25 July, New Jersey/NYC: #BlockTheBoat – Mass Picket to Stop Apartheid Israel Zim Ship

19 July 2021

Sunday, 25 July
6 am (updates TBA – subscribe for text alerts!)
Maher Terminal
1210 Corbin St
Elizabeth, NJ
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/500776417869221/

Alert: Ship schedules can change at the last minute. Please sign up for text updates. To sign up for SMS updates, text your name to 833-320-1973

The #BlockTheBoat NY-NJ Coalition is returning to Maher Terminal after leading the first ever Palestine protest at the Port of New York and New Jersey last month.

Join us as we mobilize for another community picket line to let ZIM – apartheid Israel’s largest shipping company – know that they are NOT welcome in New York and New Jersey.

In the spirit of honoring this show of militant solidarity and building upon the rich ties of internationalism that have long existed at the core of the global struggle for Palestine, our #BlockTheBoat picket line on 7/25 will also be one of the kick off events for Globalize The Intifada-NYC.

Vancouver “Boycott Tour” protest marches for justice and liberation in Palestine

19 July 2021

Demonstrators gathered in Vancouver, on the unceded lands of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) peoples, on Sunday, 18 July for a “Boycott Tour” march for Palestine throughout the city’s downtown. The protest began outside the offices of ZIM Shipping, the oldest and largest Israeli shipping company that transports weapons to and from occupied Palestine while profiteering from colonized Palestinian land and labor.

The company has been targeted in a series of #BlockTheBoat actions, including a June protest in Vancouver as well as a blockade in Oakland that has kept ZIM out of their port for years, led by the Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC).

Workers represented by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) refused to cross the community picket line to unload the ship in Oakland, and the same ship was later delayed for days in Prince Rupert, northern BC, as workers also declined to cross a community picket line despite threats of on-the-job sanctions.

Protests have taken place in New York/New Jersey, Houston, Seattle and Los Angeles against ZIM shipping, while dockworkers in South Africa and Italy have refused to unload Israeli cargo. This protest highlighted once again ZIM’s active role in Israeli colonization, occupation and apartheid.

Speakers representing the Canada Palestine Association, Palestinian Youth Movement, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, BDS Vancouver – Coast Salish Territories, BAYAN Canada and Queers Against Israeli Apartheid Vancouver demanded that ZIM no longer be welcome in the Port of Vancouver.

The rally was emceed by Dalya al-Masri of the Palestinian Youth Movement, who urged participants to get involved and stay involved in building the movement for Palestinian liberation, not only at protest actions but through ongoing organization. Hanna Kawas of the Canada Palestine Association underlined the responsibility of the Canadian government for the ongoing war crimes in Palestine, emphasizing that people will take action at the ballot box to hold complicit officials accountable.

Nelli of BAYAN Canada emphasized the commonality of the struggles for liberation in Palestine and the Philippines, linking anti-imperialist movements, and Amal of Queers Against Israeli Apartheid Vancouver spoke about Palestine as an intersectional issue, highlighting the involvement of youth of colour in standing with Palestine and resisting Canadian settler colonialism.

Charlotte Kates, international coordinator of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, spoke about the case of Khalida Jarrar, Palestinian feminist, leader and imprisoned justice activist, who was denied attending her daughter Suha’s funeral just last week by the Israeli occupation, urging freedom for Jarrar and all Palestinian prisoners. She also highlighted the case of Eyad Hraibat, Palestinian prisoner in a coma who has been subjected to severe medical neglect and mistreatment, calling for an end to medical oppression and injustice in occupied Palestine and urging boycott action to free Palestinian prisoners.

After rallying outside the ZIM offices and covering the stairs in chalked slogans demanding justice for Palestine and calling for a boycott of ZIM, demonstrators continued the Boycott Tour by marching to a BC Liquor Store, the government-owned and -operated liquor stores that sell, among other products, Israeli wines made in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights and the West Bank of occupied Palestine in illegal colonial settlements.

Aiyanas Ormond of BDS Vancouver-Coast Salish and ILPS Canada emphasized, “This liquor store is the site of an ongoing war crime!” Speakers distributed information to passers-by, urging people to contact the BC government and specifically Finance Minister Selina Robinson to end the BC Liquor Stores’ complicity in Israeli war crimes.

