| Hello IJAN members and supporters, Below you will find ways you can support two important campaigns to support the rights to political and religious affiliation threatened in defense of maintaining Israel as an exclusively Jewish state. The first is a call from Jerusalem to protest the deportation of four political figures. Israeli authorities have reportedly offered to allow them to remain in Jerusalem only if they disaffiliate from Hamas. The Carter Center argues that this would set a precedent for expulsion based on political affiliation, which violates the fourth Geneva Convention. The second is a call from California to protest the suspension of the Muslim Student Union at the University of California at Irvine. The University is under pressure to take this action after students who are members of the Union protested against the public appearance of Michael Oren, Israeli ambassador to the US, at a public, university-sponsored event. Though the students acted independent of MSU and within their first amendment rights, the University is threatening the entire MSU. Below you will find more information, a request to support the campaign to stop this high-profile deportation from Jerusalem, and a petition to sign in defense of the Student Union in California. In solidarity, IJAN
Subject: Call for Action: Support Expelled Palestinian MPs and former Minister Seeking Shelter at the Red Cross Compound, East Jerusalem Dear friends, Call for action - The expelled Palestinian MPs and former minister of East Jerusalem call members of your organization to take action on their behalf. Please contact your Members of Parliament, Senators, and/or Ambassadors to Israel to insist that they demand that Israel comply with international law and assure the ability of the PMs and former minister to remain in their homes. The expelled Palestinian MPs and former minister also call members of your organization to continue to protest against the ongoing ethnic cleansing of its original Palestinian inhabitants from Jerusalem, which includes expulsion, land expropriation and house demolition. Background – Six weeks ago Israel decided to expel three Hamas elected Palestinian Parliament Members Mohammed Abu Teir, Muhammad Tutah, and Ahmed 'Attoun, and the former Minister of Jerusalem Affairs Khaled Abu Arafeh from their hometown Jerusalem . Israel confiscated their blue identity cards –aiming at expelling them - and ordered them to leave their hometown, Jerusalem . After the MP Mohammed Abu Teir was arrested, the two other MPs and former Minister decided to barricade themselves at the Red Cross compound in East Jerusalem, where they are still waiting for international involvement to obligate Israel to follow international law forbidding the expulsion of an occupied population, thus ensuring that the PMs and former Minister remain in their hometown. The ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem – Expelling the elected members of Hamas is not a special case but a part of an ongoing brutal ethnic cleansing that Israel performs in Jerusalem . Since 1967 Israel expelled more than 13.000 Palestinians from Jerusalem . Massive land expropriation and hundreds of house demolitions are continually taking place Materials to support you action - AL-Maqdese association http://www.al-maqdese.org/english/index.php?pagess=home JerusalemCenterfor Social & Economic Rights http://www.jcser.org
Calling all Jews of Conscience Stand for free speech and against Islamophobia by signing your name in support of the University of California Irvine's Muslim Student Union. Click here to sign the letter! Background: For years, Orange County Zionist Jewish organizations have been using false charges of anti-Semitism to try to silence the Muslim Student Union (MSU) for its Palestine solidarity activities. These groups have now convinced the UC Irvine Administration that MSU does not have a right to exist as a campus organization. Electronic Intifada summarizes the events of the past academic year: "In response to intense political pressure by multiple pro-Zionist organizations, administrators at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) have recommended the suspension of Muslim students' right to assemble and practice their faith together on campus. Alleging that emails anonymously "leaked" to the university prove that the Muslim Student Union was responsible for a protest of Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren's campus appearance by eight UCI students, the administration plans to suspend the more than 250-member Muslim Student Union for a year beginning in September, and place it under intense scrutiny and disciplinary probation if the student group is allowed to re-apply for recognition in the fall of 2011. The student group is appealing this proposed ban, contending that the MSU did not sponsor the protest, and that the students arrested for interrupting Oren's speech were acting as individuals. Members have also challenged UCI's moves to impose what their attorney Reem Salahi has described as "nothing but collective punishment" by proposing to suspend the entire group over a political protest. The ban would become official after a final university decision, pending the outcome of a hearing and if the student group's appeal fails."(Read the rest of the article at: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11374.shtml) As people of conscience committed to freedom and equality, we must speak out when the rights of any group are denied on grounds of racism or religious bigotry. As Jews, our understanding of histories of anti-Jewish persecution inspires our stance against all forms of racism and religious bigotry. As Jews committed to justice in Palestine/Israel, we are outraged when false charge of anti-Semitism are used to silence those that criticize the State violence of Israel. Click here to add your signature to the letter below calling upon the UC Irvine administration to protect the right of MSU to keep its chartered status like all other religious organizations on campus. In doing so we insist on the right of students to free speech and to practice their religion. We ask you to stand with the Muslim Student Union because: - This suspension is an act of racial targeting and religious bigotry imposed on hundreds of Muslim students.
