Photos by Andrew Courtney
Israeli Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall
A number of MECR members attended this BDS rally in NYC.
Photos by Andrew Courtney
Photos by Andrew Courtney
Jewish and Muslim Human Rights Activists at Vassar
Jewish and Muslim Human Rights Activists speak on the professional and personal dynamics of pro-Palestine advocacy.
By Gail Goldsmith on February 2, 2011
“The occupation of Palestine follows me wherever I go,” said Noor Elashi, a writer and activist speaking at Vassar College.
Speaking on Jewish and Muslim activism for human rights in Palestine, Elashi and Rebecca Vilkomerson offered professional and personal perspectives on opposition to the Israeli occupation in a panel discussion, Jewish and Muslim Experiences in America: Working Together to Promote Human Rights, on January 26th at Vassar College.
Rebecca Vilkomerson and Noor Elashi (l-r) speak on their personal and professional activism for peace in Palestine to an audience at Vassar College
Vilkomerson, the National Director of Jewish Voices for Peace, described how Jewish Voices for Peace supports Boycott, Divestment, and Settlement campaigns including recent partnerships with University of California at Berkeley and a grassroots call for financial services company TIAA-CREF to divest from companies profiting from the Israeli occupation of the East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.
The 27 nationwide chapters of Jewish Voices for Peace refute the idea that all Jewish persons support the state of Israel.
“The American Jewish Committee supports Israel right or wrong and AIPAC doesn’t have a monopoly on Jewish opinion,” Vilkomerson said. “We’re continuing to carve out a place for activism in public Jewish life by being active on these issues while staying within the Jewish community.”
The event was sponsored by Vassar Islamic Society, DutchessPeace.org, and MidEastCrisis.org and was co-sponsored by many local activist groups, including the Marist Praxis Project.
“The Public Praxis Project was more an endorsement than a partner. I consulted a bit with the planners in an exchange of e-mails, but otherwise was not able to attend as I had a class at the time of the panel,” Dr. Mar Peter-Raoul, director of the Praxis Project, said. Although there were 9 co-sponsoring groups, attendance was approximately 45 persons-but the audience was engaged during the speech and inquisitive during the following question and answer session, particularly on the topic of civil liberties.
Both Vilkomerson and Elashi addressed the political challenges of religion.
“Hillel and its many campus groups excludes Jewish Voices for Peace through its anti-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions stance. Jewish life shouldn’t be subjected to a political litmus test,’ Vilkomerson.
For Elashi, the intersection of politics with Islam has been an emotionally fraught one.
Elashi’s father, Ghassan Elashi, co-founded the Holy Land Foundation, a large Muslim charity that supported Palestinian charities, called zakat committees, through humanitarian aid.
Ghassan Elashi was arrested under the Material Support Law, a law expanded under the Patriot Act. The Material Support Law makes it illegal to donate to charities on the U.S. Treasury list of designated terrorist organizations. Neither he nor the holy Land Foundation was ever found guilty of donating to any group on the last, but rather for donating to zakat committees that were, according to an anonymous witness for the prosecution, fronts for Hamas.
In 2007, the trial deadlocked in defense of the Holy Land Foundation, citing evidence that many international NGOs including Red Cross, USAID, CARE , and the UN sent money to the same zakat committees. In a 2008 retrial, he was convicted, after similar arguments, and is now imprisoned in a Communications Management Unit in Marion, Illinois. Referred to as “Little Guantanamo”, 60% of inmates in the Communications Management Unit are of Middle Eastern descent.
“The trial, the conviction, the proceedings were McCarthy-esque,” Elashi said, of her father’s trial.
All contact with the outside world is live-monitored and regulated. He is allowed one phone call a week. On visitation day, his family arrives for non-contact visits.
“It deprives me of that paternal scent-chamomile and cedar,” Elashi said.
An appeal is in process.
“I recognize that that global change and support for this will not start with the United States, it will end with the United States,” Elashi said, citing Islamophobia and lack of empathy as political barriers to U.S. support of Arab-Israeli peace. She is re-tooling Freedomtogive.com to serve as a resource for her father’s supporters and the interested public.
“I think this was a great event, because not enough people voice their opinions on this issue and how media influences public opinion about Israel and Palestine,” R., a Vassar student and member of the Vassar Islamic Society,said. “We think of this harsh, totalitarian treatment as the sort of thing that happens in the past. We don’t think of the American public as being this harsh and unfair to a citizen.”
http://www.maristmy575.com/?p=4749
Jewish and Muslim Experiences in America: Working Together to Promote Human Rights
Wednesday, January 26
6:30 to 8:00 PM
Sanders Hall Auditorium (Room 212)
Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY 12504
Panel discussion with Noor Elashi and Rebecca Vilkomerson. Noor Elashi is a nationally known writer and speaker on Muslim rights. Rebecca Vilkomerson is Executive Director of Jewish Voice for Peace.
