Tag: Gaza

Activists gathered Oct. 7 Action on Gaza at Rep. Rosa DeLauro’s Office

On Oct. 7, peace and justice activists gathered in front of Rep. DeLauro’s New Haven office at 59 Elm St. for a community reading of the open letter to Pres. Biden and Vice Pres. Harris from American medical professionals who served in Gaza. The letter was then given to her aide Lou Mangini to read to her. The reading was organized by the Greater New Haven Peace Council.

Below are excerpts. The entire letter is online at www.gazahealthcareletters.org/usa-letter-oct-2-2024.

I’ve never seen such horrific injuries, on such a massive scale, with so few resources. Our bombs are cutting down women and children by the thousands. Their mutilated bodies are a monument to cruelty. Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, trauma and critical care surgeon, Veterans Affairs general surgeon

I saw so many stillbirths and maternal deaths that could have been easily prevented if the hospitals had been functioning normally. Dr. Thalia Pachiyannakis, obstetrician and gynecologist

Gaza was the first time I held a baby’s brains in my hand. The first of many. Dr. Mark Perlmutter, orthopedic and hand surgeon

Open Letter from American Medical Professionals Who Served in Gaza

October 2, 2024

Dear President Biden and Vice President Harris,

We are 99 American physicians, surgeons, nurse practitioners, nurses, and midwives who have volunteered in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023. Combined, we spent 254 weeks volunteering in Gaza’s hospitals and clinics. We worked with various nongovernmental organizations and the World Health Organization in hospitals and clinics throughout the Strip. In addition to our medical and surgical expertise, many of us have a public health background, as well as experience working in humanitarian and conflict zones, including Ukraine during the brutal Russian invasion. Some of us are veterans and reservists. We are a multifaith and multiethnic group. None of us support the horrors committed on October 7 by Palestinian armed groups and individuals in Israel. …

…[T]he human toll in Gaza since October is far higher than is understood in the United States. It is likely that the death toll from this conflict is already greater than 118,908, an astonishing 5.4% of Gaza’s population.

Our government must act immediately to prevent an even worse catastrophe than what has already befallen the people of Gaza and Israel. A ceasefire must be imposed on the warring parties by withholding military support for Israel and supporting an international arms embargo on Israel and all Palestinian armed groups. We believe our government is obligated to do this, both under American law and International Humanitarian Law. We also believe it is the right thing to do.

Read the letter in its entirety here: https://www.gazahealthcareletters.org/usa-letter-oct-2-2024

Can Connecticut at Least Divest the Drone Company?

by Stanley Heller, Executive Director, Middle East Crisis Committee

Responding to a resident’s request, the State Treasurer’s office revealed that investments of state money in Israel have ballooned to over $113 million. This is a big increase since 2021 when it was $85 million.

The Israeli government, which is widely recognized as guilty of the international crime of apartheid, is committing the crime of genocide in Gaza, and since October of 2023 has killed hundreds of Palestinian civilians in the West Bank. For a decade, groups and individuals have been calling on various treasurers and CT governors to divest from Israel. They’ve argued that it’s a shame to make profit from financing oppression. However, these calls have been ignored. To make some headway an effort is underway to get rid of just one Israeli stock.

The Treasury has now over a million dollars invested in Elbit, Israel’s biggest weapons company, which has made drones that are implicated in several massacres. In 2014 its Hermes drone was involved in a notorious incident at a Gaza beach where the drone gunned down four cousins playing soccer. The oldest was 11. Elbit produces cluster munitions, weaponized white phosphorus, and flechette projectiles. The use of these weapons is prohibited under a 2008 international treaty signed by 111 countries.

A petition campaign has been started calling on the state of Connecticut to divest its Elbit stock. This is the link to the Change.org petition: https://tinyurl.com/divest-elbit. The campaign should be of special interest to public worker unions. The overwhelming majority of money in the state treasury is money to be used for pensions for Connecticut teachers, state employees and city employees. Much of it has been deducted from those workers’ salaries. Other money comes from general taxes. None of that money should be used to finance Israeli wars, prisons and walls.