The protest then proceeded through the center of downtown Vancouver, chanting enthusiastically and marching down the busy shopping streets of Robson and Granville before arriving at the London Drugs, a major drug and department store that sells, among other products of apartheid, Teva pharmaceuticals, SodaStream devices and HP technology.

Hanna Kawas returned to highlight these complicit companies, including Teva, Israel’s largest pharmaceutical corporation, which pours millions into Israeli government tax coffers each year; SodaStream, which manufactures its devices on occupied Palestinian Bedouin land in the Naqab; and HP, which has multiple contracts with the Israeli occupation to help it administer apartheid, including its ID card system and prison system databases.

The protest concluded with enthusiastic calls to action and to keep organizing for justice and liberation in Palestine, from the river to the sea.

18 July, Vancouver: BOYCOTT TOUR: Come out for Palestine – Boycott ZIM Shipping, Israeli Wine, HP and more!

15 July 2021

Sunday, 18 July
2:00 pm
Gather at ZIM Shipping Office Vancouver
1130 W Pender St (near Pender and Thurlow)
Vancouver, BC
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/4765266150154912

Come out on Sunday, July 18 for a BOYCOTT TOUR for Palestine in downtown Vancouver! We will gather first at the ZIM Shipping offices in Vancouver to protest ZIM, apartheid Israel’s oldest and largest shipping company. ZIM is the target of the global #BlockTheBoat campaign and this protest is in solidarity with workers around the world (and in Prince Rupert) who have respected community pickets and/or themselves refused to handle ZIM’s cargo profiteering from Israeli occupation.

We will then go to the BC Liquor Store to protest the sale of Israeli wines, made on stolen and illegally occupied Palestinian and Syrian land in the West Bank and Golan Heights. The Boycott Tour will proceed to highlight other corporations complicit in Israeli war crimes and colonialism, from HP to Teva to SodaStream.

Bring your banners, chalk, signs and creative love for Palestine!

This event is taking place on the unceded and occupied territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) peoples. The organizers stand in full solidarity and support of Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination and with the ongoing movements to defend land, water and Indigenous peoples from plunder and settler colonialism.

Event organized by the Vancouver #BlockTheBoat organizers
BAYAN Canada
BDS Vancouver – Coast Salish
Canada Palestine Association
Independent Jewish Voices Vancouver
ILPS Canada
Queers Against Israeli Apartheid Vancouver
Palestinian Youth Movement
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
Youth for Palestine Canada

This event is in support of the global #BlockTheBoat movement organized by AROC – Arab Resource and Organizing Center.
https://blocktheboat.org/

Imprisoned Palestinian leader Khalida Jarrar writes new letter: Write to Khalida and call for her freedom

15 July 2021

Khalida Jarrar, the imprisoned Palestinian political leader, feminist and parliamentarian, jailed by the Israeli occupation for her political activity, issued a new letter to her daughter Suha, who died on Sunday, 11 July of a heart attack at the age of 30.

Despite worldwide outrage and condemnation and considering that Jarrar has only two months remaining in her sentence imposed by an Israeli military court for her public political work to advance Palestinian rights and liberation, her lawyers’ appeals for early release were denied by the Israeli occupation. She was not even allowed a furlough or to see her daughter’s body by transferring it to the prison before Suha was buried in a mass funeral on Tuesday, 13 July. Suha Jarrar was herself a Palestinian human rights defender who worked with Al-Haq and spoke around the world about Palestinian rights and the Palestinia freedom struggle.

Jarrar’s first letter to Suha, read aloud at the funeral, was widely distributed in its original Arabic and translated into multiple languages. Her new letter, to her husband Ghassan, and her daughter Yafa, extends support to her loved ones from behind the bars of Damon prison where she is jailed with 40 fellow Palestinian women prisoners.

The text of the letter follows:

“Suha was born into this world while her father was imprisoned, and now she is departing this world while her mother is imprisoned. This is an intense and encapsulated human summary of the life of the Palestinian who loves life, hope and freedom and hates subordination and colonialism. This occupation robs us of everything, even the oxygen we breathe. I must bid my dear Suha farewell with a rose grown in the soil of the homeland: Rest in peace, soaring bird of my heart.

