli goods, deal with Israeli businesses or handle Israeli cargo, in accord with the campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) for Palestinian rights. 

Zim Integrated Shipping Services Ltd. is Israel’s largest cargo shipping company, dealing in Israeli-manufactured military technology, armaments and logistics equipment, as well as consumer goods. The Zim Tarragona is one of the only remaining Zim-owned ships in the fleet. They’re required by the state of Israel to maintain it for national security purposes. It flies the apartheid Israeli flag.

This Wednesday, June 9, at 4 p.m. in Staten Island, Block the Boat will continue supporting the International Week of Solidarity with a protest outside the ZIM America offices at 1110 South Ave., Staten Island, NY 10314.

June 4 — Hundreds of community and labor protesters blocked the Israeli chartered ship Volans at the Port of Oakland, Calif. The ZIM shipping company threatened the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) that they would pull out of the Port of Oakland if the picketing stopped their ships. 

The pickets arrived at 5:30 in the morning and ILWU Local 10 and Local 34 members refused to cross the picket lines. ILWU members, including Local 10 President Trent Willis, discussed the history of the ILWU and also the racism against the Palestinians as well as against Black Americans in the U.S.

The #BlocktheBoat group with Arab Resource & Organizing Committee (AROC) and the Stop Zim Action Committee (SZAC) both organized to get to the line and keep it up during the first day of the ship’s arrival. ZIM in the past has left the berth and then tried to come back into the port secretly.

——— 

June 3 — For weeks, the Arab Resource & Organizing Center’s (AROC) #BlocktheBoat campaign has mobilized communities to successfully prevent the docking of vessels operated by Israeli shipping company ZIM. Thousands have signed up to answer the call to action at the Port of Oakland in solidarity with Palestine and the international Boycott, Divestment, & Sanctions (BDS) movement. 

Following AROC’s calls for a community picket at the port, the ZIM-operated Volans ship has not docked in Oakland for 16 days after it was originally scheduled to dock on May 19. The Volans ship is still at sea in the Bay Area, and will be met with massive protests if and when it decides to dock.

Communities in numerous cities have joined AROC’s call for an international week of action from June 2 to June 9 to protest ZIM and picket its ships everywhere. Activists in Los Angeles, Seattle, Houston, New York, Detroit, Philadelphia and Vancouver have planned protests, while actions in Italy, Greece and South Africa are also set to take place. 

Social-justice organizations in port cities are being asked to amplify the #BlockTheBoat success thus far against Israeli apartheid in Oakland by organizing community pickets to prevent ZIM ships from being worked and unloaded anywhere.

“We are sending a strong message that profiteering from Israel’s apartheid and ongoing violence against the Palestinian people will not be welcome in the Bay Area,” said Lara Kiswani, the Executive Director of AROC. “The largest South African trade unions that were instrumental in the fight against South African apartheid have now voiced their strong support for our protest in the Bay Area against ZIM and Israeli apartheid.”

These actions against ZIM follow a call from labor unions in Palestine for workers and communities worldwide to boycott Israeli companies. On May 25, the 10 unions representing Bay Area port workers, the ILWU Northern California District Council, released a statement “in solidarity with Palestine and Palestinian communities across the world who are fighting for justice.”

#BlocktheBoat has received over 100 endorsements from labor unions, faith and community organizations around the world, including the anti-apartheid Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), the largest federation of trade unions in South Africa representing 1.8 million people.

“An injury to one is an injury to all. Just as ILWU Local 10 workers refused to unload cargo from apartheid South Africa in the 1980s, we honored community pickets asking us not to unload cargo from Israeli ZIM vessels in 2014,” said Jimmy Salameh, a Palestinian rank-and-file worker with ILWU Local 10. “Just this month, dockworkers in Durban, South Africa, and Italy have also refused to unload Israeli ZIM vessels. Rank-and-file members of ILWU Local 10 stand against Israeli apartheid and with our brothers and sisters in Palestine.”

