 started. Yeah, I'm Marcie Winnigrad, coordinator of Code Paying Congress. So thrilled to be with you today and to be with our guests. We're going to talk about the agenda in a minute, but welcome to Palestine and the Nakba 75 years later, and we're still confronting it. We'll talk about that. We have three terrific guests tonight, Awadah Arash, who started the International Solidarity Movement. We have Tahir, Tahir Herzallah, who is with the American Muslims for Palestine. And we have Nora Khoury, who's with the Al Awadah Right to Return Coalition. We are going to hear from all three speakers. We'll have a Q&A. We have some petitions to sign. We also will be on the phone calling the Capitol and saying, we want you, our representatives in the house, to co-sponsor Betty McCombsville, to condition aid to Israel to say, hey, we're not going to agree to fund the imprisonment and torture of Palestinian children. Stop, enough. All right. Before we do all that, however, let's go to Medea for a few news, news updates. Medea. Yes, I wanted to update a bit about some of the work we've been doing about re-Ukraine. We had a meeting at the Chinese Embassy with Helena Koban from just education, and we went there to thank them for their work to try to promote a peace process in Ukraine. We are also reaching out and meeting with the Brazilian Embassy to thank President Lula for his efforts at peace, and we are reaching out to the Vatican as well and reactivating that list of 1500 faith-based leaders who before the holidays at the end of last year had called for a truce. We're now going to reach out to them and others to support the Pope's efforts at mediation. So as soon as we have that ready, we'll be sending it out to you and hope you will help us get more and more faith-based leaders to join in with the call that the Pope is doing God's work when he is trying to end the war in Ukraine. Thank you. Thank you, Medea. Maybe you'll share a little bit with us about what happened on the Hill today. I hear you were busy. Well, there were two hearings on the Hill today related to some of the work that we do. One was about Russia and the future of U.S.-Russia relations, and the other one was about China, and the one on China was with the Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, and the Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin. Both, as you can imagine, were hawkish talking about how China really wants to control the world. We don't. They do. And in the case of Russia, why isn't that the sanctions haven't worked? And why is it that so many countries, especially in the global south, don't want to join with the U.S. in this war? And they were kind of baffled about that instead of talking about it as in part a proxy war that much of the world doesn't want to get involved in. And one of the things we did was hand out the ad that I think, Marcy, you will talk about. Yes. So there was a terrific ad in The New York Times today. It was a full-page ad. It was a letter that called for diplomacy and a ceasefire in Ukraine. And I will share it with the CodePin Google group after the call. So if you're not in our Google group, please do join. How do you join? Maha can put a link in the chat or you can just email Maha at CodePink.org or you can email me, Marcy, M-A-R-C-Y at CodePink.org. Anyway, I will send out a copy of that ad, a PDF. It was terrific. It really explains all of the events, the NATO expansion, the U.S. Baku in Ukraine, the undermining of the Peace Accord, all of this in a full-page ad in The New York Times with some prominent names, including Ann Wright, who's with CodePink, signing on to this call for peace and diplomacy. Now, this ad is the first ad. There will be another ad, and that we are planning for May 24th. That's an ad that the Peace and Ukraine Coalition, which CodePink launched and represents over 100 organizations, has been raising money for and sending bar and wide. And this petition will be another full-page ad. However, this one will be in a widely read newspaper on Capitol Hill. And we are asking you to help us deliver a copy and mock-up of this ad on May 24th. That's a Wednesday to your House reps, your Senate reps, if you're in the city with the State Department office, a Ukrainian or Russian embassy. We want to share this ad with as many stakeholders as possible. So, again, if you're interested in being part of that volunteer effort, email me, Marci, at codepink.org. And also, if you're interested in our Peace and Ukraine Coalition, visit the website. Wonderful resources there. Peace in Ukraine.org. And you can sign up right there on the website. A few headlines I'd like to read. These are from antiwar.com. Let's give credit where credit is due. Poland to deploy Hemar's rockets near the Russian border. Zelensky visits UK to ask for more weapons. Politico reports that the United States is almost done exhausting its budget for Ukraine. About $6 billion left. That should run out this summer. And finally, the U.S. terror war has contributed to 4.5 million deaths. That's all at antiwar.com today. Okay, we're going to get into our program now. I mentioned our speakers. Nora Corey sent me this video about three minutes background on the NACA. So we're going to start with that. In commemoration, for all of those 750,000 to a million people expelled from Palestine, their homeland, with the establishment of the State of Israel. So, Maha, please do us the honors and play that video. Thank you. Thank you, Maha, for playing that. Thank you, Nora