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Past Events: Spring
2003
March 26th
Tonight at 7PM FPN held its weekly meeting. We
discussed with fellow Palestinian solidarity activists the formation of a
Free Palestine Now chapter at Mary Washington College. In addition, we
decided to put together an event on the effects of the Israeli occupation
on the plight of Palestinian women. This event will take place on
April 23 at 7PM in the VCU Student Commons. We agreed to reach out
to pro-Palestinian members of the Richmond community and campus groups
like the Women's Theater Project for our upcoming event.
March 22nd
On Sunday, March 22nd, Free Palestine Now!
presented a workshop about the Palestinian struggle and the activities of
VCU's Free Palestine Now! at the RECLAIM conference, on Community War and
Oppression, which was held from March 21st to March 23rd. The workshop was
attended by people of all difference ages, races, backgrounds and
ideologies. FPN presented a slideshow,
which compared the struggle against apartheid in Palestine to the struggle
of apartheid in South Africa. We concluded our slideshow
presentation by comparing the international movement against apartheid in
South Africa to the new and growing movement against apartheid in
Palestine. If you would like the view the slideshow, please click on
this link (http://www.studentorg.vcu.edu/fpn/reclaim.ppt)
March 5th
Tonight
was the third part in FPN’s lecture series on Palestine entitled the
Palestinian Struggle with Mark Lance and Rami El-Amine of SUSTAIN (Stop US
Tax Aid To Israel Now). Originally
Stanley Cohen had been scheduled to speak, but he was not able to make it
due to his still being in Palestine.
The event was held in the Business Building auditorium and drew a
crowd of about 60 people. Mark
Lance spoke briefly about the history of Palestine, and the relationship
between the Israeli offers of a dismembered Palestinian state and the
White establishment in South Africa’s offer of back “homelands”
called “Bantustans” during the 1980’s. Lance also talked about he South African divestment campaigns
and their goals and aims in relation to the ongoing Divestment from Israel
Campaigns ongoing on 70+ University campuses nationwide.
Rami El-Amine spoke about the importance of tying in the
Palestinian struggle to the exploding anti-war movement in this country
and worldwide. The event and speakers proposed to the crowd that increased
participation and mobilization was and is needed to effect freedom and
justice for the Palestinian people, and an important part of that
mobilization as to form alliances and work with other justice
organizations both nationally and Internationally.
FPN would just like to thank Mark Lance and Rami El-Amine for
coming down from Washington DC to speak with us, and we would also like to
thank everyone who helped to organize for this event including Food Not
Bombs Richmond, Students for Divestment at VCU, and Richmond Jews for a
Free Palestine.
March 5th
Today at 6pm we held our weekly Free Palestine Now! meeting,
rescheduled from it’s usual time at 7pm due to the Palestinian Struggle
Part III being held at 8pm. At
the meeting we discussed speaker proposals for our next event in late
April. FPN members agreed
that we would all go and speak to our various contacts about the event and
report back at the next meeting after Spring Break.
We also discussed organizing for our workshop at the upcoming
“RECLAIM: A Conference on community, war, and oppression” at which FPN
will be presenting a workshop on Divestment from Israel as well as
organizing Street Theatre and mobilizing for a Pro-Palestinian/ Anti-War
march on the last day of the conference.
It was agreed that FPN should make it a goal to bring a Palestinian
solidarity block of 30-50 to the march.
Our next meeting will be Wednesday March 19th at 7pm in
the VCU Student Commons.
February 26th
Tonight was the weekly Free Palestine Now! meeting.
We discussed our reactions to the racist Zelig Krymko event on Monday,
relating our various accounts of the sick event and speaker to the members
of FPN who were not present at the event. We also discussed the Pros
and Cons of the Starbucks action last Monday. We also discussed at
length the planning for our next event in late April, which we hope will
be a successful last event of a very successful semester. Various
ideas for fundraising were proposed, and it was decided that FPN would
purchase Palestinian solidarity Kaffiyeh's in bulk and then sell them to
fundraise for future events. We also decided on future button and
pin sales to raise money. Our next meeting is next Wednesday at 6pm
in the Student Commons, and our next event is the same night at 8pm.
