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6 April, Philadelphia: Rally to Join the Cultural Boycott and End Israeli Apartheid

Friday, 6 April
4:00 pm
300 S. Broad St
Philadelphia, PA
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/189577875157380/

As Israeli snipers kill unarmed Palestinians in Gaza protesting 11 years of total blockade and 70 years of occupation, over 100 musicians, artists, writers, scholars, union members activists and 30 social justice organizations are calling on the Philadelphia Orchestra to CANCEL ITS ISRAEL TOUR!

Press Conference and Rally in front of the Kimmel Center

Despite Israel’s decades-long suppression of Palestinian voices and Palestinian human rights, the Philadelphia Orchestra plans to perform in Israel in June, claiming that their performance in Israel is “cultural diplomacy,” not “a political mission.” Their statement is undermined by their own admission that the trip is “in celebration of its [Israel’s] 70th anniversary” and by their close collaboration with Israeli government officials, before the trip and in the planned itinerary.

Palestinian civil society, inspired by the global cultural boycott that helped end Apartheid in South Africa, has called on international cultural institutions not to perform in Israel as a popular non-violent means of helping to end Israel’s illegal occupation and apartheid policies.

You can add your name/organization on a letter to Philadelphia Orchestra at Phillybds.org, demanding:

Philadelphia Orchestra: DON’T PLAY WITH ISRAELI APARTHEID!

Gaza is the world’s largest open-air prison, where nearly 2 million people are kept under siege, denied the right to medical care, education, drinking water and electricity. Most people in Gaza are the children and grandchildren of refugees driven off their land a few miles away, in what are now Israeli cities and resort towns like Tel Aviv and Herzliya.

The current protests against Israeli-imposed dire conditions and 70 years of theft of land by Zionist settlers have led to shockingly excessive force, outright assassinations resulting in 18 deaths and many scores of injuries to Palestinians.

Israel receives more than $3 billion in annual direct military aid from the US, nearly three times as much as the next highest recipient, and billions more by other means. That is why we demand:
Join the Cultural Boycott & End Israeli Apartheid
Visit us at https://www.facebook.com/phillydontorchestrateapartheid/

27 April, Berlin: Decolonise Palestine – Stop Apartheid!

Friday, 27 April
8:00 pm
Stadtteilladen Zielona Gora
Grünberger Str. 73
Berlin
Facebook: http://palaestina-solidaritaet.de/2018/03/30/berlin-fr-27-04-decolonise-palestine-stop-apartheid/

On the current struggle of the revolutionary Palestinian liberation movement, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and why revolutionaries support the worldwide boycott campaign, BDS.

Speaker: Khaled Barakat (Palestinian writer, of the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat)

With a slideshow and screening of clips from “Roadmap to Apartheid”

“Wherever there is colonialism, oppression and violence, resistance will gain strength. You are resisting. You are the voice of those who resist colonialism. I greet you on behalf of the fighting Palestinian people.” (Leila Khaled, HDP Congress in Ankara, 11th March 2018)

“Refusing to buy products in a store or cancelling a corporate contract will not liberate Palestine. Nothing but the Palestinian struggle and resistance in all of its forms, from refusing the orders of an occupation soldier to marching in protests to armed struggle, will liberate Palestine. But the international movement of people of conscience can help significantly to change the balance of power in favour of the Palestinian people to achieve justice, despite a powerful opponent.” (Leila Khaled, BDS South Africa Tour, 2015)

Organized by Internationalistischer Abend

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ber den aktuellen Kampf der revolutionären palästinensischen Befreiungsbewegung PFLP und warum Revolutionäre die weltweite Boykott-Kampagne BDS unterstützen.

Referent: Khaled Barakat (Palästinensicher Schriftsteller und Kampagne Free Ahmad Sa’adat)

mit Diashow & Videoclips aus „Roadmap to Apartheid“

Ort: Stadtteilladen Zielona Góra, Grünberger Str. 73, Berlin-Fhain.