Corey, for boarding that video. And we'll put the link in the chat. And perhaps you'll want to share it with others, too. All right. We're going to start with our program. Medea will introduce the first guest. Yes. And remember, you can introduce yourselves in the chat and you can put your questions in starting from now. Questions for our guests. So our first speaker is a dear friend of mine, old friend, who is a Palestinian-American activist, Huayda Rauf. She is also a civil rights attorney and co-founded a fantastic organization called the International Solidarity Movement, a Palestinian-led organization that use nonviolent protests and nonviolent actions and international pressure to support Palestinians. She also recently had a wonderful run for Congress, in which I'm sure this issue of Palestine came up time and time again. And most recently, she has been the target of vicious lies after speaking in March about anti-Palestinian racism at an event on diversity and equity in a Detroit high school. Her appearance sparked such controversy that I think, Huayda, and correct me if I'm wrong, it led to the school principal as well as the district superintendent resigning. In any case, we are delighted to have you with us. Thank you so much for all your wonderful work on this issue. And please, the floor is yours. Thank you so much. Good evening, everyone. Thank you, Medea, for all the work that you do. You and everyone else at Code Pink. I love you guys. I hope you know that. Thank you all for being here tonight. As we saw in the video and was announced, you know, Palestinians just commemorated 75 years of the nekba. And it's a nekba that's not just a moment in time. It is a catastrophe that is ongoing. And what we have been seeing and what was highlighted in these few days specifically around the nekba is how pervasive this attempt to silence Palestinian voices is. The silencing of Palestinian voices, the attempted erasure of the Palestinian narrative. It's been long running and it is pervasive, but it hit the national stage recently. And some of you may have seen when a Palestinian Congresswoman Rashida Thlib had worked with organizations and was planning a commemoration event on Capitol Hill to uplift the voices of survivors of the nekba to mourn the loss of people, our loved ones, the land, and the ongoing catastrophe, the ongoing ethnic cleansing. What happened? Speaker Kevin McCarthy literally commandeered the event space the night before in order to cancel it and then announced on his social media that the nekba commemoration event was canceled. And then he proceeded to accuse Rashida of trafficking and anti-submitted tropes about Israel. Luckily, Bernie Sanders secured another room on the Senate side where Kevin McCarthy has no jurisdiction and the event went on. But this is the very ability of Palestinians to acknowledge, to commemorate, to talk about our history, what happened to us, to mourn, to criticize our occupiers, our oppressors, is at best shut down. At worst, we are vilified. We are accused of trafficking and anti-Semitism for doing that. And where does it come about? The nekba, I'm sure I probably don't have to tell anyone here, but three quarters of a million Palestinians were kicked out of their homes. There was a massive theft of our land and resources. They documented 70 massacres in which 15,000 Palestinians were killed and the destruction of over 500 villages. And again, that goes on today because the ethnic cleansing hasn't stopped. And yet, when we try to talk about it, if our, what we are saying, doesn't fit the Zionist narrative, it's wrong, it's hateful, it's anti-Semitic. And these accusations and these attempts to silence, they happen daily. They happen across the country and people who speak up on Palestinian rights, not only Palestinians, but those who work on Palestinian rights get falsely labeled and they're attacked and they suffer consequences. In my case, specifically, if for those who haven't heard, I was invited by a number of students at a local high school as part of an initiative started by students. A couple of years ago, in this high school, there was a string of racist events and so a group of students decided to plan a diversity, a diversity and equity event to alert other students or make people aware of the dangers of racism and discrimination. So it was a wonderful initiative. This is the second year out. I was invited to speak about my experiences as a Palestinian American confronting racism and discrimination. I specifically told the students that I could speak more about my experiences confronting racism and discrimination as it concerns my work campaigning for Palestinian rights and the work that I did in Palestine and they said that that was perfect. So I was one of five speakers and we each had seven minutes and we spoke to four different assemblies, one for each grade. I basically said that my parents came to this country when my mom was almost nine months pregnant with me because they wanted to start their family in a place where they could be sure that their kids would have a chance at freedom and opportunity, things that are denied to Palestinians. Whether Palestinians living inside Israel as second and third class Palestinian citizens or Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation in the West Bank and Gaza. They made their way here and I spoke a little bit about growing up here and how I grew up in a very homogenous community. I think my house and maybe one or two others in the whole city were