All posts by MN Break the Bonds

Past Events

A Must See! Award-winning film “Budrus” at the Lagoon Theatre in Minneapolis Nov. 26 – Dec. 2!

Watch the trailer below, click here to read the City Pages Review, and most importantly, go see:

BudrusThe Lagoon Theatre1320 Lagoon Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55408
(612) 825-6006

Playing November 26th – December 2nd @ 2:40,  4:50, 7:10

[youtube]YQQ8F2W5eB0[/youtube]

From the official Budrus website: Budrus is an award-winning feature documentary film about a Palestinian community organizer, Ayed Morrar, who unites local Fatah and Hamas members along with Israeli supporters in an unarmed movement to save his village of Budrus from destruction by Israel’s Separation Barrier. Success eludes them until his 15-year-old daughter, Iltezam, launches a women’s contingent that quickly moves to the front lines. Struggling side by side, father and daughter unleash an inspiring, yet little-known, movement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories that is still gaining ground today. In an action-filled documentary chronicling this movement from its infancy, Budrus shines a light on people who choose nonviolence to confront a threat.  The movie is directed by award-winning filmmaker Julia Bacha (co-writer and editor of Control Room and co-director Encounter Point), and produced by Bacha, Palestinian journalist Rula Salameh, and filmmaker and human rights advocate Ronit Avni (formerly of WITNESS, Director of Encounter Point).

While this film is about one Palestinian village, it tells a much bigger story about what is possible in the Middle East. Ayed succeeded in doing what many people believe to be impossible: he united feuding Palestinian political groups, including Fatah and Hamas; he brought women to the heart of the struggle by encouraging his daughter Iltezam’s leadership; and welcoming hundreds of Israelis to cross into Palestinian territory for the first time and join this nonviolent effort. Many of the activists who joined the villagers of Budrus are now continuing to support nonviolence efforts in villages from Bil’in to Nabi Saleh to Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem.

Budrus includes diverse voices– from the Palestinian leaders of the movement and their Israeli allies to an Israeli military spokesman, Doron Spielman, and Yasmine Levy, the Israeli border police captain stationed in the village at that time. While many documentaries about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict either romanticize the notion of peace, or dwell entirely on the suffering of victims to the conflict, this film focuses on the success of a Palestinian-led nonviolent movement.

In a keynote address immediately following the world premiere of Budrus at a Gala screening at the Dubai International Film Festival in December 2009, Her Majesty Queen Noor Al Hussein of Jordan praised the film, stating that Budrus: “Gives an enormous amount of hope… It’s a story which will have an impact and can help bring [about] change.”

Budrus received the Panorama Audience Award, Second Prize, at the Berlin International Film Festival in February 2010.

Past Events

Planting Peace, Teaching Hope: Daoud Nassar from Tent of Nations

You’re invited to hear Daoud Nasar!

Wednesday, November 10, 2010 from 3:30-5:00

Carlson L-110, University of Minnesota

321 19th Avenue South Minneapolis, MN

Daoud Nassar is a Palestinian Christian farmer whose family works its 100-acre farm and olive grove just outside the West Bank town of Bethlehem. Daoud will discuss his activities at Tent of Nations (TON), a dynamic peace and local education center where Israelis, Palestinians, and internationals join together in solidarity in the pursuit of peace through non-violent activities.

Faculty for an Israeli-Palestinian Peace (FFIPP) is an international network of faculty and students working for a just peace in the Middle East. FFIPP sponsors annual semester-long and summer Israel/Palestine internship programs for University students interested in gaining first-hand experience in the region. Past interns have worked at UN agencies, local human rights organizations, political think tanks, and cultural associations in both Israel and the Palestinian Territories.

