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Past Events Summer 2003
July 12th
Once again sorry for the lack of updates. Full news
will be posted shortly. In the mean time
checkout the new editorial
in the editorials section by Said Tomas entitled "The Roadmap to Apartheid
(Click Here). There is also one new protest chant in the chants section.
June 30th
Sorry for the lack of updates, Free Palestine Now! has been
extremely busy coordinating many activities in the Richmond area both
present and future. First, last weeks divestment planning meeting
was a great success. Activists from Free Palestine Now!, Students
for Divestment at VCU and Food Not Bombs Richmond sat down and developed a
comprehensive plan to pass divestment at VCU within the next school year.
Full details of the plan are available for anyone who wishes to become
active with the divestment campaign at VCU next fall upon request. A
follow up divestment meeting/conference planning meeting will be held at
8:30pm this Thursday on the second floor of the VCU library. The
weekly meeting was equally as successful, and was devoted to planning
actions for the first 2 weeks of the next school semester. On the
second full day of classes Free Palestine Now! and other Richmond
activists will perform Street Theatre on the VCU campus to highlight the
struggle of the Palestinian people to the incoming freshman class.
Additionally every single day of the first week of school Free Palestine
Now! will have an information table and a banner in the Student Commons.
At the end of the first week of school, Free Palestine Now! will sponsor a
video showing on Palestine, and at the beginning of the second week of
school will hold a fundraising dinner for the activists who traveled to
Palestine this summer. The next summer meeting is next Saturday at
7pm, and starting Tuesday July 1st Free Palestine Now! will have a banner
in the commons for viewing by the freshman registering with the summer
STAR program. Also check out the revisions to the mission statement
as agreed upon by a vote two meetings ago, (statement updated, slightly
changed) and the new FAQ about Free Palestine Now! on the mission and
editorials page.
June 22nd
Yesterday was a busy day for Free Palestine Now!.
During the day Free Palestine Now! and Richmond Jews Against the
Occupation set up an information table in the elite Cary Town district of
Richmond catching shoppers as they packed the streets. The table
elicited considerable interest and many people added their names to Free
Palestine Now's contact list and took flyers. Later on in the day
Free Palestine Now! held it's weekly meeting. The biggest issue of
the meeting was a proposal by the representative of the Richmond Greens to
replace the picture of Palestinian youths throwing rocks at a tank on the
front page of the website with a "non-violent" picture in exchange for
endorsement from the Greens. The proposal was debated at
considerable length with good points being made by both sides.
Eventually the proposal was rejected 4-3 with one stand aside, with the
provision that Free Palestine Now! will make additions to our mission
statement and a "FAQ" editorial concerning the issue. Other topics
that were discussed during the meeting included a recap of the tabling and
a decision to table every week on Saturday from 1-4pm, the planning of a
divestment meeting this Thursday June 26th at 8:30pm in the VCU library
(2nd floor), and the approval of sending a Free Palestine Now! contingent
to the protests in Philadelphia July 4th.
June 20th
Bad news, the Iron Sheik concert scheduled for June 28th at
the PACE center has been canceled due to the Iron Sheik returning to the
west coast prematurely. We apologize on behalf of the Iron Sheik.
The next Free Palestine Now! meeting is Saturday June 21st at 7pm at 1000
Park St Apt.3.
June 15th
The news from
yesterdays meeting will be posted shortly. What follows is the most
recent Free Palestine Now! press release condemning Anti-Semitic attacks
by fascists in the City of Richmond. (Link to FPN press release)
June 13th
Here is the long awaited opening statement from the new
Richmond activist group Richmond Jews Against the Occupation (RJATO):
Today we are proud to announce that Richmond Jews
for a Free Palestine (RJFP) has formally renamed itself as Richmond Jews
Against the Occupation (RJATO), and becomes a chapter of the of the New
York based organization of the same name. Jews Against the Occupation
has become an internationally known group for the courageous stand of
its Jewish activists in support of the Palestinian people’s struggle
against the brutal Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and
East Jerusalem. JATO has been active here in the United States,
mobilizing members of the Jewish community against the human rights
abuses perpetuated by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF), and the
support the United States government is giving to those same forces.
Richmond Jews Against the Occupation aims to extend the message of
Jewish solidarity with the oppressed Palestinian people into the
Richmond Virginia area, and to provide a voice to members of the Jewish
community in Richmond who do not approve of the massive human rights
violations carried out by the Israeli military in its debilitating and
illegal occupation. More information on RJATO activities and actions
can be found on the website of Free Palestine Now! (www.studentorg.vcu.edu/fpn).
