Mar 27, 2024
“The prominent Austrian literary organizations Literaturfest Salzburg and Literaturhaus NÖ have cancelled Lana Bastašić’s upcoming residency and reading…” Earlier in the month, the Bosnian-Serb writer had cut her links with her German publisher – S.Fischer – because of their silence in the face of the attacks on Gaza.
Ms. Bastasic responded to the actions of the two distinguished Literary bodies as follows:
“For the sake of truth and transparency, I would like to remind you that the interest was yours, given that you invited me. Your decision to uninvite me is a clear positioning on your part. Let it also be clear that this is a cancellation of a residency and an event we previously agreed on, based solely on my decision to leave a publisher. It is my political and human opinion that children should not be slaughtered and that German cultural institutions should know better when it comes to genocide. You should also know that you have now added yourselves to the long and infamous list of cultural institutions which cancel artists who refuse to stay silent when the world is screaming.
I do not know what literature means to you outside of networking and grants. To me it means, first and foremost, an unwavering love for human beings and the sanctity of human life. Given that you invited me to your residency and festival, you must have been acquainted with my work, which deals closely with the consequences war has on children. Perhaps to you literary works are divorced from real life, but then again you probably have never known war fist hand.
Thank you for uninviting me. I would not want to be part of another institution which not only cancels artists because of their activism, but seems to think silence and censorship is the right answer to genocide. While I am aware of the fact that the funding you receive within the system you inhabit must have made you forgetful of what art really is about, I still want to remind you that (fortunately for precarious writers like myself), you are not Literature. Your money is not Literature. S. Fischer is not Literature. Germany is not Literature. And we, the writers, will remember. Lana Bastašić
Apr 3, 2014
Sunday, April 6, 2014, 5 pm
Four Seasons Hotel (W. Georgia and Howe St.), Vancouver, B.C.
On April 6, 2014, the Jewish National Fund JNF Pacific Region is holding its annual “Negev Gala Dinner”. The JNF is publicly claiming to be enhancing the environment and aiding underprivileged youth, this year in conjunction with Canadian Friends of Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem (also built on stolen Palestinian land). Meanwhile, they are working to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian Bedouins from the Negev region, most recently under the infamous Prawer Plan. “The bill is another nakba,” MK Taleb Abu Arar said, talking about the Prawer Plan and referring to the events of 1948 when Israel was established. “It’s based on hatred and racism.”
The Bedouin village of Al Araqib in the Negev has been destroyed 62 times by Israeli and JNF paramilitary forces (as of Nov, 2013), but the Palestinians of the village refuse to surrender, many of them returning time and time again to rebuild. March 30th is also Palestinian Land Day and the villagers of Al Araqib are a moving example of the Palestinians’ enduring attachment to their land.
More info at: Stop the JNF
Please join our Facebook event
Download Poster and/or Handout
Organized by: Canada Palestine Association
Endorsed by: Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign (Vancouver), Canadian Boat to Gaza, Independent Jewish Voices, Vancouver
Apr 3, 2014
Where: Tatoo Rock Parlour — 567 Queen Street West (link to map), TORONTO
When: Thursday 3 April from 6:30 – 8 PM
This Thursday, the Jewish National Fund (JNF) is having a fundraiser for an 8 KM hiking and biking trail in Canada Park “in honour of all IDF soldiers who have been held in captivity.” Canada Park is built on the ruins of Imwas, Yalu, and Beit Nuba which were located in the West Bank and destroyed after the 1967 war.
We will be standing outside the Tatoo Rock Parlour, where the event is being held, to give the other story: according to Addameer, the Prison Support and Human Rights Association, as of January of this year (2014), there are 5,023 Palestinian prisoners, including 17 women, 155 held in administrative detention, and 154 children (14 under the age of 16*). According to the UN estimates, over 750,000 Palestinians have gone through the Israeli prison system since 1967.**
We will be honouring Palestinian prisoners and remembering Imwas, Yalu, and Beit Nuba, whose ruins are still visible in Ayalon/Canada Park.
Brought to you by Stop the JNF, Canada and Independent Jewish Voices (IJV), Toronto
stopthejnf.org and ijvcanada.org
Please sign IJV’s petition asking for the revocation of the JNF’s charitable status here.
See the joint Stop the JNF/IJV postcard to the Minister of National Revenue, Kerri Lynne Findley, asking her to revoke the JNF’s charitable status in Canada here, where you can either download for printing or email Stop the JNF, Canada or IJV for postcards.
* http://www.addameer.org/etemplate.php?id=662
** www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp/story.asp?NewsID=41901&Cr=Palestin&Cr1=#.Uzj4xIVsx4s
Jun 10, 2013
“The JNF is not welcome on West Coast native land,” said Cynthia Taha of the Wet’suwet’en nation on Sunday, June 9, as Palestinians and their allies in Vancouver protested across the street from Schara Tzadek synagogue, where the Jewish National Fund was holding its annual gala; this year, the banquet honoured the Israeli military, featuring guest speaker Brigadier General Avigdor Kahalani and the “IDF Chorus” as entertainment.
The Canada Palestine Association protests the gala annually. The Jewish National Fund is the subject of a Palestinian and international campaign to expose its activities, its deep connections to Israeli apartheid and racism, and challenge its tax-deductible, charitable status in Europe, Canada, the US and other countries.
In Canada, Yves Engler, Ron Saba and others have documented the Canada Revenue Agency’s continuing protection of the JNF’s charitable status and tax-deductibility, despite challenges from advocates for Palestinian rights.
