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Dear friends and allies,

We’re very excited to announce that Students for Justice in Palestine will be gathering at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts from October 24-26 for the fourth National Students for Justice in Palestine Conference. After a summer of devastation and oppression in Palestine and in the United States, now more than ever we must collectively analyze how far we have come and how we can deepen our skills, analysis, and relationships in order to escalate our struggles for justice in the coming year.

Will you invest in the future of the US Palestine solidarity movement and help us bring hundreds of students together?

Building on the amazing work SJP activists around the country have done to connect different struggles and movements, this year’s theme of “Beyond Solidarity: Resisting Racism and Colonialism from the U.S. to Palestine” challenges us to move towards thinking in terms of joint struggle- how our work in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle is part and parcel of the struggles to dismantle racism, militarism, and colonialism in the U.S. and other parts of the world/ And to move towards creating meaningful changes in our communities and beyond.

This summer the Gaza Strip saw the worst Israeli assault in memory. Casualty rates, particularly for civilians and children, are shockingly high, and the level of devastation to the Strip is so great that the United Nations projects it could take 20 years to rebuild. Israel’s actions were widely described as war crimes and despite global calls to lift the blockade, as of this writing the siege of Gaza still remains in place. We in the United States must move beyond condemning these acts to organizing to stop them.

Meanwhile this summer, activists in Ferguson were being tear-gassed by the same product used to teargas and repress Palestinians. In a moving display of international unity, Palestinians sent messages of solidarity and advice on how to best treat teargas burns, SJPs around the country were putting out calls to action for solidarity vigils and were deepening their analysis of how militarism of police in the U.S. is modeled on Israel’s militarism and suppression of Palestinian resistance. This year, we will look at how to further our collective analysis and understanding, and envision what true joint struggle action would look like in our efforts to advance boycotts and divestment at our colleges and universities.

Every year our conferences have been successful because of the broad representation of amazing and brilliant student activists from around the country. While some students are able to get travel assistance from their schools, a large number of student participants rely on the funds we are able to raise before the conference and give out as travel assistance.

Can you help us this year by making sure that at least 100 students are able to represent their SJPs in Boston with the help of travel stipends?

If you believe that the success of SJPs is central to the success and growth of the Palestine solidarity movement in the U.S., please consider making a donation – large or small, every dollar goes a long way – to SJP National through our paypal (http://sjpnational.org/donate) or send a check to our fiscal sponsor, the WESPAC Foundation, 52 North Broadway, White Plains, NY 10603. All donations are tax deductible and checks should read SJP-National in the memo.

In Solidarity,
The National Students for Justice in Palestine Steering Committee

Dear Students, Allies, and Friends,

We are excited to announce that the 2014 National Students for Justice in Palestine Conference will take place on October 24-26th at Tufts University! This year’s conference is themed Beyond Solidarity: Resisting Racism and Colonialism from the U.S. to Palestine.

At last year’s conference at Stanford University, From Margin to Center: Connecting Struggles, Forging a National Movement, we concluded with a panel on joint struggle. The term “joint struggle” represents the work of acting together to resist the systems that oppress our respective communities–sometimes in ways that overlap and other times in ways that are very specific.

Joint struggle means that a victory for one group should also strengthen and advance the movements we are connected with. It comes from an understanding that oppression will never cease to exist for a group unless all oppressed groups are free. For the members of the National SJP steering committee, we have appreciated the solidarity we have received nationally from groups like MEChA and Anakbayan, and we hope to build on both new and existing relationships.

The summer’s events in Palestine and across the U.S., specifically in Ferguson, have clearly shown the connections between racist and colonial oppression in both locations, sparking transnational solidarity and consciousness raising. It is in the spirit of forming a stronger global movement to liberate all peoples that we dedicate this year’s conference to not only strengthening solidarity, but moving from expressing it with words to expressing it by committing to self-education and concrete joint action.

In addition to the theme described above, this year’s conference will focus on building our movement through political and skills development, as well as critical discussions about our work and role in the struggle for the liberation of Palestine. The 2014 National SJP Conference will aim to achieve the following goals:

1. This conference will highlight building joint struggle by providing space to learn directly from other national grassroots movements on concrete and intentional actions that we can take to advance all struggles. We will focus on anti-black racism, the ongoing colonization and occupation of indigenous lands and peoples, and the violence against Black, indigenous and migrant people in the U.S. by deepening ties with those who are already organizing against such oppressive forces. This will tie into a focus on militarism as a transnational problem, which arises from collaboration of police, military and intelligence organizations. We will discuss how we can support national movement building emerging out of Ferguson, as resisting militarism becomes a transnational conversation.
2. This conference will delve into why and how the struggle for Palestine is a feminist issue. We will further understand how settler colonialism is racialized and gendered and disproportionately affects women and children. We will also look into the increased violence against Palestinian women and women refugees and migrants in Israel.
3. This conference will create a space for critical discussion on confronting all forms of racism within our movement through reflection, self-accountability and movement accountability. We will also focus on continuing to combat all forms of Judeophobia/anti-Semitism and conflation of Zionism with Judaism.
4. This conference will focus on confronting Islamophobic and Western liberal responses to resistance in Palestine, which relegate Palestinians and their allies to the position of the “non-human Other.” We will discuss how these responses contribute to the dominant Western narrative of the Orientalist discourse, specifically how it impacts our movement and how to resist delegitimation efforts.
5. This conference will help break down the term “decolonization” from a “sexy” social justice buzzword to a lived, feasible experience and practice. We will work to define what colonization and decolonization mean, and what it means to decolonize oneself and the movement.
6. This conference will give students the opportunity to discuss and organize around ways to resist institutional and administrative censorship of Palestine solidarity organizers and Muslim and Arab students on campus, who are often targeted and silenced.
7. This conference will provide the necessary knowledge and tools to counter efforts by Zionist organizations to normalize and whitewash the Israeli occupation as a means of undermining student groups organizing on campus around Palestinian rights.
8. This conference will delve deeper into the successes and failures of boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaigns locally and nationally; in addition to sharing resources and best practices in order to strengthen the effectiveness of the movement.

