42 Years and Counting...

42 Years and Counting... June 10th, 2009 Send as a gift for my $42 donation: Occupation 101 Occupied Voices Two years ago today, the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation held an historic protest on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol to mark 40 years of Israel's illegal military occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip. On the 42nd anniversary of this occupation, we find ourselves closer than ever to our goal of changing U.S. policy toward Israel/Palestine to support human rights, international law, and equality, while realizing that we still have a lot of work to do to get us to that goal. You can help us reach our goal by making a tax-deductible contribution of $42 (that's $1 for each year of occupation) right now. As a thank you, we'll send you your choice of a copy of the award-winning documentary Occupation 101, a film by Sufyan and Abdallah Omeish, or Occupied Voices: Stories of Everyday Life from the Second Intifada, a book by Wendy Pearlman. Why You Should Support the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation Just look at some of what we've done over the past six months… A Palestinian boy injured during Israel's attacks on Gaza.  Photo credit: Samah Habeeb. Make a tax-deductible contribution of $42 today so that we can continue to mobilize in emergency situations and continue to advocate for an end to Israel's siege of Gaza.   Send as a gift for my $42 donation Occupation 101 Occupied Voices Responding to Israel's attacks on Gaza. Within hours of Israel's attacks on the occupied Gaza Strip in December and January, which killed more than 1,300 Palestinians and injured thousands more, we began to mobilize our supporters with action alerts, fact sheets, organizing resources, and a protest calendar to help catalyze an unprecedented response in the United States against Israel's human rights abuses against Palestinians. Our website served as an organizing center where organizers posted details for more than 300 protests. Through emails, phone calls, media action, and street protests, we helped to generate enough political pressure to help convince the Bush Administration not to veto a UN resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire and an end to Israel's siege of Gaza. Engaging the Obama Administration. Since December, we've distributed more than 100,000 postcards to organizers around the country addressed to President Obama calling on him to end U.S. military aid to Israel. We also published an open letter to President Obama, signed by more than 500 organizations, in the commemorative inaugural edition of Congressional Quarterly, calling upon his Administration to adopt a fundamental change in Israel/Palestine policy. We have also issued a steady stream of action alerts and policy analyses both critical of the President's request for $2.775 billion in military aid to Israel in his FY2010 budget request, and supportive of his insistent calls for Israel to end settlement construction. Make a tax-deductible contribution of $42 today so that we can continue to critically engage the Obama Administration to bring about real policy change.    Send as a gift for my $42 donation Occupation 101 Occupied Voices Make a tax-deductible contribution of $42 so that we can continue to pressure corporations to stop profiting from Israel's human rights abuses of Palestinians.  Send as a gift for my $42 donation Occupation 101 Occupied Voices Strengthening Campaigns of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS). International campaigns of BDS against corporations profiting from Israeli human rights abuses of Palestinians are starting to take effect, from Hampshire College divesting from Israeli occupation, to the Church of England divesting from Caterpillar, to Veolia pulling out of the Jerusalem light rail project. Over the past six months, we've stepped up our corporate BDS campaigns against Motorola and Caterpillar by sending hundreds of BDS organizing packets around the country, by organizing BDS days of action during Israeli Apartheid Week and Rachel Corrie Day, and during these corporations' annual shareholder meetings. In fact, today we're in Chicago working with allies on the ground to organize a protest at Caterpillar's shareholder meeting. Making Our Voices Heard. Over the last six months, we've greatly expanded our ability to get our perspective into the mainstream media. Our staff and members of our Steering Committee and Advisory Board have been featured in the following media: The New York Times, NBC News, The Detroit Free Press, Al-Jazeera, Democracy Now!, The Black Commentator, Radio Islam, Arab American News, The Jewish Telegraphic Agency, and many more. We've also paid for advertisements seen by millions of people in The Chicago Tribune, The Chicago Sun-Times, Congressional Quarterly, and dozens of blogs. Speaking of blogs, we've also recently created our own blog featuring unique content, and also expanded our new media presence on Facebook, Twitter, and You Tube. Make a tax-deductible contribution of $42 so that we can continue to bring our message to millions of people through the media by clicking here. Make a tax-deductible contribution of $42 so that we can continue to expand our coalition. Send as a gift for my $42 donation Occupation 101 Occupied Voices Growing and Strengthening Our Coalition. Since December, we've increased the size of our coalition from 250 to 285 member groups and doubled the size of our mailing list to solidify the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation as the premier national coalition working to change U.S. policy toward Palestine/Israel to support human rights, international law, and equality. In March, we held a held a series of six regional meetings during which our member groups met by region to evaluate accomplishments, strategize, and form plans for upcoming work. We've done all of this and a whole lot more in the last six months with a staff of just four people and a yearly operating budget of only $250,000. And we've got exciting plans for the next few months, including: * Holding our 8th Annual National Organizers' Conference in Chicago in September * Conducting a fall campus organizing tour to promote campaigns of boycott, divestment, and sanctions * Challenging military aid to Israel throughout the upcoming budget cycle and much, much more. But, to be honest, we can't continue to do this work without your support. Please make your generous tax-deductible contribution of $42 to us today by clicking here. Or, if you'd like to donate a different amount, please click here.   Thank you so much for your support and here's to hoping that there won't be a 43rd anniversary of Israel's illegal military occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip.

US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation

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