Often one hears the argument that we’re wasting our time with divestment efforts because nothing can be done and that the companies are just too powerful. Yet just recently it was announced that Elbit is permanently closing down its offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts, after months of picketing.

As Israel Expands Its Lebanon Attacks…

The need to divest from Israel grows as Israel becomes more aggressive in its bombings in Lebanon, which has faced acts of war from the Zionist government for many decades. In September, many memorialized the Sabra and Shatila massacres of mid-September 1982 when over 1400 Palestinians and Lebanese were killed during Israel’s invasion. Since the genocide in Gaza began there’s been limited attacks from Hezbollah forces in Lebanon in solidarity with Palestinians. Israel has responded with jets dropping bombs. Some include white phosphorus, whose use against civilians is regarded as a war crime. There’s been a steady drumbeat by rightist forces in Israel for a full-scale attack on Lebanon. The mass explosions of pagers and walkie-talkies that killed scores and maimed thousands may be the start of that attack.

Connecticut should divest from Israel if only for its constant aggression against Lebanon.
For questions or more information: [email protected].

New Haven Alders Cop Out on Ceasefire Resolution

Five months after a proposed ceasefire resolution was presented to the Board of Alders, and five days after hearing testimony via Zoom that lasted five hours, the Board of Alders voted to “read and file,” and not act on the resolution. Would your alder have supported a ceasefire? We’ll never know, according to the meeting.

Only East Rock Alder Caroline Smith was opposed to dismissing the resolution in this way.

[The New Haven Independent coverage can be read here:
newhavenindependent.org/article/ceasefire_resolution_vote_results]

Interior Dept Staffer Becomes First Jewish Biden Appointee to Publicly Resign Over War in Gaza

by Ellen Knickmeyer, AP, May 15, 2024

An Interior Department staffer on Wednesday became the first Jewish political appointee to publicly resign in protest of U.S. support for Israel’s war in Gaza.

Lily Greenberg Call, a special assistant to the chief of staff in the Interior Department, accused President Joe Biden of using Jews to justify U.S. policy in the conflict. …She is at least the fifth mid- or senior-level administration staffer to make public their resignation in protest of the Biden administration’s military and diplomatic support of the now seven-month Israeli war against Hamas. She is the second political appointee to do so, after an Education Department official of Palestinian heritage resigned in January. … “I can no longer in good conscience continue to represent this administration,” she wrote. “He [Pres. Biden] is making Jews the face of the American war machine. And that is so deeply wrong.”… “I think the president has to know that there are people in his administration who think this is disastrous,” Call said of the war overall and U.S. support for it. “Not just for Palestinians, for Israelis, for Jews, for Americans, for his election prospects.”

[Entire article available here: apnews.com/article/resignation-gaza-war-biden-israel-a55c20d136f08127d16bce6ced1af82d]

Walk for Gaza May 23-25

by Melinda Tuhus and Allie Perry, Community Activists

A coalition of community activists is organizing a Walk for Gaza in CT over three days, Thursday, May 23 – Saturday, May 25. Inspired by a global movement to walk a distance equivalent to the length of Gaza, CT’s walk, like the hundreds of others, will call attention to the crisis in Gaza, with calls for an immediate, permanent ceasefire and conditioning of US military aid to Israel.

Organizers are planning a route that will cover a distance of around 24 miles in three legs: (1) Day One, Thursday the 23rd will be in the New Haven area and will include stops at the offices of Rep. Rosa DeLauro and both campuses of Yale New Haven Hospital – there to call attention to Israel’s destruction of Al Shifa and the other hospitals in Gaza; (2) Day Two, Friday the 24th in Bridgeport beginning at the Bridgeport Islamic Center for prayers and then various stops, including the office of Rep. Jim Himes and Bridgeport Hospital; (3) Day Three, Saturday the 25th, along CT’s shoreline beginning at the First Church of Guilford and ending at Hammonasset Beach in Madison.

