Protest Chicago Ties with Israel - Wed, March 3rd / Next anti-war coalition mtg

[LGBTLib...@aol.com]

Activists Tell Mayor at Sister Cities Program Breakfast:

"No Business as Usual with Israel!"

When:  Wednesday, 3 March at 7am
Where:  Palmer House Hilton, 17 E. Monroe St., Chicago

 

Chicago, IL - Calling on the Chicago Sister Cities International to drop Petach Tikva, Israel from its program, the Palestine Solidarity Group-Chicago will protest the Annual International Business Breakfast hosted by Chicago Sister Cities International with keynote by Mayor Daley. The action is part of an ongoing campaign to end the sister city relationship between Chicago and an Israeli city and falls during the international Israeli Apartheid Week during which actions will take place all over the world that highlight the country’s racist rule over Palestinians.

Heeding the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions on Israel to hold it accountable for its human rights violations, the Palestine Solidarity Group-Chicago rejects an official relationship between the City of Chicago and the Municipality of Petach Tikva in Israel. We reject the use of the Sister Cities program to normalize Israeli apartheid and colonization.

The first Jewish-only settlement in historic Palestine, and known in Israel as the "mother of all settlements," Petach Tikva symbolizes the dispossession and colonization of the Palestinian homeland and is built on the remains of depopulated Palestinian villages whose descendents are denied the right to return home. Petach Tikva is also home to one of the largest interrogation and detention centers in Israel, where Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip are illegally transferred for interrogation and routinely subjected to ill treatment and torture. Furthermore, Petach Tikva is an officially segregated city and Palestinian citizens of Israel are subjected to an apartheid legal system and institutional racism.

With Chicago grassroot communities’ long history of fighting the injustices of torture and racism, we demand an end to the Sister City partnership between the City of Chicago and Petach Tikva, a relationship which helps whitewash Israel's crimes against the Palestinians and normalize apartheid. So long as Israel continues to occupy Palestinian and Arab land, so long as Palestinian refugees are refused their right to return home, and so long as Palestinians are denied their right to self-determination, we demand that there be no business as normal with Israel.

The campaign has been endorsed by social justice and community organizations such as the 8th Day Center for Justice, Jewish Voice for Peace, Chicagoans Against Apartheid in Palestine, CCAWR, Students for Justice in Palestine chapters throughout the city, and the US Palestine Community Network.

 

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Next Anti-War Coalition Meeting

 

The next meeting of the 80+ groups organizing a march and rally on the 7th anniversary of the illegal U.S. invasion of Iraq will meet at 2 - 5 PM, Sunday, March 7 at the office of the 8th Day Center for Justice, 205 W Monroe Street, 5th floor (wheelchair accessible).  Due to security arrangements for the building, please do not arrive before 1:45 PM or after 2:15 PM (if you absolutely must arrive after that, you will have to call 312.641.5151 to be let into the building).

 

The big action on the 7th anniversary of the war will begin at 5:30 PM, Thursday, March 18 with a short rally at Federal Plaza (corner of Adams & Dearborn Streets), followed by a permitted march on Michigan Avenue. 

 

More information and resources, including downloadable handbills, flyers and posters in multiple languages and information about other actions, can be found at the www.ChicagoMassAction.org website or by emailing CC...@aol.com

 

Here is the current list of organizations co-sponsoring the big march:

 

8th Day Center for Justice

Albany Park, North Park, Mayfair Neighbors for Peace and Justice

American Friends Service Committee

American Muslims for Palestine

ANSWER Chicago

Aurora Peace & Justice

Brother Joe

Chicago 911 Truth

Chicago Area CodePINK

Chicago Chapter of the Fellowship of Reconciliation

Chicago Chapter, World Can't Wait

Chicago Coalition Against War & Racism

Chicago Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights

Chicago Democratic Socialists of America

Chicago Labor Against the War

Chicago Media Action

Chicago Solidarity

Chicagoans Against Apartheid in Palestine (CAAP)

Chicagoans Against War & Injustice (CAWI)

Christian Peacemaker Teams - Chicago

Comité Anti-Militarización (CAMI)

Committee on Philippine Issues

Cook County Green Party

DeKalb Interfaith Network for Peace and Justice

Demilitarized U

DePage Peace Thru Justice

DePaul Students for Justice in Palestine

DuPage County Green Party

Fox Valley Citizens for Peace & Justice

Freedom Road Socialist Party

Friends of Leon Berger

Gay Liberation Network

Hyde Parkers for Peace and Justice (HPPJ)

Illinois Green Party

Immigrant Solidarity Dupage

Industrial Workers of the World Chicago GMB

International Socialist Organization

International Solidarity Movement - Chicago

Iraq Veterans Against the War

James Thindwa, former Executive Director of Chicago Jobs with Justice

Jewish Voice for Peace - Chicago

Join the Impact Chicago

La Voz de los de Abajo

Labor Beat / Labor Express

Logan Square Neighbors for Justice and Peace

Near West Citizens for Peace & Justice

Neighbors for Peace

News & Letters

Nicaragua Solidarity Alliance for Global Justice

North Shore Coalition for Peace Justice and the Environment

North Suburban Peace Initiative

Northeastern Illinois University Students for Justice in Palestine

Northern Illinois End the Occupation

Northwest Suburban Peace & Education Project

Oak Park Coalition for Peace and Justice

Oak Park Friends Meeting

Palestine Solidarity Group - Chicago

Pax Christi Seed Planters

Peace Pledge

Progressive Democrats of America - Chicago

Public Workers Unite!

ReaCH-Refugee Center for Hope

Sangat Chicago

South Side Anti-Racist Action

Southsiders For Peace

Students for Justice in Palestine IIT

Students for Peace and Justice at Wilbur Wright College

Third Unitarian Church Social Action Committee

UIC Political Discussion and Action Group

UIC Students for Justice in Palestine

United States Palestinian Community Network (USPCN)-Chicago Chapter

U.S. Marxist-Humanists-Chicago

Veterans for Peace

Vietnam Veterans Against the War

Voices for Creative Nonviolence

We Are Change Chicago

Wellington Avenue United Church of Christ

West Side Greens

West Suburban Faith-based PEACE Coalition

Witness for Peace - Great Lakes Region