Zeit: Freitag, den 27.04.2018 um 20:00 Uhr

Um die internationale BDS-Kampagne (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) zu diffamieren, wird immer wieder eine Unterwanderung durch Revolutionäre wie der PFLP oder „linksradikale Anarcho-Kommunist_innen aus Europa“ herbeifabuliert.

■ Doch wer ist die 1968 gegründete revolutionäre linke Befreiungsbewegung PFLP und was macht sie aktuell?
■ Und was bringt es, eine eher bürgerliche Boykott-Kampagne zu unterstützen?
■ Um was geht es bei den aktuellen BDS-Kampagnen?

„Wherever there is colonialism, oppression and violence, resistance will gain strength. You are resisting. You are the voice of those who resist colonialism. I greet you on behalf of the fighting Palestinian people.“ (Leila Khaled, HDP-Kongress in Ankara, 11th March 2018)

„Refusing to buy products in a store or cancelling a corporate contract will not liberate Palestine. Nothing but the Palestinian struggle and resistance in all of its forms, from refusing the orders of an occupation soldier to marching in protests to armed struggle, will liberate Palestine.
But the international movement of people of conscience can help significantly to change the balance of power in favour of the Palestinian people to achieve justice, despite a powerful opponent.“
 (Leila Khaled, BDS Süd-Afrika Tour, 2015)F

7 April, Nice: Demonstration in Support of the March of Return in Palestine

Saturday 7 April
3:00 pm
Place Garibaldi
Nice, France

Come out to stand for Palestinians under attack after the Israeli massacre in Gaza! Support Palestinians’ right to return.

Palestina på vägen mot återvändo och befrielse: Massakern på Jordens dag och #GreatReturnMarch

Skicka dina arrangemang och aktioner med koppling till massakern på Jordens dag eller Palestinska fångars dagtill Samidoun på samidoun@samidoun.net, på Facebook eller genom formuläret. Samidoun publicerar en internationell lista på arrangemang och aktioner som uppdateras regelbundet, se listan på arrangemang.

Translation by Frihet åt Ahed Tamimi Göteborg

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Landets martyrer och hemvändandets fångar: En uppmaning till handling för befrielse på Palestinska fångars dag

Den 30:e mars, Jordens dag, skrevs först in i palestinsk historia 1976, då ett folkligt massuppror i ockuperade Palestina 1948 konfronterade den bosättarkoloniala sioniststatens beslagtagande och expropriering av land.

Den dagen 1976 mördades sex palestinier när de deltog i en generalstrejk mot den utdragna Nakba, 30 år av förtryck och fördrivning. Deras namn har blivit outplånliga ur den palestinska historien och ur alla kämpandes historia världen över – Kheir Mohammad Salim Yasin, Khadija Qasem Shawahneh, Raja Hussein Abu Rayya, Khader Eid Mahmoud Khalayleh, Muhsin Hasan Said Taha och Raafat Ali Al-Zheiri – nedskjutna medan de tågade för att försvara sitt land.

Idag, i det belägrade Gaza, ockuperade Palestina, reste sig tusentals demonstranter ett folklig masståg i åminnelse av den där dagen för 42 år sedan med dagens krav på att befria landet och för palestinska flyktingars rätt till återvändo – Återvändons stora tåg. Över 70 procent av den palestinska befolkningen i Gaza är flyktingar som har nekats rätten att återvända till sina hem, sin jord och sina byar i 70 år.