like the only non-white houses and so I didn't grow up celebrating diversity. I just wanted to fit in. I didn't want to stand out and it was only much later that I came to realize how that belief of not wanting to share or being afraid of sharing my culture and my ethnicity, how it harmed not only me but also it did a disservice to my community who could learn from and benefit from what I have to share. But that came when I went to college and then I became a lot more proud of my heritage, decided to go over to Palestine to learn more about why my parents left all that they did and sacrificed for us to come to the United States and to see if I can contribute positively. This is what I told the students. I told them that I initially went over to work for a conflict resolution program that worked with students, bringing them together Jewish and Palestinian students to talk and to break down stereotypes in the hopes of creating a generation of future leaders that would create a better future and a better region that is not torn apart by hate. While that sounds nice, I was clear with the students that it's not enough and I quickly came to realize that this is not enough to just have a friend from the other side and to say that you engaged in dialogue here because if we're not actively confronting the systems of oppression that tear people apart, then we're not doing enough. And sometimes these programs that make it seem like this is the way to just talk and dialogue and not actually take concrete action to dismantle systems of racism and oppression. They can be counterproductive to a movement for liberation like the Palestinian movement. And so I left that organization to co-found the international solidarity movement and I stressed to the kids that the ISM called people all over the world to come stand with Palestinians. And it was heartening to realize that a lot of people that came to join us were Jewish, Jewish American, Jewish Europeans. I marched alongside Jewish Israelis because I wanted the kids also to understand that this is not a conflict of Jews versus Muslims and Christians or Jews versus Palestinians. It's not at all. It's freedom versus oppression and that way no matter where you come from, whatever your background is, if you believe in freedom you can come stand with the Palestinian struggle and I work with thousands upon thousands of people who did just that. Again, many of them being Jewish because I wanted those kids to understand that and to leave them with the final message that a lot of people and a lot of groups try to play on identity politics and use it to divide people. And when that is done it is we have terrible outcomes and consequences. So I urge the students to to avoid these kinds of identity politics that divide people and recognize that we are all human, we all deserve the same kinds of rights that we want for ourselves. And if we just remember to be kind, to be conscientious and to work towards that, towards an environment where everyone's rights can be respected, then I would be hopeful that those kids would do tremendous work in making this world a much kinder, gentler place. That was my message to those kids in the seven minutes that I had. But before the day was over, pandemonium erupted and organized Zionist communities issued press releases condemning the school for allowing me to speak to the kids, demanding that heads roll, that there are consequences, that people lose their jobs over this. And I was called horrific things from comparing me to the KKK, anti-Semitic, of course, a hateful person. Sadly, I'm used to these things in my over two decades of campaigning for Palestinian rights. But what horrified me was the speed and the degree to which the school system capitulated. The principal of the school, who was a wonderful man and privately, you know, we talked and he knows better, he issued an email to the community apologizing. And while he didn't name me, he claimed that I went off script and then apologized for any speech that attacked people based on their religion, which of course, I did not do, but it insinuated that I did. And the next day, because apparently these groups that were creating this uproar were not happy that his email to the community was, they said it wasn't specific enough, the superintendent sent out a much longer one naming me and specifically saying that I engaged in anti-Semitic rhetoric and the school has to do better and promising to take all kinds of steps to make sure that mistakes like this don't happen again. Now, they again were attacked by Zionists that seek to shut us down because they long ago lost the moral, legal and ethical debate. So, you know, if you can't defend, they can't defend an ideology of ethno-religious supremacy. And so they attempt not in any way to debate or discuss with us, but to silence us with these bogus accusations. Those accusations, I am accustomed to. But again, the speed and the extent to which the school system capitulated was as horrifying. And on top of that, the way the media covered the whole issue, because all of the local media was covering it and was covering it from the context or from the view of parents upset over anti-Semitic rhetoric shared in their school. Like these were the kinds of headlines. So, of course, I did not want to and those who know what's going on around, we did not want to give into this. And so I worked very closely with Jewish Voice for Peace Detroit. They put out a very strong statement. And then we organized a town hall in