Category: Action Alerts - Page 24 - International Solidarity Movement

Announcing Israeli Apartheid Week 2014

14th February, 2014 | Israel Apartheid Week | Various Locations

Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) seeks to raise awareness about Israel’s apartheid policies towards the Palestinians and to build support for the growing Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign. Reflecting the global grassroots rejection of Israel’s military and political aggression, IAW was held in more than 200 locations in 2012 and more than 150 cities in 2013.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0KONygMEg8

Tenth Annual Israeli Apartheid Week – #apartheidweek
UK and US: February 24-March 2
Europe: March 1-8
South Africa: March 10-16
Brazil: March 24-28
Palestine, Arab world and Asia: TBA

IAW is an annual international series of events including rallies, lectures, cultural performances, film screenings, multimedia displays and boycott of Israel actions held in cities and on university campuses across the globe.

If you would like to organize and be part of Israeli Apartheid Week on your campus or in your city please get in touch with us at iawinfo@apartheidweek.org. Also find us on Facebook and Twitter.

Being part of Israeli Apartheid Week is easy – here are five things you can do:

1. Organize a film screening
Consider hosting a film. For more info or for suggestions contact us at iawinfo@apartheidweek.org

2. Arrange a lecture, workshop, rally or protest
There are many speakers ranging from academics, politicians, trade unionists and cultural activists that we can suggest for you to host. Be in touch with us and we can put you in contact.

3. Organize a BDS action
Organize with others a practical boycott of Israel action or have a boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) motion tabled at your relevant student council, trade union branch or municipality. If you are already working on a BDS campaign, Israeli Apartheid Week can be a great opportunity to build that campaign and bring it to a wider audience.

4. Join us online – #apartheidweek
Help us spread the word online about Israeli Apartheid Week. Follow Israeli Apartheid Week on Twitter and Facebook, including using the hashtag #apartheidweek.

5. Be creative
Be creative! Draw attention to Israeli apartheid by erecting a mock Israeli Apartheid Wall or Checkpoint, organising a flash mob or creative demonstration or by holding a concert or poetry reading.

Fundraising call for ISM

Season’s greetings friends!

As the holidays fast approach, The International Solidarity Movement comes close to the end of its 13th year standing in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Every year brings new challenges under a ruthless occupation of the West Bank and an unrelenting siege of the Gaza strip, but volunteers with The ISM continue to rise to the challenge with the brave farmers, fishermen, and organizers that struggle for dignity and a free Palestine. All of our work would not be possible without the support of individuals like you!

This year ISM has seen many changes. We expanded our work in Gaza, recently launched a new website and began publishing a weekly digest that makes our work more accessible to our supporters. No matter what the changes, we remain dedicated to supporting the Palestinian popular resistance and bearing witness to the crimes against humanity carried out by Israel.

Throughout 2012 we stood with Palestinians in the West Bank against unremitting settlement expansion, attacks and Israeli army violence. We acted as a presence in high-risk areas, such as the H2 (Israeli Army controlled) section of Hebron, and in firing zone 918 in the South Hebron Hills, where eight villages are in eminent danger of demolition. We worked closely with many villages in the Nablus region, taking part in the olive harvest for the 12th year by assisting farmers in areas where they are often attacked or refused the right to enter their fields. We also continued the tradition of joining Palestinian communities each Friday in popular demonstrations against the theft of their lands and water resources in the villages of Bil’in, Kafr Qaddum, Nabi Saleh, Nil’in and Al Masara.

In Gaza, we aided farmers and fishermen as they tried to make a living under the constant threat of Israeli gunfire. Our volunteers documented the ever-worsening sewage and water crisis, ongoing struggles by the families of prisoners, and the continuing violence of the Israeli army. We actively supported Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), public information, and direct action campaigns, among other efforts to challenge Israeli apartheid, colonization and occupation, including the crippling siege, now in its seventh year.

In 2014, we hope to improve our work even more, dedicated to the vision of a Palestine without occupation, displacement, and siege. We will face new challenges, as the occupation is ever-evolving, but your donation makes sure our work continues. Since we began, ISM has depended on donations from individuals like you to be able to stand alongside Palestinians as part of their resistance. Now, more than ever, we can use your help to make sure that we can stand with and document courage in the face of Israeli Apartheid.

We are a dedicated non-violent movement, and you can be sure that your money is going directly to help us continue our work. Please go to our webpage and make a donation. If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation in the U.S., please donate through ISM-USA’s fiscal sponsor: A.J. Muste Memorial Institute online via JustGive or Network for Good (designate your donation for “ISM-USA”). Donations made through the Muste Institute’s sponsorship go to support ISM’s educational and organizing work in accordance with 501(c)(3) rules.