In addition to being visible and vocal about the crisis, organizers are planning to raise money through the walk for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), for which first, President Biden, and then Congress, have eliminated funding even as the catastrophe deepens and UNRWA has been the agency that is by far providing the most survival services to the people of Gaza.

Participants are invited to join for any and all portions of this three-day witness. A sag wagon will be available to shuttle walkers who need a break. Look for more information shared on social media about registering to walk or to volunteer to help with the walk.

Contact  for more info: [email protected].

Both Hayes and DeLauro Go Back on Pocan Letter And Vote Billions for Israeli Military

by Stanley Heller, Middle East Crisis Committee

[U.S. Representatives Rosa DeLauro and Jahana Hayes were among 56 members of Congress who signed Rep. Mark Pocan’s letter, calling on Pres. Biden to withhold offensive arms transfers to Israel. On April 20, when the bill went to the House of Representatives, they voted in favor of giving Israel $26 billion, of which $4 billion is for Israel’s missile defense system and additional weapon purchases.]

The bill H.R. 8034 throws the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) under the bus. In Sec. 308, none of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act and prior Acts making appropriations for the Department of State, foreign operations, and related programs may be made available for a contribution, grant, or other payment to UNRWA, notwithstanding any other provision of law.

“Gaza” is mentioned 11 times, demanding reports to see if any money was diverted to Hamas or “other terrorists.”

$9 billion is appropriated to the President for “vulnerable populations and communities.” It could be for Ukraine or Gaza or Israel or whatever. By my reading he doesn’t have to give a nickel to Gaza. It’s all up to President Biden.

Vote ‘Uncommitted’ to Tell the Biden Administration: End the Genocide in Gaza Now!

By Joan Cavanagh, NH Sunday Vigil for Peace and Justice

The New Haven Sunday Vigil for Peace and Justice strongly urges Democratic voters in Connecticut to choose the “uncommitted” option in the April 2nd presidential primary as a signal to the Biden administration to end US financial and military support for the war on the people of Gaza.
The definition of genocide is “the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group.” The clear intent of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s administration is to erase an entire population through bombing, land invasion, starvation, displacement, and destruction of their infrastructure and livelihoods. More than 30,000 people have been killed since October 2023.

This war would not be possible without U.S. money and arms. Only President Biden can end it. “Connecticut voters, including Jewish voters like me, are sending Biden a clear message in the Democratic Primary. We reject his funding and fueling of Israel’s genocide in Gaza. We are uncommitted on April 2nd to show opposition to his deadly policies,” said Sarah White of Jewish Voice for Peace Action of Connecticut (https://www.wfsb.com/2024/03/14/growing-number-ct-voters-plan-vote-uncommitted-upcoming-primary).

The “uncommitted” or “no preference” strategy has already been used effectively in many other states: about 13% of voters in Michigan (100,000 people) voted this way, as did 30% of Hawaii’s voters.

On Super Tuesday, 9.3% of all Democratic voters across 15 states and one “territory” chose “no preference” on the ballot.

The Biden administration is feeling the pressure. The only way to save future lives is to apply “no preference” wherever possible.

We also strongly urge you to call the White House comment line to tell them why you have voted this way; write to your senators and representatives to inform them and to demand that they act to stop this genocide; and submit letters to the editor or op-ed pieces to discuss your reasons further. “The Republican Party is offering us fascism, and the Democratic Party is offering us genocide. We demand a different choice. That’s why we’re voting for ‘no preference.’” – Merrie Najimy, organizer, Vote No Preference

Massachusetts Coalition (https://www.masslive.com/politics/2024/03/mass-no-preference-vote-won-over-9-in-dem-primary-on-super-tuesday.html).

Actions Throughout CT Call for Ceasefire in Gaza

by Jewish Voice for Peace New Haven

In the past months there have been rallies and demonstrations in many Connecticut towns and cities calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and other demands such as access to humanitarian aid for Palestinians, an end to the occupation, a free Palestine, and no military aid to Israel.

