On Thursday 21st March Palestine solidarity activists will submit a Stop the JNF application to the Charity Commission to remove JNF UK charities from the register.
Join us if you can!
Liverpool @ 12noon
12 Princes Dock
Princes Parade
L3 1DE
Newport @ 12noon
Clarence House
Clarence Place
NP19 7AA
London @ 1.15pm
One Drummond Gate
Victoria
London
SW1V 2QQ
Taunton @ 3pm
Woodfield House
Tangier
Somerset
TA1 4BL
Jonah Aline Daniel, of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network and Stop the JNF Campaign, is excited to share photos, video and stories from the January 2013 Plant-a-Tree In Palestine Delegation on a 9-city organizing tour in the U.S. and Canada this spring.
The goal of the tour is to build the momentum of the Stop the JNF Campaign.
Tour events will include photo and video documentation of the role of the Jewish National Fund in the historic and ongoing colonization of Palestine and strategic conversations about exposing and delegitimizing the JNF.
To be connected with the tour or invite the tour to your city, please be in touch with Jonah: jonahalinedaniel@gmail.com.
Report Back Tour – Dates are approximate:
Minneapolis
Thursday April 4th, 6:30 pm
Cafe SouthSide
3405 Chicago Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55407
Chicago April 5-12
Monday April 8th 6:30 PM
Grace Place
637 South Dearborn Street
Chicago, Illinois, 60605
Detroit April April 13-14
Western Mass (University not chosen) April 19-24
Boston April 19-24
NYC April 24-26
Philladelphia April 27-May 2
Baltimore May 2-6
Washington, D.C. May 2-6
Thursday, 21 March 2013
17:30 in EDT
Beat Street Station Manayunk, 4401 Cresson Street
Join PhillyBDS at the “STOP the The Jewish National Fund” protest! The must-attend Philly BDS community protest of the year for everyone who cares about justice in Israel-Palestine.
Each year, Philly BDS is a colorful and vocal presence in protest at the annual fundraiser for The Jewish National Fund. Let’s connect the dots: Tribe Hummus is owned by Osem, a company whose profits contribute to the Jewish National Fund. The Jewish National Fund provides the infrastructure for the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, and has since its establishment in 1901. The JNF mandate is the acquisition of land and property rights for the exclusive use of Jewish Israelis. After 1948, the JNF was re-branded as an environmental organization focused on forestation. Each year, the JNF raises over $60 million in the United States alone. Despite its role in ethnic cleansing and apartheid, the JNF continues to enjoy charitable status.
This year’s fundraiser is “March Madness Poker Tournament” and will be held at Beat Street Station Manayunk, in Manayunk on Thursday, March 21. Philly BDS and allies will gather to protest at 5:30 pm at 4401 Cresson Street. We will be bearing the motto “STOP THE JNF’s APARTHEID ROYALE” carrying signs, wearing splashy costumes, walking a picket line, performing raucous street theater, and reciting somber poetry.
The point of the demonstration is to call attention to the human rights abuses against Palestinians by the Jewish National Fund and to encourage activists to work to revoke the tax-exempt status the JNF holds.
Since launching its campaign targeting Sabra Hummus and Tribe Hummus in October 2010, Philly BDS continues to stand for justice with Palestinians by responding to the 2005 Call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against Israel until it meets it obligations under international law.
Press statement issued by Allan Horwitz, spokesperson for the StopTheJNF South Africa.The new owners of South Africa’s major toy retailer, “Reggies”, Mr. Christian Larsen and Mr. Mohsin Mia, have gone on record confirming that Reggies Toy Stores have ended and no more have a relationship with the Jewish National Fund (JNF), an Israeli para-statal directly involved in Israeli human rights abuses against the Palestinian people. Reggies Toy Stores had previously endorsed, partnered and financially-contributed to Israel’s JNF (see, for example, this joint Reggies/JNF 2012 campaign: http://tinyurl.com/bg9k2tk)
Larsen, speaking to a community radio station, noted that the new Reggies Toy Stores owners (represented by himself and Mia) have nothing to do with any affiliates of the previous owners, he said: “there is nothing that we are hiding; there is nothing that we are doing that we are ashamed of”.