Och ännu en gång har den israeliska staten avslöjat sin natur, när den mördade 16 jordens och återvändons martyrer i ännu en massaker på Jordens dag, 42 år efter den första. Dagen började med mordet på den palestinske bonden Omar Samour av ett skott från en israelisk pansarvagn. Detta senaste mord på en palestinsk bonde illustrerar ytterligare den oupphörliga driften att beslagta palestinsk mark och att attackera palestinsk produktionskapacitet och självförsörjning, och i vilken Gazas bönder har angripits hårt. Den så kallade “buffertzonen” som pådyvlats Gazas bönder har beslagtagit 30 procent av landet, den bördigaste andelen. Faktum är att palestinska fiskare och bönder har burit huvudbördan av upprepade israeliska bränder, angrepp och mord, med syfte att eliminera palestinsk självförsörjning även i den smala Gazaremsan, omringad i skyn, till lands och till sjöss av dödliga ockupationsstyrkor.

Och när väl tusentals palestinska flyktingar i Gaza samlades i massor till ett folkligt tåg nära den illegitima koloniala barriären och den så kallade “gränsen”, påtvingade av ockupationsstaten, öppnade ockupationsstyrkornas skarpskyttar eld rakt på folket som demonstrerade för sina rättigheter – för återvändo, befrielse, ett slut på belägringen. Deras namn är nu också odödliga i den palestinska historien och i alla kämpandes historia  – Naji Abu Hajir, Mohammed Kamal Al-Najjar, Wahid Nasrallah Abu Samour, Amin Mansour Abu Muammar, Mohammed Naeem Abu Amr, Ahmed Ibrahim Ashour Odeh, Jihad Ahmed Fraina, Mahmoud Saadi Rahmi, Abdel Fattah Abdel Nabi, Ibrahim Salah Abu Shaar, Abd al-Qader Marhi al-Hawajri, Sari Walid Abu Odeh, Hamdan Isma’il Abu Amsha, Jihad Zuhair Abu Jamous och Bader al-Sabbagh.

De var bönder, studenter, begåvade konstnärer, föräldrar, syskon och kära anhöriga som älskade sitt folk, sitt land och sin vision om frihet, och deras förlust är smärtsam och omätbar. Den måste även bli en brådskande uppmaning till handling för att hedra uppoffringarna som gjorts av martyrerna för jorden och återvändon, för att begära fångars frihet och hela Palestinas frihet – förverkligandet av palestinska flyktingars rätt till återvändo, en kärnpunkt för den palestinska saken.

Självklart är detta långt ifrån den första massakern av dess slag. Den är en i en lång rad av massakrer och angrepp mot folkligt palestinskt motstånd, särskilt palestinska flyktingar som kräver sin rätt till återvändo. Vi minns morden på palestinska flyktingar från Libanon och Syrien som tågade till gränserna och vågade sig på att korsa dem mot sitt länge förnekade hemland i maj och juni 2011. Vi drar även till minnes årtionden av mord på palestinier som betecknats som “infiltratörer” för att de försökt återvända till sitt egna stulna land ur exil.

Dessa dödsfall får inte tillåtas passera obemärkta och ouppmärksammade, och rörelsen för vilken deras liv togs måste stödjas med den bredaste folkliga mobiliseringen. Låt oss ta till gatorna i varje stad som svar på denna massaker. Jordens dag har utvecklats till en evig årsdag för att palestinier och anhängare till den palestinska saken överallt reagerar på beslagtagandet av land och massakrerna med förstärkt kamp och motstånd. Dagens offer kräver samma svar.

Den ökände IDF-generalen och krigsförbrytaren Gabi Eizenkot, grundaren av Dahiyah-doktrinen och dess mordiska angrepp på folket i Beiruts södra förorter i ett (misslyckat) försök att krossa motståndet, ledde personligen angreppet mot de palestinska demonstranterna i Gaza. Självklart agerade Eizenkot och hans väpnade band inte ensamma – de är en våldsam arm hos ett helt statsbygge som angriper det palestinska folkets själva existens. Och deras vapenkraft backas upp av USA, Kanada, europeiska stater och andra imperialistiska och koloniala makter med de reaktionära arabregimernas medhjälp.