February 24th
Today was a grim day for VCU as Zionist
speaker Zelig Krymko of an organization called “True Peace” and the
ZOA (Zionist Organization of America) came to Campus bringing with him
vicious racism and hate. The
event, sponsored by Hillel at VCU and Supporters of a Safe Israel, was
lightly attended, with the maximum number of people in the room numbering
a little under 30. Of those
thirty, 14 were Free Palestine Now! members and another 5 were independent
Palestinian supporters. After
an uninformative lecture about why “God gave Israel to the Jews only”
Krymko opened the floor up to questions and answers where his true racist
views were exposed. Krymko
opened the question and answer section by attacking a Jewish member of
Free Palestine Now! for “not really being Jewish” for his not knowing
various aspects of Orthodox Judaism, after he asked a question to the
speaker. This was followed by
increasingly heated exchanges as he became more and more offensive and
racist. Krymko openly stated
that Palestinians who did not accept total Israeli control over all of the
West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem “should be put on buses and
expelled from their lands”. This
racist policy of “transfer” is one popularly used by the far-right
extremists of the Israeli colonist movements.
At this point the audience exploded with indignation, and one older
gentleman, shocked and horrified at what the speaker had just said
demanded to know if Krymko would put serial number tattoos on their arms
as well. Krymko reacted to
the audiences anger with more hate-speech going on to say that peace would
be achieved “Only if we killed Yassir Arafat, may his name be erased,
and 30,000 PLO members” this disgusting statement shocked everyone in
the room and shows clearly that this “man” was only concerned with the
ethnic cleansing of Palestine and all of its occupants.
After this sick and horrific statement two African-American women
stood up and accosted Krymko and Hillel for putting quotes from the
peacemaker Martin Luther King jr. on their fliers promoting the event.
They rightly stated that Martin Luther King Jr. would never have
approved of statements promoting the murder of 30,000 people, the forced
removal of thousands more, and the Israeli governments current oppression
of the Palestinian people. Krymko
then attacked the ladies saying that they “obviously were not real
scholars of Martin Luther King Jr.”. The two women walked out in protest
demanding that Hillel never again use Martin Luther King’s words to
advertise such blatant racism. The audience, very angry at this point was
having a hard time staying calm and many people began to walk out in
disgust. Those who stayed
were treated to more racism and direct attacks.
Krymko went on to say “The US is not giving enough money to
Israel, 3 billion a year is too little; it should be 30 billion”.
A Pro-Palestinian girl from Iran was attacked by the speaker who
told her she was “likely to be raped and murdered in Iran” (the girl
has lived in Iran, Krymko has not). We
at Free Palestine Now! are absolutely shocked and horrified by the racist
hate speech promoted by this speaker and we will be filing complaints with
the University, as this event was partially funded by the school through
the Student Activities Center. We
cannot believe that even a Pro-Israeli speaker can be so callous and
careless for human life and human rights.
All of us who were at the event will be publishing our personal
accounts of the event including the personal attacks each of us suffered
and compiling those accounts into a formal complaint against the events
sponsors.
February 24th
Today at 5pm Students for Divestment at
VCU (SD-VCU) led a protest at the Starbucks in the VCU Student Library
drawing attention to Starbuck’s support of the Israeli occupation of
Palestine. We had many more
students participate than was anticipated. In total 13 Pro-Palestinian student activists occupied two
tables in the Starbucks with signs and fliers.
The signs decried Israel’s occupation of Palestine and Starbucks
support for that occupation. The
protest drew a mixed reception with most students looking on in
bewilderment. A few students
approached and requested information, some vocalizing their support for
the cause. The protest lasted
about 8 minutes before the head librarian arrived and engaged us in
conversation. He was an
understanding man, and asked our intentions.
We told him, in accordance with the plan of action drawn up for
this action that we were protesting Starbucks support of the Israeli
occupation and we were being silent and peaceful so as not to disrupt
people in the library. We also told him that we would leave if he considered us to
be a disturbance to the learning environment in the library. (In
accordance with VCU protest regulation) He said that we were and SD-VCU
called on the activists to leave the library, having made our point.
Overall the Starbucks action was good and bad. On the good side we managed to yet again force the
administration of our school to deal with the fact that they have invested
over 8 million dollars in companies that directly invest in Israel’s
illegal occupation of Palestine, and educate students as to the truth of
the situation in Palestine. On
the negative side the action at Starbucks only lasted a brief 8 minutes
before the administration, rightly or wrongly, asked us to leave our own
school library.
February 19th
Tonight we had an incredibly productive weekly meeting.
We discussed the upcoming divestment action at Starbucks (Monday February
24th at 5pm) and the possibility of a Pro-Palestinian snake march on March
1st. We also had a report back from the various committees formed
last week. All the committees have now elected chair persons, and
the publicity committee held its first meeting earlier this week.