The following is the opening mission statement of the new Richmond
activist organization Richmond Jews Against the Occupation:
(link to RJATO mission statement)
June 11th
It has been a very busy week for Free Palestine Now! First of
all here is the news from the weekly meeting on Saturday. The two
activists who went to New York City for the protest of the Salute to
Israel parade gave a report back detailing the trip as well as the
official contact between them and members of Jews Against the Occupation
(JATO) in NYC. As a result of that meeting Richmond Jews for a Free
Palestine (RJFP) is hereby renamed Richmond Jews Against the Occupation
(RJATO) and becomes a chapter of JATO based out of NYC. Opening
statements on RJATO will be posted by the founding members shortly.
The activists who went to the Noam Chomsky event in DC also gave a report
back detailing their contacts with numerous Pro-Palestinian groups in the
DC area including a group that brings injured Palestinian children to
America for medical treatment. In the future Free Palestine Now!
will be working with this group providing transportation and
accommodations for Palestinian youths receiving medical treatment in the
Richmond area. Also discussed was the planning for the regional
conference, and June 28th was confirmed for the Iron Sheik concert in
Richmond. The next meeting will be Saturday June 14th at 12pm at
1000 Park St apt #3, and the next event is June 21st, where Free Palestine
Now! will set up a lit table in Cary Town and distribute literature. On
Sunday Free Palestine Now! sent a representative to the SUSTAIN (DC)
general meeting in Washington DC. At that meeting SUSTAIN
officially endorsed the regional conference and present a workshop on the
Caterpillar campaign there. SUSTAIN also approved the establishment
of a Richmond chapter of SUSTAIN. More info on this and opening
statements from the chapters founders will be posted shortly.
June 6th
The next meeting of Free Palestine Now! will be tomorrow
Saturday June 7th 2003 at 1000 Park St. Apt.3 in Richmond Virginia.
This meeting will address planning for the Palestine Awareness Week and
Regional Solidarity Conference to be held in Richmond in October 2003, the
upcoming Iron Sheik benefit concert in Richmond VA, and many other Free
Palestine Now! actions and events. In the near future there will be
a section on this website dedicated to the regional conference, but for
now, here is the updated list of endorsers: Free Palestine Now! (FPN-VCU),
Richmond Jews for a Free Palestine (RJFP), Free Palestine Now! (FPN-MWC),
Richmond Food Not Bombs (FNB), Students for Divestment at VCU (SD-VCU),
Little Flower Catholic Worker, Jews Against the Occupation (JATO),
Progressive Student Community Alliance. After tomorrow's meeting,
many more updates will be made to this website, so stay tuned!
June 5th
Today, on the 36th anniversary of the start of the occupation
of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem and the international day
of action for Palestine, we received the following communiqué from a
previously unknown Pro-Palestinian direct action group in the Richmond
area. Additionally, Free Palestine Now! at Mary Washington College
is marking the this somber anniversary by holding a public event/table in
Fredericksburg Virginia where they will be handing out information about
the Palestinian struggle and the occupation.
Palestinian Direct Action
Team (PDAT) - communiqué #1
At 5:30am on June 5th
2003 three members of Richmond’s new Palestinian Direct Action Team (PDAT)
marked the 36th anniversary of the beginning of the
occupation of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem by the
Israeli Occupation Forces by dropping a banner on the 195 overpass at
Kensington Street in Richmond Virginia. The banner read “36 years
of bloody illegal occupation; Free Palestine Now”. This banner
drop was a test run for the Richmond area, and an inaugural action for
PDAT. The action was designed to test the feasibility of future
banner drop activities in the Richmond area, and by all measures the
action was a success. By 2pm the banner was still hanging from the
overpass, and may still be there at the time of the writing of this
communiqué.
The new Palestinian Direct
Action Team (PDAT) is a loose, non-violent affinity group of Virginia
based Pro-Palestinian activists who believe that it is imperative to
confront the power structure of the United States and the corporate
world over its economic, political, and military support of the Israeli
occupation and brutalization of the Palestinian people. PDAT
believes that through direct actions and public spectacles highlighting
the suffering and oppression of the Palestinian people, a vital
component is added to the rapidly growing Pro-Palestinian movement in
the United States and around the world, which in turn will pressure the
United States government to cease and desist its aid to the racist
Israeli government who have embarked upon policies of ethnic cleansing
and Apartheid in the illegally occupied territories. PDAT believes
that it is essential to bring the Palestinian cause to the streets
through any means at our disposal, and in the coming months and years
will labor to further Palestinian solidarity in this country through
direct action.
June 3rd
We apologize for the lack of updates in the past few days, as
we were experiencing technical problems with our website. This weekend 5
Free Palestine Now! activists traveled to DC to attend the Noam Chomsky
lecture presented by SUSTAIN at UDC (University of the District of
Colombia) and two Free Palestine Now! activists traveled to New York to
protest the Salute to Israel parade with dozens of Jewish human rights and
Pro-Palestinian groups. Accounts from both of these events will be
posted soon. This Saturday is our next meeting at noon at 1000 Park St.