Dessa 16 dyrbara liv förtjänar vår sorg, men mer brådskande allas vår handling. Demonstrationer, mobiliseringar, konstnärliga, kulturella och juridiska aktioner för att hålla krigsbrottslingar till svars och för att häva det internationella imperialistiska stödet för de pågående krigsbrotten i Gaza och mot hela det palestinska folket krävs omgående – idag, imorgon, i den kommande veckan.

17:e april är Palestinska fångars dag, en nationell och internationell handlingsdag för frihet åt alla palestinska politiska fångar, frihetens fångar, återvändons och befrielsens fångar, bakom sionistiska galler för deras engagemang för deras folks och deras lands frihet. Detta år kan och måste 17:e april bli en dag för mobilisering för att befria palestinska fångar, befria Palestinas land och folk, för att bryta belägringen av Gaza och för att konfrontera alla imperialistiska och sionistiska angrepp.

Det internationella solidaritetsnätverket för palestinska fångar Samidoun uppmanar alla som stödjer Palestina världen runt att mobilisera i omedelbart och kontinuerligt svar på massakern på Jordens dag i solidaritet med palestinierna i Gaza och hela det palestinska folket – inräknat alla miljoner palestinska flyktingar i exil och i diasporan som kämpar för sin rätt att återvända hem, nyckeln till palestinsk befrielse.

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Skicka dina arrangemang och aktioner med koppling till massakern på Jordens dag eller Palestinska fångars dagtill Samidoun på samidoun@samidoun.net, på Facebook eller genom formuläret. Samidoun publicerar en internationell lista på arrangemang och aktioner som uppdateras regelbundet, se listan på arrangemang.

En översättning av: https://samidoun.net/2018/03/palestine-towards-return-and-liberation-the-land-day-massacre-and-the-greatreturnmarch/

11 April, Celbridge: public talk on Ahed Tamimi and all child prisoners

Wednesday, 11 April
7:30 pm
Celbridge Manor Hotel
Clane Road
Celbridge, Ireland
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/170083246974947/

Palestinian Child Prisoners in Apartheid Israel’s Prisons. 700 children detained and prosecuted every year. ‘Institutional’ torture. Forced confessions. ‘Systematic’ human rights rights violations.

Wednesday 11th April 2018 – 7.30pm, Celbridge Manor Hotel

SPEAKERS: Nery Ramati – Human Rights Lawyer from Israel; Fatin Al Tamimi – Chairperson, Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign

Every year, hundreds of Palestinian minors undergo the same scenario. Israeli security forces pick them up on the street or at home in the middle of the night, then handcuff and blindfold them and transport them to interrogation, often subjecting them to violence en route. Exhausted and scared – some having spent a long time in transit, some having been roused from sleep, some having had nothing to eat or drink for hours – the minors are then interrogated. Completely alone, cut off from the world, without a lawyer or other guardian present they are interrogated in manner that often involves threats, verbal abuse and physical violence. Its sole purpose is to get the minors to ‘confess’ or provide ‘information’ about others.

They are then taken to the military court for a remand hearing. In the vast majority of cases, the military judges approve remand, even when the only evidence against the minors is their own confession. These military courts, which are only used to try Palestinians, have a 99.7% conviction rate and have been repeatedly criticised by human rights groups as failing to meet international standards for a fair trial. The facts and figures all demonstrate that the righst of Palestinian minors’ are being regularly and systematically violated by Apartheid Israel.

About the Speakers
Nery Ramati is an attorney and partner in Gaby Lasky and Partners Law Office, a leading human rights office in Israel, specializing in freedom of expression and protest, and Ahed Tamimi’s lawyers.

He has been representing Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights and anti-occupation activists in Israel’s military (Occupied Palestinian Territories) and civil (State of Israel) courts for almost a decade. Mr. Ramati has been representing leading human rights defenders and activists from the Palestinian villages of the popular struggle movement, such as Bi’ilin, Nabi Saleh, Beit Ummar, Qadom and others. One of his most important achievements is raising the awareness worldwide on the issues of the ill-treatment of the Palestinian minors (children) in the military court system.