The New Haven Board of Alders has scheduled a hearing for public testimony on the ceasefire resolution. The hearing is set for Wednesday, May 1, at 6 p.m. on Zoom. Sign up TODAY if you want to speak, by emailing: [email protected]. You do not need to submit your testimony at this time. Just write, “My name is ___ and I would like to sign up to testify in support of the ceasefire resolution.”

If you are a New Haven resident, please include that in your email as well. The sooner you sign up, the more likely it is that you’ll have an opportunity to speak.

Many thanks from JVP New Haven!

Over 3,000 Race in IRIS ‘Run for Refugees and All Immigrants’

by Emily Khym, Yale Daily News, Feb. 13, 2024

In the annual Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services’ Run for Refugees on Sunday, Feb. 11, 3,152 people joined in the 5K race. Ahead of the race, pro-Palestine protesters calling for a ceasefire in Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza interrupted Rep. Rosa DeLauro, cutting her speech short.

IRIS, a non-profit organization based in New Haven, has hosted the event annually to raise funds for its mission of supporting refugee resettlement and to raise awareness around the issue of refugee resettlement. IRIS raised $168,547, nearly 130 percent more than their fundraising goal. Starting this year, IRIS changed the name of the event from the “Run for Refugees” to include “All Immigrants.” On average, IRIS serves around 1,200 refugees and immigrants in New Haven.

“It doesn’t matter what [government] papers you come with, we welcome you and we are going to try to help you as best as we can,” Executive Director of IRIS Maggie Salem said.

Khuan-Yu Hall photo

Before the race, New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker spoke about the vital role immigrants and refugees play in building New Haven’s community. A speech from U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro followed Elicker’s speech.

At the start of DeLauro’s speech, she was interrupted by a group of pro-Palestine protesters standing alongside the finish line. Several of the protesters were holding Palestinian flags and calling for a ceasefire in Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, in which — as of Feb. 11 — Israel has killed over 28,100 Palestinians since Hamas’ surprise attack against Israel on Oct. 7, in which Hamas killed about 1,200 people in Israel.

“There was a group of people who pulled out loud speakerphones and started protesting about how DeLauro had not acted on the Israel-Hamas War,” Steven Zhang ’25, who was running in the race, told the News. “It lasted for around six to seven minutes … eventually DeLauro ended up not finishing the speech, and the race coordinator signaled the start of the race.”

(Read the article in full here: https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2024/02/13/over-3000-race-in-iris-run-for-refugees-and-all-immigrants)

Rally in Hamden for Ceasefire Resolution

by Paula Panzarella, rally participant

photo: Paula Panzarella

On Feb. 20, from 6-7 p.m., over a hundred people were in front of Hamden Town Hall, rallying in favor of a draft resolution for a ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza fighting. “Permanent Ceasefire Now,” “Another Jew for a Free Palestine,” “Stop the Killing,” and “Let Gaza Live” were some of the banners held by the crowd.

Shortly after 7 p.m., many people attended the meeting to give testimony about the need for local municipalities to take a stand against the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza. The hearing lasted well past midnight, with more than four hours of public commentary. The Town Council did not vote that night and may take up the resolution at a following Town Council meeting.

Petition to the New Haven Board of Alders: Support a Ceasefire in Gaza

At least 30,000 Palestinians have been murdered by Israel in the last 3 months, including more than 10,000 children.

This ongoing genocide is supported by US military and with your tax money. $69,076,862 of Connecticut residents’ federal tax dollars are given annually to Israel. New Haven alone supplies $1,838,975 per year.

We call on our alders to pass an emergency resolution calling for:

  • an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza and the West Bank
  • unrestricted entry of immediate humanitarian aid into Gaza
  • an end to US funding of the violence done by the Israeli military & illegal settlements
  • release of all hostages including Palestinians arbitrarily detained by Israel
  • immediate restoration of electricity, water, food and medical supplies to Gaza
  • an end to the siege and blockade of Gaza
  • reaffirming our Board of Alders’ commitment to combat anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab racism, antisemitism and Islamophobia in all forms, and to ensure the dignity and safety of all its residents

35+ CITIES AND TOWNS ACROSS THE COUNTRY HAVE CALLED FOR A CEASEFIRE – INCLUDING BRIDGEPORT, CT

NEW HAVEN: IT’S YOUR TURN!