#3. Additional information to report is that during the Free
Palestine Now! summit meeting in Fredericksburg last Thursday, Free
Palestine Now! at Mary Washington College has decided to hold a Palestine
Awareness Week at MWC the same week as the Palestine Awareness Week at VCU,
and then will travel down to Richmond for the regional conference.
Additionally FPN-MWC will be holding an event this Thursday June 5th in
solidarity with the International day of action for Palestine and in
commemoration of the anniversary of the beginning of the occupation of the
West Bank and the Gaza Strip by the Israeli military. Lastly and
most importantly we have received two journal entries and pictures from
our activist Chris in Palestine with the Christian Peacemaker Team.
The journal entries will be posted here on the news section and in the
editorials section. The pictures will be posted in the Palestine
pictures section with appropriate captions relating them to the journal
entries. Here are the first two journal entries.
June 1st
Pic 149 is a photo of a photo of a young Palestinian man, whose
family name I know but I don't know his first name, who was cut-branded
with the Star of David (he's Muslim) by Israeli border police in East
Jerusalem (allegedly Palestinian land) for being not a criminal, not a
rock thrower, not a doer of any wrong except being Arab and being around
young border police (regarded as the low-end of Israeli police/military
enforcers b/c typically only the poor get stuck in a border police
position). He was isolated, taken to a hill away from his friends, and
cut with either knife or glass--cut with the image of the Star of
David. His is not an isolated offense. I believe he was cut with a
knife, but several Palestinians have been inscribed with the Star of
David with either knife or broken glass--just as a means of
psychological, religious, cultural roughing-up/torture. I don't know
when this took place--I photographed the photo yesterday, and I believe
it happened within the past few months, if not in the past several
weeks.
The other two photos are of “Mariam’s” (names
changed for protection) no-longer-standing home, the foundation of it,
and a photo of her with one of her six children. Their home was
demolished last Monday, May 2_ (a week from tomorrow, its Sunday night
here now, look up the date). Their home was less than one year old.
The home was demolished b/c it was "illegal." Although this is in Arab
East Jerusalem, in Palestinian Occupied Territory, it is "illegal" for
them to have a home, not b/c they don't own the land, and they do. It
was illegal b/c they did not have the necessary paperwork for building a
house--this was no fault of their own: the family is certain that it
had all of the necessary document, but, once they turned in forms which
they had previously turned in (but the Jerusalem authorities said that
they had not), then the municipal authorities said, We're sorry, but now
your file has been lost. The home was slated for demolition previously,
but a court injunction was preventing it (so, there had to be some
agreed legitimacy to their claim of having all of the necessary
paperwork for the courts to intervene). The family was, and is, working
with an attorney to process their house as a legal dwelling; since the
court previously sided with them in staying the demolition until the
family's counter-claim and the Jerusalem municipal authority's claim
could be assessed, the family felt sure that all would be straightened
out. Needless to say, they were quite surprised to hear police, border
police, and a demolition crew (apparently not a bulldozer, but men with
jackhammers) arrive at their house at 9 am on Monday morning last.
The
trailer you see on the right was brought in by the father to be used
while they rebuild yet again. We visited yesterday, Saturday 31 May.
From Monday until Saturday, the family had clear the mound of debris,
reached the foundation, and has already begun rebuilding the walls; they
are about three feet high now on three sides. The father was not home
when we visited yesterday as he had to take one of the children to the
hospital for some illness. I am sorry to not have a close-up photo of
“Mariam’s” face b/c her face was pointedly tragic--full of loss and
grief, and entirely absent of hope. She looked to be a broken woman,
and it is beyond belief how she could have hope--her family, her husband
was accused of no crime, he is employed full-time, has not been accused
of being a "terrorist," "criminal," or anything else--they were simply
guilty of building a home on land that they do own, but not
having the proper paperwork (through no fault of their own).
June 2nd
Attached are pictures from our meeting yesterday, Sunday 1 June with
Jewish settlers/colonists in the settlement of Efrat, between Bethlehem
& Hebron, but nearer to Bethlehem. This is apparently one of the
largest W Bank settlements (you might want to check the validity of
this, they didn't say this, a Jerusalemite Palestinian told me this).
We were invited out by this settler, “Ari”. He has invited members from
our group out before.
Efrat is a settlement of about 9,000 Jews.
Driving into the settlement, you notice a lot different once you pass
the soldier-manned checkpoint. The drive past Bethlehem shows an arid
landscape, not quite desert, but there is not a lot of green, and very
little land is cultivated. We passed a Palestinian shepherd in the
field on the drive out.
