Tag Archives: Take Action

Google’s anti-Palestinian worker retaliation

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Huge news just broke.

Today, tech worker organizer Ariel Koren, active in our #NoTechForApartheid campaign, resigned from Google. Her resignation letter cited Google’s retaliation and the silencing of Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, Jewish, and other workers speaking up for Palestinian freedom at the company.

Make noise by sharing this huge moment in the No Tech for Apartheid campaign on Twitter and on Facebook. 

 

The New York Times spoke to workers like Ariel organizing against a $1 billion contract with the Israeli military and apartheid government that enables surveillance and violence against Palestinians. 

For the first time, Palestinian workers at Google publicly described the retaliation they’ve faced: “Project Nimbus makes me feel like I am making my living off my family’s oppression,” one of them said. But if they speak out, they face retaliation and threats of termination from Google.1

Google and Amazon workers are organizing against corporate contracts that fuel Israeli apartheid and state violence, and our solidarity with these workers is a show of power that increases the pressure to cut these contracts.

Google is trying to silence workers to protect their business interests, but next week, we’re turning up the pressure in solidarity with tech workers by holding direct actions at Google and Amazon offices across the country. 

If you live in San Francisco, Seattle, or New York City, RSVP here to join a No Tech For Apartheid action next Thursday, September 8th!

Tech worker organizing pressures Google and Amazon to end their contract with the Israeli military and government. Their divestment demands are clear: either stop harming Palestinians or face a devastating public relations and labor crisis. 

As Ariel told the Times: “When Google and other folks retaliate against workers, it’s about creating a culture of fear. I think the opposite is true in this case — more workers took a stand.”

Amazon and Google want to believe they can get out of this by pushing workers out and creating a culture of fear to stifle worker organizing. Let’s make sure they know it’s not going to be that easy to avoid accountability. 

Join us at a #NoTechForApartheid Day of Action next week, or if you don’t live in any of these key tech hubs, join us by making noise on social media today.

Thanks for all you do to further justice.

In solidarity,
Lau, Granate, Linda, and the MPower Change team

Sources:

1. “Google Employee Who Played Key Role in Protest of Contract With Israel Quits,” The New York Times, Aug. 30, 2022.

Palestinian Rights Organizations Raided & Shut Down

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American Friends Service Committee, August 18, 2022

Stand with Palestinian human rights defenders

Early this morning, Israeli soldiers raided the offices of Palestinian human rights and civil society groups in Ramallah — shutting them down. The targeted organizations are Defense for Children International – Palestine, Al-Haq, Addameer, Bisan, the Union of Agricultural Working Committees, and the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees.

AFSC stands with human rights defenders and Palestinian civil society in condemning these attacks. Contact Congress today and urge your representative to stand in solidarity with Palestinian rights organizations!

These six groups are among the most respected Palestinian human rights organizations in the world. They work closely with the United Nations, international nongovernmental organization partners, and activist communities. They also advocate to and work with European and U.S. government officials. And they provide services to Palestinians whose human rights have been violated. AFSC partners with Defense for Children International – Palestine on the No Way to Treat a Child campaign, which has led to the first congressional bill on Palestinian children’s human rights in the U.S.

Today’s events are an outrageous attempt to silence organizations that have exposed the Israeli government’s human rights abuses. They follow decades of repression of human rights activism, including detentions and raids on offices. And the U.S. must speak out now.

Take action: Urge Congress to demand the protection of Palestinian civil society and human rights defenders!

Thank you for speaking out and for supporting our ongoing advocacy for Palestinian rights.

In peace,

Jennifer Bing
Palestine Activism Program Director

Breaking: Six Palestinian NGOs raided & closed

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Just Vision, August 18, 2022

Early this morning, Israeli army forces raided the offices of six leading Palestinian human rights and civil society organizations in Ramallah. Soldiers confiscated files and equipment, welded doors shut and posted military orders declaring the offices closed. These raids are a dangerous escalation in the government’s campaign against the civil society groups falsely labeled as “terrorist organizations” last year.

A quick look at the activities of the targeted groups and you’ll see that these organizations are among the top Palestinian civic institutions that document human rights violations, provide crucial social and legal services and protect the rights of women, children, farmers, prisoners and other at-risk groups in Palestinian society.

