Member Groups Join the Global BDS Day of Action!
April 11th, 2012
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US Campaign member groups and others around the U.S. took action last month for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Global Day of Action, held annually on March 30th, Palestinian Land Day, illustrating the growing demand across the country for an end to U.S. institutional complicity with the Israeli occupation, and for freedom, justice, and equality in Israel/Palestine.
Participating cities with member groups and others included Phoenix, AZ; Fort Worth, TX; New York City, Syracuse, and the Hudson Valley in NY; Boston, MA; Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Sacramento, CA; Edwardsville, IL; and Philadelphia, PA! Country-wide events included student solidarity fasts for Hana Shalabi and a CodePink "Stolen Beauty" letter-writing action to Macy's.
Here is a sampling of U.S. Land Day actions!...
At the national conference of M.E.Ch.A. (Movímíento Estudíantíl Chícan@ de Aztlán) in Arizona, the largest association of Latin@ youth in the U.S., chapter leaders voted by a landslide decision to endorse the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel. The announcement came on the coinciding observances of César Chávez Day and Palestinian Land Day, commemorating ongoing civil rights and anti-colonial struggles for Latin@s and Palestinians. "Concrete connections" were drawn between the role of Israeli arms company Elbit Systems in the construction of the wall between Mexico and the US and the illegal Israeli Apartheid wall. Elbit is a primary target of the U.S.-wide "We Divest" Campaign as well as many campaigns abroad.
The Boston Coalition for Palestinian Rights organized a "Stand Out" on the need to cut military aid to Israel: "Fund Community Needs, Not Israel's Misdeeds." Activists distributed over 500 copies of the flyer produced by the US Campaign, "How would you spend $30 billion over ten years?" Among those participating were students from the #Occupy Movement.
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Two fantastic videos were released as part of the "We Divest" Campaign, calling on financial giant TIAA-CREF to divest from the Israeli Occupation. The "We Divest" Student Leadership Team organized by the American Friends Service Committee and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) [accepting applications] launched a terrific video highlighting the campaign and student activists in the U.S. and in Palestine. Meanwhile, Adalah-NY, Hunter College SJP, NYU SJP, and the Global Justice group at #Occupy Wall Street teamed up to create "TIAA-CREF's Checkpoint Reality Check." More than 60 people joined a spirited march and rally organized by Dump Veolia-LA. Members of JVP, Friends of Sabeel, and activists from immigration justice, labor and #Occupy movements joined to demand that the City of Los Angeles stop doing business with Veolia -- a French multinational water, transport, and waste management company heavily involved in the Israeli occupation -- and not renew Veolia's contracts for public buses. Veolia is a target company in the "We Divest" Campaign, and the "Dump Veolia" Campaign was endorsed by the US Campaign coalition at the National Organizers Conference last September.The Global Day of Action came on the heels of the largest ever Israeli Apartheid Week, an annual series of events to raise awareness of Israeli apartheid and build the BDS movement. The U.S. was one of 23 countries participating on Land Day. These exciting, creative actions illustrate the growing support and energy for BDS around the U.S. as a means to end US institutional support for the Israeli occupation and apartheid policies.