In the coming weeks, we will provide further information about conference logistics and registration. For now, we ask that local SJP chapters, and other Palestine solidarity groups, begin to make plans to attend the conference. We also ask supporters to kindly consider making a donation to support student travel, so that lack of resources does not stop activists across the country from attending the conference and sharing their knowledge and skills.

We hope to see you at Tufts!

In solidarity,
The National Students for Justice in Palestine Steering Committee

Our next SJP EAST gathering will be this coming March 1-2, 2014 at George Washington University in Washington, DC. There is a registration fee of $10.00. We recommend that most people arrive Friday, February 28th, and participate in the introductory festivities!

March 1st will consist of workshops and movement-building programs that we felt our chapters needed to pay special attention to. These workshops deal with normalization, legal support for solidarity groups, how to coordinate media campaigns, and how to build a BDS movement on your campus. 

March 2nd we will attend the Expose AIPAC demonstration outside of the Washington Convention Center to protest the start of the 2014 AIPAC convention. Click here for more information. 

Click here to register for the conference.

For more information, email us at sjpeastnetwork@gmail.com
We will be posting updates as they become available

Dear friends,

We are writing to you to invite your group to participate in this year’s ‘Right 2 Education Week’. Every year, the Right 2 Education Campaign mobilizes an increasing number of people globally to take part in a week of events and actions to raise awareness about the plight of Palestinians in their quest for education.

This year, from 11-15 November, we are aiming for a deeper, international impact than ever before.

Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights stipulates that, ‘Everyone has the right to education’. Palestinians living under military occupation are being systematically denied this basic right.

Restrictions on movement means that higher education is not ‘equally accessible to all on the basis of merit’ (Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 26) but rather is accessible only to those who can reach it. Checkpoints and roadblocks inside the West Bank can see short journeys take hours, or become impossible. Gazan students are unable to leave to study elsewhere, and those who do obtain permission cannot return to see their families. Studying abroad is difficult, as is the freedom of international intellectuals and students to visit Palestinian universities. Materials and text books purchased are often delayed by the military which leads to a recycling of knowledge as students are not able to access the most up-to-date information. Many students face arrest and detention for political activism, and in the vast areas of the West Bank under complete military occupation it is prohibited for Palestinians to build, amongst other things, education facilities. These man-made problems have led to a decimation of the rights of Palestinians to education.

This is why we need your support. The Right 2 Education campaign is a non-violent, student-led movement based at Birzeit University in the West Bank. We seek to raise awareness of the issues that Palestinian students face – and in doing so to bring about change. We would like you to organise events at your university to show that those who enjoy the full extent of Article 26 believe in its universal application. You will be part of a global movement, standing up for human rights.

Events in the past that have proved successful include: debates, film-screenings, discussions, guest lectures, exhibitions, video conferences with Palestinian students, and hosting Palestinian students on a UK tour.

Education is a right which should be given to all; regardless of race or religion.

Please be in touch by emailing right2education.bzu [at] gmail.com if you would like to work with us on this most basic of rights, and we can help you plan your week and provide you with useful materials.

Show your support by joining the facebook event, following us on Twitter and telling everyone you know. Use the hashtag #R2Eweek

We have created a series of documents to help societies prepare for their own #R2Eweek. These are accessible on google drive, and the links are as follows:

#R2Eweek Information Pack, which provides information and ideas for hosting your own week: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4BKfRieXpedRHlhQnRhWkNMYjA/edit?usp=drive_web

#R2Eweek Fact Sheet, which provides up-to-date information about education under occupation which can be used in creating content for your week: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4BKfRieXpedenptWWtoaTZDUlk/edit?usp=drive_web

#R2Eweek Additional Materials, which provides links to publications, photographs and videos which can be used for further research: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4BKfRieXpedVmFrWDc2LXZobFE/edit?usp=drive_web

If you would like to participate, please could you send us an email to confirm, as well as a schedule of events for your week. You can send this as an email, or by using the following template: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4BKfRieXpedajZUYUliNkpPOXM/edit?usp=drive_web

>Don’t forget to use Facebook and Twitter to promote your events and establish links with us here in Palestine. We are hosting a Twitter Day on Wednesday 13th where we will be answering questions and promoting messages of solidarity. Join in by using the hastag #R2Eweek

With every best wish,

Right 2 Education Team
Birzeit University
right2education.bzu [at] gmail.com
http://www.right2edu.org