Last October, the Israeli government designated them as “terrorist organizations” without providing any concrete proof of the claims. A series of investigative reports by our team at Local Call, in partnership with +972 Magazine and The Intercept, debunked the allegations and revealed that no meaningful evidence existed to justify the designation. Just last month, nine European governments agreed, officially rejecting the allegations against the groups after a months-long investigation concluded that “no substantial information was received from Israel that would justify reviewing our policy” toward the organizations.

You can learn more and hear directly from one of the organizations affected here. We know today’s raids are just the latest brazen step by the Israeli government to crush Palestinian civil society and silence any group — Palestinian, Israeli or international — attempting to hold it to account for its human rights violations. The six organizations will not be deterred — this is a crucial time for the international community to demand accountability and insist that Palestinian civil society be allowed to do its vital work.

In determination,

Rula Salameh
Education and Outreach Director in Palestine

If Not Now Says “#DropAIPAC”

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Join the Movement of Jews, Orgs, and Politicians Pledging to #DropAIPAC

AIPAC endorsed 109 insurrectionist Republicans and spent $25 million to defeat candidates supporting Palestinian rights and progressive causes. Their actions this year aid the right-wing movement threatening our planet and democracy, and should have no place in our community or our politics.

AIPAC claims to speak on behalf of the Jewish community but embraces right-wing antisemites, Islamophobes, and white nationalists such as Donald Trump, Christian Zionist John Hagee, Rep. Jim Jordan, and Muslim Ban lawyer Frank Gaffney.

AIPAC endorsed 109 Republican candidates who supported Trump’s “Big Lie” to overturn the 2020 election. And AIPAC’s Super PAC — funded primarily by Republican billionaires — spent 25 million dollars on misleading advertisements to defeat seven progressive candidates, including targeting women of color and a former synagogue president fighting for health care, climate solutions, and responsible foreign policy.

So long as donors, U.S. politicians, and Jewish orgs like youth groups and synagogues work with AIPAC — and so long as those watching stay silent — AIPAC will have the credibility and funding to continue working against Palestinian rights and against democracy.

By pledging to #DropAIPAC, I or my organization pledges to drop:

  • AIPAC’s annual policy conference
  • Donating to AIPAC
  • Meeting with AIPAC lobbyists
  • Hosting or participating in AIPAC events
  • Traveling on AIPAC trips to Israel

The majority of American Jews disagree with AIPAC’s anti-Palestinian racism and recognize that Jewish and Palestinian safety is intertwined. We stand committed to fighting for equality, justice, and a thriving future for all Jews, Israelis, and Palestinians.

Join the Movement

Take Action Together for Gaza

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Jewish Voice for Peace, August 7, 2022

Just over a year since its last horrific attack on Gaza, the Israeli government launched yet another round of catastrophic bombings, massacring Palestinian families. This is the fifth attack by Israel of this magnitude since it placed Gaza under a crippling blockade of land, air and sea 15 years ago.

We’ll hold this 30 min online space each day as long as we need to, to take collective action in solidarity with Gaza. We’ll call our electeds to demand that Israel stop its attacks and end the brutal military siege of Gaza, as well as make demands of other key institutions complicit in this murderous regime.

Please share widely and invite others to join. May our heartbreak and rage lead us towards collective action.

Register at jvp.org/actionforgaza

Gaza Is Palestine

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As salaamu alaykum.

The Gaza Is Palestine campaign, led by us and Adalah Justice Project, is an effort to build upon the historic global movement that took on new life in spring 2021 — and we want you to take part.

Massive global demonstrations in solidarity with Palestinians are changing the tides — and we can build on that momentum together.

This summer marks 15 long years of the blockade and siege on Gaza.

We’re proud to join Adalah Justice Project in launching a new 3-minute video, narrated by Palestinian artist Malak Mattar, imploring those in the U.S. to take action to stop the congressional funding that makes the siege of Gaza possible.

Watch the video:

Share it on Twitter.

The goal is not perpetual resilience, perpetual rebuilding after violence. The goal is freedom.

Palestinians in Gaza must be free to travel, to study, to work, to dream, to live, to start a family without the fear they will be taken.

Earlier this month, the 2023 State and Foreign Operations Appropriations bill was released.