Please learn more at: (www.tentofnations.org) (www.fotonna.org) (ffipp.org)

Past Events

150 Attend Panel Discussion about Palestine/Israel at SCSU!

From left to right: Nail Albarghouthi, Sylvia Schwarz, Susie Gad, and Susanne Waldorf. Photo by Amber Michel

150 students recently attended a panel discussion coordinated by the group, Students for a Free Palestine, at Saint Cloud State University. The four panelists were all members of MN BBC, but each came with a different perspective. The following article by Anazthasya Anthony published in the the University Chronicle of St Cloud State on October 24, 2010 relays more of the story:

On Tuesday, Atwood Little Theatre came to life when students, faculty, and the public engaged with a panel about Israeli-Palestinian issues. Students for a Free Palestine hosted a discussion containing history, personal stories, resistance, and legal violations in Palestine. The panel consisted of speakers, Sylvia Schwartz, Nail Albarghouthi, Susie Gad, and Susanne Waldorf.

Schwarz, a Jewish American, spoke about her childhood memory and what brought her Palestinian solidarity. “We learned in my Sunday school that Israel had the most moral army in the world,” Schwarz said. In 1982, she said she began having doubts, “Suddenly I was aware that I had been lied to.”

Albarghouthi, SCSU student and president of Students for a Free Palestine, shared his view.

“As a child, I had a lot of questions why was I born in Kuwait, raised in Jordan and living in the U.S.,” Albarghouthi said. He also said he was curious why he could not return to his home country, Palestine.

Zionism, Albarghouthi said, is a European colonial movement formed to relocate European Jews in Palestine. “The real problem is the Zionists and the Zionists’ ideology,” Albarghouhi said.

Gad, the third panel speaker, related how the Israel-Palestine conflict was a blur to her until 2006. “Everything was background noise,” Gad, an Egyptian American said. In 2006, while on her study abroad program in Egypt, she and her friends decided to visit Jerusalem.

“My fiancée and I were of Arab descent and we realized right away how drastically different we were treated,” Gad said. The guards at the checkpoint held them for more than seven hours because they were assumed to be Palestinians. She enlightened the crowd on Israel’s legal violations despite stipulations in International Law. “I learned that international law was to ensure that Palestinians received equal civil rights, human rights, political rights, cultural rights, social rights,” Gad said.

The audience learned about various organizations combating oppression of the Palestinians, including Minnesota Break the Bonds Campaign through Waldorf. “For some reason, we are invested in Israeli bonds and we are asking the State to divest,” Waldorf said.

One question raised was the position of the U.S. in the conflict. “Israel is the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid, and a lot of aids are given in forms of grants for Israel to purchase U.S. weapons,” Waldorf said.

When asked about a resolution idea, Albarghouthi stressed the importance of education. “The more educated the general public is, the more they can pressure their government to act upon it,” he said.

Albarghouthi told the crowd about proposed the two-state solution where Palestinians and Israel will be given rights to their own land. “To me, no matter how many states we want to slice it into, giving people their rights, their bite to eat, will reduce the conflict at least by 80 percent,” Albarghouthi said.

Farzona Dzhabbarova, an SCSU student at the event said,“This event taught me even more than I expected.”

Students for a Free Palestine is a relatively new student organization established last March. “The panel is at times much more effective than showing a film, where the conflict is distant, the people involved are distant, and therefore doesn’t hit home,” Albarghouthi added.

Posted by: http://www.universitychronicle.net/index.php/2010/10/24/students-free-palestine-discuss-misconceptions-surrounding-conflict/

Past Events

Come one, come all to the 2010 Palestine Fair!

What? 2010 Palestine Fair
When? November 6, 2010, 1 – 5 pm
Where? United Church of Christ, 300 Union St, Northfield, MN.

Like food? Like dancing? Like peace and justice? Then chances are you’ll love the Palestine Fair!

The Nov. 6, 2010, Palestine Fair will celebrate Middle Eastern culture with samples of tasty tabouleh and hummus, traditional Israeli and Palestinian dance and Palestinian crafts like olive wood carvings and pottery, available for purchase.