Fatin Al Tamimi is chairperson of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign. A diaspora Palestinian with Jordanian-Irish citizenship, Ms. Tamimi has been living and raising her family in Ireland for 30 years. Her family originally hails from Gaza and Hebron in Palestine, and she still has close relatives living in both areas. She has been involved for many years in Palestine solidarity work in Ireland, and in 2016 she was elected to the position of Chairperson of the IPSC, the first Palestinian to hold the position. She is also active in anti-racist, anti-war and women’s groups in Ireland, and has spoken at many events.

Organised by the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign in Celbridge

Petition to Bernie Sanders: Condemn the Land Day Massacre — No Arms for Apartheid Israel!

The following petition to U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders was initiated by Jews for Palestinian Right of Return. You can sign on to the petition here: https://www.change.org/p/bernie-sanders-in-the-spirit-of-dr-king-condemn-the-land-day-massacre-no-arms-for-israel

Photo: ActiveStills

April 4, 2018

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Letter from a Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963

On April 4, 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. courageously condemned the Vietnam War, declaring, “For the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.”

On this, the 50th anniversary Dr. King’s assassination, we follow his example by condemning Israel’s premeditated massacre of unarmed Palestinians in Gaza on March 30, 2018, which left at least 17 dead and 1,400 wounded — some of them shot in the back by snipers while fleeing.

They were among 30,000 participants in the Great Return March demanding their right, enshrined in UN Resolution 194, to return to homes from which they were expelled during the 1948 Nakba (Catastrophe) that created the Israeli settler-colonial state.

“I will not whitewash colonial violence by describing it with benign terminology,” says Palestinian-American scholar Steven Salaita about the massacre. “It is cruel, depraved, gratuitous, racist, and genocidal.”

The massacre took place on Land Day, which commemorates Israel’s 1976 killing of six Palestinians during mass protests against land theft, and is part of Israel’s crippling twelve-year siege on Gaza, including the military assault in 2014 that murdered 2,200 Palestinians, including 500 children.

By weaponizing Israel to the tune of $3.8 billion a year, the U.S. government — with virtually unanimous bipartisan support — shares full responsibility for all these crimes.

Evoking memories of racist violence at Sharpesville, South Africa in 1960 and Selma, Alabama in 1965, this latest massacre exposes the innate inhumanity of the entire Zionist project, while only strengthening refugees’ resolve.

“Being a Palestinian and standing up for our rights has meant sacrifice since our first displacement in 1948,” explains Rana Shubair. “My family and I will not back down.”

More than ever, in solidarity with this popular resistance, we call on all people of conscience to support the full Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions platform, which demands an end to Israeli occupation and apartheid, full equality for Palestinians, and — what BDS co-founder Omar Barghouti describes as “absolutely the most significant right in the BDS call” — refugees’ right to return to their homes and lands.

From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!

Jews for Palestinian Right of Return

Sign on to the petition here: https://www.change.org/p/bernie-sanders-in-the-spirit-of-dr-king-condemn-the-land-day-massacre-no-arms-for-israel

11 April, Toulouse: Freedom for all Palestinian Prisoners!

Wednesday, 11 April
5:00 pm
Metro Jean-Jaures
Allee Jean-Jaures
Toulouse, France
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/861624214010287/

01At the initiative of 2018 – Le Temps de la Palestine Toulouse, a rally to demand freedom for all Palestinian prisoners. The program will include music, speakers, workshops and more in support of Palestinian prisoners.

A l’initiative de 2018 – Le Temps de la Palestine Toulouse, un rassemblement est organisé pour exiger la libération de tou.te.s les prisonnier.e.s palestinien.ne.s.
Au programme : musique, diffusion de tracts, atelier d’écriture aux prisonnier.e.s, prises de parole etc.