that same city, which was very well attended. And we discussed a lot of these issues about how these bogus accusations are thrown around and how we have to reject that and actually speak more, not less about what's happening in Palestine. So that we have to recognize these efforts to silence Palestinians. We have to reject them. And we have to, again, unite. Because of what's happening, what's happening in Palestine is a crime against humanity. And therefore, we all have to unite to bring it to an end. And that requires, again, speaking more, not less. So it's not done where we're fighting back. It's not done. I think some of you probably signed the statement that JVP Detroit put out. If not, I'll put it in a, I'll put the link in the chat if you want to sign and share it. We're doing what we can with that and hopefully more news to come of what more we can do with this school system. But we felt that speaking out was very important because this is done again across the country. And some people don't have the resources or don't have the experience in dealing with this that I do and face more consequences than I did. In this case, these groups couldn't do anything to me personally except, you know, the character assassination. But it did lead to the principle of the school resigning and the superintendent he announced that he was retiring early. We don't know yet if there's going to be any other job. That's such a powerful story. Thank you for sharing that with us. We know how powerful the Israeli lobby can be, but also how powerful we can be if we organize and we're vocal. And as Arla said in the chat, we talk more, not less. Yes. All right. Thank you so much. We will circle back to you with our Q&A. Now we'll go to our second speaker, Medea. Well, we have another treat, which is a wonderful friend, Tahir Herzala, who's the director of outreach and community organizing for American Muslims for Palestine, a wonderful group known as AMP. He helps build campus groups around the country and develop AMP chapters around the country. Some of you might know him years back when he was in California and was one of the Irvine 11, a group of students who were prosecuted when they walked out of a speech given by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren at UC Irvine. He was also arrested at a Senate hearing for protesting the appointment of David Friedman as US Ambassador to Israel in 2017. He has a BA in political science from UC Riverside and is currently doing a PhD in American Studies at the University of Minnesota. So thank you so much for being with us, Tahir. Thank you so much for honestly, for having me, and it's an honor and privilege to be with you and humbling to have me go after the Palestinian equivalent of Rosa Parks on our call here today. So thank you so much for this great honor and privilege. And this discussion about the Nakaba, this is like my fifth event or discussion about the Nakaba this week. And we've for decades been talking about the Nakaba as an event that took place between 1947 and 1949 and we grew up learning the stories of our grandparents and great grandparents and the exile they face in this placement in this possession. And we also discussed the Nakaba as an ongoing Nakaba, as Ueda mentioned, and as all of you are well aware of the current suffering of the Palestinian people as a result of the Nakaba that continues today. But one thing I want to help us maybe guide the discussion forward is that we must start to talk about the Nakaba as temporary, as something that cannot and will not last forever, something that we can end and something that we can work towards ending as a community of people of conscience around the world, as people who have our own agency, people who are engaged in the work for Palestine here and across the globe. And something I really appreciate about the work of Code Pink and so many other groups is that nobody is letting up. Nobody is changing the narrative and the story of what took place in Palestine and what continues to take place in Palestine and that's truly a sign of the resilience of the Palestinian cause and a sign of the perseverance of the Palestinian people as they continue to fight the viciousness of Zionism's settler colonialism, not just in Palestine, but as we heard from the story of Ueda, the tentacles of Zionism reach far beyond the borders of Palestine across oceans and into the heart of the American Empire and so we are dealing with this on a day-to-day basis and they're running out of options as I saw some of the comments mentioning and that's true. The narrative arc that they have adopted and invested so much into over the past several decades is flimsy and they know that they cannot argue beyond the merit of the issue and so they character assassinate just as they did with Hawaii. Then it's such a common tactic that we've become accustomed to it and we've become prepared to deal with it despite the ferocity that is used in the process and so my message today is to talk about AMP and the work that we do as that's what I was asked to talk about. Our work consists of three main pillars. We have our grassroots mobilization and organizing that we do with the community and what I mean by the community is AMP has a unique I think disposition advantage point as an organization that works primarily within the Muslim community to organize Muslim Americans for Palestine and I think that's that comes with a lot of challenges but also an incredible amount of opportunity. We also do a lot of public