They discussed ways to publicize the upcoming event with Stanley Cohen and
Mark Lance (March 5th). The publicity committee has produced a flier
for that event and it was distributed for flyering at the meeting.
We also discussed proposals for a Women in Palestine event scheduled for
early April and forming a team to walk in the breast cancer awareness
march in April. The fundraising committee floated a couple of ideas
for raising funds in the future, and a voluntary 5$ membership due was
decided upon to immediately raise funds for the upcoming events.
Please check pout the new editorials on the editorials page, the new fact
sheet on the fact sheets page, and the new divestment links in the
divestment section. Our next event is this Monday at 5pm in the
Starbucks at the VCU library.
February 15th
Today was the incredible anti-war/Pro-Palestinian rally in New York City. 6 Free Palestine Now! members joined with 500,000 people in protesting a possible US war on Iraq and the dire consequences such a war would have on the Palestinian people. Please go to the editorials page for a first hand account from New York by a Free Palestine Now! activist.
February 12th
Tonight was the weekly Free Palestine Now! meeting. Despite the many other events that were taking place tonight, apx. 10-15 people were present at varying times during the meeting. Important structural changes were made to Free Palestine Now! with the establishment of three FPN committees: Fundraising, Publicity, and Divestment. Each of the Committees will meet in the near future and elect a committee coordinator who in turn will work with the other committees and the executive council. In addition to the formation of committees we also discussed the upcoming Stanley Cohen and Mark Lance event March 5th, and how to publicize for this event, and at least two future actions in support of the divestment campaign. Lastly Free Palestine Now! members will be driving up to DC this weekend to join a SUSTAIN bus to New York City for the anti-war rally on February 15th.
February 6th
Tonight at 8pm Free Palestine Now! hosted a speaking event with Palestinian journalist and writer Ramzy Baroud from Palestine Chronicle in the VCU Commons Capital Ballroom A-B. The event was an astounding success. Over 110 people packed all of the seats in the capital ballroom to here Ramzy Baroud detail the massive human rights abuses of the IOF in Palestine, and the specifics of the Israeli massacre of Palestinians in Jenin last spring. The event started with an intro by Free Palestine Now! and an exceptional piece of poetry by Mariam Lodin, a VCU student. Ramzy Baroud was an incredible speaker. After speaking for about 25 minutes about Jenin and Palestine (his wife also read an account from a Palestinian woman who lost her sister to Israeli bullets during the massacre) Mr. Baroud entertained questions from the audience. For another 30 minutes or so Ramzy Baroud stunned the audience with his ability to answer any and all questions clearly, factually, and extremely passionately. The reaction from the audience was exceptional and many people stayed around afterwards to talk to Mr. Baroud and congratulate him on such incredible answers to questions about Palestine. Free Palestine Now! also distributed our divestment petition during the event and compiled close to 50 signatures. Thank you very much to Ramzy Baroud for coming out here from Seattle to speak to us, and thank you to all the activists from Free Palestine Now! who worked tirelessly putting this event together. Also thank you to Food Not Bombs (FNB), Muslim Students Association (MSA), Students for Political Awareness (SPA), Students for Divestment at VCU (SD-VCU), and the Women’s Theatre Project for co-sponsoring the event and helping us publicize. Lastly please check the pictures section for photos from our Street Theatre on Monday (FPN pictures section). Our next meeting will be Wednesday February 12 at 7pm in the VCU student Commons.February 1st
Today apx. 20 activists from Free Palestine Now! (FPN), Food Not Bombs (FNB), Students for Divestment at VCU (SD-VCU), and Richmond Jews for a Free Palestine (RJFP) performed Guerrilla Palestinian Street Theatre at three locations on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University. The Street Theatre was an exceptional success. We performed the theatre, consisting of a mock Israeli checkpoint, between the VCU library and Dining Hall, At the Breezeway near the student commons, and in front of the Temple building. Originally the plan had been to perform the last street theatre in front of the business building, but when we arrived at that location we looked across the street and realized there was a fire drill at Temple and 400 or so students were milling around outside. At the first two locations apx. 60 and 30 students saw the performance respectively. The response from the crowd was good to great depending on location, and at some points during the theatre students began to boo the "Israeli Soldiers" in the performance. At the last location we distributed a our divestment petition and compiled over 50 signatures. The event was a complete success, we reached a massive number of students, we had 20 dedicated activists turned out to help, and we informed and educated many unknowing people who we hope will support the Palestinian people in the future. Thank you to all the activists who put in long hours of prop work, rehearsals, and performed in the actual event. Also thank you to all the people who watched and learned about Palestine. Lastly thank you to the Street theatre actors and actresses from Food Not Bombs for showing us how to do street theatre, and the people from Richmond Jews for a Free Palestine for taking the moral high ground and helping us fight for justice and freedom for Palestine and a future in which Jews and Palestinians can live side-by-side in peace. This will defiantly not be the last time FPN does Street Theatre. Later on at 5:30 pm we held our weekly meeting that was rescheduled from its normal Wednesday night time because of the many other events taking place this Wednesday. About 10 people were present for the hastily scheduled meeting, and most of the meeting was devoted to basking in the success of the Street Theatre. Other than the Street Theatre Recap, we compiled petitions and the total so far will soon be published on this website. Our next event will be this Thursday February 6th at 8 pm in the Capital Ballrooms A-B when Ramzy Baroud comes to speak.
