Labor for Palestine Supports Viva Palestina USA

–Please post and forward widely–

To be listed as a signer of the following statement, please send your name, union affiliation and title (if any) to: laborforpalestine.us@gmail.com

Labor for Palestine Supports Viva Palestina USA
June 18, 2009

As labor activists, we urge you to join us in supporting Viva Palestina USA, a humanitarian convoy led by British Member of Parliament George Galloway and Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic, which leaves New York City on July 4 with $10 million in medical aid for the people of Gaza (see below).

The devastation of Gaza is not a natural disaster, but the calculated result of Israel’s brutal siege, with support from government and labor officialdom in the United States.

In the past ten years alone, U.S. military aid to Israel was $17 billion; over the next decade, it will be another $30 billion. In Gaza, as in Afghanistan and Iraq, U.S. aircraft, white phosphorous, bombs and bullets kill and maim on behalf of the occupiers.

Top labor officials in this country — often without the knowledge or consent of union members — have plowed billions of dollars from our pension funds and retirement plans into State of Israel Bonds, have remained silent about the war on Gaza and have sought to undermine growing international trade union opposition to Israeli apartheid.

To show the real meaning of labor solidarity, and to help alleviate the terrible harm done in our name, please join us in supporting Viva Palestina USA.

http://laborforpalestine.wordpress.com/

Initial Signers (*For identification only.)

Michael Letwin
Co-Convener, New York City Labor Against the War; Former President, UAW Local 2325/Assn. of Legal Aid Attorneys*

Brenda Stokely
Co-Convener, New York City Labor Against the War; Former President, AFSCME DC 1707*; Co-Chair, Million Worker March Movement

Monadel Herzallah
President, Arab American Union Members Council, California

Clarence Thomas
Co-Chair, Million Worker March Movement

Sam Weinstein
Former President, UWUA Local 132*

Marty Goodman
Former Executive Board Member, TWU Local 100*

Anthony Arnove
National Writers Union/UAW Local 1981*

Mike Gimbel
Chair, Labor-Community Unity Committee, AFSCME DC 37 Local 375*; Delegate, NYC Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO

Dave Welsh

Delegate, San Francisco Labor Council*

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http://intifada-palestine.com/2009/06/03/viva-palestina-usa-convoy-to-gaza-update/

VIVA PALESTINA USA CONVOY TO GAZA — UPDATE

Palestina USA Email Update — June 3

Dear Friend,

We were all moved to tears of grief and anger when Israel launched its murderous bombardment against the people of Gaza in December and January. Millions of us took to the streets in unprecedented protests around the globe. Each and every one of us has asked ourselves what more we can do to help stop the suffering.

The inspirational anti-war and pro-Palestinian British MP, George Galloway, decided that while it is necessary to speak out — in his case with great force and eloquence — it is actions that speak louder than words.

While the bombs were still showering down on what has been called the largest open-air prison in history, Galloway decided to organize a humanitarian convoy that would start in Britain, drive through France and Spain, and across North Africa to arrive in Gaza with aid, even as all borders to the devastated region were under complete blockade. In just five short weeks, he pulled together 107 vehicles — including ambulances and a fire engine — 255 people and $2 million of aid, which set off from London on February 14. Some 23 days and 5,500 miles later it arrived in Gaza to tumultuous acclaim.

The fact that so many people come from Britain whose government had, along with George W Bush, backed the Israeli aggression had an enormous impact on the besieged people of Gaza.

Now, Galloway is heading a second convoy — this time from the USA. The Vietnam War veteran, Ron Kovic, whose experiences in the war led him to become a life-long advocate of a more just US foreign policy, has readily agreed to be co-leader of the convoy.

The convoy’s aim is to take hundreds of US citizens in 500 vehicles, bearing $10 million in medical aid from Cairo to Gaza. Convoy participants will leave from JFK airport on July 4, bearing the simple yet powerful message that Palestinian independence is as precious as US independence. The group will organize the convoy in Cairo and proceed to Gaza the following weekend, proudly waving US and Palestinian flags, as well as banners declaring thousands of supporting organizations and institutions.

This is set to be the biggest single aid effort for Palestine ever to leave US shores. It will be a source of great strength and hope for the Palestinian people. It will also have a major impact here in the United States, helping to stir US public opinion about the conflict in the Middle East and to bring about a permanent shift in government policy.

The US has a chance right now to step into a more progressive role in the world. But Viva Palestina USA needs your help to make this venture successful and to get this aid through the siege that has been strangling the people of Gaza for three years.

What YOU can do to help:

1) Circulate this email to everyone you know through your listserv/contacts list, Facebook and any other means to which you have access, share the brilliant documentary detailing the UK Convoy with your friends, family and coworkers: Viva Palestina US Media/Resources AND add our donation link to your website, blog, or email: Donate to Viva Palestina Now!

2) Donate towards the $10 million target! Every penny makes a difference! Donations are being handled by Viva Palestina’s not-for-profit fiscal sponsor, the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO), and are tax deductible. The funds will be used for medical aid and the entire convoy is within the restrictions and guidelines laid out by the US authorities governing such activities.

