Jews Shut Down Israeli Consulate in LA for 3 Hours

Press Release
January 14, 2009

Email: ijanlosangeles [at] gmail.com

JEWS SHUT DOWN ISRAELI CONSULATE FOR 3 HOURS
10 JEWS CHAIN TOGETHER TO BLOCK DRIVEWAY AND ENTRANCE

LOS ANGELES, CA (Jan 14, 2009) Early this morning, Jewish activists in a historic first in Los Angeles, chained themselves to the entrance of the Israeli Consulate and blocked the driveway to the parking structure, blocking all traffic in and out of the building. "We sent a clear message to the world that LA Jews are part of the global majority in opposition to the Israeli siege of Gaza," said Lenny Potash a 72-year old protester who was cuffed to eight other activists, blocking the driveway to the consulate. The activists were joined by 50 other supporters and who chanted "LA Jews say, End the Siege of Gaza" and "Not in Our Name! We will Not be Silent!" Protesters also held up signs reading "Israeli Consulate: Closed for War Crimes."

"We succeeded today in letting Jews and other Americans of conscience know that it is safe to speak out against the policies of the Israeli government and that the Israeli lobby does not speak for everyone," said Robin Ellis, a Registered Nurse who also risked arrest to block the consulate entrance. "We are committed to escalating non-violent activities in the future to end the siege and win justice for Palestinians," Ellis said.

The group of activists were an ad-hoc, multi-generational group of LA Jewish residents, including members of the recently founded International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network. They shared a commitment to ending the Israeli siege on Gaza and an end to Israeli apartheid. The demonstration is part of a wave of demonstrations across the United States uniting Palestinians, Jewish people, and other Americans outraged by the siege.

"We are shocked and outraged at Israeli's latest act of violent aggression against the Palestinian people. Killing over 950 people, including 250 women and children, bombing schools and mosques and then calling it self-defense—that is the worst kind of hypocrisy. It also amounts to war crimes," said Hannah Howard, a local member of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network. "We shut down the Israeli consulate today because as Jewish people we cannot allow business as usual while violence is being done in our name."

Action participants also spoke out against the US government's unconditional support for Israel's siege and its ongoing war against the Palestinian people. "While US-funded F16's rain down bombs on the people of Gaza, our elected officials locally and nationally offer unqualified support." said Marsha Steinberg, a retired union representative. "Our government must stop sending billions of dollars in military and economic aid to the Israeli war machine," Goldberg said. In the coming week, concerned Americans from all backgrounds will call on the new Presidential administration to make a 180 degree change in policy.

"While the end of the siege on Gaza is our most immediate priority, this is only the latest chapter in Palestinians' 60 plus year experience of occupation and ethnic cleansing. Peace and justice in the region will only come when Palestinians have freedom and control their own destiny," said Lisa Adler, a community organizer in Los Angeles and another member of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network. "Even before the siege began, Israel's inhumane months-long blockade of Gaza created a major humanitarian crisis. We must end the siege. And we must continue to build, along with people throughout the world, the nonviolent international movement of boycott, divestment and sanctions that can help bring an end to Israel's policies of occupation and apartheid," said Adler.

For more information on the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, visit http://www.ijsn.net
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Profiles of several Demonstrators

Marsha Steinberg is a retired union representative and long time activist for social justice.

Gabriel Strachota is a 22-year old Jewish native of Massachusetts. His mother grew up in apartheid South Africa and he has many aunts, uncles, and cousins living in Israel.

Robin Ellis is a 34-year old Registered Nurse, working in Los Angeles' public health system.. Robin's grandparents and great grandparents fled Nazi Germany and settled in New York where Robin was born.Registered Nurse

Lisa Adler is a 29-year old New York native from a Latin American Jewish family. She spent several weeks in occupied Palestine in 2002 working in solidarity with Palestinians resisting the occupation non-violently.