After Weeks of Telling Israel Not to Widen Gaza War, US Widens It to Iraq and Yemen

by Dave Lindorff, a 2019 “Izzy” winner who has written for Rolling Stone, NY Times, Nation, FAIR, Salon, London Review of Books.

Americans are finally getting sick of US warmongering. For weeks we’ve been reading articles and hearing broadcast reports about how the Biden administration, including President Biden himself and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, as well as US Ambassador to Israel Jacob Lew and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, have been warning Israel not to cause or allow the war on Gaza to spread across the borders of Israel and its occupied territories into other parts of the Middle East.

Suddenly, the US Navy ships based in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, along with some British ships and planes (added no doubt to be able to call it a “coalition” effort), have hit suspected Houthi militia targets in Yemen, making it the US itself, not Israel, that is “expanding the war.”

This act of war, ordered by President Biden without so much as a consultation with Congress, where progressive Democrats and Republicans are expressing outrage, is doubly dangerous because the Houthi militia being pummeled by the US and Britain are allies or/and are supplied by Iran.

The US also rolled out another provocation — a rocket attack that killed the leader of a Hezbollah militia unit right in central Baghdad. As the headline over that story in the Washington Post put it: “US Strike in Baghdad Raises Specter of a Wider War.”

“Raises the specter,” indeed, and not just outside Israel’s and Palestine’s borders but potentially all the way across Europe and the Atlantic to the US.

Now, admittedly, the US has long dismissed the laws of war, at least when it comes to applying them to its own actions. But however cavalier Washington is about those laws, they are universal and they do say that when a country does violate them, using certain banned weapons for example, or invading a country that doesn’t pose an immediate threat to the attacker, the country that is the target of such violation has the right to respond in kind. So Americans ought to know that attacking a Hezbollah target who is under the protection of the Iraqi government in central Baghdad is actually inviting Iraq, the host country, or Hezbollah, the victim, to attack leaders in the US, either where its troops are based abroad (for example in Iraq) or in DC. Same goes for the US attacks on Houthi militia sites in Yemen. After enduring attacks against their forces and the Yemeni people by Saudi Arabia for years (with US-supplied weapons and direct assistance), the Houthis, at this point, are warning that “US interests” will now be retaliated against.

It’s easy to see how this kind of tit-for-tat, started by a hubristic USA leadership, could quickly spiral out of control. Suppose the Houthis were to launch an anti-ship missile and sink or heavily damage a US Navy vessel in the Persian Gulf…

For the rest of this article, please go to: https://thiscantbehappening.substack.com/p/after-weeks-of-telling-israel-not. For this and other articles: https://thiscantbehappening.substack.com.

Resisting the War on Gaza: An Appeal from the New Haven Sunday Vigil

Joan Cavanagh, vigil participant

We are witnessing, in real-time, ongoing genocide against the people of Gaza. It could not occur without US military aid and financial support. We urgently appeal to you to join the New Haven Sunday Vigil for Peace and Justice as part of your other efforts to end this atrocity.

The vigil began in May of 1999 as a project of the Connecticut Peace Coalition/ New Haven in response to the US bombing of Kosovo. Similar to the postal service before privatization, defunding, and DeJoy, we’ve vigiled most Sundays since, in sun, rain, snow and sleet, in temperatures ranging from several degrees below zero to 95 degrees above. Our message is simple: Resist this Endless War. By this we mean, resist our permanent state of war and preparations for it, overseas and at home.

Participant numbers have fluctuated from a “high” of 15 to 20 during the initial post-911 invasion of Afghanistan and the 2003 war on Iraq to a “low” of three to four in recent years. Occasionally, we’ve been told by a dismissive passerby that the US is “at peace.” Not exactly. Consider our ongoing nuclear weapons buildup; our drone bombings against many countries of the world; our “covert” operations and global regime change maneuvers; and our funding of wars conducted by client states. Consider our government’s war on poor and vulnerable populations to benefit a smaller and smaller number of global ultra-rich. Remember that these are ongoing, bipartisan issues.