You can donate on our webpage Viva Palestina US or, to link directly to our donation page, click here: Donate to Viva Palestina Now!

You can also make a check payable to Viva Palestina – IFCO and send it to:

Viva Palestina USA
47 West Polk Street
Suite 100 – 403
Chicago, IL 60605-2085

3) Come as a delegate on the convoy! To register, visit: Viva Palestina US Join the Convoy. You’ll need to raise the funds to cover the costs of your flight to and accommodations in Egypt, and commit to raising aid towards our target goal. See our website Viva Palestina US for further details and answers to any questions you might have.

4) Endorse and/or Sponsor the convoy! Details can be found on our webpage, but generally: sponsorship for national organizations is $1,000; state, $500; local chapters and individuals, $100, and endorsements require you/your organization’s contact information and a written, publishable statement of endorsement.

5) Contact your local and state media to tell them why you support the Viva Palestina USA convoy. If you need help communicating with the media or if you have media contacts who would like to speak with a convoy leader, contact us at: usmedia@vivapalestina.org.

6) Send us stories, pictures and videos of your efforts to support Viva Palestina USA. We’ve heard amazing stories of creative fundraising efforts and events from around the country and we encourage your unique participation in the movement for justice for Palestine!

Together, we WILL break the siege, we WILL deliver much-needed aid to the people of Gaza, and we WILL help free Palestine! VIVA, VIVA PALESTINA!

In solidarity,
Viva Palestina USA

http://www.vivapalestina-us.org/
usinformation@vivapalestina.org
773.226.2742

NYCLAW Statement On the 61st Anniversary of the Nakba

[Presented at the NYC rally and march sponsored by the Break the Siege on Gaza Coalition-NY <http://www.bsg-ny.org/> and Al-Awda NY <http://www.al-awdany.org/index.htm>]

Statement On the 61st Anniversary of the Nakba
Times Square, New York City, May 17, 2009
Presented by Michael Letwin, Co-Convener, New York City Labor Against the War (NYCLAW); Founding Member, Labor for Palestine

Today we commemorate the Nakba of 1947-1948, when Zionists ethnically cleansed Palestine by massacring Palestinians in places like Deir Yassin, erasing 531 towns and village, emptying 11 urban neighborhoods, and expelling more than 750,000 (85 percent) of the Palestinians from 78 percent of their country.

But the Nakba did not end there.

In 1967, Israel seized the remaining 22 percent of Palestine  –  including East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza  –  which, in violation of UN resolutions, remains under Israeli military rule.

Isn’t that the Nakba?

Today, at least 70 percent of 10 million Palestinians remain refugees  –  the largest such population in the world. Despite other UN resolutions, Israel vows that it will never allow them to return.

Isn’t that the Nakba?

Palestinians who managed to remain within the 1948 areas  –  today, 1.4 million (or 20 percent of the population in Israel)  –  are permanently separated from their families in exile, subject to more than 20 discriminatory laws, treated as a “demographic threat,” and threatened with mass expulsion.

Isn’t that the Nakba?

In East Jerusalem and the West Bank, 140 illegal, ever-expanding Jewish-only settlements and road systems dominate the water resources and control 40 percent of the land. Palestinians are confined, separated, denied medical treatment, and degraded by an 8-meter-high separation wall, pass laws, curfews and 600 military checkpoints.

Isn’t that the Nakba?

From 2000-2007, 4274 Palestinians in these 1967 territories were killed. During the same period, the military seized 60,000 political prisoners; it still holds and tortures 10,000 or more.

Isn’t that the Nakba?

In 2006, Israel turned Lebanon into a killing ground, slaughtering and maiming thousands of people, destroying the civilian infrastructure, and turning a quarter of the population into refugees in their own land. At the same time, it continued to brutalize Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

Isn’t that the Nakba?

On December 27, 2008, Israel invaded Gaza, killing 1400 Palestinians and wounding another 5,000; nearly all were civilians, including hundreds of children. Gaza remains under brutal Israeli siege.

Isn’t that the Nakba?

Since 1948, the U.S. government has given Israel  –  its foreign aid recipient  — at least $108 billion. In the past ten years alone, U.S. military aid was $17 billion; over the next decade, it will be $30 billion. Just as in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, U.S. aircraft, white phosphorous and bullets kill and maim on behalf of the occupiers, while both Democratic and Republican politicians condone the slaughter.

Isn’t that the Nakba?

The U.S. and Israeli regimes continue to arm and train the corrupt Quisling Palestinian Authority in order to suppress Palestinian resistance and overthrow the democratically elected Hamas government.
Isn’t that the Nakba?

Fifteen hundred 500 U.S. labor bodies have plowed at least $5 billion of our union pension funds and retirement plans into State of Israel Bonds.

Isn’t that the Nakba?

In July 2007, top officials of the AFL-CIO and Change to Win signed a statement by the Jewish Labor Committee that condemned British unions for even considering the nonviolent campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel.