Eric Romann is a 31-year old community organizer originally from New Jersey. Eric's grandparents moved to Palestine to escape Nazism in the 1930's and lost many family members in the Nazi Holocaust. His father spent the first 15 years of his life in Israel and Eric has many family members living there.

Samantha Tess Sunshine is a queer white Jew who lives in Los Angeles. She is a trained sex educator who has worked in the field of sexual health for almost a decade, and is currently a lead facilitator for the Leadership Development in Interethnic Relations Program at the Asian Pacific American Legal Center.

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Fact Sheet on Gaza and Israeli Apartheid
THE PEOPLE OF GAZA: Nearly 1.5 million Palestinians live in Gaza, many of them concentrated in one-half of the territory. In this area, the population density is nearly 20,000 people per square mile, one of the highest in the world. More than three quarters of Gaza's residents are refugees who were driven from their homes during past wars with Israel (in 1948 and 1967), and their descendants. Israel has permanently barred their return. Over half of these refugees still reside in Gaza's eight refugee camps. (BBC, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5122404.stm)
THE OCCUPATION OF GAZA: The Gazans have lived under Israeli occupation since the Six-Day War in 1967. Israel is still widely considered to be an occupying power, even though it removed its troops and settlers from the strip in 2005. Israel still controls access to the area, imports and exports, and the movement of people in and out. Israel has control over Gaza's air space and sea coast, and its forces enter the area at will. As the occupying power, Israel has the responsibility under the Fourth Geneva Convention to see to the welfare of the civilian population of the Gaza Strip. ("What You Don't Know About Gaza", Rashidi Khalidi, New York Times, January 7, 2009).
THE BLOCKADE of GAZA: Israel's blockade of the strip, with the support of the United States and the European Union, has grown increasingly stringent since Hamas won the Palestinian Legislative Council elections in January 2006. Fuel, electricity, imports, exports and the movement of people in and out of the Strip have been slowly choked off, leading to life-threatening problems of sanitation, health, water supply and transportation. This amounts to the collective punishment — with the tacit support of the United States — of a civilian population for exercising its democratic rights. (Khalidi, New York Times).
THE CEASE-FIRE: Lifting the blockade, along with a cessation of rocket fire, was one of the key terms of the June cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. This accord led to a reduction in rockets fired from Gaza from hundreds in May and June to a total of less than 20 in the subsequent four months (according to Israeli government figures). The cease-fire broke down when Israeli forces launched major air and ground attacks in early November; six Hamas operatives were reported killed. (Khalidi, New York Times).
WAR CRIMES: Israel's current assault on the Gaza Strip cannot be justified by self-defense. Rather, it involves serious violations of international law, including war crimes. Senior Israeli political and military leaders may bear personal liability for their offenses, and they could be prosecuted by an international tribunal, or by nations practicing universal jurisdiction over grave international crimes. ("Israel is committing war crimes." George Bisharat, Wall Street Journal, January 10, 2009.)
ISRAELI APARTHEID: Former South African President Hendrick Verwoerd observed as far back as 1961 that "Israel, like South Africa, is an apartheid state." In Palestine, the Zionist goal of controlling as much land as possible without Palestinians led to the large-scale expulsions of 1947-48 and 1967. Today, 92 percent of Israel's land is defined as the "inalienable property of the Jewish people." Jews anywhere in the world have a "right to return" and claim citizenship, while Palestinians who were expelled from their homes are denied the "right to return" guaranteed by international law. Former President Jimmy Carter defines apartheid as the "forced separation of two peoples in the same territory with one of the groups dominating or controlling the other." This accurately describes the situation in the occupied West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, where Israeli settlers and soldiers totally dominate the indigenous Palestinian population. The policies Israel has implemented to carry out its 40-year-old occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and expropriate Palestinian land closely mirror the "inhuman acts" that make up the UN Convention on the "Crime of Apartheid." (US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, "Why Apartheid Applies to Israel", http://www.endtheoccupation.org/downloads/AAFWhyApartheid.pdf

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