There is a dramatic change of scenery once you
enter the settlement of Efrat--a Richmond parallel would be driving
through a vacated, desolate part of the East End or North side onto the
grounds of moderately nice country club, not the hyperbole of the
Country Club of VA, but a more meager, toned-down compound. Once you're
in the settlement, there is grass, trees, shrubs, flowers. There is so
much vegetation that you can't help but be amazed by the stark contrast
to the land you had to drive through to get there. The difference
borders the surreal. Now you're in a constructed suburbia. That is
very much the image--you've driven into a very large, well planned West
End condo/apartment development. Except this is its own mini-city.
There are malls with shops, coffee shops, nice community swimming pools
(swimming pools which are so out of place in a land with precarious
water resources is such a cruel joke, but such an excellent absurdity of
the situation).
The place is plastered with Israeli flags from
the checkpoint on. Settler-colonists have Israeli flags hanging off of
their balconies, out of their windows, on their cars (tons of VW's and
Subaru's, Honda's a some nice European cars).
We meet in the colony's synagogue and talk with
“Ari” and his fellow colonist, “David”. Both were born, grew up, and
were educated in America--one in NYC, one in Chicago. Both have dual
Israeli-American citizenship. (“David” lamented having to pay taxes in
both countries--yes, my heart goes out to him in his struggle!)
“Ari” began by telling us when he first came to
Israel, 1982. He moved his family to Efrat in 1985. That's how he
started the story of his time in Efrat, but then he gave us his
necessary prelude: "well, it started with us here [on this land,
specifically] about 2,000 years ago." (It was interesting how many
places “Ari” considers his homeland--he's a self-describe American, Jew,
and Israeli. But, later in the conversation, he also related to a
member of our group, who said that he's of Irish ancestry, as a "fellow
Irishman." Truly he considers himself a consummate world traveler, via
his lineage.)
“Ari” gave us a history primer of the area. In
his reading, since the mid-1800s, Jerusalem was predominantly Jewish.
It is a false history which tells of a modern, predominantly Arab
Jerusalem. According to him, this is just made up by those sympathetic
to Palestinian lies.
A member of our group asked, "What is to be
done with these 'other people' (Palestinians) since Israeli Jews are
taking over the land?" “Ari” said, "we are the original indigenous
people here." According to him, Jews came to this land (beginning in
the 1800s), and purchased land. They did not come in with invading
armies. In 1948, the UN said that the two groups--Arabs and Jews--were
to live side by side in peace, in a partitioned land. "Ask them [the
Arabs] why they don't want to live in peace." "In 1948 we [although his
family was living in America, nonetheless 'we'] attempted to live in
peace with the Arab population."
I asked a question about the economic and
political make up of the settlers. He answered my question and then
lamented how bad the Israeli economy has been lately. Another member of
my group asked him why, in his opinion, was the Israeli economy down.
As it turns out, it is because of the Palestinians (I don't think that
he's an economist, or a historian for that matter, but nonetheless, I'm
giving you what he gave us). He began to explain the economic downturn
quite lucidly, giving a tripartite answer. First, the world economy is
down. Second, September 11th greatly affected the Israeli economy
because of the trade between the US and Israeli. Third, terrorism--that
is, acts of violence committed by Palestinians against innocent
Israelis. The Palestinian terrorists have damaged the economy very
efficiently. Yes, the Palestinians, who live somewhere in-between First
and Third World conditions in terms of their poverty and lack of access
to services which Americans taken for granted, are the true cause of
Israel's economic plight. So, in just under five minutes, “Ari” revised
his own economic assessment of the situation. There is not a
three-pronged problem with Israeli's economy; there is only one problem,
the Palestinians.
The most interesting views came from “David”.
He is very concerned with "the roadmap" for a two-state solution to
achieve peace. What concerns him is that the Palestinians have focused
on the term "viable." Palestinians want a viable Palestinian state to
achieve a viable peace in this land. They have, in his opinion,
hijacked this term "viable." He stated that, now everyone is focused on
granting a viable Palestinian state. He cautions that Israel is being
neglected in the roadmap because "Israel is a Jewish state and has to be
viable [also]." His fixation on the term viable made me wonder, Is
Israeli a viable state, and has it ever been one? Has it ever been able
to support itself? A necessary part of the definition of "viable," in
terms of a state, would, to me, mean that an economy can sustain itself,
its population. So, to test Israeli's viability, we, the US, should
unplug what seems to be the life support we give in direct financial aid
and not-to-be recalled loans. So, I agree with “David”, Israel should
be a viable state. It should be able to stand on its own two feet, feed
itself, clothe itself, and quit relying on welfare handouts of US
benevolence--that it, if it wants to be truly "viable."
