Free Palestine Movement Resignation from the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation
To: The U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation
From: The Free Palestine Movement
Date: July 21, 2015
Subj: Free Palestine Movement Resignation from the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation
Please be advised that the Free Palestine Movement resigns from the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, effective immediately.
We resign because of the disgraceful, disrespectful and unjust treatment of Alison Weir and her organization, If Americans Knew, in the procedures to expel her from the Campaign on the spurious grounds of insufficient avoidance of anti-Semitic persons and institutions.
We resign because it is clear that the decision had been made to expel IAK before the proceedings to do so had ever begun.
We resign because, in defiance of the most basic principles of justice, Ms. Weir was not given the opportunity to confront her accuser.
We resign because no evidence was presented that she herself is anti-Semitic.
We resign because the USCEIO policy on racism is so broad that someone who is not racist can be found in violation for being insufficiently vigilant about confronting and challenging anti-Semitism whenever it is encountered. This is so vague that the rule can be applied arbitrarily, as has been the case with IAK and Alison Weir.
We resign because the language of the policy on racism was formed through procedures and meetings that allowed persons selected arbitrarily by the staff and leadership of the USCEIO to control the wording, consultation and approval process of the policy and to disregard, disrespect and manipulate attempts by member organizations to participate in the process.
We resign because the policy implicitly gives priority to anti-Semitism and Islamophobia as forms of racism and does not even mention Zionism in the policy statement.
We resign because the cause of Palestinian suffering and ethnic cleansing is not anti-Semitism, but rather Zionism.
We resign because the USCEIO is in violation of its own policy on racism because it tolerates Zionism in its midst and neither confronts nor challenges it.
We resign because the mission of the USCEIO is hypocrisy: to apply double standards to racism and to tolerate Zionism while using anti-Semitism as a tool to determine who may be permitted to participate in the Palestine Rights Movement.
We resign because we prefer to take the courageous Palestinian resistance as our standard, and not anti-Semitism.
We resign because, unlike the USCEIO, we recognize that Zionism is the main problem and almost the only problem for Palestinians, and not anti-Semitism, and that the eradication of a state founded on Zionism must be our primary goal and almost our only goal.
We resign because we believe that a manipulative USCEIO gatekeeper entity does not serve the interests of justice for Palestine and Palestinians, nor for Americans, nor for Jews. We will seek the future of justice in more likely places, which is to say almost anywhere.
We do not give our consent to be considered one of the many cameo organizations, used to inflate the apparent size and importance of the USCEIO even though they have long stopped participating. We believe that the USCEIO is a much smaller organization than it pretends, and should be treated as such. Please remove us from all mailing lists and from the regional list serve, with its threats to remove anyone who steps out of line.
Finally, we join others in thanking the USCEIO for revealing its true face of arrogance, repression and hypocrisy to all who care to see. In this respect you have rendered a great service.
9 Comments On “Free Palestine Movement Resignation from the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation”
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In my view, it’s most unfortunate that differences between pro-Palestinian groups could not be resolved in private. Over heated rhetoric, charge-counter charge and emotional exchanges will not serve the cause of Palestinian independence, freedom and human rights. I do hope that differences between various groups can eventually be resolved.
This episode has been extremely enlightening has caused me to look more closely at the policy statements of both JVP and UCSEIO. I had not realised before that neither organisation stands in criticism of Zionism and that JVP has an explicit leadership statement that it will NOT take a position on Zionism. This is completely incompatible with their supposed support of Palestinians whose ongoing trauma is a direct consequence of the Zionist colonial project.
Thanks for this resignation. I wonder how this sham umbrella group USCEIO was started in the first place? It seems like another organization that is built to fail because it equates criticism of Zionism with anti-Semitism.
I am glad to see that you started this movement to protest treatment of Alison Weir. I am fighting this, too inside the JVP’s Capital district chapter (Albany, NY). Thank you for your effort to disseminate the information about our fight. I am sure that we have already had many supporters and going to be in majority, soon.
I agree with every word in this statement. I will be supporting If Americans Knew and the Free Palestine Movement in the future. I believe it is important to draw a bight line between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. I am NOT an anti-Semite. I AM an anti-Zionist.
Thank you for exposing the hypocrisy of the USCEIO. Last year I attended the USCEIO convention in San Diego to determine if our group, We Hold These Truths should join. Fortunately, we didn’t join them then, and won’t be doing so now. We have admired and supported Alison Weir’s efforts in the peace and justice movement for Palestine. We have just conducted an insightful interview with Alison Weir that reveals the machinations of the JVP and USCEIO attacks on her and the IAK: http://whtt.org/the-adl-style-attack-by-jvp-against-pro-palestinian-activist-alison-weir-and-iak-results-in-expulsion/
Glad to see this. US citizens should be free to talk about the undue political influence by Zionists from way back before World War I and influencing US actions in and regarding a number of wars and military operations ever since. These have cost Americans trillions of dollars and tens of thousands of lives. And, of course, cost the Palestinians so much in lives, treasure and lost land and freedom. As an activist organizing against AIPAC and other pro-Israel lobbies, it is disturbing to see that such free speech, as practiced by Alison and others at various anti-AIPAC events in recent years, is once again being squelched. JVP is going back to its old bad habits and now End the Occupation is jumping on the bandwagon. Very sad!!
JVP is a Zionist front. They are not interested in justice for the Palestinian people, they are interested only in sniffing out “anti-Semitism”. In supporting them, we would be working against the Palestinian cause.
It shouldn’t be too surprising that zionists would pose as pro-Palestinian activists to destroy the movement from the inside – they’ve been doing this for donkey’s years. But it is encouraging to see how quickly and confidently some organizations have acted in response to these desperate attack. I think we can all be grateful for this…