Zim Integrated Shipping Services Ltd (ZIM) is Israel’s largest cargo shipping company, often dealing in Israeli manufactured military technology, armaments and logistics equipment. AROC first called on communities to block ZIM-operated ships in the U.S. in 2014. With the support of rank-and-file workers in ILWU Local 10, the AROC-led Block the Boat coalition successfully mobilized thousands to prevent the unloading of ZIM-operated vessels in the Port of Oakland. 

In a massive victory for advocates of Palestinian human rights, no ZIM-operated vessel has docked in the Port of Oakland since 2014, and many similar actions around the world have sprung up in the intervening years.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Palestine’s largest socialist movement, held a large rally in Gaza City on Wednesday, June 2.

The rally was held under the banner of celebrating the victory of the Resistance in the latest Israeli war on the besieged Strip, which started on May 10 and lasted for 11 days.

The rally was also motivated by another objective, asserting the centrality of the socialist movement in Palestinian resistance and political discourse.

Thousands of Palestinians, mostly PFLP supporters, turned out to the massive rally, where hundreds of men and women fighters marched in the Rimal neighborhood in Gaza City.

“From the top of the ruins of our homes, leveled to the ground by our enemy to break the will of our people and our Resistance, we insist that Palestine is one and that we do not accept compromises, backdoor dealings or divisions,” Jamil Muzher, a top PFLP official in Gaza, said.

“We bring to you greetings from the Secretary-General (of the PFLP) Ahmad Sa’adat to the Arab and Palestinian people and to the free people of the world as we celebrate the victory of our people everywhere,” Muzher said in reference to the imprisoned leader of the PFLP. Sa’adat has been a prisoner in Israel since 2002.

Muzher also commended the “tough resisters” of the PFLP’s armed wing, Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, along with the armed wings of all Palestinian political groups, including Hamas, Fatah, Islamic Jihad and other movements.

“Our people have fought for over 73 years and resisted in every possible form including popular and armed resistance,” Muzher said, vowing to continue on the same path.

The rally, which was joined by the Palestine Chronicle correspondent in the Gaza Strip, featured men and women fighters, Che Guevara banners, and posters of Palestinian prisoners from the socialist movement.

The rally is considered the largest of its kind in Gaza in many years.

Below, is a selection of exclusive photos from the PFLP rally. For the full gallery, visit the Palestine Chronicle page on Facebook.

All Photos: Mahmoud Ajjour, The Palestine Chronicle

To sign on to this Statement, please use the form at this link. The Google Document of this statement will be updated with signatories.

Human rights groups condemn the surge of racism against Palestinians and denounce the violence that has been waged and initiated by pro-Israeli groups.  As officials ignore these crimes, NY4Palestine has launched a taskforce to receive complaints at LegalNY4Palestine@gmail.com.

Palestine solidarity groups reject, as racist and defamatory, claims that the Palestinian liberation and solidarity movement is anti-Semitic. “We reject any equivalence between Jewish people and Israel or Zionism, and so we reject the racist contention that Palestinian identity and the Palestinian struggle for liberation and defense against Israeli violence is anti-Semitic,” said Fatin Jarara, member of Al-Awda and PYM, which are part of the NY4Palestine Coalition.

“Racism drives Israeli regime practices in Palestine so our movement is grounded in anti-racist work, –  but we are not equally protected from racist hate in NY,” added Gigi Mohammed, of Al-Awda.

“Pro-Israelis have been hurling racial slurs and violence at Palestinians in NYC to provoke a response which they manipulate to further demonize their victims. This is part of Israeli campaigns [i] to undermine the mushrooming global movement against Israeli violence, colonization, and Apartheid. It is intended to and is daily hurting Palestinians, it’s also endangering Jews facing real anti-Semitism and has to stop,” said attorney Michael Letwin.

“Anti-Palestinian hatred and racism by (pro-) Israelis is so deeply normalized here even government officials engage in it regularly- from Schumer to Yang and Yeger. This city has an anti-Palestinian racism problem which is endemic to all sectors of society from courts to campuses to media. It is grossly unequal protection when a system is itself dedicated to mobilizing anti-Palestinian racism,” said human rights attorney Lamis Deek.