Isn’t that the Nakba?

What can *we* do to end the Nakba?

Above all, we can support the growing international campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel, which demands full Palestinian self-determination, including an end to Israeli military occupation, the right of Palestinian refugees to return, and elimination of apartheid throughout historic Palestine.

When those goals have been won — and only then — will the Nakba truly end.

Open Letter to the Labor Research Association: Don’t Honor Israeli Apartheid

Open Letter to the Labor Research Association: Don’t Honor Israeli Apartheid
May 4, 2009

As longtime labor and anti-apartheid activists, we strongly disagree with the decision to honor Stuart Appelbaum at tonight’s annual dinner of the Labor Research Association in New York City.

The LRA’s dinner program praises Appelbaum, President of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, for building “relationships with community organizations in an effort to expand the rights of unorganized workers.”

What it doesn’t say is that, as head of the Jewish Labor Committee (JLC), he leads the witch-hunt against labor bodies in South Africa and around the world that support Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israeli apartheid.

The BDS campaign was initiated by Palestinian civil society, including its entire labor movement. The campaign demands Palestinian self-determination, including an end to Israeli military occupation, the right of Palestinian refugees to return to the land from which they have been ethnically cleansed since the Nakba of 1947-1948, and equal rights for all throughout historic Palestine.

It has been endorsed by numerous labor bodies, including the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), UNISON (UK), Transport and General Workers’ Union (UK), Canadian Union of Postal Workers, Canadian Union of Public Employees-Ontario, six Norwegian trade unions, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Scottish Trades Union Congress, and Intersindical Alternativa de Catallunya.

The campaign gained still greater urgency after the Gaza Ghetto Massacre launched by Israel on December 27, and which left 1,400 dead and 5,000 wounded; nearly all were civilians, hundreds of them children. Gaza remains under Israeli siege.

War crime investigations have been called for by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, UN officials, Palestinian and Israeli human rights organizations, and Israeli soldiers themselves.

But the strongest response was made by the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union in Durban, and the Western Australia Branch of the Maritime Union of Australia, both of which refused to handle Israeli cargo.

Their action is in the honorable tradition of dockworkers in Denmark and Sweden (1963), the San Francisco Bay Area (1984) and Liverpool (1988), who refused to handle shipping for apartheid South Africa; Oakland dockworkers who refused to load bombs for the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile (1978); and West Coast dockworkers who struck against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (2008).

COSATU, in turn, “call[ed] on other workers and unions to follow suit and to do all that is necessary to ensure that they boycott all goods to and from Israel until Palestine is free.”

That call took on renewed urgency after Israeli Occupation forces fired on a nonviolent May Day protest against the Apartheid Wall in the Bethlehem area of the West Bank. Nine marchers were injured, including the head of the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU), Shaher Sa’ad. Six protesters were arrested and remain in prison.

As the protest organizers point out, “The events of May 1 are the latest of a strategy of escalation implemented over the last months by the Occupation forces and which has lead to increased arrests, injuries and deaths among the coordinators and activists against the Apartheid Wall.”

In response to the May Day attack, the Bethlehem branch of the PGFTU and its allies have specifically called on “trade unions across the globe” to “Support the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) and promote concrete BDS actions to hold Israel accountable for its crimes and force it to respect Palestinian rights.”

This appeal is particularly relevant to workers in the United States.

In the past ten years alone, U.S. military aid to Israel was $17 billion; over the next decade, it will be another $30 billion. As in Afghanistan and Iraq, U.S. aircraft, white phosphorous and bullets kill and maim on behalf of the occupiers, while both Democratic and Republican politicians condone the slaughter.

U.S. support bolsters Israel’s longstanding role as watchdog and junior partner for U.S. domination over the oil-rich Middle East — and beyond. In that capacity, Israel was apartheid South Africa’s closest ally; no wonder South African anti-apartheid veterans lead the international movement against Israeli apartheid.

Moreover, as with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, workers in the United States also pay a staggering human and financial price, including deepening economic crisis, for U.S.-Israeli war and occupation throughout the region.

Yet Appelbaum and the JLC denounce those in labor who respond to Palestinian appeals for solidarity. They smear BDS supporters with accusations of “anti-Semitism,” just as the Israel Lobby routinely attacks Archbishop Desmond Tutu and numerous other critics of Israeli apartheid — many of whom are Jewish.

This is standard JLC operating procedure. For decades, it has served as “progressive” mouthpiece for the Histadrut, the Zionist labor federation that has spearheaded — and whitewashed — apartheid, dispossession and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians since the 1920s. Meanwhile, U.S. labor leaders have plowed at least $5 billion of our union pension funds and retirement plans into State of Israel Bonds.

In 2007, Appelbaum and the JLC recruited top AFL-CIO and Change to Win officials to sign a statement condemning British unions for supporting the BDS campaign. Now, to deflect international outrage over Gaza, they have launched “Trade Unions Linking Israel and Palestine (TULIP),” a benign-sounding name whose express purpose is to target labor BDS supporters.

