[News] STOP AIPAC - Mon, Dec 14 - SF - Pressure SF Board of Supervisors and Mayor to Reject AIPAC Invite

[Anti-Imperialist News]

**Join us at 5:30 p.m. on Mon., Dec. 14, in force in front of the AIPAC 
dinner at the Westin St. Francis, 335 Powell St., SF, demanding an end 
to AIPAC and US support for Israeli’s suppression of Palestinian rights.

*Pressure Mounts on SF Board of Supervisors and Mayor to Reject AIPAC Invite
***

*San Francisco, Dec. 11, 2015—*As a broad-based coalition builds 
opposition to the upcoming San Francisco fundraiser for AIPAC (American 
Israeli Public Affairs Committee), Supervisor John Avalos has announced 
that he turned down an invite from the powerful pro-Israel lobbying 
group in solidarity with community concerns. Supervisors London Breed, 
David Campos, Jane Kim, and Eric Mar will also be no-shows. Pressure is 
mounting on the mayor and remaining members of the board to reject their 
invitations to the gala.

“We are asking public officials to join the effort to challenge 
apartheid and racist policies in Israel, just as San Francisco did 
during apartheid South Africa,” said Omar Ali of the Arab Resource and 
Organizing Center. “The international community must condemn the recent 
attacks on Palestinian civilian society, funded with over $3 billion in 
arms and military assistance that Israel receives from the United States 
each year, largely as a result of AIPAC’s lobbying and influence over US 
politicians. Key organizations representing the Palestinian, Jewish, 
queer, and progressive communities are united in demanding that all of 
the SF supervisors turn down AIPAC’s invite.”

The Expose AIPAC Coalition has already gathered more than 800 signatures 
on a petition urging supervisors and the mayor to boycott the event. The 
petitions will be presented to SF Mayor Ed Lee on Monday, Dec. 14.

As AIPAC lobbies for even more funds for Israel, Israel has escalated 
the level of attack on Palestinians, especially in East Jerusalem and 
Hebron. The Palestinian Health Ministry reports that since October 1^st 
, 2015, Israeli forces have killed at least 118 Palestinians and shot at 
least 2,528 others. The number of Palestinian children in Israeli 
detention has doubled; those children report being tortured, denied 
adequate food, and held in moldy and frigid jail cells.

As a result of AIPAC’s grip on US politicians, US money and equipment go 
toward stealing Palestinian land, killing unarmed civilians, demolishing 
homes, building illegal settlements and the separation wall that 
destroys farms and isolates Palestinians from families, work, and 
education. In addition, AIPAC lobbies for legislation like the Protect 
Academic Freedom Act, which would punish colleges and universities that 
join the academic and cultural boycott of Israel in support of 
Palestinian human rights.

Key organizers in the Expose AIPAC Coalition include the Arab Resource & 
Organizing Center, ANSWER, Bay Area Women in Black, General Union of 
Palestine Students, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Jewish 
Voice for Peace, National Lawyer’s Guild –SF, Queers Undermining Israeli 
Terror, Northern California Friends of Sabeel, Palestinian Youth 
Movement, and Students for Justice in Palestine-Cal. An additional 30 
organizations have endorsed the campaign.


-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org


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