Pre-Work

This week we will discuss actions we can take to be in solidarity with the People of Palestine and do the work of challenging Israeli Settler Colonial Apartheid. Choose a pre-work to complete before Sunday:

Mild: Letter

A call for global Action and solidarity on Nakba Day

On May 15th, 2024, Kairos Palestine alongside the Global Kairos for Justice Coalition published a letter entitled: A call for global Action and solidarity on Nakba Day May 15th, 2024 Israel’s Continuing Apartheid, Ethnic Cleansing, forcible displacement and Now Genocide. The letter includes the history of the Nakba as well as a global call to action:

Global Call to Action English Global Call to Action Spanish

Medium: Apartheid-Free Interview with Munther Isaac

Medium: Video

A Political Education Primer: Christian Zionism, BDS, and the Pursuit of a Christ-Centered Response

From 1:20:00 - 1:37:00 Allison Tanner of the ASFC Apartheid Free Communities initiative describes the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. She also puts forward a path for faith communities in the Apartheid Free Pledge.

If you live in the United States you are complicit in Israeli apartheid… I can’t just sit back and say ‘what’s happening is awful…" I must take responsibility. This is where BDS steps in to allow me to take action based on Palestinian led invitation to take responsibility.. for our communal role for what’s happening. To say simply and clearly we do not want to participate in systems that support apartheid. BDS allows us to do that collectively as a Global Movement toward Israeli accountability… BDS is the largest international effort to hold Israel accountable.
Allison Tanner

Read the Apartheid Free Pledge

Extension: BDS

If you would like to learn more about the global Boycott Divestment and Sanctions Movement you can visit their website at bdsmovement.net. Some recent wins from the movement include SF State divesting form weapons companies, AXA divesting from all Israeli Banks and Elbit Systems, Lakeshore Avenue Baptist Church in Oakland embracing boycott and divestment, PCUSA Divesting from Israeli bonds, UMC divesting from Israeli bonds and other occupying governments, the city of Alemeda divesting from weapons manufacturers and halting Intel’s construction of a 25 billion dollar factory in Israel.

Ongoing local campaigns include:

ASFC Maintains a list of publicly traded companies that “consistently, knowingly, and directly enable or facilitate human rights violations or violations of international law as part of prolonged military occupations, apartheid, and genocide.”

Wondering about the effects of BDS? Check out this interview with Shir Hever the BDS military embargo coordinator:

Week 7 In Class