Both Jews and Muslims in the United States are affected by passions surrounding the wars in the Middle East. The panel will explore how each group is dealing with issues such as human rights and ethnic identity.
Sponsored by:
-Vassar Islamic Society
-Dutchess Peace
http://www.dutchesspeace.org
-Middle East Crisis Response
http://www.mideastcrisis.org
Contact: (845) 876-7906
Cosponsors:
Alternatives to Violence Project
Fellowship of Reconciliation
I Will Not Kill - Veterans For Peace
Marist Praxis Project for Public Citizenship
New Paltz Neighbors for Peace
New Yorkers for Alternatives to the Death Penalty - Mid Hudson Branch
Peace Action New York State
Peace and Social Progress Now
Peace Justice & Environment Project
Real Majority Project
The Mid-Hudson 9/11 Truth Commission
UUFP Poughkeepsie, Social Justice Committee
Veterans Fellowship of Reconciliation
VFP Al Warren Tappan Zee Brigade
VFP Maury Colow Chapter 058, Catskill region
WESPAC Foundation
Jeff Halper at the Muddy Cup Bookstore in Saugerties
Can I add my voice to the chorus saying thanks (kol hakavod, as we say in Hebrew) for the hospitality and events in Woodstock and Saugurties? Ellen and Tarak, of course, but also bagels at Nick and Helaine's, nights at Pia's and the event itself. (Thanks, Fred, for the technical support.) It is a testimony to the communication abilities of the left that when we have an event in a bookstore we have to bring our own books (mine are published but never in bookstores....).
Both the funds raised and the deepening of our relationships are very meaningful both for me and for ICAHD as we struggle on.
I look forward to seeing you all again -- and, of course if you come our way (Jerusalem is close to Bilin), you're invited to our version of bagels and lox: humous and falafel.
Thanks again,
Jeff
Panel Discussion: Crisis in Israel/Palestine
Wednesday, Nov. 10
7:00 to 9:00 pm
Coykendall Science Building Auditorium
SUNY New Paltz
Speakers: Joel Kovel, author of "Overcoming Zionism"; Jack A. Smith, editor of the Activist Newsletter; Nada Khader, executive director of the WESPAC Foundation; Jane Toby, founder of the Hudson Valley branch of Women in Black; Faris Giacaman, an activist Palestinian student at Bard College; Hannah Schwarzchild, from "American Jews for a Just Peace"; and Paul Rehm, a Christian pacifist who was part of a peace mission to Hebron in the West Bank.
Organized by Middle East Crisis Response and the Hudson Valley Activist Newsletter and its activist arm Peace and Social Progress Now. Campus sponsor is the SUNY New Paltz Muslim Students Association.
We had about 140 people at this event, one of our most popular to date. Thanks to Donna, who was instrumental in planning and running this program.
SUNY New Paltz
Speakers: Joel Kovel, author of "Overcoming Zionism"; Jack A. Smith, editor of the Activist Newsletter; Nada Khader, executive director of the WESPAC Foundation; Jane Toby, founder of the Hudson Valley branch of Women in Black; Faris Giacaman, an activist Palestinian student at Bard College; Hannah Schwarzchild, from "American Jews for a Just Peace"; and Paul Rehm, a Christian pacifist who was part of a peace mission to Hebron in the West Bank.
We had about 140 people at this event, one of our most popular to date. Thanks to Donna, who was instrumental in planning and running this program.
MECR in New York Law Journal
MiddleEastCrisisResponse : Message: MECR in New York Law Journal
Protesters Ousted From Park During Celebration of Israel Must Show Free Speech Violations at Trial
Joel Stashenko September 08, 2010
ALBANY - Kingston police officers did not necessarily violate the constitutional rights of pro-Palestinian protesters by ordering them out of a city-owned park where local Jews were celebrating the 60th anniversary of the formation of Israel, a judge has ruled.
Northern District Judge Lawrence E. Kahn denied summary judgment to the Middle East Crisis Response and 11 of its members for the city's alleged violation of their constitutional free-speech and equal-protection rights during a May 4, 2008 protest.
The case will now go to trial to resolve what the judge said in Middle East Crisis Response v. City of Kingston, 1:08-cv-0690, was an "ambiguity" about the actions and motivations of the police.
