Jesse Bacon's blog

We are writing to you regarding the Chair of the UCI Foundation’s Board of Trustees, Dr. Hazem Chehabi. As you know, Dr. Chehabi serves as the Syrian Honorary Consul General, a post that makes him the highest-ranking Syrian diplomat in the U.S. still associated with the brutal Assad regime.

CENSORED: Click here to tell the Jewish Federations to stop the silencing of young Jews

Media Advisory:
For Immediate Release: March 21, 2012
Contact: Stefanie Fox, Jewish Voice for Peace National Director of Grassroots Organizing, 206.930.5174
stefanie@jvp.org

2PM TODAY, SEATTLE CITY COUNCIL:
LGBTQ Palestinians and Jews deliver thank you letter to LGBT Commission after cancellation of Israeli government-sponsored meeting.

Urge commission to meet instead with queer Israelis and Palestinians who are not part of government-sponsored propaganda effort.

The Park Slope Food Coop, a member-only institution, is currently debating whether or not to boycott products from Israel. This effort, a response to the 2005 call from Palestinian civil society for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaigns against Israel, is one of many underway across the United States and the world. JVP supports those that choose to nonviolently pursue peace with justice and rejects the assertion that BDS is inherently anti-Semitic.

It’s time for this to stop. In fact, it’s time to Occupy AIPAC. This weekend, CODEPINK Women for Peace, along with the Institute for Policy Studies, Just Foreign Policy, the US Palestinian Community Network, Interfaith Peace-Builders and Jewish Voice for Peace, is organizing a summit in Washington at the same time as the AIPAC Policy Conference. Endorsed by more than 100 organizations around the country, the summit is going to shine a spotlight on AIPAC’s abusive practices and discuss a more rational Middle East policy, for both Israel and the United States.

"While Jewish Voice for Peace takes no position on the issue of the One State Solution, we very much support your creation of a free and open academic space to discuss the difficult issues that confront anyone who cares about justice, democracy, and human rights in Palestine/Israel. While anti-Semitism must be  combated in all forms, too often fears of anti-Semitism lead to unjust quelling of legitimate debate, and academic bullying...Like Buber and the many Jewish leaders before us who were ostracized for questioning the majority opinion, we strongly believe freedom to raise new ideas is what is best for the Jewish people and for all peoples."

Jewish Voice for Peace hailed the victory of the Olympia, WA Food Coop against a lawsuit filed to shut down its boycott of Israeli products. A Washington State court dismissed the case, calling it a SLAPP – Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation – and said that it would award the defendants’ attorneys’ fees, costs, and sanctions.

Call for One Day Fast in Solidarity with Khader Adnan

Jewish Voice for Peace and Ta’anit Tzedek: Jewish Fast for Gaza are calling for a one day fast (from sunrise to sunset) on Friday, February 17, 2012 in solidarity with Khader Adnan, who today is in his 61st day of a hunger strike.