[van-announce] URGENT: Weds May 7th Vigil @ Queen Elizabeth Theatre: Jews and Allies Remember the Nakba & Reject Israeli Independence Day Celebration

[mia amir]

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NO TIME TO CELEBRATE
Remember the Nakba
Reject Israeli Independence Day Celebration

VIGIL
Wednesday, May 7th
6:30pm
Queen Elizabeth Theatre (at Hamilton and Georgia)

Organized by Vancouver Anarchist Jewish Youth
Endorsed by Jews for a Just Peace and the
Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign
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On Wednesday May 7th the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver is
sponsoring an event called "Yom Ha'atzmaut: Israel's 60th Birthday" at Queen
Elizabeth Theatre. For Palestinians and for people of conscience worldwide,
this birthday is nothing to celebrate. It marks 60 years of displacement,
dispossession, and occupation. See below for backgrounder.

As Jews of conscience committed to histories of Jewish resistance against
the forces of oppression, guided by the principle of Tikkun Olam (repairing
the world) VAJY is calling for a counter vigil to the Jewish Federation's
"celebration." We will gather on May 7th at the QE to say that Israel does
NOT SPEAK IN OUR NAMES, and that *"*Never Again" means never again for ALL
PEOPLE!

This statement will be strengthened by the crucial presence of non-Jews and
allies in struggle. Please join us!
This vigil is being organized as part of Palestine Solidarity Month by
Vancouver Anarchist Jewish Youth (VAJY), with endorsement from Jews for a
Just Peace and the Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign (BIAC)

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BACKGROUNDER
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This year, Palestinians around the world will mourn 60 years since the Nakba
- Arabic for "catastrophe" - of 1948. Sixty years ago, Zionist militias
destroyed over 400 Palestinian villages and made more than 800,000
Palestinian people refugees in order to create a Jewish state in a land
where the majority was not Jewish. This does not deserve to be celebrated.

Today the Palestinian Nakba continues. In order to maintain Israel's
artificial Jewish majority, the Israeli government has continued campaigns
of ongoing displacement, violence, and occupation. Inside of the 1948
borders of Israel, Palestinian citizens are subject to systemic
discrimination. In Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem Palestinians are
denied access to land, water, healthcare, and other basic resources.
Throughout historic Palestine the international isolation and economic
devastation Palestinians face is aided by Israel's erection of a
730-kilometer wall-- illegal under international law-- and the continued
closures and invasions including the current horrific siege of Gaza. Today
there are more than 6 million Palestinian refugees around the world, all of
whom are denied their internationally recognized Right of Return to their
homes and land. Meanwhile, we as Jews are invited to live on that same land
simply because of our ethnicity.

Zionism as a colonial project has hijacked Jewish histories of resistance.
It dishonors the persecution, displacement and genocide of European Jews by
using their memory to justify and perpetuate racism and colonialism. As
such, it implicates us as Jews in the oppression of the Palestinian people
and in the debasement of our own heritages, struggles for justice and
alliances with fellow human beings.

In the Canada, Zionism has reduced Jewish identity to an unholy allegiance
to Israel and alliance between, U.S. imperialism and Christian
fundamentalism. The economic and political status that Jews have gained over
the past 60 years as a result has been entangled with Canada's alliance with
Israel. While Jews as a group do not hold the reigns of global economic or
political power, by aligning with and leveraging the powers of imperialism,
Zionism plays into anti-Semitic conspiracies. We seek to counter this
dominant portrayal of Jewish will while aligning ourselves with a just
struggle for Palestinian liberation and a just peace for all.

In response to these historical and current events along with a call from
Palestine to mark their significance, we refuse to celebrate "Israel 60." We
will take action to make our shared position clear and visible.

***

OTHER EVENTS  Organized For Vancouver Palestine Solidarity Month - May 2008:

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Saturday, May 10 (National Day of Action) WALK FOR PALESTINE
Meet at Clark Park at 1pm (14th & Commercial Drive)
Silent march to Grandview Park
**PLEASE WEAR BLACK**

For more information, please contact
alnakba2008 at gmail.com<http://compose/?To=alnakba2008@gmail.com>
.

The Walk for Palestine is endorsed by:
Adala - Canadian Arab Justice Committee * Al-Awda Vancouver * Boycott
Israeli Apartheid Campaign (BIAC) * Canada Palestine Association, Vancouver
* Canada-Palestine Support Network * Canadian Arab Federation *
International Solidarity Movement - Vancouver * Jews for a Just Peace * La
Surda Latin American Collective * No One is Illegal - Vancouver * Redwire
Native Youth Media Society * Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights
(SPHR-UBC) * Stopwar.ca * Students for a Democratic Society-UBC * Vancouver
& District Labour Council * World Peace Forum Society

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Friday, May 16 at 6:30pm
ARABIC CULTURAL EVENT AND GAZA FUNDRAISER
Capilano College Theatre
2055 Purcell Way, North Van.
Tickets are $25/$15 (students)
More information and tickets are available from www.refugeesupport.org

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Thursday, May 22 at 7pm
PALESTINIAN REFUGEE FILM NIGHT
Rhizome Cafe, 317 Broadway
Screening Children of Ibdaa  and Deir Yassin Remembered
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