Subject: JEWS SHUT DOWN ISRAELI CONSULATE FOR 3 HOURS

  
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 Press Release
 January 14, 2009

 *Available for Interviews: *

 Lisa Adler, 917.400.7964 (available for interviews in Spanish)

 Eric Romann, 510.285.7240

 Tamara Rettino, 323.547.1277

 For video footage: Stacy Goldate, 213.255.6950, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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

 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 will kick
 off 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 are building a nonviolent
 international movement of boycott, divestment and sanctions that brings an
 end to Israel's policies of occupation and apartheid and advances the
 Palestinian struggle for justice," said Adler.

 For more information on the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, visit
www.ijsn.net



 *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.
 
*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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