Judge Kahn wrote that the First Amendment does not guarantee the right of an individual to express his views at any time or place or in any manner of his own choosing. "Reasonable restrictions" may be placed on protected speech, especially if the restrictions are not based on content and are "narrowly tailored to serve a significant governmental interest," the judge said, quoting Clark v. Cmty. for Creative Non-Violence, 468 U.S. 288 (1984).
Here, he said that "There exist issues of material fact as to whether the actions of Defendant officers were motivated by the content of Plaintiffs' speech, as Plaintiffs' argue, or whether the measures were taken in furtherance of public safety," the judge observed.
Based on the preliminary papers, a "reasonable jury" might well find either that the police officers were justified in ordering the Middle East Crisis Response members out of the park to avoid a confrontation, or that they should have allowed the protesters to stay in an area safely removed from the Jewish celebrants, the judge ruled.
"This ambiguity demonstrates an issue of fact as to whether the conduct of Defendant officers was warranted in order to further the City's interest in public safety and order, and whether their actions were narrowly tailored to further this interest," Judge Kahn held.
According to the ruling, members of the Ulster County Jewish Federation had received permission from the city to use Kingston's T.R. Gallo Waterfront Park for the commemoration of the anniversary of Israel's birth. The event, which attracted more than 100 people, was co-sponsored by the city and open to the public.
About a dozen members of Middle East Crisis Response gathered outside the park to leaflet and display signs protesting Israeli and American policies in the Middle East. Some protesters entered the park and ended up in what one police officers calls "heated" discussions with Jews.
When Kingston Sergeant James Maisenhelder arrived, four or five protesters and several of the Jewish celebrants were only a foot apart, appeared to be moving toward each other and were yelling.
At that point, according to Judge Kahn, Sergeant Maisenhelder ordered the protesters to leave and relocated them to a designated "protest area" on a public street outside the park. The sergeant also prohibited the protesters from displaying signs or leafletting.
Judge Kahn noted that the protesters still could get their message out despite the restrictions.
"Plaintiffs…contend that the location was not an ample alternative because their protest was pointless when removed from the context of the celebration," the judge wrote. "Plaintiffs, however, were not protesting the celebration itself, rather they were protesting and advocating political issues in connection with the State of Israel that may or may not have been directly implicated by the celebration."
According to its Web site, the protesters are part of a Woodstock-based group of Hudson Valley residents "joined in support of human rights for Palestinians and an end to the US's aggressive policies in the Middle East."
The group was formed after the Israel-Gaza conflict of 2006.
Judge Kahn rejected a facial challenge the plaintiffs made to Kingston's permit and insurance policies for use of city parks. The plaintiffs failed to show how the policy was used to suppress free speech, Judge Kahn wrote.
He also noted that no permit is needed to use the Gallo Waterfront park.
Judge Kahn also refused to grant summary judgment to the group on its equal protection clause violation claim. The clause is invoked when First Amendment activities are regulated based on their content, but the judge ruled that whether police acted because of the content of the group's political message remains an issue of material fact.
Stephen Bergstein, attorney for the protesters, said in an interview that the participants captured 95 percent of their protest on video.
The video was not mentioned in the judge's ruling.
Among other things, Mr. Bergstein said in an interview, the video shows that there was ample room to relocate the protesters within the park. It also shows Sergeant Maisenhelder saying, "I am the law" when protesters argue that evicting them from the park is against the law, Mr. Bergstein said.
"We go to trial from here," said Mr. Bergstein, of the Bergstein, Ullrich Law Firm of Chester. "We are disappointed that we did not get summary judgment. …We moved for summary judgment because we thought as a matter of law moving the protesters out of the park was a violation of the First Amendment."
Robert S. Cook of Cook, Netter, Cloonan, Kurtz, & Murphy of Kingston represented the city and the police officers.
Mr. Cook said yesterday that while his opponents may well go to trial, he was "pleased" and "satisfied" with the decision from Judge Kahn.
"There are questions of fact, but the judge said that a reasonable jury might find that the officers were acting to maintain peace and order, based on the facts presented him," Mr. Cook said.
The action names as defendants the city of Kingston and four of its policemen: Sergeant Maisenhelder, Officers William Hadsel, Scott Williams and Harry Woltman.
The city did not file a motion for summary judgment on its own behalf.
Protesters Ousted From Park During Celebration of Israel Must Show Free Speech Violations at Trial
Joel Stashenko September 08, 2010
ALBANY - Kingston police officers did not necessarily violate the constitutional rights of pro-Palestinian protesters by ordering them out of a city-owned park where local Jews were celebrating the 60th anniversary of the formation of Israel, a judge has ruled.