- It is a denial of the right to free speech and the use of non-violent protest to secure the rights of those being denied them. Universities have been the bastions of protecting freedom of speech and civil rights, such an act goes against the very nature and purpose of public universities and against the first amendment rights protected by the constitution of the United States. The decision to punish the Muslim Student Union goes against the democratic principles by which institutions of higher education must abide.
- The attacks on the Muslim Student Union by college administrators and community leaders are inspired by, and perpetuate, a climate of racial and religious prejudice and intolerance such as the call from a Florida church to "burn the Koran" on September 11th and the prejudice of the Anti-Defamation Leagues attempt to prevent the opening of a Muslim community center in lower Manhattan.
Thank you for standing for the democratic rights of all people and against bigotry of all forms, The Campus Organizing Workgroup of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (www.ijsn.net) Click here to sign the letter! ********************************************************************** August 2010
To the Office of Student Conduct of UC Irvine, the UC Irvine Administration, and members of the UC Irvine Campus Community,
We are Jewish students, academics, teachers, and activists writing to oppose the recommendation, issued this past June, to suspend the UC Irvine Muslim Student Union.
We urge the UC Irvine administration to hear the appeal of the Muslim Student Union and to not proceed in revoking the organization's charter for one year. We stand with the Muslim Student Union because:
We are outraged at this threat, which is a racist attack, a form of religious bigotry, and an infringement of students' rights to free speech and free expression. - The students who were arrested and now face punitive measures were exercising their right to speak freely. These students staged a legitimate protest against the public appearance of Michael Oren, Israeli ambassador to the US, at a public, university-sponsored event. This event gave an open podium to a representative of the State of Israel just a year after the Israeli assault on Gaza that left over 1,400 dead, including over 300 Palestinian children. The students who protested engaged in the noble and ethical act of non-violent participation in democratic society.
- Suspension of the Muslim Student Union means the repression and targeting of hundreds of students based on their religion. The overwhelming majority of students in the Muslim Student Union had nothing to do with the protests in question; those who did protest simply exercised their individual right to organize and speak freely at a public institution of higher education.
- We see this as part of a disturbing trend in the US and beyond, of widespread Islamophobia and racism, which includes Zionist and right-wing organizations' increasingly aggressive attempts to attack and silence Muslim voices. We are aware of the great pressure that Orange County Zionist Jewish organizations put on the school to recommend the suspension and their efforts to smear MSU with false charges of anti-Semitism. As Jews committed to dignity for all people, we assert that organizing for justice in Palestine is not anti-Jewish; it is an expression of our collective humanity. Furthermore, we take anti-Jewish sentiment seriously and resent it being misused for an agenda to shut down criticism of Israel.
- Suspension of the MSU will do nothing to further justice, peace, freedom or equality; on the contrary, denying Muslim students their right to free speech, freedom of religion and freedom of assembly, is an act in opposition to core democratic values and ultimately the security of all of our civil rights.
We call on the UC Irvine administration to uphold students' rights to free speech and to protect the right of the MSU to keep its chartered status like all other religious organizations on campus. We call on all individuals of conscience and organizations for justice to support the Muslim Student Union in its appeal against the pending suspension. Signed, ********************************************************************** Click here to sign the letter! |
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