January 29th
Tonight was the weekly FPN meeting. Today marked the official launch of the Divestment petition. This petition is divided into three parts. One for VCU students, professors, and staff, one for members of the Richmond community, and one for national and international supporters. The supporters petition will hopefully be launched online in the next few days. Also Free Palestine Now! approved the dates for street theatre. It will take place at 3pm this Monday February 3rd at the sundial between the VCU library and dining hall. More information is available under the upcoming events page. Also discussed was the upcoming Ramzy Baroud event on February 6th and publicity and fundraising tactics for that event. We have new and exiting website content. Please check out the new editorials (editorials section), the new divestment cartoon by Brazilian cartoonist Latuff on the pictures page and right hand bar, and new facts sheets (Palestine facts sheets page) Our next meeting is this coming Monday at 5:30 immediately following the Street Theatre performance at the VCU student Commons. There will be NO meeting this Wednesday. This coming Thursday February 6th is the big Ramzy Baroud event in the Commons Capital Ballroom A and B at 8pm.
January 22nd
We have lots of news from our various meetings today. All in all there were three very important Free Palestine Now! events today. First at 4:30 today Free Palestine Now! members and members of Students for Divestment at VCU and Food Not Bombs met with VCU president Trani to present him with our request to start divestment at our University. The meeting got off to an auspicious start with President Trani being angered at the Divestment Campaign due to his viewing of our original divestment starter press release on a San Francisco website. After this start, the Free Palestine Now! members presented Trani with a brief overview of the situation in Palestine, VCU's support of the Israeli Apartheid system, and what we were asking from the school. President Trani responded by saying that he refuses to take a political position on this, and any issue, and that he will pass on our information to the heads of the various investment funds. Free Palestine Now! will shortly release an official press release response to this meeting, but we can say in brief that we understand why President Trani refuses to take a public political position on this issue and place a social restriction on dealings with Israel, but the extent of VCU's economic dealings with Israel itself is a political statement on behalf of the Israeli government. The second meeting of the day was a planning meeting for the Richmond Anti-war conference. This conference has now been renamed as "RECLAIM! A conference on community, war, and oppression" and is scheduled for the end of March. Free Palestine Now! will be putting on at least 2 workshops at this conference and will be heavily active in the planning of this conference. The third and last meeting of the day was the weekly Free Palestine Now! Tonight's meeting drew about 15 people, and shows a distinctive upswing in the core members of Free Palestine Now! Free Palestine Now! approved the sponsorship of the Women's Theatre Project's play by a Jewish playwright and former member of the Seeds of Peace center, more information will be posted on this event when we receive it. Free Palestine Now! also has set up an organizing committee for upcoming Palestinian Street Theatre activities in Richmond and VCU. We also discussed the aforementioned meeting with Trani, and discussed the future direction of the divestment campaign. We have also agreed to write a new resolution/mission statement that condemns anti-Semitism and racism more thoroughly and visibly. Our next meeting is next Wednesday at 7pm in the Student Commons, and this weekend is NCOR (National Conference on Organized Resistance) in Washington DC. Please stay tuned to this website for more upcoming events. Also many more updates are planned for this website, so stay tuned!
