Stopping us is their No. 1 goal
- Details
- Published on Thursday, 31 March 2016 09:45
- Written by editor
There’s no real surprise that the opposition is trying to shut down our very right to organize, and we are going to need to show up in unprecedented ways to defeat it.
We're launching a national strategy to fight attacks on our right to boycott -- but we can't do it without you.
. CHIP IN . . .Last week ended with a surge. G4S, the world’s biggest security company, announced plans to sell their Israeli business and US/UK youth detention services; settlement cosmetics company Ahava said they will finally leave the Occupied West Bank; and our global coalition delivered over 140,000 signatures to Airbnb headquarters in cities around the world.
This momentum makes one thing clear: organizing works.
So there’s no real surprise that the opposition is trying to shut down our very right to organize, and we are going to need to show up in unprecedented ways to defeat it.
The pro-Occupation right is panicking, and it’s a direct response to the growing power of our movement. In the streets, on college campuses, in churches and in union halls, we’re building power. And AIPAC can’t stand it. So flush with money, they’re leading a legislative strategy that has real potential to damage our movement and stall all the momentum we are gaining.
AIPAC is meeting in Washington next week, hosting politicians desperate to pander to them - including Netanyahu, Clinton, and Trump. And here’s their strategy: pro-Occupation organizations are working together to identify legislators in statehouses across the country who want to score cheap political points. Those legislators -- some motivated by Islamophobic hatred, some by pressure from pro-Occupation donors, and some who just don’t know the first thing about Israel and Palestine -- are gearing up to vote to ram through anti-BDS legislation. And AIPAC is pushing similar legislation at the Federal level even as I write this.
Plain and simple: They’ve made shutting down our movement their #1 priority.
But we have the roots to weather this storm. Here are some of the ways we are going to fight:
- Stay a step ahead. We are working with our coalition partners at the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation and Palestine Legal to monitor and track these bills, and to provide up-to-the-minute updates on their progress.
- Lift up the real stories of the movement. From editorial pages to billboards, from Ramallah to Rhode Island, we will fight back by lifting up the powerful human stories of Palestinians and those of us in solidarity fighting for justice.
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Remind legislators how to be brave. There are courageous legislators defending free speech, in DC and in state legislatures across the country. We need your help to publicize their courage so that other legislators know they aren’t alone in resisting.
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Organize, organize, organize. To beat these bills, local coalitions are mobilizing day and night: testifying in committee hearings, flooding offices with emails, organizing call in days, setting up lobbying meetings, writing letters to the editor, hosting educational workshops, and building relationships with new political allies.
Our chapters, rabbis, students, and academics have been fighting these bills with local coalition partners in every corner of the country, and we’ve been working flat out to support those local fights -- and the federal ones too. But we can’t fight these bills one at a time against such powerful political forces.
So we’re launching a national strategy to fight these bills wherever they crop up, and make sure legislators know there’s a real cost to stifling free speech and defending Israeli apartheid.
This is all going to kick off next week. During AIPAC’s conference, we’re going to take the fight to them on their own turf, and take our message to state capitols across the U.S. too.
We’re going to fight back and fight back hard, but if we’re going to do that, we need your help.
We’ve reserved billboard trucks -- they’ll be circling the AIPAC conference next week, and then state legislatures in California, Ohio, and New York when they vote on anti-BDS legislation. AIPAC might think they own DC, but we’re the ones with a national grassroots movement.
Please chip in now to help us get our ads on these trucks, and these trucks on the road, this week.
Every state is different. Every alliance requires new learning. Every journalist has their own questions. We need your help to offer financial support so we can rise to each part of this occasion.
We won’t win every single one these policy fights -- at least not today. But the days of a bipartisan consensus in support of Israel’s human rights abuses is falling apart. The days of silence in the face of apartheid are over. Our movement is everywhere -- JVP has supporters in all 50 states, and all 435 Congressional districts. We’re going to keep launching campaigns, and we’re going to keep winning. We’re going to keep boycotting Israel, and convincing businesses, colleges, and faith groups to do the same -- no matter what AIPAC tells state legislatures to say. We’re going to carry on calling out those Jewish institutions that would rather stifle free speech than question Israeli policy.
And we’re going to carry on celebrating when we make real change happen.
Onwards,
Stefanie
Stefanie Fox
Deputy Director
P.S. Check out the site we launched with the RightToBoycott coalition for more information about these critical fights!
Jewish Voice for Peace is a national membership organization inspired by Jewish tradition to work for the freedom, equality, and dignity of all the people of Israel and Palestine. Become a JVP Member today.
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