7 April, Sheffield: Protest Against Israel’s Killings of Land Day Protesters in Gaza

Saturday, 7 April
12:00 pm
Sheffield Town Hall
Sheffield, UK
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1933925190251425/

During Land Day protests, the Israeli army killed 18 Palestinian demonstrators and injured over 1500, around 800 were injured by live ammunition. Palestinians marched in thousands to commemorate 30 March 1976 when six unarmed Palestinian citizens of Israel were killed by Israeli forces during protests against the Israeli government’s further expropriation of Palestinian land.

Adalah, a legal centre for Palestinian rights in Israel, condemned the Israeli army’s use of force and stated: “Live gunfire on unarmed civilians constitutes a brutal violation of the international legal obligation to distinguish between civilians and combatants.”

B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights organisation, called the use of lethal force against demonstrators a crime and stated: “Armed soldiers and unarmed demonstrators are not “at war.” The illegal open fire regulations and the compliance with them are the reason for the number of dead and injured today in the Gaza Strip.”

Israeli violent repression is aimed at stopping the people of Gaza from drawing attention to their plight under the world’s largest open-air prison. Over 80% of Gaza’s people are refugees and their descendants expelled from Palestine in Nakba, the initial catastrophic event of ethnic cleansing in which Palestinians lost lives, their homes and their country in the violent establishment of the settler colonial and apartheid state of Israel in 1948. The majority of the 1.8 million residents are under the age of 15. Their conditions are desperate and “unliveable” as noted by the UN, Save the children, and several other international organisations. Israel’s attack on Gaza in 2008/9 killed 1300 Palestinians. Its 2014 bombardment lasting 51 days reduced entire neighbourhoods into rubble and killed over 2000.

This ongoing genocide against Palestinians has been aided by the impunity they receive from international governments, with key support coming from the UK. Rather than holding Israel to account for what are well-documented human rights abuses and breaches of international law, they have failed to impose a single sanction against Israel’s regime and continue to openly support what a UN report described as a system of apartheid. As UK citizens, it is our responsibility to pressure our government and corporations to end their complicity in Israeli crimes.

Join us this Saturday at 12 noon in front of Town Hall for an emergency protest in solidarity with Palestinian civilians in Gaza and all over Palestine and in exile. Stand with us to condemn Israeli killings of peaceful protestors, to support Palestinians’ rights to freedom, justice, equality and return, and to call upon the UK to end its complicity with Israel.

Stop Arming Israel. Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions of Israel. Free Palestine.

Sheffield Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Sheffield Hallam Palestine Society
University of Sheffield Palestine Society
Palestine Education Network
Sheffield Labour Friends of Palestine.

5 April, Dublin:Lunchtime Protest at Israeli Embassy: Solidarity with the Great Return March (IPSC)

Thu, 5 April 2018
12:30
Embassy of Israel
122 Pembroke Road
Ballsbridge, Dublin 4

More info: http://www.ipsc.ie/event/dublin-lunchtime-protest-at-israeli-embassy-solidarity-with-the-great-return-march-ipsc

In solidarity with Palestinians on the #GreatReturnMarch, please join us this Thursday lunchtime to make some noise outside the Embassy for Apartheid and War Crimes.

Following the murder of 17 unarmed Palestinians last week, Palestinians prepare to enter a second week of the #GreatReturnMarch. As Apartheid Israel threatens ever greater violence upon unarmed protestors in blatant violation of international law, we ask you to join us at lunchtime this Thursday at the Embassy of Israel (122 Pembroke Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4) to show your solidarity with the Palestinian people, and to raise your voice to call for sanctions on Israel, including the expulsion of the Israeli Ambassador.

Join us between 12.30pm and 2pm this Thursday, and bring flags, banners, placards, and noise!

Organised by the Dublin branch of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

8 April, Gothenburg: Stop Israel’s Attacks on Gaza!

Sunday, 8 April
2:30 pm
Brunnsparken
Gothenburg, Sweden
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/168765267114090/

Come out in Gothenburg on Sunday to stand with the Palestinian people in Gaza!