This funding bill represents the United States’ global priorities for health, infrastructure, and security. As expected, the draft budget contains $3.3 billion for Israel (with an additional $500 million for weapons expected in the defense appropriations bill). That’s $3.8 billion for apartheid Israel.

In contrast, all funding for addressing climate change and other environmental issues globally is set at $3.6 billion.

Last year, we saw unprecedented support for Palestinian life swept the mainstream media, our progressive movements, and even the halls of Congress.

It’s up to us to make sure that we don’t move backwards. Share the video now.

Thank you for being in the struggle with us.

In solidarity,
Ishraq, Lau, Granate and the MPower Change team

P.S. You can send an email to your member of Congress right now if you haven’t before, making it clear to them: Congress needs to stop funding the blockade and attacks on Gaza. Thank you.

Free Ahmad Manasra: Demand his immediate release

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For the past seven years, since he was only 13, Ahmad Manasra has been imprisoned by Israel, where Israeli authorities have abused him, tortured him, and are now holding him under solitary confinement.

The Israeli Prison Authorities have postponed the court hearing for his solitary confinement for the third time, to Tuesday, August 16. The United Nations states that solitary confinement longer than 15 days is torture — and Ahmad has spent seven months in solitary confinement.

Ahmad never should have been unjustly imprisoned in the first place. Now he has been subjected to the Israeli military and prisons’ brutal violence over and over with severe consequences on his physical and mental health.

Raise your voice now to demand Ahmad’s immediate release! Use this click-to-tweet tool and tell your members of Congress to speak up to #FreeAhmadManasra.

JUNE 28, 2022
URGENT CALL TO ACTION

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FREE SAMI HURAINI, YOUTH OF SUMUD LEADER ARRESTED BY ISRAEL

As Israel threatens the homes of 1,000+ Palestinians in Masafer Yatta, Israel’s occupying army is trying to silence a leading youth organizer. Speak up!

RAISE YOUR VOICE:
• Uplift Youth of Sumud’s post and their work on Instagram, Twitter, & Facebook.
• Share these posts decrying Sami’s arrest by PIPD & USCPR.
• Share this 2 minute clip of Sami & his sister Sameeha’s demands for justice.

Sami needs your solidarity: Tweet #FreeSamiHuraini now! #DefendMasaferYatta

SAMPLE TWEET:

    URGENT: Israel’s army just arrested prominent Palestinian activist Sami Huraini of Masafer Yatta, known for leading resistance with @YouthOfSumud against Israel’s destruction of Palestinian homes.

For years, Sami Huraini and his community organization Youth of Sumud have defended his community, Masafer Yatta in the South Hebron Hills, from relentless Israeli settler and military violence simply for living in their homeland. For instance, last fall Sami decried an Israeli government-backed pogrom in which settlers fractured the skull of a 3-year old Palestinian child. And last month, Sami Huraini woke up to Israeli soldiers invading his village. Soldiers now bring tanks, guns, military bulldozers, and attack helicopters into their communities daily as part of a deliberate plan, backed by Israel’s colonial court system, to push more than 1,000 Palestinians out of their homes to steal their land for exclusive use by Israeli settlers and the occupying army who enable their invasion of the Palestinian homeland.

Recently, Israel escalated its attacks against Sami and his local community organization: two weeks ago, Israel’s occupying army issued a demolition notice on their Youth of Sumud community center. Then today, June 28, 2022, they arrested Sami. Like every Palestinian, he expects no rights or due process in courts with a more than 99% conviction rate. Israel’s carceral system is extraordinarily cruel, for instance also today denying early release for Ahmad Manasra, who has been incarcerated by Israel since age 13 and endured torture. Justice for Sami depends on international outcry. The fight continues until Sami, Ahmad, and every Palestinian prisoner is freed to their loved ones’ arms.

LEARN MORE:
• Instagram live with Sami & Sameeha Huraini
• Background on Youth of Sumud
• Background on Sami’s organizing

June 14, 2022
No Way to Treat a Child Webinar

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Please join the #nowaytotreatachild campaign co-leaders from Defense for Children International – Palestine and American Friends Service Committee for a webinar on June 14 at 8 p.m. Eastern / 5 p.m. Pacific time.

