How you can help us continue to #ResistAIPAC
Trump’s Jerusalem Announcement and AIPAC’s support for it last week showed us why we must continue to #ResistAIPAC and the rest of the out-of-touch establishment.
When 1,000 Jews marched on at AIPAC this 8 months ago, I knew it was in the largest demonstration we’d ever organized as a movement. It was the first time IfNotNow members from around the country united on a national stage to take direct action.
We challenged AIPAC in March because we knew the time has come to confront those in our community that cheer on dangerous policies that entrench the Occupation — just like they did last week, when they were one of the first to support President Trump’s dangerous Jerusalem decision, the farthest any President has gone to legitimize Israel’s military control over East Jerusalem.
In fact, for over 20 years, AIPAC has been at the forefront of lobbying each President to move the American Embassy, proving over and over again that they are out of touch with where our community stands.
Last week showed us why we must continue to #ResistAIPAC and the rest of the out-of-touch establishment — can you chip in $60 today so we can go even bigger in 2018?
I was part of the the steering team of six people that paved the way for our massive action in DC. But even I couldn’t anticipate the feeling of warmth and community when that three day weekend launched.
The afternoon before the action, I remember greeting 100 people from Boston — where I’m from — as they filed off of two full charter buses that had driven 10 hours. It was exhilarating knowing that my close friends from home were going to join me in the streets.
For the first time the huge, important thing we were trying to do together became real.
The morning of the action I awoke at 6 am to help organize the rally in the park that served as our kickoff point.
All around me I saw anticipatory anxiety among people who were setting out to do something new, but with it I felt the joy of friends reunited from camp, childhood, college and home as we welcomed our fellow leaders from across the country.
That morning, the backlash from counter-protesters was staggering, and eventually violent — several men from the far-right Jewish Defense League attacked a member of our community, Ben, and hospitalized a Palestinian man named Kamal.
The folks I was protesting with were appalled to see these Jews attacking and injuring peaceful demonstrators, and I was grateful for the leadership of those around me who kept us calm despite the JDL’s violent attempts to provoke us.
We concluded the weekend with an anti-Islamophobia training, knowing that our community cannot end our support for the Occupation until we also stop buying into negative stereotypes about Muslims and Arabs — especially knowing how many Arab Jews there are in our community.
And then, just like that, the weekend was over and we returned to our home cities, full of energy to continue what we’d started. Since that chilly weekend in Washington, DC this March, IfNotNow groups across the country have been on the ground in Charlottesville, mobilized against the US Embassy’s move to Jerusalem, and even strengthened our presence on college campuses.
AIPAC made us realize the power we hold in our communities when we rise to a challenge. It was one of our first opportunities to organize on a historic, national scale. On August 14th, just two days after the Unite The Right white supremacist march in Charlottesville, a rock was thrown into the Boston Holocaust Memorial. We used the skills and strength we learned at AIPAC to mobilize 500 members of our community.
2017 showed us a new, often scary, political terrain, and we can anticipate that there will be fresh challenges in 2018 — but we’re ready to keep fighting this fight.