This decision by Reggies Toy Stores follows nationwide protests and other activism against Reggies Toy Stores. Making headlines late last year, hundreds of South Africans of all races and religions protested against the South African company’s support for the JNF and its complicity in Israel’s forced removals of the Palestinians.The JNF, in close conjunction with the Israeli government and the implementation of its “Prawer Plan”, is currently involved in the expulsion of 30 000 Bedouin Palestinians because, as non-Jews, they are considered a demographic threat. In turn, the Israeli government and the JNF plan to move 250 000 Jews into Jewish settlements in this area – even building these Israeli Jewish settlements on top of the recently removed and destroyed Palestinian Bedouin villages (see:http://tinyurl.com/cc2dtub)The campaign against Reggies Toy Stores and their relationship with the Jewish National Fund (JNF), is led by the South African chapter of the global StopTheJNF campaign. The StopTheJNF South Africa chapter was initiated in 2012 by a group of concerned Jewish South Africans, representing a growing number of Jews from around the world who are increasingly opposed to Israel’s discriminatory policies and the JNF’s complicity in Israel’s ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians.
Shereen Usdin, from the StopTheJNF South Africa chapter, has welcomed the decision by Reggies Toy Stores to drop the JNF: “We warmly welcome the position taken by Reggies to end its endorsement and financial support to the Jewish National Fund (JNF). Reggies has chosen to stand on the right side of history by taking this ethical position and should be commended. However, the larger StopTheJNF campaign will continue for as long as the JNF operates in South Africa. We are in the process of approaching other South African organisations and companies with ties to the JNF to highlight and inform them of the human rights violations that they are linked to by way of the JNF.”
– Photos from national day of action against Reggies Toy Store
– YouTube TV Coverage of national day of action against Reggies Toy Store
– Press release 2 after national day of action against Reggies Toy Store
– Press release 1 on national day of action against Reggies
– Pamphlet on the JNF and Reggies Toy Store
– Mail & Guardian article exposing JNF’s complicity in human rights abuses
The campaign “Forest of the SPD” is a cynical “Christmasgift” and a slap for peace, human rights and human dignity.
SPD-Parteivorstand
Willy-Brandt-Haus
Wilhelmstraße 141
10963 Berlin
The Jüdische Stimme für gerechten Frieden in Nahost (Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East, EJJP Germany) is disappointed to hear that the SPD is launching a campaign to raise donations for the Jewish National Fund (JNF) for the planting of an “SPD Forest” in the Negev.
The SPD has cynically noted that the German government considers donations to the JNF to be tax-deductible. This means that donations to the JNF are subsidized by the German government, which is thereby assisting indirectly in the ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Beduin population of the Negev Desert.
But while the German government’s involvement is indirect, the SPD is directly supporting this criminal action. The SPD knows that the JNF’s goal is to “Judaize” Israel, and that its projects of planting forests in the Negev are part of an effort to stop the native Beduin population from using the land for agriculture and pasture as they have been doing up till now.
It is alarming that the SPD has chosen to give Israel a “birthday gift,” by giving money to an organization that actively promotes the expansion of one population group over another. The SPD has ignored the fact that the Negev (Naqab, in Arabic) is populated mostly by Moslems, whom the JNF is actively trying to displace from their lands. They are also citizens of Israel, but the “present” from the SPD would taste very bitter for them.
In March this year, the Jüdische Stimme already warned against donations to the JNF, a criminal organization actively engaged in illegal settlement in occupied East Jerusalem, mainly through its subsidiary “Himanuta.” In 2011-2012 the village of Al Arakib in the desert was demolished by JNF bulldozers more than thirty times. The JNF sought donations from U.S donors to plant a forest on the lands of Al Arakib in order to prevent the residents from rebuilding their homes and restoring their agricultural lands.
This year, the Jüdische Stimme noticed with great interest, that the world community is beginning to respond to the crimes committed by the JNF, and this year in the UK donations to the JNF were halved, after many donors refused to participate in ethnic cleansing projects. Unfortunately, the SPD appears to be lagging behind and is either unaware of, or unwilling to address the contradiction between supporting the JNF and the right of all Israeli citizens to be treated with dignity and respect.
Finally, as Jews we wish to stress that by mixing a “present for Israel” with a “present for Chanukah,” the SPD is mixing a Jewish tradition with discrimination against Palestinians and Beduins in Israel. We wish to stress that as Jews we reject the expropriation methods of JNF and its racist ideology promoting the “Judaization” of the Negev. The idea that a Jewish holiday, “Chanukah,” is an occasion to attack non-Jews is abhorrent, and we anxiously wait to hear an explanation from the SPD of why they chose to make this connection.
19. Dezember, 2012
1. http://www.spd.de/partei/82714/20121130_baum_statt_krawatte.html;jsessionid=CD01A2B77850FA5CFBDDF4E849BA1649
2. http://www.tarabut.info/en/articles/article/JNF-starting-to-pay/
