MECR was privileged to join Hudson Valley Jewish Voice For Peace
in Kingston, NY. We had about 75 participants and got great
coverage in the Kingston Freeman.
“Two Blue Lines” at the Woodstock Town Hall
-Friday, Nov. 4 from 7 to 9 pm: showing of “Two Blue Lines” at the Woodstock Town Hall, 76 Tinker St. This award winning new documentary explores the passionate dispute among Israeli citizens about their government’s Occupation of Palestine. The movie debates competing views of Judaism: a religious entitlement to land versus a spiritual commitment to freeing the oppressed. This free movie is cosponsored by: Middle East Crisis Response www.mideastcrisis.org, Hudson Valley Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions www.hudsonvalleybds.org and Hudson Valley Jewish Voice for Peace. Contact: Jane.toby7@gmail.com or 518 291-6808
About 35 people attended this film showing, with many new faces since we moved the venue to Woodstock. We also showed the movie in conjunction with Hudson Valley Jewish Voice for Peace.
The War Around Us
We only had 18 people at this film showing, although the film and discussion afterwards was very good. There is a bridge out to the north and another one to the south. People may have had trouble getting to the UU.
Woodstock Town Board Adopts Resolution
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 21, 2016
Contact:
Helaine Meisler
helainemeisler@yahoo.com 845-679-5301 (H); 914-466-0100 (C)
Board Votes to Support Free Speech & the Right to Boycott
Yesterday evening, the Woodstock Town Board voted unanimously (4-0) to adopt a first-of- its-kind resolution in New York State that questions the Constitutionality of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Executive Order 157 (EO 157).
Widely criticized by human rights organizations, civil rights attorneys, and community groups, EO 157 mandates New York State to create a blacklist of institutions abiding by boycott or divestment campaigns related to Israeli human rights abuses, and further requires State agencies to divest themselves from such entities.
The newly passed Town Board resolution requires Governor Cuomo to submit the “legal basis or judicial opinion upon which he finds his action to be constitutional” by December 5, 2016. Further stating that “in the absence of a timely, cogent, and acceptable legal and judicial opinion in support of Governor Cuomo’s Executive Order 157," the Town Board will "stand in opposition to Executive Order 157 and request that it be rescinded” in addition to encouraging any entity impacted by it to contest in a court of law.
"Boycotts against injustices are deeply rooted in U.S. history and are a form of collective protest that enjoy full protection under the First Amendment. Penalizing advocates of any such boycott – whether of Israel, North Carolina, grapes, or lettuce – is a flat-out violation of the Constitution,” said Alan Levine, a prominent First Amendment attorney who worked closely on drafting the resolution. ”By passing this resolution, Woodstock Town Board has set an admirable example to other communities, and a clear message to the Governor that we not stay silent when we are being denied our rights.”
“The Woodstock Town Board has taken a commendable stance on free speech and boycott rights with this resolution,” said Alan Sussman, a Woodstock resident and First Amendment rights attorney. “As Americans we have an obligation, in part stemming from our fierce tradition of freedom, and in greater part by our love of democracy and fairness, to object to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Executive Order.”
September 21, 2016
Contact:
Helaine Meisler
helainemeisler@yahoo.com 845-679-5301 (H); 914-466-0100 (C)
Woodstock Town Board Adopts Resolution
Questioning the Constitutionality of New York Governor’s
Executive Order on BDS
Board Votes to Support Free Speech & the Right to Boycott
Yesterday evening, the Woodstock Town Board voted unanimously (4-0) to adopt a first-of- its-kind resolution in New York State that questions the Constitutionality of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Executive Order 157 (EO 157).
Widely criticized by human rights organizations, civil rights attorneys, and community groups, EO 157 mandates New York State to create a blacklist of institutions abiding by boycott or divestment campaigns related to Israeli human rights abuses, and further requires State agencies to divest themselves from such entities.
The newly passed Town Board resolution requires Governor Cuomo to submit the “legal basis or judicial opinion upon which he finds his action to be constitutional” by December 5, 2016. Further stating that “in the absence of a timely, cogent, and acceptable legal and judicial opinion in support of Governor Cuomo’s Executive Order 157," the Town Board will "stand in opposition to Executive Order 157 and request that it be rescinded” in addition to encouraging any entity impacted by it to contest in a court of law.
"Boycotts against injustices are deeply rooted in U.S. history and are a form of collective protest that enjoy full protection under the First Amendment. Penalizing advocates of any such boycott – whether of Israel, North Carolina, grapes, or lettuce – is a flat-out violation of the Constitution,” said Alan Levine, a prominent First Amendment attorney who worked closely on drafting the resolution. ”By passing this resolution, Woodstock Town Board has set an admirable example to other communities, and a clear message to the Governor that we not stay silent when we are being denied our rights.”