May 29th
There is considerable news to report today. First and
foremost, over the past three or four days Free Palestine Now! activists
have been tirelessly putting together the groundwork for the Palestine
Awareness Week and Regional Solidarity Conference. The dates for
this event are the week of October 20-26. Palestine Awareness Week
at VCU will be Monday through Friday (October 20-24th) and the regional
solidarity conference will be that weekend (October 25th-25th). The
week will end with Richmond's first ever Palestinian solidarity
demonstration and march. The activities for Palestine Awareness Week
include but are not limited to: daily video showings about Palestine,
numerous speakers from a variety of Pro-Palestinian organizations, street
theatre, direct actions, and Palestinian art. The weekend conference
will include: workshops presented by regional activist groups,
spokes-councils, speakers, direct actions, and organization lit tables.
This is a massive undertaking for our group, as we hope the regional
conference will be the largest gathering of Pro-Palestinian activists from
the DC/VA/MD/NC region, and we need everybody's help and input for
organizing. Organizing will be done on a coalition basis with any
regional group or individual welcome to join in and help out.
Additionally the Richmond activist groups will be providing housing for
our of town activists. For more general information, ways to get
involved, housing information, and registration information please email
us at: fpn@vcu.edu. We are also looking
for all Pro-Palestinian and justice groups in the region to endorse this
conference and commit to attending. To endorse the conference,
please email: fpn@vcu.edu. Current
endorsers include: Free Palestine Now! (FPN-VCU), Richmond Jews for a Free
Palestine (RJFP), Students for Divestment at VCU (SD-VCU), and Food Not
Bombs Richmond (FNB). This list will be updated regularly and there
will be a conference section on this website in the near future.
The second piece of news is about our activist in
Palestine. We can now reveal that the activist's name is Chris and
he is with the Christian Peacemaker Team. Here is the text of the
email sent out by the CPT about the current delegation to Palestine.
28 May 2003 Christian Peacemaker Teams Delegation Arrives in Jerusalem. A
13-member delegation from the U.S. and Canada sponsored by Christian
Peacemaker Teams (CPT) arrived in the Jerusalem yesterday evening. Colin
Stuart (Ottawa, ON) was detained in Tel Aviv upon entry and interrogated
for 5 hours. Israeli authorities threatened to deport him if he did not
sign a statement saying he would not enter the Occupied
Territories. During the next 10 days participants plan to speak with
representatives of Israeli and Palestinian peace and human rights
organizations in Jerusalem and Bethlehem and join in the work of CPT's
long-term team in Hebron, West Bank. They will document conditions facing
Palestinian families suffering from the effects of more than 100 days of
curfew over the past months, and visit farmers in the the surrounding
Hebron district. Members of CPT's May 27-June 8 Middle East delegation
are: Matthew Chandler (Springfield, OR), Wendi Kehler (Altona, MB),
Christopher Lucas, (Richmond, VA ), Marlou MacIver (West Chester, PA),.
Neal Musselman (Roanoke, VA), Tim Nafziger (Goshen, IN), Pieter Niemeyer (Stouffville,
ON), Sheila Provencher (South Bend, IN), Lyn Reith (Lancaster, PA), Ruth
Ellen Ray (Leola, PA), Char Smith and Michael Smith (Gibson City, IL) and
Colin Stuart (Ottawa, ON). Christian Peacemaker Teams is an
initiative of the historic peace churches (Mennonites, Church of the
Brethren, and Quakers) with support and membership from a range of
Catholic and Protestant denominations. CPT send teams of trained
peacemakers to places of conflict around the world, with a presence in
Hebron since June, 1995.
May 26th
Today Free Palestine Now! received a second brief communiqué
from our activist in Palestine. He is still in Jerusalem, staying in
a cathedral with a Palestinian bishop and dean, and is planning to travel
to Bethlehem soon. He also sent back a report on the plight of an
International Activist with the Christian Peacemaker Team who is in a
prison in Tel Aviv awaiting a high court appeal to an ruling ordering him
deported. More information on this case can be requested from the
Christian Peacemaker Team, or on their website at
www.cpt.org. We will be posting
more activist reports from Palestine as soon as we receive them.