It will also educate fair-goers about the situation in Palestine/Israel through a live drama, “Seven Jewish Children,” and a panel of Palestinian students studying at area institutions, including Carleton College. Also speaking is Mary Davies, a retired United Methodist missionary, long-time Middle East resident and developer of the elementary/middle school curriculum, “Getting to Know the Children of the Middle East.”

The fair is free and open to the public.

The fair is presented by Northfielders for Justice in Palestine/Israel, an ecumenical group of community members who organize local events to educate and advocate for justice and peace in Palestine/Israel. Members of the committee are available to speak about their experiences in Palestine/Israel.

For more information about the Palestine Fair or Northfielders for Justice in Palestine/Israel, contact committee member Bill McGrath at 507-645-7660.

Articles, Past Events

MN BBC at the 2010 U.S. Social Forum in Detroit!

Check out this great coverage by Electronic Intifada of the MN Break the Bonds’ workshop offered at the U.S. Social Forum in Detroit, MI this last June. The The U.S.S.F. provided a space and time for the convergence of grassroots and other organizations to engage in dialogue, strengthen their relationships and build movements for change. For more information, please visit http://www.ussf2010.org.

[youtube]bMPHyz7Kzu8[/youtube]

Articles

The Destruction of the Mamilla Cemetery: Desecration of a Sacred Site

Leave a comment

Sylvia Schwarz, The Destruction of the Mamilla Cemetery: Desecration of a Sacred Site, September 9, 2010

The Ma’man Allah (Mamilla) Cemetery was the oldest Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem with graves dating back to the seventh century, comprised of 33 acres and tens of thousands of graves. After 1948 the Israeli ministry that maintained the site reassured world leaders that this important religious site would be cared for in perpetuity.

Less than fifteen years later, in the 1960s a park was built in part of the cemetery and a parking lot covered another part. These were followed by a school, football field, underground parking garage, and road. Electrical wires were laid in other sections.

The final few acres were dug up just before the beginning of Ramadan, in the middle of the night (as can be seen on the CNN video: http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/world/2010/08/13/vo.cemetery.demo.cnn.html) so that Israel can build the Museum of Tolerance in conjunction with the Simon Wiesenthal Center in the United States.

An enormous amount of knowledge was lost with the destruction of the Mamilla Cemetery, according to St. Paul based archaeologist, John E. Landgraf, Ph.D., because the era since the end of the Byzantine period and the beginning of the Islamic conquest (around 638 CE) up to the present day is the least known period of history in the Middle East generally. There is much to be learned by examining skeletal remains, headstones, and tombs. However, the Israeli Department of Antiquities, which has recently been taken over by the Orthodox Rabbinate, does not allow any human skeletal remains to be examined; Jewish remains must be re-interred as quickly as possible out of respect, whereas non-Jewish remains at the Mamilla Cemetery were disposed of along with tombstones and other debris in construction dumpsters.

Dr. Landgraf, who participated in a number of archaeological digs in Israel and the West Bank between 1965 and 1980, said that the Israeli Department of Antiquities was seldom interested in the preservation of remains or artifacts from the Islamic period. In the late 1960s the discovery of Muslim graves at Tell Gezer did not interest the American head archaeologist at the time, and so bulldozers were used to push remains, artifacts, and debris back into the graves.

Archaeological excavations are a way of learning about the past in an orderly fashion. One exposes history a layer at a time, and by careful examination knowledge can be gained of the various eras and cultures. When Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967 Israeli archaeologists used bulldozers to excavate the Western (Wailing) Wall area down to the late Roman period, destroying the homes of Palestinians living there at the time, and along with them the 1500-year history of the people who had lived there since the Byzantine period. “Thus there is a loss of continuity in our understanding of the past,” said Dr. Landgraf.