The JNF is one of the founding institutions of the State of Israel – as Stop the JNF notes, “at the forefront of the colonial project of establishing a Jewish homeland in Palestine.” The JNF directly owns 13% of the lands in Israel, and appoints 6 of 13 members of the Israel Lands Authority, which governs 93% of all land within the “green line” or 1948 armistice line. These lands are forbidden from being transferred to non-Jews. As Engler describes,
Shutting out Israeli Arabs, JNF lands can only be leased by Jews. A 1998 United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights found that the JNF systematically discriminated against Arab Israelis. According to the UN report, JNF lands are “chartered to benefit Jews exclusively,” which has led to an “institutionalized form of discrimination.”…JNF Canada officials are relatively open about the discriminatory character of the organization. In May 2002, JNF Canada’s executive director for eastern Canada, Mark Mendelson, explained: “We are trustees between world Jewry and the land of Israel.”
Among other projects, the JNF is responsible for building “Canada Park,” while enjoying exemption from Canadian taxation. This park was built on the ruins of three Palestinian villages, Beit Nuba, Imwas and Yalu, occupied, bulldozed and demolished in 1967, and bears the name of Canada Park to this day.
The Vancouver protest began with an introduction by Taha, who said that what Palestinians are facing today is the same thing that the native peoples of this land have faced for hundreds of years, expressing her solidarity with the Palestinian struggle. Hanna Kawas of the Canada Palestine Association discussed the connection between settler colonialism in Canada and Palestine and highlighted the expressed support of Canadian officials such as John Baird, Foreign Affairs Minister, for the JNF and the Israeli state.
Khaled Barakat of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network said that “Israel and peace don’t go together. Zionism and peace don’t go together,” calling for Israeli officials to be tried for war crimes against the Palestinian people.
Other speakers included Martha Roth of Independent Jewish Voices – Vancouver, Nino Pagliccia of Gaza’s Ark and Charlotte Kates of the Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign. The protest began with a “people’s gala” of stuffed grape leaves, manakeesh, and bannock, combining Palestinian and Indigenous foods, as protesters carried Palestinian flags, a large banner emblazoned with “The Jewish National Fund is a Racist Organization” and signs highlighting the JNF’s complicity in Israeli Apartheid.
Chants of “Stop the JNF! Stop funding racism!” and “Israeli Apartheid – No! Right of Return – Yes!” were heard loud and clear as the affluent JNF supporters arrived at the banquet, guided by valets and private security and overseen by Vancouver police. Gala attendees yelled at and raised their middle fingers toward protesters as they entered the event.
The protest was sponsored by the Canada Palestine Association and endorsed by the Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign, Gaza\’s Ark, Independent Jewish Voices – Vancouver and Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights – UBC.
Mar 13, 2013
Jonah Aline Daniel, of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network and Stop the JNF Campaign, is excited to share photos, video and stories from the January 2013 Plant-a-Tree In Palestine Delegation on a 9-city organizing tour in the U.S. and Canada this spring.
The goal of the tour is to build the momentum of the Stop the JNF Campaign.
Tour events will include photo and video documentation of the role of the Jewish National Fund in the historic and ongoing colonization of Palestine and strategic conversations about exposing and delegitimizing the JNF.
To be connected with the tour or invite the tour to your city, please be in touch with Jonah: jonahalinedaniel@gmail.com.
Report Back Tour – Dates are approximate:
Minneapolis
Thursday April 4th, 6:30 pm
Cafe SouthSide
3405 Chicago Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55407
Chicago April 5-12
Monday April 8th 6:30 PM
Grace Place
637 South Dearborn Street
Chicago, Illinois, 60605
Detroit April April 13-14
Western Mass (University not chosen) April 19-24
Boston April 19-24
NYC April 24-26
Philladelphia April 27-May 2
Baltimore May 2-6
Washington, D.C. May 2-6
Nov 12, 2011
report by USACBI
12 November 2011
Original article at USACBI
Students Against Israeli Apartheid at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada led a protest at Carleton University on November 7, 2011 against the University’s official sponsorship of a fundraising dinner for the Jewish National Fund, including Carleton’s president, Roseann Runte, serving as honourary co-chair of the dinner.
The students pointed to the JNF’s major role in the Palestinian Nakba in 1948, and its ongoing involvement in ethnic cleansing in Palestine. The JNF, owner of 13% of the land in the State of Israel, officially refuses to rent, lease, or sell its land to non-Jews – most centrally, in this case, Palestinians, including Palestinian citizens of Israel. The JNF has been involved in ongoing ‘settlement’ activities to displace Palestinian villages and towns inside Israel, as well as its notorious tree-planting campaigns, which installed thousands of non-native, European and North American trees such as pine trees over large swaths of land, covering and hiding Palestinian villages destroyed by Israeli military forces in the Nakba. The students particularly targeted Canada Park, a JNF-implanted forest installed over the ruins of two Palestinian villages destroyed by the Israeli army in the 1967 war, to which JNF Canada committed millions of tax-exempt dollars.
Runte, who has in the past stated that she cannot “take sides” on political issues, continued to maintain that her participation as an official co-chair and endorser of the JNF dinner was somehow an apolitical event. At the same time that the University’s administration is listed as a sponsor of the Jewish National Fund, and its ethnic cleansing projects in Palestine, it simultaneously has prevented students from bringing their divestment campaign to the Carleton University governing board and threatened students with punishment if they disrupt the meeting to make their silenced voices heard. Carleton has also, in the past, prohibited the distribution of a poster advertising Israeli apartheid week, deeming it offensive. The poster, linked here, includes a widely distributed cartoon depicting Israel’s war on Gaza, for which the University’s administration saw fit to accuse students of violating human rights codes.
Runte refused to remove her name, or the university’s official sponsorship, from the JNF dinner, but the students’ protest has made it clear that Carleton’s students do not stand – or dine – with apartheid.
For more information:
– Carleton University Students Taking Sides on Israeli Apartheid
– Students Against Israeli Apartheid – Carleton