In Solidarity,

ISM Palestine

Join Palestinians on November 30th to protest against the Prawer plan

10th November 2013 | Prawer Won’t Pass Campaign | Occupied Palestine

On 24th of June, the Israeli Knesset approved the Prawer-Begin plan, which if implemented will result in the destruction of more than 35 unrecognized villages in Al-Naqab and the forced expulsion and confinement of more than 70,000 Palestinian Bedouins. The Prawer plan is the largest Israeli land-grab since 1948. It epitomizes the nature of Israel’s policy; Israeli-Jewish demographic expansion and Palestinian-Arab demographic containment.

The International community has repeatedly called on Israel to halt the implementation of the Prawer Plan due to its discriminatory nature and the severe infringement it causes on the rights of Palestinian Bedouins in Al-Naqab. The UN committee on the elimination of Racial Discrimination called on Israel to withdraw the proposed legislation of the Prawer Plan. Also, in 2012, the European Parliament passed a resolution calling on Israel to stop the Prawer plan and its policies of forced displacement and dispossession.

Injustice, humiliation and forced displacement are a recurring theme in Palestine’s history. This is lesson that we as a group of youth take to the heart. We will oppose, resist and work against the continuous assault that our communities, across Palestine face. Therefore, we launched the “Prawer will not pass” campaign with an eye to preventing this plan to be yet another chapter in Palestine’s long and tragic history.

Opposing the Prawer Plan is to oppose ethnic cleansing, displacement and confinement in the 21st century.

Join us by organizing marches, protests, sending letters to those with positions of influence in your country or community, by doing whatever you can, in order to force Israel to stop the Prawer plan.

Join us on the 30th of November in saying “Prawer shall not Pass”.

For more information, please contact:
Email: PrawerWontPass@gmail.com

Tell your MEPs to support the new guidelines on Israel’s participation in EU programs

12th October 2013 | European Coordination Committee for Palestine | Brussels, Belgium

In July 2013, the European Commission announced new guidelines that aim to prevent Israeli projects in illegal Israeli settlements from receiving research grant funding and prevent Israeli companies and institutions that operate inside illegal Israeli settlements from participating in financial instruments such as loans. The new guidelines were broadly welcomed by Palestinian and European civil society organisations.

But now Israel and its supporters are pressuring the EU to drop the new guidelines. There is a very real risk that the Commission will cave in to Israeli pressure and decide to continue the funding of, and support for, Israeli projects and organisations based in occupied Palestinian Territory. This would send a dangerous message that the EU lacks the political will to pressure Israel to end its war crimes and comply with international law.

Please use our simple e-tool to send a message to your members of the European Parliament and ask them to take action to support the new guidelines and make sure that the EU stops funding Israeli war crimes.

Take Action! Send this message to your members of the European Parliament!

Click on your country to find your MEPs.

AUSTRIA / BELGIUM (DUTCH / FRENCH) / CZECH REPUBLIC / DENMARK / FINLAND / FRANCE / GERMANY /IRELAND / ITALY / LUXEMBOURG / NETHERLANDS / POLAND / SLOVAKIA / SLOVENIA / SPAIN / SWEDEN /UNITED KINGDOM

Call to action: Join ISM for the 2013 Olive Harvest Campaign

22nd August 2013 | International Solidarity Movement | Occupied West Bank

olive-harvest14 — Israeli soldier stands next to Palestinian farmers harvesting their olives

At a time of regular settler violence in the West Bank, the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) is issuing an urgent call for volunteers to join us for the 2013 Olive Harvest Campaign at the invitation of Palestinian communities.

The olive tree is a national symbol for Palestinians. As thousands of olive trees have been bulldozed, uprooted, burned and destroyed by Israeli settlers and the military – according to the UN settlers alone destroyed or damaged over 7,500 trees just in 2012 – harvesting has become more than a source of livelihood; it has become a form of resistance.

The olive harvest is an annual affirmation of Palestinians’ historical, spiritual, and economic connection to their land, and a rejection of Israeli efforts to seize it. Despite attempts by Israeli settlers and soldiers to prevent them from accessing their land, Palestinian communities have remained steadfast in refusing to give up their olive harvest.

ISM volunteers join Palestinian farming communities each year to harvest olives, in areas where Palestinians face settler and military violence when working their land. Your presence can make a big difference, with Palestinian communities stating that the presence of international volunteers reduces the risk of extreme violence from Israeli settlers and the Israeli army.

We support Palestinians’ assertion of their right to earn their livelihoods and be present on their lands. International solidarity activists engage in non-violent intervention and documentation, practical support which enables many families to pick their olives.

The campaign will begin mid October and will last around 5-7 weeks. We request a minimum 2 week commitment from volunteers but stress that long-termers are needed as well. We ask that volunteers start arriving in the first week of October, so that we will be prepared when the harvest begins.

Training

The ISM will be holding mandatory two day training sessions which will run weekly on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Please see the join ISM page or contact palreports@gmail.com for further information.

In addition to the Olive Harvest Campaign, volunteers can also participate in regular ISM activities in support of the Palestinian popular struggle.

Join us in our solidarity with the Palestinian resistance at this crucial time of year!

In Solidarity,

ISM Palestine