Northern District Judge Lawrence E. Kahn denied summary judgment to the Middle East Crisis Response and 11 of its members for the city's alleged violation of their constitutional free-speech and equal-protection rights during a May 4, 2008 protest.
The case will now go to trial to resolve what the judge said in Middle East Crisis Response v. City of Kingston, 1:08-cv-0690, was an "ambiguity" about the actions and motivations of the police.
Judge Kahn wrote that the First Amendment does not guarantee the right of an individual to express his views at any time or place or in any manner of his own choosing. "Reasonable restrictions" may be placed on protected speech, especially if the restrictions are not based on content and are "narrowly tailored to serve a significant governmental interest," the judge said, quoting Clark v. Cmty. for Creative Non-Violence, 468 U.S. 288 (1984).
Here, he said that "There exist issues of material fact as to whether the actions of Defendant officers were motivated by the content of Plaintiffs' speech, as Plaintiffs' argue, or whether the measures were taken in furtherance of public safety," the judge observed.
Based on the preliminary papers, a "reasonable jury" might well find either that the police officers were justified in ordering the Middle East Crisis Response members out of the park to avoid a confrontation, or that they should have allowed the protesters to stay in an area safely removed from the Jewish celebrants, the judge ruled.
"This ambiguity demonstrates an issue of fact as to whether the conduct of Defendant officers was warranted in order to further the City's interest in public safety and order, and whether their actions were narrowly tailored to further this interest," Judge Kahn held.
According to the ruling, members of the Ulster County Jewish Federation had received permission from the city to use Kingston's T.R. Gallo Waterfront Park for the commemoration of the anniversary of Israel's birth. The event, which attracted more than 100 people, was co-sponsored by the city and open to the public.
About a dozen members of Middle East Crisis Response gathered outside the park to leaflet and display signs protesting Israeli and American policies in the Middle East. Some protesters entered the park and ended up in what one police officers calls "heated" discussions with Jews.
When Kingston Sergeant James Maisenhelder arrived, four or five protesters and several of the Jewish celebrants were only a foot apart, appeared to be moving toward each other and were yelling.
At that point, according to Judge Kahn, Sergeant Maisenhelder ordered the protesters to leave and relocated them to a designated "protest area" on a public street outside the park. The sergeant also prohibited the protesters from displaying signs or leafletting.
Judge Kahn noted that the protesters still could get their message out despite the restrictions.
"Plaintiffs…contend that the location was not an ample alternative because their protest was pointless when removed from the context of the celebration," the judge wrote. "Plaintiffs, however, were not protesting the celebration itself, rather they were protesting and advocating political issues in connection with the State of Israel that may or may not have been directly implicated by the celebration."
According to its Web site, the protesters are part of a Woodstock-based group of Hudson Valley residents "joined in support of human rights for Palestinians and an end to the US's aggressive policies in the Middle East."
The group was formed after the Israel-Gaza conflict of 2006.
Judge Kahn rejected a facial challenge the plaintiffs made to Kingston's permit and insurance policies for use of city parks. The plaintiffs failed to show how the policy was used to suppress free speech, Judge Kahn wrote.
He also noted that no permit is needed to use the Gallo Waterfront park.
Judge Kahn also refused to grant summary judgment to the group on its equal protection clause violation claim. The clause is invoked when First Amendment activities are regulated based on their content, but the judge ruled that whether police acted because of the content of the group's political message remains an issue of material fact.
Stephen Bergstein, attorney for the protesters, said in an interview that the participants captured 95 percent of their protest on video.
The video was not mentioned in the judge's ruling.
Among other things, Mr. Bergstein said in an interview, the video shows that there was ample room to relocate the protesters within the park. It also shows Sergeant Maisenhelder saying, "I am the law" when protesters argue that evicting them from the park is against the law, Mr. Bergstein said.
"We go to trial from here," said Mr. Bergstein, of the Bergstein, Ullrich Law Firm of Chester. "We are disappointed that we did not get summary judgment. …We moved for summary judgment because we thought as a matter of law moving the protesters out of the park was a violation of the First Amendment."
Robert S. Cook of Cook, Netter, Cloonan, Kurtz, & Murphy of Kingston represented the city and the police officers.
Mr. Cook said yesterday that while his opponents may well go to trial, he was "pleased" and "satisfied" with the decision from Judge Kahn.
"There are questions of fact, but the judge said that a reasonable jury might find that the officers were acting to maintain peace and order, based on the facts presented him," Mr. Cook said.
The action names as defendants the city of Kingston and four of its policemen: Sergeant Maisenhelder, Officers William Hadsel, Scott Williams and Harry Woltman.
The city did not file a motion for summary judgment on its own behalf.
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