“We also demand NY and US government officials preempt and prosecute pro-Israeli and Zionist New Yorkers who were filmed invading and stealing Palestinian homes, and openly calling for pogroms in Palestine. These are crimes under US and NY law, and they are war crimes under international law. This silence is empowering racism and violence against Palestinians,” Deek added.

Over the past two weeks, anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim hate crimes by pro-Israeli groups in NY surged launching the hashtag #everdayIslamophobia. In the presence of NYPD and press, pro-Israelis threatened to kill and rape Palestinians, snuck into Palestinian rallies to physically assault youth, stalked youth on the streets and beat them, entire blocks of residents threw trash and full bottles from windows at them. In one incident, a middle aged pro-Israeli woman accosted a Palestinian teenager, maced him for several seconds and returned to chanting racist slurs with other Israeli and Zionist agitators – echoing Israeli pogrom chants of “death to Arabs” in Palestine.

Ex-Israeli occupation soldiers were caught on camera initiating assaults on Palestinian youth on several occasions [ii] another pro-Israeli yelled racist slurs against Palestinian youth inciting an inappropriate violent response from his targets.[iii ] Both incidents were racistly portrayed as anti-Semitism although nothing identified the provocateurs as Jewish before or after the altercation. “The erasure of pro-Israeli, white, racist provocations and the manipulation of anti-Semitism have life devastating impact on its victims.  It also privileges and protects white violence by way of the NYPD which itself has a long track record of abusing Arab and Muslim youth,” said Suzanne Adely, president-elect of the National Lawyers Guild.

   **  More detailed report with context and footage of similar incidents is forthcoming in addendum to be released in the coming weeks

To sign on to this Statement, please use the form at this link. The Google Document of this statement will be updated with signatories.

[i] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/jdl-toronto-assault-palestinian-anti-semitic-1.6029953

[ii] https://twitter.com/protest_nyc/status/1395517369414524928?s=19

[iii] https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1396204203211636740?s=19

NY4Palestine is receiving complaints at LegalNY4Palestine@gmail.com

Donations for jail/legal support can be made to https://palestinefreedomfund.org/

ISSUED BY:      

NY4PALESTINE, a coalition of organizations working for Palestinian rights and liberation, and includes:

• Al-Awda: The Palestine Right To Return Coalition-NY;
• American Muslims for Palestine-NJ;
• Existence Is Resistance
• Jews for Palestinian Right to Return;
• La Lucha;
• Labor For Palestine;
• Palestinian Youth Movement-NY;
• Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network;
• Within Our Lifetime: United for Palestine.

SPONSORED & ENDORSED BY:

Organizations:

• Majlis Ash-Shura: ILCNY
• National Lawyers Guild
• Jewish Law Students Association- CUNY Law
• US Palestinian Community Network

Individuals:

• Suzanne Adely, Attorney
• Moira Meltzer-Cohen, Attorney
• Lamis J. Deek, Attorney
• Sheikh Ibad Wali
• Michelle Munjanattu
• May Arjomand
• Shalu Arjomand
• Bibi Areej
• Yaser Jawaid
• Tahsina Islam
• Rowan Rabah
• Monadel Herzallah
• Hadil El Wahidy
• Burhan Ghanayem
• Shireen Quaizar
• Maysoun Ahmad
• Manal Fakhoury
• Syed W Quadri
• Zahi Abdein
• Nazim Uddin

Source: Samidoun

Hundreds of Palestinian supporters filled the streets in downtown Baltimore following a rally at City Hall on May 22.  Marching against traffic, the group blocked intersections to read the names of Palestinian martyrs who died in the recent attacks by Israel.  The protest was initiated by the Palestinian Youth Movement and endorsed by groups including the Peoples Power Assembly and Youth Against War and Racism.  Rev. Annie Chambers kicked off the rally with a spirited message of support for the Palestinian struggle.  Chambers is a public housing organizer with the Peoples Power Assembly.