“The Woodstock Town Board has taken a commendable stance on free speech and boycott rights with this resolution,” said Alan Sussman, a Woodstock resident and First Amendment rights attorney. “As Americans we have an obligation, in part stemming from our fierce tradition of freedom, and in greater part by our love of democracy and fairness, to object to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Executive Order.”
Woodstock Free Speech is a group of concerned citizens in the Town of Woodstock, NY who
are working to educate others about their inalienable right to self-determination and all of
the freedoms, liberties, rights and responsibilities that are espoused in the Bill of Rights and
successive amendments to the Constitution.
Woodstock Reformed Church hosts young Palestinian
Salam Qumsiyeh at the Woodstock Reformed Church
-Sun, Sep 11 starting at 11:30 am after Woodstock Reformed Church services: A Conversation Salam Qumsiyeh, a young Christian Palestinian living in the West Bank. Salam Qumsiyeh is being hosted by the Woodstock Reformed Church, 16 Tinker Street. Potluck; bring a dish to pass. Open to the public. Contact: Jane.toby7@gmail.com or 518 291-6808
-Wed, Sep 14 from 7 to 9 pm. "My Life as a Christian Palestinian in the West Bank," a talk by Salam Qumsiyeh, will be presented at the Woodstock Reformed Church, 16 Tinker Street. Middle East Crisis Response www.mideastcrisis.org is cosponsoring the event, which will include refreshments and is open to the public. Contact: Jane.toby7@gmail.com or 518 291-6808
“Je ne suis pas Charlie”
We had over 45 people at this film, with a very good discussion afterwards.
We had recorded a special Skype interview with Max Blumenthal talking
about the Woodstock Free Speech Campaign and played that before his film.
-Friday, August 5, 7-9 PM in Woodstock. Film screening of “Je ne suis pas Charlie” by Max Blumenthal and James Kleinfeld at the Woodstock Town Hall, 76 Tinker St. The two filmmakers explore the post-Hebdo climate in France to find out what happens when the state tries to regulate what political expressions are acceptable in a free society. The film is part of www.WoodstockFreeSpeech.org, the campaign to roll back Governor Cuomo’s executive order forbidding the boycott of Israel. Sponsored by: Middle East Crisis Response www.mideastcrisis.org, Hudson Valley Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions www.hudsonvalleybds.org and Catskill Mt. Veterans for Peace. Contact: Jane.toby7@gmail.com or 518 291-6808
Panel Discussion on Governor Cuomo’s executive order
We had about 30 people in the Woodstock Town Hall for this event. Wonderful speakers
and plenty of questions at the end. It seems like some people had even changed their minds.
The panel was filmed and put on Woodstock Public Television, and will be
played this coming Thursday on Activist Radio http://www.classwars.org.
-Friday, July 22, 7-9 PM in Woodstock. Panel Discussion on Governor Cuomo’s executive order attacking citizens’ right to boycott Israel. Alan Levine, Constitutional lawyer and Donna Nevel, National Board member for Jewish Voice for Peace, will discuss both the First Amendment and moral arguments against Cuomo’s order that would create a blacklist of organizations and groups working for peace and justice in the Middle East. The panel, part of the www.WoodstockFreeSpeech.org campaign, will take place at the Woodstock Town Hall, 76 Tinker St. Sponsored by: Middle East Crisis Response www.mideastcrisis.org, Hudson Valley Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions www.hudsonvalleybds.org and Catskill Mt. Veterans for Peace. Contact: nicabramson@riseup.net or (845) 679-5301
Salt of the Sea
-Friday, July 1, from 7 - 9 in Kingston. Film screening of “Salt of This Sea" at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Catskills, 320 Sawkill Road (access to UU is from Rt. 209/Sawkill Road). The film is a stirring drama about the experiences of a young woman from the States in her efforts to reclaim her family roots in Palestine. Official Selection of the Cannes International Film Festival. Sponsored by: Middle East Crisis Response www.mideastcrisis.org and Hudson Valley Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions www.hudsonvalleybds.org. Contact: Jane.toby7@gmail.com or 518 291-6808
We had a nice turnout, over 30 people and a good many new faces. There was a lively discussion at the end about the role of art in opposing apartheid Israel. We also talked about the upcoming Woodstock Free Speech initiative:
http://woodstockfreespeech.org
Israel’s Public Relations War in the United States
-Friday, June 3, from 7 - 9 in Kingston. Film screening of "The Occupation of the American Mind: Israel’s Public Relations War in the United States." at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Catskills, 320 Sawkill Road (access to UU is from Rt. 209/Sawkill Road). Crucial to Israeli illegal occupation of Palestine is its acceptance in the U.S. news media. This film offers a sophisticated analysis of Zionist strategy to keep both policymakers and the public in the United States on their side. Sponsored by: Middle East Crisis Response www.mideastcrisis.org and Hudson Valley Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions www.hudsonvalleybds.org. Contact: Jane.toby7@gmail.com or 518 291-6808
We had 35 people at this event, and the discussion was intense. No pro Zionists comments at all.