May 25th
Free Palestine Now! is very happy to announce the safe
arrival of our first activist into Palestine this Freedom Summer and is
currently in Jerusalem preparing to meet up with his chosen solidarity
organization. More information on the activist and his location and
work will be posted as soon as he meets up with his solidarity group and
begins actions against the illegal Israeli occupation. New updates
to the website: Pictures from last weeks Interfaith Zionist Conference
protest are now up in the protest section of the Free Palestine Now!
pictures section. (Go to Pictures in the right hand column, then click FPN
pictures, then click protest pictures)
May 22nd
Tonight's meeting was incredibly productive as we lay the
groundwork for Palestine Awareness Week next semester. The week is
entitled "Palestine Awareness Week and Regional Solidarity Conference",
and will include a week of speakers, video showings, street theatre, and
demonstrations on the VCU campus and in the city of Richmond and will be
capped off by a weekend of workshops and events presented by regional
Pro-Palestinian groups. There will also be a spokes-council of
Palestinian solidarity organizations to enhance co-operation and to chart
the future of the Palestinian struggle on the east coast of the United
States. The weekend will end with Richmond's very first Palestinian
solidarity rally and march. Free Palestine Now! will be providing
housing in Richmond for out of town activists as well as co-coordinating
the conference. More information on Palestine Awareness week will be
posted soon, including info on how to register for the regional conference
and housing info. This is going to be a massive undertaking, and any
and all help will be eagerly appreciated. If individuals or
organizations would like to get involved with the planning of this
conference, please email us at "fpn@vcu.edu".
Other items that were discussed at the meeting included the planning for
the Iron Sheik concert, and brainstorming about solidarity actions for our
activists traveling to Palestine.
May 21st
The next Free Palestine Now! meeting will be Thursday May
22nd at 6pm at 1000 Park St. #3. This meeting will be the first
official planning meeting for Palestinian Solidarity Week and regional
conference, which is being planned for early October 2003 in Richmond
Virginia. We will also be discussing Solidarity actions for our
activists who will be arriving in Palestine at various times this summer,
and the possibility of a concert with Palestinian rapper the Iron Sheik to
benefit Free Palestine Now's sending of Internationals to Palestine this
Freedom Summer. That concert is tentatively scheduled for mid-June,
and more info and a flyer will be available shortly. Next week,
Thursday May 29th at 6pm there will be the first summer Summit meeting
between FPN-VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University) and FPN-MWC (Mary
Washington College) in Richmond. This meeting will designed to
coordinate the summer activities of the two Free Palestine Now! chapters
in Richmond and Fredericksburg Virginia. More information on this
meeting will be posted shortly. The newest updates to the website are two
brand new sections. Event Flyers is now up with a catalogue of
flyers from previous FPN events and actions. The section is not
complete as we will be posting more of the flyers from previous years as
we locate them. The next section, Fundraising Items, is still under
construction, but hopefully within the next week, people from all over the
world will be able to assist Free Palestine Now's fundraising efforts by
ordering Palestinian Solidarity items from us. Additionally look for
a couple new protest chants in the chants section from the protest last
Sunday in DC.
May 18th
Today 7 members of Free Palestine Now! participated in a very
energetic and passionate protest of the sick and disgusting Interfaith
Zionist Conference at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington DC.
Outside the Conference a spirited protest of over 50 people lasted from
1pm past 4pm, while and additional 20-30 Pro-Palestinian activists gained
entrance to the conference. The protestors outside included members
from SUSTAIN, Jews Against the Occupation, Al-Awda and the Neturei Karta
Jews from New York. Two Free Palestine Now! activists were briefly
detained by Hotel security and then DCPD for peacefully trying to register
for the supposedly Free and Open hate conference. The activists who
did make it inside came back with accounts of how disgusting and racist
the conference truly was, including quotes such as: "Fundamentalism isn't
the problem, Islam is the problem" which supposedly drew a round of
applause from the white supremacists, chrisitian conservatives, and
right-wing zionists in attendance. A full account of the protest
will be posted soon, including a first hand account from the FPN activists
who were forcibly detained by the DCPD.
May 15th
At last nights meeting we decided to meet at the Richmond
PACE center on Franklin St (Next to Rhodes Hall) at 10am on Sunday May
18th to carpool to DC for the protest. All are welcome and we will
be leaving the PACE center at 10:30am sharp. For all the activists
who are currently in DC/NOVA, the carpool from Richmond will be arriving
at the Vienna metro stop at apx. 12:15pm, so meet us there if you would
like to go into DC as a group. Other news includes the possibility
of FPN organizing a concert in Richmond with the Iron Sheik, a Palestinian
rapper from California currently on an East Coast tour. More info
will be posted about this as soon as it becomes available.
May 14th
Tonight is Free Palestine Now's first summer meeting at 6pm
(1000 Park St. Apt 3). I have more information on FPN's first action
this Sunday in Washington DC. We will, in coordination with many
other Pro-Palestinian, human rights, and civil liberties groups, be
protesting the Interfaith Zionist Conference which is meeting to come up
with ways to stop the roadmap to peace in the middle east. The
Protest will be Sunday May 18th at 1pm at 2500 Calvert Street NW (at
Connecticut Ave). FPN will be carpooling to the protest, and we will
keep you informed as to our Richmond meeting place on Sunday morning.
