The Jewish National Fund was in town to collect money for its "projects" in Israel. As one speaker relates, as a child she was encouraged to give money to "plant a tree". She is now protesting JNF having learned that the donations, small and large, have been used to remove Palestinians, take their land and destroy their history. Interviews are during the march to the hotel where the JNF event was held and rally following. JVP members managed a flash mob in the hotel lobby during the demo. They recreate it at the end of the rally. The first speaker, a former board member of the JNF in Washington, DC, explains why he is no longer supporting JNF or a Zionist. JNF separate, unequal policies are a root cause of escalating violence against Palestinians.
"The Jewish National Fund is deeply complicit in the ongoing dispossession of Palestinian land, the destruction of Palestinian homes and the theft of Palestinian resources that has continued unabated since 1948. These practices are among the root causes of the escalating violence in the region today.
JVP-Chicago calls on fellow American Jews to disassociate themselves from the separate and unequal policies toward Palestinians the JNF implements in our name.
The action united the major Palestinian organizations in the Chicago-area (Coalition for Justice in Palestine) to also condemn todayâs Israeli state and settler violence against Palestinians, which has led to the killing of 55 Palestinians, and the injuring of over 2,000, since October 1.
The JNF racially segregates the 13% of Israeli public land it controls in âIsrael Proper,â prohibiting its use by Palestinians. JNF asserts it âdoes not have a duty to practice equality towards all citizens of the state.â JNFâs control of 10 of 22 seats on the Israel Land Council, governing the Israel Land Authority, empowers it to pursue its discriminatory ideology throughout 93% of land within the Green Line. JNF collaborates with the Israeli government to replace Palestinian communities it destroys with Jewish-only settlements or manicured forests that erase any trace of Palestinian presence, including the Ambassador Forest planned to replace the village of al-Arakib within Israelâs Green Line (1948 Palestine) ".
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP)-Chicago Jewish Coalition for Justice in Palestine US Palestinian Community Network(USPCN)
Jewish Voice for Peace is a national, grassroots organization inspired by Jewish tradition to work for a just and lasting peace according to principles of human rights, equality, and international law for all the people of Israel and Palestine. Jewish Voice for Peace has over 200,000 online supporters, over 65 chapters, a youth wing, a Rabbinic Council, and an Advisory Board made up of leading U.S. intellectuals and artists. The Coalition for Justice in Palestine represents all major Palestinian, Arab and Muslim organizations advocating for Palestinian human rights in Chicago.
Information about ISM activist Rachel Corrie who was mentioned during interview. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Corrie