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  • THE PSG SUMMER DELEGATION TO PALESTINE STILL NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT – HELP DONATE SO CHICAGO ACTIVISTS CAN WORK WITH PALESTINIAN ORGANIZATIONS TO DEVELOP BDS AND POLITICAL PRISONER CAMPAIGNS HERE IN THE U.S. Use the “Donate” button on this page and designate for the “Palestine Delegation”. All housing, food, and transportation dollars go to support Palestinian families and Palestinian owned businesses.
  • August 23: Join PSG when we protest Israel’s inclusion in the
    Chicago Sister Cities International Festival!

8/23/10 – Chicagoan Arrested Calling for Boycott of Israel’s Guantanamo

Chicagoan arrested calling for boycott of Israel’s Guantanamo
PSG Drop Petach Tikva Protest Video

Chicago police at downtown Millennium Park today arrested an activist who was exercising his free speech rights during a protest organized by the Palestine Solidarity Group-Chicago. At the Chicago Sister Cities’ annual International Festival, more than 30 activists protested Israel’s inclusion in the program and called for the cutting of Chicago ties with Israeli apartheid.
The activist was arrested while the protest was concluding outside of the International Festival tent. The protesters were on their way out when the police began shoving the activists and grabbed the young Arab male protester and placed him under arrest (he remains in detention at the time of this release).
Minutes earlier, after picketing and chanting outside of the tent, activists brought the message into the venue. Protesters chanted in the tent for a few minutes to make the message clear: “Drop Petach Tikva!”, Chicago’s sister city in Israel. The pianist who was performing in the hall at the time stood at attention out of respect once he heard the protesters’ message.
The PSG and allies were compelled to bring the message directly into the festival because for the last year and a half, the Chicago Sister Cities International has refused to meet with PSG and members of the community to hear about Petach Tikva’s special role in Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people.
Petach Tikva — an officially segregated city, the first Jewish-only settlement in historic Palestine and the site of the primary detention center where Israeli forces abuse and torture Palestinian political prisoners — has been dubbed by rights group Amnesty International as “Israel’s Guantanamo.”
Upholding the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions measures on apartheid Israel, PSG and its allies object to business-as-usual with Israel. Under the false premise of promoting culture and education, Petach Tikva’s inclusion in Chicago Sister Cities promotes Israel-US business ties while it whitewashes Israel’s occupation and human rights abuses.
Anel Montes, a manager with the Chicago Sister Cities, reiterated the program’s refusal to take a principled stance or meet with activists, using the false language of “neutrality.” However, Chicago Sister Cities has made its stance clear by maintaining its relationship with Petach Tikva, whose committee members belong to organizations that have played a role in the dispossession of the Palestinian people and are committed to promoting US aid to apartheid Israel.
PSG and allies can claim a victory. Petach Tikva was not visible at today’s festival as war-profiteering corporations Motorola and Boeing — the main sponsors of the Chicago Sister Cities International — don’t want protesters raining on their public relations parade. PSG and its allies will keep up the pressure until Chicago Sister Cities drops Israel’s Guantanamo.
Call in this week to protest Chicago’s business-as-usual with Israel and demand that Petach Tikva be dropped from the Chicago Sister Cities International Program! Contact Leroy Allala – Sister City Program Executive Director (leroy.allala@cityofchicago.org, 312.744.8074) and demand an end to the Sister City partnership between Chicago and Petach Tikva!

August 23 – 11:00AM Protest Israel’s participation in the Chicago Sister City International Festival!

Join the Palestine Solidarity Group-Chicago to say NO CHICAGO TIES WITH ISRAEL!

WHEN: Monday August 23rd at 11:00am

WHERE: Millennium Park, corner of Michigan and Monroe

Protest Israel’s participation in the Chicago Sister City
International Festival!

On Monday August 23rd, the city of Petach Tikva in Israel will be
officially represented at the Chicago Sister City International
Festival in Millennium Park.