Their shameful complicity with Israeli apartheid echoes “AFL-CIA” support for U.S. war and dictatorship in Vietnam, Latin America, Gulf War I, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

For all these reasons, we call on the LRA to revoke its award to Stuart Appelbaum, and suggest that it be given instead to COSATU, whose courageous leadership against Israeli apartheid is an example to workers everywhere.

Issued by New York City Labor Against the War (NYCLAW) Co-Conveners:

Larry Adams
Former President, NPMHU Local 300

Michael Letwin
Former President, UAW Local 2325/Assn. of Legal Aid Attorneys

Brenda Stokely
Former President, AFSCME DC 1707; Co-Chair, Million Worker March

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nyclaw01@gmail.com
http://nyclaw01.wordpress.com/
http://laborforpalestine.wordpress.com/

NYCLAW Statement in Defense of NYU Student Protesters

[Write messages in support of the NYU student protesters to: john.sexton@nyu.edu, jhb5@nyu.edu, provost@nyu.edu, evp@nyu.edu]

New York City Labor Against the War denounces the NYU administration’s attack on student protesters of Take Back NYU.

The students demand that the university serve its student body through financial transparency and accountability.

They demand that the administration recognize the Graduate Student Organizing Committee/UAW Local 2110, and agree to fair labor contracts for all university employees.

They are particularly courageous in calling on NYU to support the people of Gaza and end University complicity with the Israeli apartheid regime — demands that parallel recent student protests at the University of Rochester, Hampshire College, and two dozen universities through the UK.

When the administration arrogantly ignored these concerns, protesters nonviolently occupied their student center, a direct action in the tradition of the civil rights, Vietnam antiwar and anti-apartheid movements.

The administration’s response has been typically deceitful and vindictive.

It called in the NYPD to attack protest rallies outside the building. It falsely agreed to negotiate, only to detain the students’ representatives. It forcibly removed other protesters — some of whom were assaulted by NYU security, and at least one of whom was arrested. It suspended eighteen protesters and evicted them from university residences.

We are proud of these students’ protest and refusal to be silenced. NYU administration must immediately:

1. Rescind suspensions, dorm evictions and all other disciplinary action.

2. Drop all criminal charges.

3. Meet the students’ demands.

———–

Issued by NYCLAW Co-Conveners:

Larry Adams
Former President, NPMHU Local 300

Michael Letwin
Former President, UAW Local 2325/Assn. of Legal Aid Attorneys

Brenda Stokely
Former President, AFSCME DC 1707; N.E. Regional Coordinator, Million Worker March Movement

Endorse: U.S. Trade Unionists Support South African and Australian Dockers’ Boycott of Israeli Cargo

To endorse the following statement, please go to: http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/LaborforPalestine
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U.S. Trade Unionists Support South African and Australian Dockers’ Boycott of Israeli Cargo
February 17, 2009

“For the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.”
–Martin Luther King Jr., Beyond Vietnam, April 4, 1967

We salute the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU) in Durban, and Western Australian dock worker members of the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA), for refusing to handle Israeli cargo.

Theirs is a courageous response to Israel’s attack on Palestinians in Gaza that, since December 27 alone, have left some 1,400 dead and 5,000 wounded — nearly all of them civilians.

This action is in the best tradition of dock workers in Denmark and Sweden (1963), the San Francisco Bay Area (1984) and Liverpool (1988), who refused to handle shipping for apartheid South Africa; Oakland dock workers’ refusal to load bombs for the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile (1978); and West Coast dock workers’ strike against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (2008).

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) rightly “calls on other workers and unions to follow suit and to do all that is necessary to ensure that they boycott all goods to and from Israel until Palestine is free.”

COSATU’s appeal is particularly relevant for workers in the United States, whose government stands behind Israel’s war against the Palestinians, and without which Israeli apartheid cannot continue.

In the past ten years alone, U.S. military aid to Israel was $17 billion; over the next decade, it will be $30 billion. As in Afghanistan and Iraq, it is U.S. aircraft, white phosphorous and bullets that kill and maim on behalf of the occupiers. Both the Democratic and Republican parties condone the slaughter in Gaza.

Such support bolsters Israel’s longstanding role as watchdog and junior partner for U.S. domination over the oil-rich Middle East — and beyond. In that capacity, Israel was apartheid South Africa’s closest ally.

As with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, workers in the United States pay a staggering human and financial price, including deepening economic crisis, for U.S.-Israeli war and occupation.

Yet, in contrast to trade union bodies in South Africa, Australia, Denmark, Britain, Canada and elsewhere, most of labor officialdom in this country — often without the knowledge or consent of union members — is a main accomplice of Israeli apartheid.

For more than sixty years, it has closely collaborated with the Histadrut, the Zionist labor federation that has spearheaded — and whitewashed — apartheid, dispossession and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians since the 1920s.

U.S. labor leaders have plowed at least $5 billion of our union pension funds and retirement plans into State of Israel Bonds.