When our regular vigil participants dwindled to a new low at the end of last summer, we figured we’d had a good run and considered ending it. Then came the terrible October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel, followed immediately by an orgy of collective punishment supported by US funds and materiel against civilians in Gaza. It has, as of this writing, taken the lives of over 25,000 people, an estimated two-thirds of whom are children.

We continue with more urgency than ever. We need your help. For more information about the content of the vigil and how to join, please call 203-668-9082 or contact [email protected] or  [email protected].

Students Call for Yale Corp to Divest from Weapons Manufacturers

by Nora Wyrtzen, Endowment Justice Coalition

On Friday, Dec. 1, 2023, 175+ Yale students and allies shut down and occupied the College St./Grove St. intersection, a central traffic hub on Yale University’s campus, for nearly two hours.

Organizers of the action are demanding that Yale Corporation immediately divest Yale’s endowment from war and weapons manufacturing in light of the ongoing genocide in Gaza….

Illustration 1: Ben Raab photo

Friday’s demonstration was part of an extensive student mobilization on campus in response to the Corporation’s closed-door conversations.

Following are excerpts from Yale Daily News article by Ben Raab, Dec. 1, 2023

More than 20 demonstrators gathered outside Woodbridge Hall early Friday morning to tape a 60-foot banner to the building’s front door and call for the Yale Corporation — the University’s principal governing body — to divest Yale’s endowment from weapons manufacturers.

The banner read “Yale Corp Divest From Weapons” and was rolled out over the steps and onto the building’s walkway. It displayed the names of thousands of Palestinians who have been killed in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas war.

Demonstrators stood in front of the building with signs reading “Divest Now!” and “Yale Divest.” One banner read “It’s Your Yale. They’re Your Bombs….”

The demonstration also comes on the morning of the Yale Corporation’s scheduled visit to campus for meetings that will last through the weekend….

On Nov. 2, University President Peter Salovey told the News that the University is “revisiting” its policy on weapons manufacturing under the University’s ethical investment framework. In 2018, Yale divested from assault weapons retailers, citing violence in communities across America. …
Since Thursday night, community members have sent over 600 letters to the Corporation calling for divestment from all weapons manufacturing via an online campaign sponsored by the Endowment Justice Coalition. …

[For links and the full YDN article: https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2023/12/01/students-call-for-yale-corp-to-divest-from-weapons-manufacturers-in-front-of-woodbridge-hall]

300+ Walk Out of Harvard-Yale Football Game to Demand Ceasefire in Gaza

by Yale Harvard for Palestine, Nov. 18, 2023

At least three arrests have been reported by witnesses in the stadium … multiple student activists holding posters were detained and escorted from the premises. As part of a disruptive action for the “Free Palestine” movement, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and demanding Yale and Harvard divest from weapons manufacturers arming the Israeli Defense Force, 100+ Yale and Harvard students and alumni engaged in a mass protest in the midst of the Yale-Harvard football game.

These demonstrators waved flags, held up banners, and led nonstop chanting for an estimated 1.5 hours before they called upon attendees at the game to “Walk out for Pales-tine.” An estimated 300+ joined the demonstrators in walking out of the game in protest, before gathering outside the gate and participating in further chants calling to attendees as they exited the game. A 50-minute march followed with this crowd of 300+ supporters, leading all the way from the Yale Bowl down to the heart of Yale’s campus.

An unprecedented volume of police presence was ordered for this game, anticipating such disruptive action. Yale Police, Harvard Police, Yale Security, New Haven Police Department, State Troopers, and a private security force hired by Yale were all assigned target locations within the stadium. Students reported racial profiling, as a surplus of officers … came to swarm and stand with predominantly Black and brown presenting students, seemingly anticipating disruptive action based on these radicalized identities. At the start of the game, and at regular intervals throughout, the game announcer broadcasted a message, and displayed it on the scoreboard, warning students (paraphrased) not to interfere with the game or to risk removal and immediate arrest. Such a message has never been broadcast in the documented history of the Harvard-Yale Game, the most famous and highly anticipated sports contest of the year for both universities. Students raised concerns of targeted censorship from universities and rising suppression of freedom of speech for student activists for Palestine across the nation. Multiple student demonstrators reported physical and verbal assault from attendees in the stands, “mostly older alumni,” one student reported, as they exited the premises. Demonstrators did not engage.

