At Israeli government’s “70th Anniversary of Israel” celebration, participants will say 70 years of ethnic cleansing, from expulsion of 800,000 in 1948 to protesters killed in Gaza last week, is nothing to celebrate
CHICAGO—(ENEWSPF)—April 17, 2018
Contact: Michael Deheeger
Last week, Islam Hirzallah became the 32nd Palestinian protester to be killed by Israeli snipers in Gaza while participating in the historic, ongoing #GreatReturnMarch. On Wednesday, April 18, a “Celebrate Israel at 70” event has been planned at the Harris Theater by the Israeli Consulate to the Midwest and the Jewish United Fund. Jewish Voice for Peace members will gather outside this event to demand an end to Israel’s targeting of Palestinian protesters in Gaza and mark 70 years since the Nakba (“Catastrophe” in Arabic), the forced displacement of approximately 750,000 Palestinians that began with Israel’s establishment in 1948.
“We believe a very simple idea: Palestinians should be free,” says Scout Bratt of Jewish Voice for Peace. “The Israeli military’s ongoing killing of protesters in Gaza is only the most recent instance of an 70 year process of dispossession since 1948.”
Logistics for April 18th Event
- 6:00 pm: Participants gather at Wrigley Square, just southeast of corner of Randolph and Michigan
- 6:20 pm: Participants will leave Wrigley Square to head, single file, to line up in front of Harris Theater, 205 East Randolph
- 6:30 (approximately) – 7:30: Participants will leave the Harris Theater and walk to Millennium Park, 205 E. Randolph St. in Chicago
Event participants will read the names of every village destroyed in 1948, as well as each of the names of Palestinian protesters killed in Gaza over the past three weeks and hear testimony from Palestinian Chicagoans about their personal and family stories of expulsion and exile.
Background
On Friday, March 30th, an estimated 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza launched the #GreatReturnMarch. Organized by a cross section of civil society, grassroots activists, and political factions, this effort highlights the impact of Israel’s brutal military blockade and re-centers the issue of Palestinian refugees’ right to return to the homes from which they, or their parents and grandparents, were expelled in 1948.
The Israeli military responded with a brutal show of force – snipers opened fire with live ammunition in acts that Human Rights Watch denounced as “unlawful” and “calculated”. Amnesty International has condemned the Israeli military’s use of “excessive force” and assigned clear responsibility to Israeli authorities.
Israel’s government has made clear that it fully supports these deliberate killings. Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman has stated: “There are no innocents in Gaza.” The day after the killing of the first 15 Palestinian protesters on March 30, the Israeli military posted, then promptly deleted, the following tweet: “Yesterday we saw 30,000 people; we arrived prepared and with precise reinforcements. Nothing was carried out uncontrolled; everything was accurate and measured, and we know where every bullet landed.”
As of April 15th, at least 32 Palestinians have been killed and more than 1,400 have been injured, including children and clearly-identified members of the press.
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JVP-Chicago is the local branch of Jewish Voice for Peace (www.jvp.org), a national, grassroots organization inspired by Jewish tradition to work for a just and lasting peace according to principles of human rights, equality, and international law for all the people of Israel and Palestine. Jewish Voice for Peace has over 200,000 online supporters, over 60 chapters, a youth wing, a Rabbinic Council, an Artist Council, an Academic Advisory Council, and an Advisory Board made up of leading U.S. intellectuals and artists.
Source: www.jvp.org