Please go to the editorials section for the flier about the Interfaith
Zionist Conference protest including some sick and disgusting quotes from
these "people". Additionally the FPN email list has been updated
and all the incorrect addresses removed, so if you have signed the email
list and have not been receiving emails from us, please email us your
correct email address and name (fpn@vcu.edu)
and we will add you to the list. For anyone who has not signed up
previously, but would like to get emails from FPN, please send us an email
and we will add you to the list serve.
May 13th
This is the opening news post of Freedom Summer 2003 from
Free Palestine Now! at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond
Virginia, USA. This summer is going to be immensely important for
the long suffering and oppressed Palestinian people, and consequently
immensely important for the millions of people worldwide who support the
Palestinians quest for justice, peace and freedom. As this post goes
up thousands of activists are preparing to make the trip from Europe,
North America, Africa, Asia, and South America to Palestine to participate
in non-violent direct action against the Israeli occupation. As hard
as the Israeli Occupation Forces have tried, they have not been able to
break the will of the Palestinian people to resist, and have not been able
to break the will of the international community to aid that resistance in
non-violent ways. For those of us who have not been able to make the
trip to Palestine this Freedom Summer, we have the massive task of
supporting our comrades in Palestine and disseminating the massive amounts
of information they will be sending back to us. Free Palestine Now!
will be taking a very active role in these support activities as many of
our members and friends put their lives on the line in support of the
Palestinian people this summer. Starting as soon as our activists
arrive in the occupied territories and begin to post reports back, they
will be posted here on the news section of this website. The website
moderator and FPN co-coordinator in Richmond for Freedom Summer will be
Said Tomas, please email him at fpn@vcu.edu
for questions, comments and discussion. I will be posting activist
reports from Palestine every time I receive them, as well as hopefully
posting daily news from Palestine. Also this summer, look for
massive changes and updates to the website including a fundraising section
where you can purchase Palestinian solidarity t-shirts, Kheffiyes, and
buttons as a fundraiser for Free Palestine Now!, a new Fliers section, and
more editorials, links, and divestment info. Please stay tuned to
the upcoming events page for info on Free Palestine Now! meetings and
actions. This update: A new editorial on the ISM and Freedom Summer, as
well as updates to the upcoming events page. Also check out the
article about Free Palestine Now! and the VCU Divestment Campaign in this
months issue of Left Turn (No.9 May/June 2003).
Year Review
Hey everybody, First, news: FPN's first summer meeting is
Wednesday May 14th at 6pm at 1000 Park St. Apartment #3, right across the
street from the VCU theatre building. The meeting will cover many topics
about actions and events this summer and upcoming in the fall. FPN's
first action of the summer will be a protest Sunday May 18th in Washington
DC in coordination with SUSTAIN (Stop US Tax Aid to Israel Now) Al-Awda
(right to return coalition) SJP-DC (Students for Justice in Palestine) and
many other Pro-Palestinian groups. We will be protesting both the arrival
of Israeli war criminal and prime minister Ariel Sharon to talk with Bush,
and the Interfaith Zionist summit, which brings together right-wing
Zionists, Christian conservatives, and anti-abortionists to discuss how to
give more money and support to the Israeli government in their persecution
of the Palestinian people. The protest will be discussed at the FPN
meeting on Wednesday, and for more information and ride info, please email
fpn@vcu.edu
It was an amazingly productive year for Free Palestine Now! at VCU. We
expanded our membership drastically and put together four lecture events
on Palestine that drew over 100 people each time. We performed Street
Theatre, held a protest action at VCU Starbucks, and sent a FPN delegation
to every major anti-war/ Pro-Palestinian demonstration. VCU students also
officially launched its divestment from Israel campaign and in only a few
months collected nearly 200 signatures from students alone. This year also
saw the foundation of two new Pro-Palestinian activist groups in the
Richmond area, Richmond Jews for a Free Palestine (RJFP) and Students for
Divestment at VCU (SD-VCU). Additionally this year saw the founding of the
second ever Free Palestine Now! chapter at Mary Washington College in
Fredericksburg Virginia. Despite all of the accomplishments, it is not
nearly enough as the oppressed Palestinian people continue to live under a
brutal and murderous military occupation financed and supported by our own
government. Many thanks to everyone who came out and supported us this
year, but your help is still urgently needed both in Palestine as members
of the International Solidarity Movement, and here in Richmond to build a
stronger more effective Pro-Palestinian movement.
April 30th
Tonight was the last Free Palestine Now! meeting of the
spring semester at VCU. Meetings will continue through the summer
however, so please stay posted to the upcoming events section.