The webinar will share updates on Palestinian children’s human rights, including updates on Palestinian children who have been detained, killed, used as human shields, and had their homes demolished by Israeli authorities. We’ll also discuss how to approach our advocacy work in the long term to ensure it is sustainable while keeping grassroots supporters and elected officials engaged.

Background

Approximately 2.9 million Palestinians live in the occupied West Bank, of which around 45 percent are children under the age of 18.

Palestinian children in the West Bank, like adults, face arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment under an Israeli military detention system that denies them basic rights.

Since 1967, Israel has operated two separate legal systems in the same territory. In the occupied West Bank, Israeli settlers are subject to the civilian and criminal legal system whereas Palestinians live under military law.

Israel applies civilian criminal law to Palestinian children in East Jerusalem. No Israeli child comes into contact with the military courts.

Israel has the dubious distinction of being the only country in the world that automatically and systematically prosecutes children in military courts that lack fundamental fair trial rights and protections. Israel prosecutes between 500 and 700 Palestinian children in military courts each year.

Ill-treatment in the Israeli military detention system remains “widespread, systematic, and institutionalized throughout the process,” according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report Children in Israeli Military Detention Observations and Recommendations.

Children typically arrive to interrogation bound, blindfolded, frightened, and sleep deprived.

Children often give confessions after verbal abuse, threats, physical and psychological violence that in some cases amounts to torture.

Israeli military law provides no right to legal counsel during interrogation, and Israeli military court judges seldom exclude confessions obtained by coercion or torture.

    ABOUT #NOWAYTOTREATACHILD’S WEBINARS AND ZOOM:
    For this webinar, we will be using the Zoom platform. Additional instructions and details for joining the webinar will be shared by email with individuals that have registered.

    WHEN
    June 14, 2022 at 8:00pm – 9pm
    WHERE
    Online via Zoom
    CONTACT
    Brad Parker · info@nowaytotreatachild.org

    Register for the Webinar

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Act Now: Israel is trying to prevent us from visiting Palestine

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Rep. Rashida Tlaib and other progressives are pushing back against Israel’s new procedures


Americans for Justice in Palestine Action

Did you know that new Israeli procedures set to be implemented next month will greatly restrict our ability to travel to the West Bank, live, work, teach, study, and reunite with family members there? They’ll even force U.S. citizens to provide Israel with incredibly intrusive information about the personal details of anyone we plan to visit in the West Bank, as well as any property our family stands to inherit. 

These procedures are meant to cut off relations between Palestinians in the West Bank and everyone in the outside world, deepen Israel’s pervasive surveillance of Palestinians, and to further dispossess Palestinian Americans of their land. 

Fortunately, some Members of Congress, led by Rep. Rashida Tlaib, are pushing back against these procedures and demanding information from the Biden administration to ensure that Israel reverses its discriminatory policies toward US citizens.

TAKE ACTION: Call & Email your Representative
& ask them to sign this Dear Colleague letter

These new Israeli procedures are even more outrageous considering that Israel desperately wants to join the Visa Waiver Program (VWP), which would allow visa-free entry of Israeli citizens to the U.S.

However, this program requires that participating countries provide reciprocal, non-discriminatory treatment to U.S. citizens. Instead of ending Israel’s discriminatory policies, these new procedures would dramatically increase the discrimination it metes out to U.S. citizens based on their ethnicity, national origin, religion, and political opinions, something which even the State Department acknowledges has been a huge problem for decades! 

Rep. Tlaib’s Dear Colleague letter seeks to ensure that the U.S. complies with its own laws and refuses to allow Israel to enjoy this privilege at the same time it is ramping up its discriminatory entry policies.

TAKE ACTION today to make sure they join
this important congressional initiative.

How do we know that these procedures are discriminatory? Because they explicitly only apply to Palestinian-Americans, people wishing to visit or live with Palestinians in the West Bank, and study or teach at Palestinian universities. 

Of course, Israel will continue to allow U.S. citizens to live, work, visit, teach, or study in illegal settlements built on stolen Palestinian land. Another example of Israeli apartheid in action!

We can’t let this stand. Let’s build political pressure by getting your Representative to oppose these discriminatory Israeli policies!

Thank you for taking action against injustice and standing for Palestine; we won’t stop until it’s free. 

Sincerely,
Americans for Justice in Palestine Action

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