Rally and March for Palestine
Nakba Day May 15th, 2021
As the March passed Ben & Jerry’s, people stopped and chanted “Shame on You!” because of their ice cream business in Palestine/Israel
Speakers at Burlington’s City Hall – representing the participating organizations.
Hundreds of people in Vermont join the international outcry against the violence in Palestine and Israel, routed in 73 years of oppression, occupation and Apartheid.
The rally/march in Burlington VT started at Battery Park and proceeded to City Hall.
It was an amazing experience – a huge coalition of mostly young people many of whom have experienced discrimination and being marginalized (Women, non-white, immigrants and others).
Speakers included:
Wafic Faour – VTJP
Hannah Rose – Decolonize Burlington
Asma Elhuni – RAD
Mark Hage – VTJP
Sara Brooks – VTJP and PSL
Rajni
Amanda Garces – Education Justice Coalition of Vermont
Zanevia Wilcox – The Battery Park movement
Rick (Spontaneous speaker)
Mohsen Mahdawi
Dima
Marita Canedo (Migrant justice)
Ashley Smith – DSA
Press Release Prior to the event
“Burlington rallies for Palestine” A short report by local media
Co-Sponsors:
Vermonters for Justice in Palestine
Decolonize Burlington
Jewish Voice for Peace, Vermont-New Hampshire
Community Voices for Immigrant Rights
Red Banner Anti-Imperialist Collective
Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL)
Party of Communists USA
Rise Upper Valley
Education Justice Coalition of Vermont
Vermont Workers’ Center
The Battery Park Movement
Will Miller Social Justice Lecture Series
The Peoples Kitchen
The Center for Grassroots Organizing
VT National Lawyers Guild
Video here
There they learned the violent techniques that Israeli forces have been seen to use as they terrorize people in the occupied Palestinian territories under the guise of security operations.
About us:
Vermonters for Justice in Palestine (VTJP) was founded on the belief that Justice is a necessity before Peace can be achieved.
Mission Statement: Vermonters for Justice in Palestine works to support the Palestinian people in their struggle for human rights and to end the illegal, immoral, and brutal Israeli occupation through education, advocacy, and action. We are committed to the principles of self-determination for the Palestinian people, the right of return for Palestinian refugees, and full civil and political rights for all Palestinians in order to promote the equality and safety of both Palestinians and Israelis
New Developments: Palestine Legal has taken on this case,
and Jewish Voice for Peace has started a petition to Middlebury Administration
Photo: Hattie LeFavour The launch of a website in March 2021 by Middlebury College Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) was accompanied by students marking pavements with chalked ‘go-links’ (online shortcuts accessible to those on campus WiFi) linking to campus resources, including the tag go/apartheid linking to the SJP website. The SJP group focuses on its commitment "to educating ourselves and the Middlebury College community about Israeli apartheid" and strongly defends the use of the word Apartheid to describe the situation in Palestine/Israel.
According to an article in The Middlebury Campus (a student-run weekly newspaper of Middlebury College) by Abigail Chang, entitled "Tensions mount on campus as go-links turn the spotlight on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict" subsequent links named go/palestine, go/palestinian and go/sjp were established, and they brought users to an Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs webpage titled "Palestinian terror and incitement."
Three Opinion Pieces were published the same day (March 18th, 2021): by Matt Martignoni, entitled ‘Solidarity is the political version of love’; by Max Shulman-Litwin entitled "Why Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) worries me"
And by Laurie Essig and four other faculty members entitled "Jewish faculty support Students for Justice in Palestine."
Through the Wall
View the recording of the online discussion held on Sunday, March 21,2021 with film director Anne Macksoud, Rabbi Dov Taylor, who is featured in the film and Moshen Mehdawi, a young Palestinian who grew up in the West Bank, now living in Vermont.
Talk by Rashid Khalidi and and subsequent discussion.
Professor Khalidi discussed the history of British and American initiatives to transform Palestine into a Jewish State and his most recent book, The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917- 2017 (2020).
Rashid Khalidi is the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University, the author of many books, and an esteemed scholar and activist. He was President of the Middle East Studies Association, and an advisor to the Palestinian delegation to the Madrid and Washington Arab-Israeli peace negotiations from October 1991 until June 1993.
Also, the documentary film “The Occupation of the American Mind” can now be watched for free, via the link here. The link offers shorter, abridged versions of the film as alternatives, but the full 84-minute film is considered a MUST VIEW.The film is narrated by Roger Waters and includes interviews with Phyllis Bennis, Noam Chomsky, Amira Hass, Rashid Khalidi, Youssef Munayyer, Henry Siegman and Stephen Walt.
More information: https://www.occupationmovie.org/
In a rebuke to the Israeli NE Consulate Migrant Justice responded Dec 7, 2020 to Israel in Boston when they tried to create a PR event by offering Migrant Justice free hand sanitizers to “help communities most impacted by the pandemic.” Migrant Justice wrote: "If the Israeli government were sincere in that goal it would begin in Gaza, where cases had doubled in the last two weeks while the population suffers from blockade-imposed shortages of ventilators, PPE, and medicine."See Migrant Justice email to the Israeli Consulate:
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