Protesters Say: No Cultural Figleaf for Israeli Apartheid!
Posted on April 29th, 2010
April 27 – Activists from the Palestine Solidarity Group-Chicago and Jewish Voice for Peace with other supporters protested an event at the Chicago Cultural Center entitled “Encountering Israeli Literature,” put on by the Petach Tikva program of Chicago Sister Cities in partnership with the Consulate General of Israel to the Midwest.
Outside the cultural center, activists distributed to passersby campaign flyers outlining the PSG’s support of the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions and its objection to the use of cultural activities sponsored by Israeli government and quasi-governmental organizations as a means to whitewash Israel’s apartheid policies and war crimes against the Palestinians.
The activists then took their message directly to the Chicago Sister Cities International. With a security guard blocking the elevator, the demonstrators poured into the event and demanded that the Chicago Sister Cities International respond to PSG’s repeated requests for a meeting with the director of the program.
Attendees shouted at the demonstrators to get out, stating that “this is only about books, not politics.” The activists left only after giving a copy of their demands to Daniel B. Shure, the chairman of the Petach Tikva Committee (who is also head of the America-Israel Chamber of Commerce-Chicago) . The activists reminded him that they have yet to receive a written response to their demand that Chicago drop Petach Tikva from the program. This reminder was also given to Leroy Ayalla, the director of the Chicago Sister Cities International program, who the activists caught trying to slip out of the Sister Cities office.
The PSG rejects the use of cultural and educational programming to put a fig leaf on Israel’s violations of Palestinian rights. Staff of the Chicago Sister Cities International and those on the committee of the Petach Tikva program are closely tied to the America-Israel Chamber of Commerce, showing that instead of being a people-to-people program, the Petach Tikva program is designed to strengthen business ties between Chicago and Israel. Petach Tikva program events are held in partnership with Israeli governmental and quasi-governmental organizations, and serve to whitewash Israel’s illegal occupation, its massacring of Palestinian civilians and ongoing denial of the Palestinian refugees‘ right of return.
This protest is part of the PSG’s ongoing campaign calling on the Chicago Sister Cities International to drop the Israeli city of Petach Tikva from its program. Petach Tikva, an officially segregated city, is the first Jewish-only colony in historic Palestine and is the site of a Guantanamo-style detention center where Palestinians illegally transferred from the West Bank and Gaza Strip are routinely tortured.