In April 2002, while Israel butchered Palestinian refugees at Jenin in the West Bank, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney was a featured speaker at a belligerent “National Solidarity Rally for Israel.”

In July 2007, the Jewish Labor Committee, a Histadrut mouthpiece, enlisted top officials of the AFL-CIO and Change to Win to condemn British union support for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel.

Now, by their silence, these same leaders are complicit in Israel’s massacre in Gaza.

These policies echo infamous “AFL-CIA” support for U.S. war and dictatorship in Vietnam, Latin America, Gulf War I, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

It strengthens the U.S.-Israel war machine and labor’s corporate enemies, reinforces racism and Islamophobia, and makes a mockery of international solidarity.

For all these reasons, we join COSATU in supporting the growing international campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, which demands Palestinian self-determination, including an end to Israeli military occupation, the right of Palestinian refugees to return, and elimination of apartheid throughout historic Palestine.

Join us in publicizing the example of South African and Australian dock workers, and working toward the same kind of labor solidarity here at home.

Join us in demanding immediate and total:

1. End to U.S. aid for Israel.

2. Divestment of business and labor investments in Israel.

3. Labor boycott of Israel.

4. Withdrawal of U.S. and allied forces from the Middle East.

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Initial Signers

Larry Adams
Co-Convener, New York City Labor Against the War; Former President, NPMHU Local 300*

Michael Letwin
Co-Convener, New York City Labor Against the War; Former President, UAW Local 2325/Assn. of Legal Aid Attorneys*

Brenda Stokely
Co-Convener, New York City Labor Against the War; Former President, AFSCME DC 1707*; Co-Chair, Million Worker March

Anthony Arnove
National Writers Union/UAW Local 1981*

Black Workers for Justice (North Carolina)

Marty Goodman
Former Executive Board Member, TWU Local 100*

Monadel Herzallah
President, Arab American Union Members Council, California

Clarence Thomas
National Co-Chair, Million Worker March Movement; Executive Board Member, ILWU Local 10*

Sam Weinstein
Former President, UWUA Local 132*

Steve Zeltzer
Producer, Labor Video Project

Charles Jenkins
Million Worker March Movement

Mike Gimbel
Chair, Labor-Community Unity Committee, AFSCME DC 37 Local 375*; Delegate, NYC Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO

Noha Arafa
UAW Local 2325/Assn. of Legal Aid Attorneys*

Helene J. Busby
UAW Local 2325/Assn. of Legal Aid Attorneys*

Julie Fry
Vice-President, UAW Local 2325/Assn. of Legal Aid Attorneys*

Steve Terry
UAW Local 2325/Assn. of Legal Aid Attorneys*

Azalia Torres
Former Executive Bd. Member, UAW Local 2325/Assn. of Legal Aid Attorneys*

Gloria La Riva
President, Typographical Sector, N. California Media Workers Guild Local 39521 CWA*

Carol Seligman
South San Francisco California Teachers Association*

Roland Sheppard
Retired Business Agent, Painters Local 4*

Hank Silver, SEIU Local 1021,* retired

Matt Kline
San Francisco May 1st Organizing Committee

Kevin Kachadourian
CTA Castro Valley*

Beth Youhn
IUOE Local 3 *

Leo L. Robinson
ILWU Local 10,* retired

Mark Glass
UA Local 399*

Charles Hinton
GCIU/Teamsters3M*

Charles Minster
California Alliance for Retired Americans*

Marcus Holder
ILWU Local 10*

Judy Jamerson
Sign & Display Local 510*

Tom Lacey
OPEIU Local 3*

Joel Schor
Sailors Union Of The Pacific*

Russ Miyashiro
ILWU Local 34*

Dave Welsh
Delegate, San Francisco Labor Council*

Larry Wright
ILWU Local 91*

Pierre Labossiere
CSEA*

Gene Pepi
Past Vice President retired, ATU Local 1555*
*For identification only.
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http://laborforpalestine.wordpress.com/
laborforpalestine.us@gmail.com

Stop Israel’s Massacre in Gaza and End the Siege Now

By 44 Union Members at the Legal Aid Society in New York City*
December 31, 2008

“For the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.”
–Martin Luther King Jr., Beyond Vietnam (April 4, 1967)

The undersigned members of the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys/UAW Local 2325 and 1199SEIU join millions around the world — many of whom are Jewish — to condemn, in the strongest possible terms, Israel’s ongoing massacre of hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza.

Already, the Palestinian death toll is nearly 1000; thousands more have been injured. Under international law, the vast majority are civilians.

Israel’s massacres are carried out with F-16s, Apache helicopters and other advanced U.S. weapons — part of $30 billion in military funding for Israel that will be paid for by our tax dollars over the next ten years.

We cannot turn a blind eye.

We ask all who agree with this statement to participate in upcoming protests.