Tonight also marked elections for next semesters Executive Council.
Five FPN activists ran for the three seat Council including two
incumbents. The voting was as follows: Ibrahim Farhan received 27
votes, Diana received 26 votes, Chris received 3 votes, Ari Packer
received 21 votes, and Said Tomas received 1 vote. The Executive
Council members for next fall are new comers Ibrahim Farhan and Diana, and
incumbent Ari Packer. In a separate electoral process Sara was
elected first ever Free Palestine Now! Secretary general in charge of
recording all FPN meetings and events. Elections for Committee heads will
take place at the beginning of next semester. In addition to the
elections, many other topics were discussed including summer activities
and preparations for next semester including a Palestine Awareness Week,
demonstrations, and street theatre.
April Review
April has been an incredibly eventful month, and we
apologize for not posting news regularly. We have had meetings every week
as usual in addition to a highly successful event on April 23rd.
First and foremost, Free Palestine Now! at May Washington College is up
and running and has had a successful first few meetings. For the
first meeting on April 15th 2003 a few members of FPN/VCU traveled to Mary
Washington to speak at the opening meeting. There was apx. 20 people
in the audience who were very interested in the Palestinian
struggle. Since then, FPN/MWC has had other successful meetings and
has adopted a mission statement and are preparing for events next
semester. On April 12th Free Palestine Now! took a contingent of 9
activists up to Washington DC for the anti-war/ Pro-Palestinian
demonstration. The demonstration was very emboldening as the
30,000-40,000 attendees almost to a person wore Palestinian Solidarity
Kheffiyes. The Free Palestine Now! contingent was involved in a
confrontation in which DC policemen on motorbikes attempted to ram their
way through our delegation. For a full report and pictures, go to
dc.indymedia.org,
and pictures and accounts will be posted on this website soon. On
Wednesday April 23rd over 100 people packed into the VCU Forum room to
hear the an event entitled "The Israeli Occupation and Palestinian
Women" with SUSTAIN activist Rafeef Ziadah. The event went
exceptionably well with Rafeef and a Palestinian student giving impassioned
accounts of the Israeli occupation and the role of women in the
Palestinian uprising. Many people came up to Rafeef after the event
and expressed their approval of her message and their thanks for her
coming to speak at VCU. Our last meeting for the semester was April
30th 2003 with elections for executive council being held, and discussions
about summer and future activities. Results from the election, and a
full account of the last meeting of the semester will be posted
shortly. New updates include the upcoming events section, the FPN
pictures section, and coming soon will be a fundraising section where you
can order FPN t-shirts and Kheffiyes as a fundraiser for FPN at
VCU..
April 2nd
Today we are proud to announce the formation of a Free Palestine
Now! chapter at Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg Virginia.
This second chapter of Free Palestine Now! will be holding it first
meeting on Thursday April 17th 2003 at MWC.
VCU/FPN and MWC/FPN will be working very closely together in the
future co-sponsoring regional events and mobilizing support for the
Palestinian people not only in our respective campuses but also in the
entire state of Virginia and the whole of the United States.
The first multi-chapter Free Palestine Now! Conference is
tentatively scheduled for early next semester. We urge any and all persons in other cities and Universities
who might be interested in starting a FPN chapter in their city to contact
us over email for information. Also
FPN will be investigating the possibility of putting together a regional
Palestinian solidarity conference early next semester preceding the
National Palestinian solidarity conference at Rutgers University.
If anyone is interested in any of these events please email us at
fpn@vcu.edu.
We will keep everyone posted with developments concerning MWC FPN
until they launch a website and email.
Additionally at our weekly meeting we discussed mobilization and
publicity for our next big event which is entitled “The Israeli
Occupation and Palestinian Women” with Rafeef Ziadah, a survivor of the
Sabra and Shatila massacres. That
event will be Wednesday April 23rd at 8pm in the VCU Forum Room
in the Student Commons. We
also discussed publicity for two upcoming Palestinian solidarity events in
the Richmond area. At 7pm May 9th 2003 at Chop Suey bookstore on Cary
Street Seth Tobocman a political cartoonist and artist will be presenting
his comics depicting Palestinians and Israelis from his time teaching art
to Palestinian children. Also
early in May an ISM (International Solidarity Movement) tour is making its
way through Richmond on a tour of the South.
More information including date and time will be posted soon.
For more info on either of these events please send us an email and
we would be happy to email you all the info and the respective fliers.
Lastly we discussed getting a Pro-Palestinian contingent together
for the big Anti-War/ Pro-Palestinian rally in DC on Saturday April 12th.
We will meet at 8am at the PACE center on Franklin St. to carpool
up to DC where we will meet up with MWC/FPN and march together as a
Palestinian Solidarity Block.
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