This action was not affiliated with any registered undergraduate student groups at either university. For updates and social media coverage, see @yaleharvardforpalestine on Instagram. CONTACT: Yale and Harvard Students and Alumni, email: [email protected].

Phone:
202-905-2577 – Yale Alum
508-603-8159 – Yale Student
617-902-0499 – Harvard Student
908-864-7971 – Harvard Med Student]

Israel-Gaza War’s Grief Spills onto Church St.

by Thomas Breen, New Haven Independent, Oct. 9, 2023

Half an hour into a tense and loud and flag-filled standoff between pro-Palestine and pro-Israel protesters on the front steps of City Hall, city police brought in barricades to physically separate the two sides….

That was the scene outside of City Hall at 165 Church St. Monday afternoon during an at-times combustible, but never violent, set of dueling rallies sparked by the horrific bloodshed of the ongoing war in Israel and Gaza.

photo: Thomas Breen

Several hundred people from across the city and the state turned out for the parallel protests … The two sides took turns, and shouted over one another, about the Israeli occupation, Hamas terrorism, open-air prisons and blockades, the kidnapping and murder of civilians, the righteous uprising of a dispossessed people, the righteous defense of democracy….

“Free, free Palestine!” one side cheered over and over again at Monday’s rally. “From Hamas!” cheered the other side in response.

The pro-Palestine protest was organized by a number of student and local lefty political groups, including the Connecticut Democratic Socialists of America, Yalies for Palestine, the Party for Socialism and Liberation-Connecticut, and Wesleyan Students for Justice in Palestine….

The pro-Israel contingent, meanwhile, saw a mix of New Haveners and Connecticut residents, many of whom are members of the Chabad Lubavitch Hasidic community, and nearly all of whom have close ties to and family and friends currently living in Israel….

Joshua Pernick, the rabbi in residence and director of Jewish life and community relations at the Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven, told the Independent about his brother, who after a weeklong vacation in the United States returned to his home in Holon, Israel, this weekend just hours after Hamas began its attack. He and his wife and six-month-old child have been shuttling between shelters ever since, Pernick said. … ​“The problem of terrorism is it doesn’t discriminate….”

Faisal Saleh, the founder and director of Woodbridge’s Palestine Museum, showed up to the other side of City Hall’s steps Monday to support those rallying for Palestine.

Saleh was born and raised in the West Bank. He moved to the U.S. when he was 17, in 1969. He said he’s been communicating with Palestinian artists in Gaza who he knows through his museum work every few hours, just to make sure they are still alive amid the Israeli army’s strikes.
“Everybody is waiting to see what will happen,” he said….

[The article can be read in its entirety at newhavenindependent.org/article/israel_palestine]

Groups March and Rally for Palestine

by Stanley Heller, Middle East Crisis Committee

On Sept. 19, the groups that organized the protest for Palestine last month were joined by students from Wesleyan’s Students for Justice in Palestine.

Again we stood on a corner in the center of Middletown with signs and banners, chanting led by activists with bull horns. We featured signs about the recent Israeli report whitewashing their killing of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and again talked about the massacre of people in early August in Gaza. We also had signs calling for the shaming of both Connecticut Senators and our five members of Congress for their blind support of Israeli apartheid. Two signs had photos of two children who died because Israel would not let them leave Gaza for medical treatment. Judging by the number of honks from passersby our reception was even more friendly than in August.

Photo: Stanley Heller

About 70 of us marched on the sidewalks down to the City Green, displaying the signs and banners and being urged on by chanting led by some very young members of the Omar Islamic Center.