*Signers (list in formation; affiliations listed for identification only)
Noha Arafa (Criminal Defense-Brooklyn; ALAA Alt. Vice-President)
Julie Fry (Criminal Defense-Brooklyn; ALAA Vice-President)
Michael Letwin (Criminal Defense-Brooklyn; former ALAA Pres.)
Azalia Torres (Criminal Defense-Brooklyn; former member, ALAA Executive Bd.)
Bahar Mirhosseini (Criminal Defense-Brooklyn)
Mimi Rosenberg (Civil-Brooklyn)
Patrick Langhenry (Civil-Brooklyn)
Antonia Codling (Criminal Defense-Bronx; former member, ALAA Executive Bd.)
Lucy Herschel (Criminal Defense-Queens; 1199 delegate)
Steve Terry (Criminal Defense-Brooklyn)
Rebecca Kurti (Criminal Defense-Brooklyn; 1199 delegate)
Kate Fitzer (Criminal Defense-Brooklyn)
Andrea Ibrahim (Criminal Defense-Brooklyn)
Roslyn Morrison (Criminal Defense-Brooklyn)
Jamie Kauget (Juvenile Rights-Queens)
Daniella Korotzer (Criminal Defense-Brooklyn; former member, ALAA Executive Bd.)
Bharati Narumanchi (Criminal Defense-Brooklyn)
Tajuana B. Johnson (Juvenile Rights-Bronx)
Steven Wasserman (Criminal Defense-Special Litigation; ALAA Executive Bd.)
Richard Blum (Civil-ELU)
Laurie Dick (Criminal Defense-Brooklyn)
Sigmund Israel (Criminal Defense-Brooklyn)
Clarissa M. Gomez (Harlem Community Law Office)
Mia Eisner-Grynberg (Criminal Defense-Bronx)
Reda Woodcock (Criminal Defense-Brooklyn)
Jessica Goldthwaite (Criminal Defense-Brooklyn)
Ellen S. Sacks (Criminal Defense-Brooklyn)
Joseph Lavine (Criminal Defense-Brooklyn)
Teresa Engst (Civil-HLU)
Hollis Pfitsch (Civil-ELU)
Warren Deans (Criminal Defense-Central Admin.)
Susan Olivia Morris (Criminal Defense-Brooklyn; ALAA Executive Bd.)
Janet Forrester (Criminal Defense-Brooklyn)
Aida Ferrer Leisenring (Criminal Defense-Brooklyn)
Claire Nicolay (Criminal Defense-Brooklyn)
Marisa Benton (Criminal Defense-Brooklyn)
Helene Busby (Harlem Community Law Office; former ALAA Vice-President)
Eric Meggett (Criminal Defense-Brooklyn)
Ivan Pantoja (Criminal Defense-Brooklyn; ALAA Executive Bd.)
Aisha Mohamedi Richard (Criminal Defense-Queens; ALAA Alt. Vice-President)
Lisa Pitts (Criminal Defense-Brooklyn)
Magda Rosa-Rios (Harlem Community Law Office; Attorneys of Color Rep. to ALAA Executive Bd.)
Lisa Edwards (Harlem Community Law Office; former member, ALAA Executive Bd.)
Florence Morgan (Criminal Defense-Queens)

Upcoming NYC Gaza Protests

Friday, Jan. 9, 1 p.m.
March from Al-Farouq Mosque (Atlantic & 4 Ave.) to Brooklyn Borough President’s Office, Boro Hall
N/R/2/3/4/5 to Atlantic/Pacific
www.bsg-ny.org

Saturday, Jan. 10, D.C.
NYC Buses for Let Gaza Live! National March in DC to Stop the U.S./Israeli War Against the Palestinian People
Sponsoring organizations and endorsers: ANSWER Coalition, Muslim American Society Freedom, Free Palestine Alliance, American Muslim Task Force, National Council of Arab Americans, Al-Awda – International Palestine Right to Return Coalition, International Action Center, Troops Out Now Coalition, CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations), American Muslims for Palestine, American Muslim Alliance, U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), Ramsey Clark, Cynthia McKinney, Howard Zinn, Muslimah Writers’ Alliance, The National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations, Voters for Peace, Code Pink, Action Center for Justice, International Socialist Organization, Iranian-American Friendship Committee, Philippine Peasant Support Network (Pesante)-USA, New York City Labor Against the War (NYCLAW), Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) and hundreds of others.
www.masnet.org
http://answer.pephost.org/site/News2?abbr=ANS_&page=NewsArticle&id=8927

Sunday Jan. 11, 1 p.m. Times Square
Mass Rally: Stop Massacres in Gaza and Break the Siege
Endorsers include: Al-Awda: Palestine Right to Return Coalition-NY, Arab Muslim American Federation, MAS-NY (Youth Center), National, Queens, NJ, Yonkers, The General Union of Palestine Students, Bayan-USA, Islamic Society of Bay Ridge, Salam Church, International Action Center, Brooklyn Cultural Center, Hudson Valley Islamic Center, December 12 Movement, New York City Labor Against the War, DRUM, Troops Out Now Coalition, Pakistan USA Freedom Forum, International League of Peoples Struggle, Dawoud Mosque, Muslim Alliance in New America, Masjid Al-Taqwa, Islamic Circle of North America, F.I.S.T., Jericho Amnesty Movement, International Association Against Torture, Palestine American Congress, Green Party NYC
http://www.bsg-ny.org/
info@bsg-ny.org