It is ironic that in the midst of mass hysteria over an Islamic center to be built in lower Manhattan, because some people feel that this would be disrespectful to the dead, that a genuine desecration of a sacred place occurs, unreported in most mainstream media. “The unfortunate reality is that Indigenous populations live in a world in which we are never safe from colonizer assaults – even when we are dead,” says Wazayatawin, Ph.D., Indigenous Peoples Research Chair and Associate Professor, Indigenous Governance Program, University of Victoria, someone who has worked on behalf of Indigenous peoples in this hemisphere for many years, and sees many parallels with the experience of Palestinians.  “The ongoing desecration of Indigenous burial sites, including the Mamilla Cemetery in West Jerusalem, reflects a deeply embedded colonizer mentality that views subjugated peoples as fundamentally inferior and unworthy of even the most basic dignities afforded other human beings,” she says.

Dr. Wazayatawin continues, “The act of erasing a people’s memory from the landscape is a necessary element in the colonization process.  In order for the colonizers to legitimize their occupation of another’s land, they must eradicate all memories of the colonized, including even the human remains that demonstrate a deep and powerful connection to the land itself.”

Everywhere in Israel are the eradicated memories of the dispossessed Indigenous people. Old mosques are transformed into bars and nightclubs, so that patrons drink alcohol where Muslims used to pray. The history museum in Jaffa (more of a tourist site than an educational institution) is inexplicably silent about the existence of people in the city between the Roman times and Napoleon’s invasion. Street names are changed from their ancient Arabic names to new Hebrew ones. Golda Meir’s famous comment “there is no such thing as a Palestinian people” reflected her desire, not a reality, but it has been repeated so often that many Israelis believe it. The destruction of a cemetery shows starkly how little regard Israel holds for the humanity of the Palestinians. As Dr. Wazayatawin says, “There is something terribly wrong with a culture that digs up the dead of others.  The societal justification for such a crime reveals its own sickness.”

First posted: http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/news/2010/09/05/destruction-mamilla-cemetery-desecration-sacred-site

Photo: http://ccrjustice.org/ourcases/current-cases/mamilla

Past Events

MN BBC Community Informational and Fundraiser!

Join us for an afternoon of fun,

getting to know MN Break the Bonds Campaign

(MN BBC), and pitching in funds to help the campaign continue.

Pitching in on a donation basis – No one turned away for lack of funds

(perhaps for lack of FUN though!)

MN Break the Bonds Community

Informational and Fundraiser!

Saturday August 28

4-7pm

3104 45th Ave. S. Minneapolis

We are working together to bring fair and honest Palestine-centric education to Minnesota, to support justice and human rights and to take responsibility for our culpability as Minnesotans in Israel’s occupation of Palestine.

We say,

Minnesota Divest from Israel Bonds, Divest for Justice in Palestine

To make a donation or to get involved, email us at:

mn@breakthebonds.org

If you would like to print out the event flier to give to friends and neighbors, click here: community flier


Photo from: http://glbonafont.com

Past Events

Not in Their Name: Jewish Voice for Peace Comes to Town

Leave a comment

Richard Broderick, TC Daily Planet, July 15, 2010.

Stefanie Fox picked a good week to visit the Twin Cities to launch a local chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace (www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org).

While Fox, JVP’s national organizer, was making a presentation in Saint Paul, across the river in Minneapolis, the Presbyterian Church USA gave overwhelming approval to a proposal calling upon the U.S. government to cut off aid to Israel unless it ceases its settlement expansions in the Occupied Territories.
view counter

Coming hard on the heels of the Goldstone Report and the uproar over the recent terrorist assault on the Gaza flotilla, the proposal is further evidence that the self-censorship that has stifled any kind of open debate in this country over our “special relationship” with Israel is beginning to fray.

But there’s still lots of work to be done, which is why Fox came to spend a couple of days in Minnesota.

JVP is building local chapters and one of its top targets is Minneapolis-St. Paul, for reasons Fox explained to me during a conversation at Gingko’s coffee shop the day after her presentation.