On the Green we had 7 or 8 speakers including Marwan Hameed, a former Iraqi diplomat, and Laura Schliefer of Promoting Enduring Peace. We opened up two banners created ten years ago to commemorate the mass murder of at least 1300 Palestinians and Lebanese in the Sabra and Shatila camps in Lebanon in September 1982. They had been ordered into the camps by Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, supposedly to look for “terrorists.”

Ms. Schliefer was later interviewed on WPKN’s “Mic Check” for a half-hour. The interviewer was Mike Merli. We need more protests for Palestine like this all around Connecticut.

To see video and photos of the protest, go to thestrugglevideo.org. For more info on how to be involved, email [email protected] or call 203-444-3578.

Good Start, Ben & Jerry’s: Now Finish the Job! — Take Action

Shelly Altman, Jewish Voice for Peace NH

UPDATE: The international Work Group of the Central CT Democratic Socialists of America is holding a “Eat an Ice Cream for Palestine” on Sat. Oct 9 at 1 p.m. starting at the Ben and Jerrys store in New Haven. The store is at 159 Temple St., New Haven. It’s near the New Haven Green. We’ll take photos of ourselves eating or holding B&J ice creams followed by a walk to the New Haven Green and an informal discussion about Palestine. – Stanley Heller, DSA Int Work Group member.

On July 19, 2021, Ben & Jerry’s (B&J) announced that it is inconsistent with their values to sell their ice cream in the Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). They will not renew their license agreement with their Israeli licensee when it expires at the end of 2022.

We at Jewish Voice for Peace New Haven and the New Haven Mending Minyan Havurah join with so many Vermonters in lauding this long-overdue decision by B&J’s, in particular because it was taken as part of B&J’s long-time advocacy for human rights and economic and social justice. But it does not go far enough. The very principles that drove B&J’s decision demand that the company withdraw from selling their products in both the OPT settlements as well as in the state of Israel itself. Furthermore, Ben & Jerry’s parent company, Unilever, must commit itself to ending ties with Israel for any action to be meaningful.

Here’s why:

  • Earlier this year, both the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem and Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued detailed reports which document Israel’s control over all the territory it administers as an apartheid regime. B’Tselem notes that “one organizing principle lies at the base of a wide array of Israeli policies: advancing and perpetuating the supremacy of one group – Jews – over another – Palestinians.” HRW notes that “deprivations are so severe that they amount to the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution.” Both reports document apartheid conditions in both the OPT and in the state of Israel itself.
  • B&J ice cream is manufactured in Israel in Be’er Tuvia (adjacent to the town of Kiryat Malachi). Kiryat Malachi is one of four Israeli localities located on the lands of the former Palestinian village of Qastina, destroyed and emptied by Israeli troops in 1948. Be’er Tuvia is in southern Naqab about 20 miles from the Erez crossing into Gaza. B&J products are transported to the illegal OPT settlements on Jewish-only roads. The factory draws water from the Jordan River system and the Mountain Aquifer in the occupied West Bank, the two highest-quality water sources in the region. At the same time, Israel severely controls and restricts West Bank Palestinian residents’ access to water from those same sources, reducing it to a level which neither meets their domestic and agricultural needs nor constitutes a fair distribution of shared water resources. The apartheid regime practiced by Israel in the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River requires that to be consistent with its social justice values, B&J terminate sales in all of that land. Israel considers its illegal settlements to be part of its state. We celebrate this first step, but it is not enough. Unilever must work to finish the job that the independent board of Ben & Jerry’s started and cut the flow of money to this apartheid state.

News Flash: Our Third District Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, has just introduced a standalone bill whose sole purpose is to gift Israel with yet another $1 billion so that it can continue to “defend” itself while it mercilessly besieges Gaza and conducts one devastating bombing after the next. This is on top of the $3.8 billion per year of our tax dollars that are already going for the same purpose.

This bill is being fast-tracked by the “Democratic” leadership and will almost certainly pass with “bipartisan” support, but we need to let Rosa know how outraged we are at this. Express it as soon as possible at (202) 225-3661.

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