Two events for the beginning of May
 |
| Both of these events went very well. We had a small crowd for Yasmin Yablonko and Khaled Farrag at a private residence in Woodstock. The movie, "Valentino's Ghost" showed at the UU in Kingston and we had about 30 people who attended. |
Taha attends vigil in Woodstock
Our friend, Taha, attends a vigil for Palestine in Woodstock on Apr 17, 2016.
Boycott! The Art of Economic Activism in POUGHKEEPSIE.
Mon,
Feb. 1-15, Boycott! The Art
of Economic Activism in
POUGHKEEPSIE. Exhibit open to
the public between Feb 1 and Mar 7 at
the Retreat and Second floor of
the College Center, Vassar
College, Raymond Ave. Students for
Justice in Palestine (SJP)
and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP)
co-host this exhibition
highlighting diverse historical
boycott movements from the 1950s to
the present. Contact 845
876-7906
This show was extended two weeks and was very popular. The following month, the Vassar Student Association passed a resolution supporting BDS of Israeli products.
Over 40 people came out to hear Lillian Rosengarten
Talk and book signing by Lillian Rosengarten, author of
Survival and Conscience: From the Shadows of Nazi Germany
to the Jewish Boat to Gaza, from 7-8:30 at the Inquiring
Mind Bookstore, 200 Main St, Saugerties.
Wed, Feb. 3, at 6 pm, Inhumanist Biopolitics: How Palestine Matters
INHUMANIST BIOPOLITICS: HOW PALESTINE MATTERS. LECTURE BY PROFESSOR JASBIR PUAR
Rockefeller Hall 200-Auditorium
This lecture theorizes oscillating relations between disciplinary, pre-emptive, and increasingly prehensive forms of power that shape human and non-human materialities in Palestine. Calculation, computing, informational technologies, surveillance, and militarization are all facets of prehensive control. Further, the saturation of spatial and temporal stratum in Palestine demonstrates the use of technologies of measure to manufacture a "remote control" occupation, one that produces a different version of Israeli "home invasions" through the maiming and stunting of population. If Gaza, for example, is indeed the world's largest "open air prison" and an experimental lab for Israeli military apparatuses, infrastructural chaos, and metric manipulation, what kinds of fantasies (about power, about bodies, about resistance, about politics) are driving this project?
Jasbir K. Puar is Associate Professor of Women’s & Gender Studies at Rutgers University. She received her Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies from the University of California at Berkeley in 1999 and an M.A. from the University of York, England, in Women’s Studies in 1993. She has written widely on South Asian disaporic cultural production in the U.S., U.K., and Trinidad; gay and lesbian tourism; terrorist studies; surveillance studies; bio and necropolitics; queer theory; disability and debilitation; theories of intersectionality, affect, and assemblage; animal studies and posthumanism; homonationalism, pinkwashing, and the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Puar’s forthcoming monograph, States of Debility and Capacity (Duke University Press, 2016) takes up the relations between biopolitics, disability, and forms of active debilitation pivotal to the operations of war machines and racial capitalism. The book will be among the first to appear in a new book series, ANIMA, which she co-edits with Mel Chen (author of Animacies: Biopolitics, Racial Mattering, and Queer Affect, Duke University Press, 2012).
Jasbir K. Puar is Associate Professor of Women’s & Gender Studies at Rutgers University. She received her Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies from the University of California at Berkeley in 1999 and an M.A. from the University of York, England, in Women’s Studies in 1993. She has written widely on South Asian disaporic cultural production in the U.S., U.K., and Trinidad; gay and lesbian tourism; terrorist studies; surveillance studies; bio and necropolitics; queer theory; disability and debilitation; theories of intersectionality, affect, and assemblage; animal studies and posthumanism; homonationalism, pinkwashing, and the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Puar’s forthcoming monograph, States of Debility and Capacity (Duke University Press, 2016) takes up the relations between biopolitics, disability, and forms of active debilitation pivotal to the operations of war machines and racial capitalism. The book will be among the first to appear in a new book series, ANIMA, which she co-edits with Mel Chen (author of Animacies: Biopolitics, Racial Mattering, and Queer Affect, Duke University Press, 2012).
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