“In the Twin Cities, there is a long history of progressive activism and it would be foolish for us not to be involved here,” she said. She also pointed out that some 800 people on JVP’s nationwide email list of 100,000 activists live in the Twin Cities.

Jewish Voice for Peace got its start about 20 years ago in the Bay area and went national in 2003. Its most public face is on the Internet; the group is currently spearheading an online petition campaign to convince pension-fund giant, TIAA-CREF, to divest from corporations that profit directly from the Occupation; to date, the petition has gathered some 6,000 signatures.

This tactic reflects the Boycott, Divest, Sanction (BDS) strategy now being pursued by Middle East peace organizations around the world.

BDS  seeks to replicate the pressure that brought down apartheid in South Africa, only this time against Israel. BDS is also the goal of the Minnesota Break the Bonds campaign and is supported by other local peace groups like the Coalition for Palestinian Rights. It is being taken seriously enough by the Israeli government and its U.S. backers that, in a twisted chain of logic, it is being equated with denial of Israel’s right-to-existence – and therefore with “terrorism.”

It’s a linkage that worries Fox – but that isn’t going to stop her and her fellow Jewish activists from speaking truth to power.

“We know that when something is framed as a threat to Israel’s security, all bets are off,” she observed. “It is alarming to think that non-violent protestors might be targeted in this way.

“But that’s not stopping folks as far as I can tell. The power of BDS in response to the daily violence of the occupation speaks much more loudly than any attempts at muzzling us.”

At the same time, she and other activists know that the “daily violence of the occupation” can only continue so long as the United States goes on lavishing political, military, and, above all, financial support on Israel.

We hear about the $3-plus billion in direct aid Israel receives from us each year, but the true value of our aid goes far beyond even that overweening sum.

In 1980, the State Department commissioned a study of the total value of all direct and indirect U.S. aid  to Israel. The study was spiked by the Reagan administration and only later released in a highly redacted form. Even so, the document revealed that the combined amount of U.S. assistance to Israel in the form of direct aid, forgiven loans, special trade deals, tax deductions claimed by Americans donating to Israeli organizations, and other subventions actually added up to some $20 billion a year. And that was in 1980. We can safely assume that the total is much higher now.

At a time when we are closing schools and libraries, forcing American students to pay higher and higher tuitions, and telling our long-term unemployed to take a hike, the continuation of this kind of assistance to any foreign nation would be insupportable – no matter what the circumstances. That it should be ladled out to a nation that spies on us, defies our arms export control laws, ignores UN resolutions and is guilty of wholesale humans rights violations and war crimes, is beyond insupportable. It is unconscionable – and inconceivable if the recipient were any other nation in the world.

It is has long been clear that the only way this insanity can be stopped is if enough American Jews – people of conscience, acting in the best tradition of Jewish teaching and history – resist attempts to silence dissent by national Jewish organizations and step forward to say “No more. Not in my name.” The appearance of groups like JVP – and the work of activists like Stefanie Fox – give reason to hope that, however slowly and painfully, we will perhaps one day be able to reach that goal.

Rich Broderick (email richb@lakecast.com) lives in St. Paul and teaches journalism at Anoka-Ramsey Community College. Rich is a writer, poet, and social activist.

First Posted at: http://www.tcdailyplanet.net

Photo: http://www.antiauthoritarian.net/NLN/photo-gallery/2009_09_21_no/

Articles, Past Events

Road Trip to Red Wing Kicks Off State Tour!

by Lis Geschiere, July 12, 2010

Last Saturday, July 10, 2010, four members of the MN Break the Bonds Campaign, Sriram Ananth, Flo Razowsky, Lis Geschiere, and Maryama Green, ventured to Red Wing, Minnesota to do campaign outreach in honor of the 5-year anniversary of the 2005 Unified Palestinian Call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against Israel (bdsmovement.net). The day trip down south, which certainly took these four city-dwellers on the road less traveled, was also the beginning of what the Campaign is calling the “MN BBC State Tour 2010”. It’s goal? To reach out to Greater Minnesota.