Coverage of January 7 NYC Shoe-In Against Mayor Bloomberg

Coverage of January 7 NYC Shoe-In Against Mayor Bloomberg

http://wcbstv.com/national/israel.hamas.conflict.2.902722.html
http://www.nypost.com/seven/01082009/news/regionalnews/critics_lace_into_bloomy_149215.htm
http://gothamist.com/2009/01/08/protesters_decry_bloombergs_support.php
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/viewmedia/68157
http://www.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=96641&feedType=VideoRSS&feedName=TopNews&videoChannel=1
http://rtv.rtrlondon.co.uk/2009-01-08/2601804.html

Report on January 5, 2009 NYC Jewish Press Conference Against Israeli Massacres

Report on January 5, 2009 NYC Jewish Press Conference Against Israeli Massacres

On Monday, January 5, about 30 Jewish activists participated in a 1 p.m. press conference at Union Square to condemn the Israeli massacres in Gaza. They called for an immediate end to all U.S. aid to Israel, and expressed support for the overall campaign to Boycott, Divest and Sanction Israel.

Speakers

On behalf of the protesters, Marty Goodman, Adalah-NY; former Executive Board member of Transit Workers Union Local 100, read the statement below.*

Other speakers included:

–Michael Kramer, an Israeli army veteran and member of Veterans for Peace.

–Michael Letwin, Co-Convener of New York City Labor Against the War (NYCLAW); Labor for Palestine; and former President of the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys/UAW Local 2325.

–Aaron Levitt of Jews Against the Occupation.

–Michael Gimbel, Local 375, DC 37 AFSCME and Delegate to the New York City Central Labor Council.

Media Coverage

The press conference received coverage, all of it favorable, from:

–Channel 4 TV News

–NY1
http://www.ny1.com/content/news_beats/politics/91746/protests-held-across-city-as-gaza-violence-continues/Default.aspx

–Metro New York
http://ny.metro.us/metro/local/article/Jewish_voices_differ_over_Israel/14691.html

–WBAI Radio

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*JEWS SPEAK OUT AGAINST GAZA MASSACRE!
ISRAEL DOES NOT SPEAK FOR US!
January 4, 2009

“For the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.”
Dr. Martin Luther King, Riverside Church, 1967

As Jews, we join millions around the world in condemning Israel’s ongoing murder and maiming of hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza. Israel does not speak for us!

The dead in Gaza represent a greater portion of Gaza’s population than the percentage of New Yorkers who died on 9/11.

This is the “bigger Shoah” against Gaza threatened by Israel’s Deputy Defense Minister Matan Valnai on Feb. 29, 2008. The U.S. stands behind Israel’s war on Gaza, providing weapons and political support.

By carrying out indiscriminate bombing that targets civilians, Israel is practicing collective punishment on the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza. This war crime violates the Fourth Geneva Convention. It is part of a US-Israeli campaign to punish Gazans for democratically electing Hamas.

Long before these attacks, Israel had turned Gaza into the world’s largest open-air prison and shooting gallery, assassinating activists, and cutting-off essential goods, jobs and services. Conditions have brought Gaza to the brink of mass starvation.

Only as a result did Hamas abandon a unilateral two-year ceasefire and subsequent truce. Since that time, it has repeatedly offered to cease all rocket fire in exchange for an end to U.S.-Israel blockade and other military attacks.

In the past ten years alone, U.S. military aid to Israel was $17 billion; over the next decade, it will be $30 billion. As in Afghanistan and Iraq, it is U.S. aircraft, cluster bombs and bullets that kill and maim on behalf of the occupiers.

As a result, violence is overwhelmingly one-sided against the Palestinians, who — as an occupied people — have no aircraft, artillery, tanks or ships. While rockets launched from Gaza since 2000 have killed 17 Israelis, Israel’s modern arsenal has killed more than 400 Palestinians — including many children — since December 27 alone.

We are against Israeli military occupation, for the right of Palestinian refugees to return, and for the elimination of apartheid throughout historic Palestine.

We say: End the massacre in Gaza, end the siege now, and end all U.S. Aid to Israel, and support Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel.

Please join us as many Jewish New York City activists gather to speak out against the crimes that are being carried out in our name.

LABOR FOR PALESTINE: STOP ISRAEL’S MASSACRE IN GAZA AND END THE SIEGE NOW!

Please endorse the statement below at: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/LaborforPalestine1/

LABOR FOR PALESTINE: STOP ISRAEL’S MASSACRE IN GAZA AND END THE SIEGE NOW!
December 31, 2008

New York City Labor Against the War joins millions around the world in condemning Israel’s ongoing murder and maiming of hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza.

WHO ARE THE REAL TERRORISTS?

