Jun 15, 2023
A change in medium: We have started to use a new format for our newsletters, switching from drafting the newsletters on Canva and then emailing them out, to using Mailchimp. There are some advantages to Mailchimp, as we are finding.
However, one hitch we have found with some gmail addresses is that our newsletters have gone into the Promotions, not the Primary box. Can we ask people to check Promotions and move the newsletters to Primary by dragging and dropping, then filling in the requisite permission to do this for all such emails, which will pop up. This will label our Mailchimp newsletters for the future as destined for your Primary Inbox.
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The last two Newsletters: In case you missed them, below you’ll find details of the last two newsletters.
East Jerusalem Updates : May 2023.
This newsletter gives updates on the long struggle of the Sumarin family to remain in their East Jerusalem home. Their (qualified) victory represents a setback for the JNF. We also look at key co-conspirators in the ethnic cleansing of East Jerusalem: JNF /Himanuta, Elad and millionaire Roman Abramovich. East Jerusalem is a site where the rigorous academic and scientific discipline is being undermined by Zionist politics – evidence of this is shown in the newsletter.
75 Years of the Nakba: April 2023
This newsletter addresses many aspects of the Nakba and shows how the central phenomenon of settler colonial elimination of the Palestinians has operated – and still operates – today. We offer views from Ben White, Ilan Pappe and Jonathan Cook, as well as examining the role of the JNF in the ongoing Nakba and the Plant a Tree in Palestine campaign which challenges land theft.
Feb 8, 2023
An initiative of Stop the JNF (Britain), Middle East Children’s Alliance (USA) and Stop the Wall (Palestine), Plant a Tree was re-launched after lockdown as a campaign that encourages international supporters, both individuals and organisations, to donate funds to enable Palestinian farmers to buy and plant trees in the occupied West Bank.
There are many projects encouraging tree planting in Palestine – so why is Stop the JNF involved in another?
Tree planting in Palestine is political. In the hands of the Palestinians it is an act of resistance to the occupation of the West Bank and the settler colonisation of Palestine. Trees, whether vines, olives, almonds or any other indigenous woody perennials that are cultivated for their produce, enable Palestinians to have a permanent occupation of their land in defiance of the Zionist colonisers’ acts of eviction and ethnic cleansing. That is why trees are targeted by settlers and subject to vandalism – uprooted, burned, poisoned and damaged as part of the persecution of Palestinians. And Palestinians re-plant, cultivate and reclaim their land as resistance. Plant a Tree helps support this material form of Palestinian resistance.
Tree planting in Palestine is also political when carried out by the Jewish National Fund.
Throughout its history, the JNF has planted trees in Palestine as part of its project of ethnic cleansing, to erect barriers, ‘Judaise’ the landscape, displace Palestinian communities, prevent refugees returning, erase depopulated villages and generally greenwash the crimes of colonisation. These trees have often been alien species and ecologically damaging. Moreover, the JNF has used tree planting as a propaganda tool to promote Zionist ideology amongst international Jewish communities who are encouraged to donate to the colonial enterprise, and through the duplicitous naming of their Parks and Forests: British Park; Coretta Scott King Forest; Canada Park; Ambassadors’ Forest.
- By supporting Palestinians planting and cultivating indigenous trees, Stop the JNF is exposing the JNF propaganda as greenwash for ethnic cleansing.
- Internationally, Plant a Tree provides the opportunity to support Palestinian resistance materially and politically.
- It is attractive to solidarity activists as well as to environmentalists, gardeners, horticulturalists and farmers.
- It provides an alternative to the JNF for concerned Jewish citizens and an opportunity for people of good will everywhere to stand in solidarity with Palestinian grassroots resistance.
Feb 11, 2022
This newsletter is a response to Amnesty International’s report on Israel’s crime against humanity of Apartheid. We recognise that behind Amnesty’s work stand other major reports: Falk and Tilley, B’tselem and Human Rights Watch. And, of course, all these organisations are amplifying what individual Palestinians and Palestinian organisations have been saying for decades: Israel is a criminal state, guilty of Apartheid and Persecution, from the river to the sea. Read the newsletter here February Newsletter (2)
Nov 17, 2021
This newsletter marks the beginning of a new strand of the long-established campaign to Stop the JNF. With our Palestinian partners, we are calling on people in the UK to join us in exposing and rejecting the JNF. The focal point for this call to action is the British Park, developed by the JNF UK in the 1950’s over the ethnically cleansed lands of 7 Palestinian villages. Having tried to hide the crimes of the Nakba in this way and seeking to prevent the Return of Palestinians to their homes, the JNF UK then “gifted” this park to Israel. Join the launch event on November 28th and read more British Park Newsletter
Oct 25, 2021
As COP 26 approaches, check this link COP 26 flyer for a short summary of information about assembly points, national hubs for finding rallies near you, leaflets, the important People’s Summit events and other key pieces of information.
Aug 26, 2021
This newsletter focuses on Climate Justice in general and -in particular – preparations for COP 26, at which the JNF has observer status. There is a registration link to the Workshop on September 4th at 4pm with keynote Palestinian contributors, one of whom (Manal Shqair) has written our feature Comment piece for this edition. You’ll also see a rebuttal of JNF’s claims that their forestation programme is beneficial to the environment, side-stepping the forests’ and parks’ political aim and damaging effects (e.g. Jerusalem fires as the latest example.) Details of COP 26 and the Plant a Tree relaunch are also included. Read the Late August Newsletter