As for you, Yafa, my second bird, I love you with every beat of my heart as I loved the sister of your soul, Suha, so be strong so that I may draw my strength from you.

And I say to Ghassan, be strong, take care of yourself and of Yafa, and do not worry for me. I say to all of you, give Suha everything she deserves, talk about her, her character and her beauty, and plant an olive tree beside her grave so that its branches may always give her shade. I love you.”

Palestinians and supporters of Palestine inside Palestine and around the world are rallying for Jarrar’s immediate release from Israeli prisons. On Wednesday, 14 July, Palestinian community organizations in Berlin organized a protest to call for freedom for Khalida Jarrar and her fellow Palestinian prisoners, and members of Samidoun Deutschland attended and participated in the event.

In France, activists protested along the route of the Tour de France for the boycott of Israel and against the participation of the so-called “Israel Start-Up Nation” team. Organizers with Collectif Palestine Vaincra, a member organization of the Samidoun Network, and other organizations, carried signs and took solidarity photos for Jarrar’s release.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network continues to urge friends of Palestine around the world to act to demand the immediate release of Khalida Jarrar and her fellow Palestinian prisoners.

Take action to support Khalida Jarrar:

Write letters of condolence, solidarity and support to Khalida Jarrar!

Send a postcard or letter to Khalida in Damon prison. Khalida should feel the love and support from everyone around the world who stands with her in this moment of tragedy and injustice. Write your letter and send it with appropriate international postage (With a stamp of 1.5 euros if sent from Europe, $1.20 from the USA, and $2.60 from Canada.)

to:

Khalida Jarrar
Damon Prison
PO Box 98
Daliat El-Carmel
Israel

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/p/human-rights-campaign-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AD%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%84%D8%AE%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AF%D8%A9-%D8%AC%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%B1

Sign the petition to demand Khalida’s immediate release.

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

Are you in Canada? Write to the Canadian government to demand Khalida’s immediate release.

This petition addresses the United Nations and calls on human rights organizations like Amnesty International to take a stand for Khalida’s immediate freedom.

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.

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!

Protest confronts Israeli apartheid cycling “ambassadors” at the Tour de France 2021

15 July 2021

On Wednesday, 14 July, in Boussan, on the 17th stage of the Tour de France international cycling race, approximately 20 people from Collectif Palestine Vaincra – a member organization of the Samidoun Network – the Campaign BDS Toulouse, and the Friends of Le Monde Diplomatique rallied along the route of the race to denounce the participation of the “Israel Start-Up Nation” team, a cycling team designed to whitewash the image of Israeli apartheid internationally, serving as “ambassadors” of Zionist colonialism.

Making themselves widely seen and heard by the participants and organizers, the demonstrators brought multiple banners, placards and a massive Palestinian flag, chanting slogans like “Israel assassin, Tour de France complice!”

https://twitter.com/CollectifPV/status/1415279105348620290

The Collectif Palestine Vaincra said that “The participation of an Israeli team in the Tour de France provides international support for colonialism and for the criminal practices of the Zionist state towards the Palestinian people.” A member of the Collectif from Gaza said, “When a Zionist team participates in an event like the Tour de France, it is providing support for the settler-colonial project and the theft of Palestinian land.”

This demonstration of solidarity with Palestine was also an occasion to demand the immediate release of Palestinian prisoners, particularly Georges Abdallah and Khalida Jarrar.

A Palestinian leftist, feminist and political leader, a representative of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, she is imprisoned by the Israeli occupation for her political activities in support of justice and liberation for Palestine.

She was denied early release on 12 July after the tragic death of her daughter, Suha, and Suha was buried without the presence of her mother despite widespread outrage. All of the participants in the event took solidarity photos to demand her immediate release.

Since the launch of the Tour de France with the presence of the “Israel Start-Up Nation” team, a wide-ranging and diverse mobilization has taken place along the route of the biggest cycling race in the world to denounce its promotion of colonialism, racism and apartheid. Let us intensiffy the mobilization everywhere to boycott Israel and support the Palestinian resistance!