Israel claims that it is fighting “terrorism” — the same hollow excuse with which the U.S. tries to justify wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the erosion of civil liberties and labor rights at home.

But as South African Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu points out, Israel’s massacres “bears all the hallmarks of war crimes.”

Long before these attacks, Israel had turned Gaza into the world’s largest open air prison, assassinating activists, and cutting-off essential goods, jobs, and services to 1.5 million people.

Only as a result did Hamas abandon a unilateral two-year ceasefire and subsequent truce. Since that time, it has repeatedly offered to cease all rocket fire in exchange for an end to U.S.-Israel blockade and other military attacks.

Israel responded with escalating pogroms, arrests, home demolitions, settlements and murder in the West Bank and Jerusalem — from which no rockets have been fired.

As a result, violence is overwhelmingly one-sided against the Palestinians, who — as an occupied people — have no aircraft, artillery, tanks or ships. While rockets launched from Gaza since 2000 have killed 17 Israelis, Israel’s modern arsenal has killed more than 400 Palestinians — including many children — since December 27 alone.

The dead represent a greater portion of Gaza’s population than the percentage of New Yorkers who died on 9/11. And Israel warns that these attacks are “only the beginning.”

Indeed, this is the “bigger Shoah” against Gaza threatened by Israel’s Deputy Defense Minister Matan Valnai on February 29, 2008.

Even the Israeli press admits that this brutality is a way for politicians to prove their “prowess” in contentious upcoming Israeli elections.

It is also part of an ongoing U.S.-Israeli campaign to collectively punish Palestinians for democratically electing Hamas.

And it is an attempt to stamp out all resistance — including nonviolent protest — to Israel’s ongoing dispossession and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians since before the Nakba (Catastrophe) of 1948.

U.S. GUNS AND MONEY

The U.S. stands behind Israel’s war on Gaza.

The White House, President-elect Barack Obama, and leaders of both the Republican and Democratic parties have — actively or tacitly — condoned the massacres.

In the past ten years alone, U.S. military aid to Israel was $17 billion; over the next decade, it will be $30 billion. As in Afghanistan and Iraq, it is U.S. aircraft, cluster bombs and bullets that kill and maim on behalf of the occupiers.

Such support bolsters Israel’s longstanding role as watchdog and junior partner for U.S. domination over the oil-rich Middle East — and beyond. In that capacity, Israel was apartheid South Africa’s closest ally.

LABOR’S ROLE

On December 27, Cosatu, the South African trade union federation, specifically condemned the current Gaza massacres and reaffirmed its support for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel, a campaign that has been endorsed by labor bodies and trade unionists — many of them Jewish — in Britain, Canada and other countries.

On December 29, in response to the Gaza massacres, the Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees urgently called for intensification of this campaign.

But much of labor officialdom in this country — often without the knowledge or consent of union members — has a longstanding complicity with Israeli Apartheid that dates to before 1948.

Some 1,500 labor bodies have plowed at least $5 billion of union pension funds and retirement plans into State of Israel Bonds.

In April 2002, while Israel butchered Palestinian refugees at Jenin in the West Bank, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney was a featured speaker at a belligerent “National Solidarity Rally for Israel.”

In July 2007, top officials of the AFL-CIO and Change to Win signed a statement that condemned British unions for even considering the nonviolent campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel. Virtually no labor bodies have opposed the Gaza massacres.

As Jewish Labor Committee President Stuart Appelbaum recently boasted, “American leadership is fundamental to challenging Israel bashing within the labor movement globally.”

This complicity parallels infamous “AFL-CIA” support for U.S. war and dictatorship in Vietnam, Latin America, Gulf War I, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

It strengthens the U.S.-Israel war machine and labor’s corporate enemies, reinforces racism and Islamophobia, and makes a mockery of international solidarity.

And as with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, workers in the United States pay a staggering human and financial price, including deepening economic crisis, for U.S.-Israeli war and occupation.

FREE PALESTINE — A NECESSARY STAND FOR LABOR

More than forty years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. came under intense public attack for opposing the Vietnam war. Even within the Civil Rights Movement, some dismissed his position too “divisive” and “unpopular.”

In his famous speech at the Riverside Church in April 1967, Dr. King replied, “For the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.”

This principle is no less relevant for today’s labor and antiwar movements.

Yes, the Israel lobby seeks to silence opponents of Israeli Apartheid. All the more need for trade unionists to break that silence by speaking out against Israeli military occupation, for the right of Palestinian refugees to return, and for the elimination of apartheid throughout historic Palestine.

Therefore, we reaffirm our support for the international Boycotts, Sanctions and Divestment campaign, including an immediate end to all support for Israel — including that provided by U.S. labor leaders.

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Issued by NYCLAW Co-Conveners
(Other affiliations listed for identification only):

Larry Adams
Former President, NPMHU Local 300

Michael Letwin
Former President, UAW Local 2325/Assn. of Legal Aid Attorneys

Brenda Stokely
Former President, AFSCME DC 1707; Co-Chair, Million Worker March

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