Since the first meeting of the MN Break the Bonds Campaign in the summer of 2008, although it did not yet bear that name, membership has increased by 98 percent. However, of the 120 members actively involved in the campaign, approximately two-thirds live in the Twin Cities metro. Between now and October of this year, the Core Team hopes to shift that demographic reality by taking to the streets of rural Minnesotan towns and cities to tell anyone who will listen about MN Break the Bonds. In addition to spreading the word via conversation and handing out informational brochures, the intent is to triple the number of signed postcards that the campaign has collected, which express support for Minnesota cutting economic ties with Israel.

Sri, Flo, Lis, and Maryama, an audacious newcomer to the campaign(!), decided that Red Wing, with its quaint and walkable downtown area, would be a great place to visit first. They arrived around 12:30 and split into pairs to try to cover more ground in less time. When the group reconvened after only one hour, they had collectively gotten 20 postcards signed, and forty minutes later the day’s total was 27, bringing the amount of signed postcards representing Red Wing up from a total of 3 to 30.

All four members who participated in the outreach felt like it was a great success, and well worth their time. Sure, there was the occasional mean-spirited fundamentalist you had to deal with, and “that one guy” who’s happy his money helps pay for ethnic cleansing, but by far the majority of folks either took a brochure and kept on their way or listened intently and then added their signature to a postcard. And if you asked one of the MN BBC’ers what she or he enjoyed the most about Red Wing, don’t be surprised if he or she tells you, the ice cream. After all, what good would a road trip be if you didn’t get a chance to try the local cuisine?

Lis Geschiere is a member of MN Break the Bonds, and a resident of South Minneapolis.

Articles

Editorial: Judge for yourselves

Photo (courtesy of Elisabeth Geschiere): Some of the numerous Palestinian homes and shops along Shuhada Street in Hebron, West Bank that have been closed by Israeli Occupation Forces.

Joel Weisburg, Northfield News, June 18, 2010

To the editor:
I am a Jew who is critical of many Israeli policies toward Palestinians. I feel I must respond to my colleague Alan Rubenstein’s suggestion (Northfield News, June 16) that an earlier letter writer, Bill McGrath, was “duped by anti-semites” into calling for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel for attacking the Gaza aid convoy.

The great majority of the participants in the aid convoy were nonviolent peace activists. I would have been proud to have been among them, trying to deliver aid to a people who are living in destitution due to Israel’s and Egypt’s blockade. I would not be surprised if a small number among the flotilla participants were anti-Jewish, but this was far from a common thread among them.

The Hamas movement that rules Gaza was elected by the people of Gaza in an election that international observers claimed was free and fair. Dr. Rubenstein is correct that the Hamas movement makes clear its desire to destroy Israel. Nevertheless, Israel needs to negotiate with its enemies, as does every country that faces a foe. But instead of attempting to talk to its enemies, it often responds with force. Two of the latest instances were the Israeli invasion of Gaza 18 months ago which resulted in hundreds of civilian deaths and Israel’s attack on the aid flotilla.

These actions are abhorred by many people, including some Jews like me. The Israeli government appears to feel that it can use disproportionate force with few resulting consequences. Part of the reason for this is undoubtedly the strong U.S. government support for its policies. Israel is the largest recipient of U.S. aid dollars, and we regularly veto U.N. resolutions condemning its actions against Palestinians.

Those of us who support a policy of boycott, divestment, and sanctions toward Israel are seeking to use nonviolent means to change its inhumane policies, much as was done toward South Africa and other countries that violate human rights. We are attempting to help bring justice to a people living under an unjust military occupation. I hope that readers will judge for themselves whether this means we have been “duped by anti-Semites.”

Joel Weisberg is a resident of Northfield, Minnesota.

First posted at: http://northfieldnews.com/news.php?viewStory=53197