Original source in French: Collectif Palestine Vaincra

Dozens of Palestinian students mass arrested after visiting home demolished by Israel #FreePalestinianStudents

15 July 2021

On Wednesday, 14 July, 45 Palestinian Bir Zeit University students were subjected to a mass arrest after they went to meet with the family of Palestinian prisoner Montasser Shalabi and express their solidarity following the Israeli occupation military’s demolition of the Shalabi home in the village of Turmus’Ayya.

As the students left Turmus’Ayya in a chartered bus, undercover occupation forces in two vehicles blocked the bus at the entrance to the town, forcing the students to leave the bus, tying their hands, blindfolding them, making them sit or lay on the ground and then seized them, taking them to the Binyamin occupation military camp. The chartered bus was itself confiscated.

After several hours of detention, the women students were released, but the Israeli occupation forces have continued to detain 30 male students, who are still being held in the Binyamin camp. At least two of the students were severely beaten.

Bir Zeit University issued a statement on the students’ arrest by Israeli colonialists: “Bir Zeit University is following with concern the issue of the detention of a group of university students at the entrance to the village of Turmus’Ayya, where the Israeli occupation forces attacked them and detained the vehicle they were traveling in, to arrest them and later transfer them in a private vehicle from the entrance to the village to a different destination The university believes that the policies adopted by the Israeli occupation are a violation of all international laws and norms that guarantee students’ right of movement, and a violation of all international standards that protect their dignity and freedom.”

Students at the university protested today, Thursday, 15 July, demanding the release of their detained colleagues:

The solidarity delegation to the Shalabi home was organized by the Islamic Bloc and other student frameworks at Bir Zeit University, who, like students at other Palestinian universities, are subjected to constant repression. At Bir Zeit University alone, approximately 74 students were detained by occupation soldiers during the 2019-2020 academic year. The work of student organizing, from holding book fairs to organizing events and participating in student elections, is criminalized by the Israeli occupation. Still more students are detained for joining demonstrations or posting on their social media profiles.

One of the most common charges Palestinian students face in Israeli military courts is “membership in a prohibited organization,” typically referring to the student blocs. These represent the full spectrum of Palestinian politics. They organize lectures, book fairs, rallies and other campus events and participate in student elections. The charge sheets often refer to these standard activities of campus life, which are widely interpreted as a barometer for broader Palestinian political opinion.

Even the United States embassy to the Israeli occupation, based in the occupied Palestinian capital of Jerusalem, condemned Israel’s demolition of Montasser Shalabi’s home. Shalabi, a Palestinian-American man, is imprisoned by the Israeli occupation and accused of carrying out an armed attack on Israeli colonial settlers in the occupied West Bank in May. The demolition of Palestinian homes, leaving entire families homeless – in this case, Shalabi’s wife and children, who are also U.S. citizens – is an illegal policy of collective punishment targeting entire families and is routinely used by the Israeli occupation against the families of imprisoned or killed Palestinians.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network demands the immediate release of the detained Palestinian students and urges all friends of justice in Palestine to join the #FreePalestinianStudents campaign. This campaign brings organizations together in a global call to urge the immediate freedom of imprisoned Palestinian students and the protection of Palestinian students’ right to education, right to political expression and involvement and right to determine their own futures. The Israeli occupation has targeted Palestinian students and, specifically, the Palestinian student movement and Palestinian student organizations for harsh repression and political detention and imprisonment.

We join together to call for action and support for Palestinian students behind bars, including:

Boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel, including Israeli academic institutions, which are fully complicit in the systematic deprivation of Palestinian rights.
Ending all military and economic aid, military transactions, joint projects and direct funding to the Israeli occupation regime by governments around the world.
Challenging “normalization” programs that aim to legitimize Israeli occupation — this is an attempt to legitimize the criminalization and targeting of Palestinian students.
Organizing to build direct links of solidarity with Palestinian students and the Palestinian student movement, to ensure that they will not be isolated from their global community of support despite all attempts by the Israeli occupation.

For the full campaign statement, resources, posters, photos and more, including translations in eight languages, please visit: https://freepalestinianstudents.org/

Add your organization’s name to this statement: http://bit.ly/palstudentsignon

15 July, New York City: Hands Off Cuba!

14 July 2021

Thursday, 15 July
5 pm
South Side Union Square
New York City

New York says: Hands off Cuba! Manos fuera de Cuba!