The Palestine Solidarity Group-Chicago demands an end to the Chicago
Sister Cities International (CSCI) program’s relationship between
Chicago and Petach Tikva. Petach Tikva’s inclusion in the CSCI
promotes Israel-US business ties while it whitewashes Israel’s
occupation and human rights abuses. Indeed, the chairperson of the
Petach Tikva committee of the CSCI is also an executive of the America
Israel Business Chamber of Commerce, so it’s clear what this Sister
City relationship is really about.

After remaining silent for more than one year, the board of the CSCI,
responding to PSG’s persistent protests, finally responded with a
letter dated 20 July in which they renew their refusal to meet with us
to learn about Petach Tikva’s role in the continued dispossession of
the Palestinian people and Israel’s repression of their struggle for
self-determination. We will keep our call to drop Petach Tikva and end
business-as-usual loud and clear and on August 23, we will remind the
CSCI that apartheid Israel has no business participating in the
International Festival at Millennium Park.

About Petach Tikva:

The first Jewish-only settlement in historic Palestine, and known in
Israel as the “mother of all settlements,” Petach Tikva symbolizes the
dispossession and colonization of the Palestinian homeland. Petach
Tikva is built on the remains of depopulated Palestinian villages
whose descendents are denied the right to return home. Petach Tikva is
also home to one of the largest interrogation and detention centers in
Israel, where Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip
are illegally transferred and routinely subjected to ill treatment and
torture.

Palestinian civil society leader in Israel, and an advocate of the
Palestinian boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, Ameer
Makhoul is the latest Palestinian grassroots leader to be detained and
tortured at Petach Tikva. Amnesty International has declared Makhoul a
prisoner of conscience as Israel tries to make an example of him and
try him on trumped up charges of espionage using “evidence” it
gathered through his torture at Petach Tikva.

About boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS):

Heeding the Palestinian call for BDS, the Palestine Solidarity
Group-Chicago rejects an official relationship between the City of
Chicago and the Municipality of Petach Tikva in Israel

We join the Palestinian call BDS on Israel; We demand that Israel ends
its occupation of Palestinian lands; We support self-determination for
the Palestinian people; and demand the Right of Return for all
Palestinian refugees and their descendants.

Take action:

Protest Chicago’s business-as-usual with Israel and demand that Petach
Tikva be dropped from the Chicago Sister Cities International Program!
Contact Leroy Allala – Sister City Program Executive Director
(leroy.allala@cityofchicago.org, 312.744.1372) and demand an end to
the Sister City partnership between Chicago and Petach Tikva!

Palestine Solidarity Group Chicago, www.psgchicago.org,
info.psg.chicago@gmaill.com

Endorsers: Palestine Solidarity Group-Chicago, USPCN, 8th Day Center
for Justice, Jewish Voices for Peace, Chicagoans against Apartheid in
Palestine, Chicago Coalition against War and Racism, Students for
Justice in Palestine – DePaul, Students for Justice in Palestine -
IIT.

JULY 14: CALL AND WRITE the Chicago Sister Cities International to say:

JULY 14: CALL AND WRITE the Chicago Sister Cities International to say:
Drop Petach Tikva, Israel from Chicago Sister Cities!
No Israel participation in Chicago Sister Cities International Festival!
TAKE ACTION: contact Leroy Allala – Sister City Program Executive Director (leroy.allala@cityofchicago.org, 312.744.1372) and demand an end to the Sister City partnership between Chicago and Petach Tikva!
Join the Palestine Solidarity Group-Chicago (PSG) in calling the Chicago Sister Cities International (CSCI) to demand that they respond to our campaign by scheduling a meeting with us, and to say that Israel has no place at the Chicago Sister Cities International Festival, to be held in Chicago’s Millennium Park August 23-27. PSG and their allies and supporters have been calling for a meeting with the CSCI for more than a year and its director, Leroy Allala, refuses to hear about Petach Tikva’s role in the occupation of Palestinian lands and the historic dispossession and how a sister city relationship with the town whitewashes these human rights abuses.
We reject an official relationship between the City of Chicago and the Municipality of Petach Tikva in Israel. Under the guise of promoting cultural and education ties, and under the false premise of a people-to-people program, Petach Tikva’s inclusion in the CSCI promotes Israel-US business ties and the image of war-profiteering companies like Motorola and Boeing, whose executives are on the board of the CSCI.
Petach Tikva is the first Jewish-only settlement in historic Palestine, partly built on the ruins of the Palestinian village of Mlabbes, depopulated and destroyed in 1948. An officially segregated city, Petach Tikva is also the site of a major detention center where Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip are illegally transferred for interrogation, which often involves torture. Arrest and detention has been a primary means Israel has employed in its attempt to suppress the Palestinian movement for self-determination.
Ameer Makhoul, a civil society leader and Israeli citizen, is the latest Palestinian grassroots activist to be held and tortured at Petach Tikva. It is bitterly ironic that the chairperson of the CSCI’s Petach Tikva program, Daniel B. Shure, is also president of the America Israel Business Chamber of Commerce, which earlier this year advertised a “Fight Back Against the Boycott” to undermine the movement grassroots Palestinian activists like Ameer Makhoul have been arrested and persecuted for leading.
At a national meeting earlier this year, Jewish United Fund – one of the racist Israeli government’s main champions in the US – identified the threat posed to Israel’s “legitimacy” by our campaign. Join our campaign and directly challenge Israel’s supporters in Chicago, and demand real policy change! Our campaign has been endorsed by pro-justice and community organizations such as the Chicagoans Against Apartheid in Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace-Chicago, Chicago Coalition Against War and Racism, and the US Palestinian Communities Network.
Please email maureenclare@gmail.com to let us know the Chicago Sister Cities International’s response!
http://psgchicago.org/
Follow us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Palestine-Solidarity-Group-Chicago/306556370889?ref=ts

July 9 – INTERNATIONAL ISRAEL BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT AND SANCTIONS DAY OF ACTION!

FREE AMEER MAKHOUL, TORTURED AT PETACH TIVKA!
ISRAEL’S GUANTANAMO IS NO SISTER OF CHICAGO!
NO CHICAGO TIES WITH ISRAEL!


Friday July 9
4:00 – 5:30PM

Chicago Cultural Center

78 E. Washington

The Palestine Solidarity Group-Chicago (PSG) will join Palestine solidarity activists around the world on this international day of action to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the historic Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel until it ends the occupation, respets the right of return of Palestine refugees, and respects the rights of Palestinian citizens in Israel. We will renew our calls on the Chicago Sister Cities International, whose offices are located at the Chicago Cultural Center, to drop Petach Tikva, Israel from the Chicago Sister Cities International (CSCI) program and call on Israel to release political prisoner Ameer Makoul, tortured at Petach Tikva.

We reject an official relationship between the City of Chicago and the Municipality of Petach Tikva in Israel. Under the guise of promoting cultural and education ties, and under the false premise of a people-to-people program, Petach Tikva’s inclusion in the CSCI promotes Israel-US business ties while it simultaneously whitewashes Israel’s occupation and human rights abuses.

Ameer Makhoul (pictured) is the latest Palestinian grassroots activist to be held and tortured at Petach Tikva. It is bitterly ironic that the chairperson of the CSCI’s Petach Tikva program is also president of the America Israel Business Chamber of Commerce, which earlier this year advertised a “Fight Back Against the Boycott” to undermine the movement grassroots Palestinian activists like Ameer Makhoul have been arrested and persecuted for leading.

At a national meeting earlier this year, Jewish United Fund – one of the racist Israeli government’s main champions in the US – identified the threat posed to Israel’s “legitimacy” by our campaign. Join our campaign and directly challenge Israel’s supporters in Chicago, and demand real policy change!

TAKE ACTION: contact Leroy Allala – Sister City Program Executive Director (leroy.allala@cityofchicago.org, 312.744.1372) and demand an end to the Sister City partnership between Chicago and Petach Tikva!