January 18th
Today was the huge Anti-War/ Pro-Palestine rally in Washington DC. About 12 Free Palestine Now! members carpooled up to Washington DC with other Richmond activists to take part in the demonstrations. We first attended the Percussion feeder march outside of Union Station then met up with SUSTAIN (Stop US Tax Aid to Israel Now) and other Palestinian groups to form a Palestinian solidarity Bloc at the the main A.N.S.W.E.R (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) rally at the Capital building. Free Palestine Now! estimates about 200,000 people taking place in the demonstration, with a large percentage of them there to support the Palestinian people. Despite the frigid cold temperatures the march illustrated the mass discontent at the United States and Israel for their crimes against the Palestinian people and the impending crime of war against the Iraqi people. We saw in total about 9 counter demonstrators, apx. 6 of them were in a Republican headquarters, drinking champagne with a dry erase board that said "hippies go home". All in all we feel that this protest was an essential step to averting war in Iraq and another vital step towards building a massive Pro-Palestinian movement in this country.
January 17th
It seems as if Free Palestine Now! has been slandered
by the Pro-Israeli and Pro-Zionist group the ADL (Anti-Defamation League).
Once a reputable organization, the ADL has swung franticly to the right in
their attempts to stem the tide of Palestinian support in this country.
The ADL has become a lying mouthpiece of the Zionists who wish to label
every Pro-Palestinian group in this country as Anti-Semitic. The ADL
attack on Free Palestine Now! is a prime example of this Zionist
opportunistic slander. As most people know, Free Palestine Now! was
co-founded by a Jewish student here at VCU. A Jewish Student also
serves on the three-member executive council. We make it a point to
completely condemn racism and anti-Semitism in all forms, and challenge
anyone to find anything anti-Semitic on our website or in our press
releases. We challenge the ADL cowards to explain how being
anti-Israeli and anti-Zionist can possibly translate into their wild
accusations of anti-Semitism. Another prime example of the ADL's
ignorance and hypocrisy is their attacks on Adam Shapiro, the well known
Jewish born Pro-Palestinian activist, who they have also slandered as
anti-Semite. Please go to the editorials section for the official
Free Palestine Now! counter-press release.
January 15th
Tonight's meeting was a very successful start to the
new semester at VCU. About 20 people were present for this meeting,
and a wide range of topics were discussed. First and foremost, Free
Palestine Now! voted to share a table with Richmond Food Not Bombs and the
Better Days Collective at this next weekends NCOR (National Conference on
Organized Resistance) meetings at American University. Secondly Free
Palestine Now! approved the idea to lead a number of workshops at the
Richmond Anti-War conference scheduled for April 11-13. We also
discussed to upcoming Free Palestine Now! event with Ramzy Baroud of the
Palestine Chronicle, February 6th 2003. Our co-sponsors so far for
that event are: Students for Divestment at VCU, Women's Theatre Project,
and Food Not Bombs Richmond. Each of the co-sponsoring groups will
help publicize the event. Lastly, tonight's meeting doubled as the
first divestment meeting of the new semester. Divestment committees
were formed for numerous Divestment activities including committees to
draw up a Divestment Petition, finalize a letter to President Trani, and
schedule a meeting with President Trani. Our next meeting will be
Wednesday January 22nd at 7pm in the Student Commons. All the
committees will report back on their activities to the full group at that
time. Upcoming activities include the Food Not Bombs meeting Tuesday
January 21st at the PACE center, the Richmond Anti-War conference planning
meeting Wednesday January 22nd at 5:30 at the PACE center, and finally the
NCOR conference next weekend January 24th-26th at American University in
Washington DC.
January 13th
Welcome back from break. Free Palestine Now! has
lots of news for everybody as most of our members where working hard on
FPN activities over the break. First and foremost Our next meeting
is this Wednesday January 15 in the VCU student commons. Look on the
board inside the commons for the room. At this meeting we will be
discussing all of our news and activities from over the break, planning
the future of our Divestment Campaign, drawing up a flier for the upcoming
February event. The second piece of news is that we have an event
scheduled for early February. More information and the fliers for
this event will be posted on the website after the Wednesday meeting.
Thirdly Free Palestine Now! have made t-shirts which we intend to sell as
a fundraiser for bringing speakers to campus and for other FPN activities.
These t-shirts will cost 8$ and they will be available at any FPN meeting
and activity, and soon will be available over this website. The
final piece of today's news is that Free Palestine Now! has issued a call
to protest in Washington DC on January 18th 2003. (This Saturday)
This call has been issued on this website, Richmond Indymedia, and DC
Indymedia. To read this declaration, go to the editorials section. The
specifics of the event will be posted on the upcoming events section. Check
out the new editorials from Ibrahim Farhan and Ari Packer on the
editorials section of this website.
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