Join us to demand an immediate end to the genocidal US blockade on Cuba and all regime change efforts by the United States.

Organized by the New York Young Communist League

Endorsed by:

New York – New Jersey Cuba Si Coalition
Alberto Lovera Bolivarian Circle of New York
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network

Contact the YCL to add your name: newyorkycl@gmail.com.

Khalida Jarrar’s letter from Damon Prison on the tragic death of her daughter Suha

13 July 2021

Khalida Jarrar, the imprisoned Palestinian feminist, leftist and parliamentarian, a Palestinian national leader and prominent representative of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, issued the statement below from her prison cell in Damon Prison on Tuesday, 13 July, mourning her daughter Suha.

Khalida Jarrar was denied early release or even furlough to attend her daughter’s funeral by the Israeli occupation. Suha, 30, died tragically of a heart attack on Sunday, 11 July. Hundreds of Palestinians joined in her funeral procession in Ramallah.

Letter of Khalida Jarrar from Damon Prison, Haifa, occupied Palestine, 13 July 2021

I am in so much pain, my child, only because I miss you.

From the depths of my agony, I reached out and embraced the sky of our homeland through the window of my prison cell in Damon Prison, Haifa. Worry not, my child. I stand tall and steadfast, despite the shackles and the jailer. I am a mother in sorrow, from yearning to see you one last time.

This doesn’t happen except in Palestine. All I wanted was to bid my daughter a final farewell, with a kiss on her forehead and to tell her I love her as much as I love Palestine. My daughter, forgive me for not attending the celebration of your life, that I was not beside you during this heartbreaking and final moment. My heart has reached the heights of the sky yearning to see you, to caress and plant a kiss on your forehead through the small window of my prison cell.

Suha, my precious. They have stripped me from bidding you a final goodbye kiss, so I bid you farewell with a flower. Your absence is searingly painful, excruciatingly painful. But I remain steadfast and strong, like the mountains of beloved Palestine.

الأسيرة الأم خالدة جرار “أم يافا”
١٣ تمّوز ٢٠٢١:
موجوعة يا ماما بس لأنّي مشتاقة
موجوعة يا ماما بس لأنّي مشتاقة
من قوة هذا الوجع، عانقتُ سماء هذا الوطن من خلال نافذة زنزانتي في قلعة الدامون/ حيفا. أنا شامخة وصابرة، رغم القيد والسجّان. أنا الأم الموجوعة من الاشتياق. لا يحصل هذا كلّه إلّا في فلسطين. فقط أردتُ أن أودّع ابنتي بقبلةٍ على جبينها، وأقول لها أُحبّك بحجم حبّي لفلسطين. اعذريني يا ابنتي لأنّي لم أكُن في عرسك، لم أكُن بقربك في هذا الموقف الإنساني الصعب والمؤلم. ولكنّ قلبي وصل عنان السماء اشتياقاً، لامَس جسدك وطبَع قبلةً على جبينك من خلال نافذتي في قلعة الدامون.
سهى غاليتي..
حرموني من وداعك بقبلة، أودّعك بوردة. فراقك موجع، موجع.. ولكنّي قوية كقوة جبال وطني الحبيب.

My mom Khalida Jarrar’s letter from her cell in Damon prison, Haifa. Read at my sister Suha’s funeral this morning. #FreeKhalidaJarrar pic.twitter.com/fvSplg4jmo

— Yafa Jarrar (@YafaJarrar) July 13, 2021

Immediate actions:

This latest attack on Jarrar and her family came as thousands of people around the world have signed a petition, demanded their governments take action and expressed their outrage at the ongoing repression directed at Khalida Jarrar and her family, even at a moment of great tragedy. Suha Ghassan Jarrar, 30, was a committed Palestinian human rights defender who worked with Al-Haq and spoke around the world, defending and upholding Palestinian rights and liberation.

We mourn the loss of Suha Jarrar and express our deepest condolences to Khalida, Ghassan and Yafa Jarrar. We urge all supporters of Palestine to amplify and intensify the international call to demand freedom for Khalida Jarrar.