education I just this morning spoke at a public high school here in St. Paul to 11th and 12th grader just like Hawaii did in in her town to a full class about about the Nakba when we discussed all the things that go along with that and we do this across the country with chapters across the US engaging in these types of public education and internal education with our own community members and finally one of the things that we've been investing in heavily since 2015 is our political advocacy and that has transformed the organization tremendously we've established the base in Washington DC now as of 2021 we've even had a spin-off organization an affiliate 501c4 AGP action that focuses exclusively on lobbying for Palestinian rights and that has met tremendous success and the event that was mentioned earlier about Rashida Tlaib hosting a Nakba commemoration was co-organized by our 501c4 AGP action along with a number of other groups on Capitol Hill and so we're very proud of the trajectory and the history of the work it's almost a miracle in the post 9-11 environment that we came from that an organization such as this exists considering the tremendous amount of pressure the lawsuits the character assassinations the blacklisting that many of our members and leadership face and you know we continue to pull on all fronts now we're engaged in several campaigns across the US some are boycott related some are advocacy related I'll mention just a couple of them just for the sake of time because I know we have to move on to the next speaker one of the major campaigns that we're working on now is to pressure Marvel and Disney the multinational media conglomerate over their upcoming Captain America film which they plan to introduce and they've already done a character that is an Israeli Mossad agent and that is just absolutely absurd we reached out to the company we've been in several meetings with them about the character we hope that they they do change course however we we did launch a public campaign to pressure the company and it seems to be that the campaign has picked up a lot of steam and so we encourage you all to visit our website ampalestine.org take a look at that information about that film and the character and to engage in that other boycott that we do regularly and it's a seasonal boycott primarily because of because of its nature is our annual date boycott campaign it's one of our most sort of prolific campaigns it's something that we've been doing for the past 12 years since since about actually 11 years since about 2012 and it's had a significant impact on the Israeli date industry and imports of Israeli dates to the United States we know that Muslim communities in the month of Ramadan particularly are the largest consumer of dates in the United States millions of pounds of dates are consumed every year and so engaging in an annual day boycott where we where we work with local markets consumers mosques and some organizations to inform people about the brands that are coming that are imported dates that are being grown on stolen Palestinian land using stolen Palestinian natural resources and exploded Palestinian labor all at the benefit of all for the benefit of the Israeli settler farmers who are growing these dates and selling them so we have been engaged in this work for quite some time and we've seen some significant effects of that campaign and then of course and through our advocacy many of you may have heard that about 11 days ago Betty McCollum reintroduced her her flagship bill on Palestine we encourage you all to support this bill call your members to encourage them to co-sponsor this bill so far I think there's about 17 signatories or sponsors of the bill we hope that we get that number up and this is like the fourth iteration of this bill I believe the first one was introduced in 2017 so you know every con every new congress comes in the Betty McCollum makes it a point to reintroduce this bill and I think beyond beyond the votes and the and the viability or the or the passability of the bill I think the important thing is that there is constant and persistent pressure within congress to hold Israel accountable for its crimes and this is a must we cannot move forward as as as a movement and as as as people working to change you as policy without having that and so so for us you know it's really incredible that you know we have a member of congress who is constantly and regularly doing this and of course now with Rashidat Leib working to to to inject the Palestinian narrative into the halls of power one of the most important things of course this year was the Nekaba commemoration but also the Nekaba resolution that was introduced on that same day to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Nekaba and that's the first of its kind in in in the history of the United States and I think that's that's an incredible moment and an incredible illustration demonstration of where where we've come as as a movement and how far we've been able to make gains despite the fact that the situation in Palestine continues to deteriorate I think that there are incredible opportunities for us to to make some good change here in Washington and beyond so those are some of the major campaigns of course our AGP action C4 also has their own campaigns and actions that that we encourage the public to to support one of the things that we introduced earlier this year that I think would be of interest to many of you is our our hotline we introduced this hotline several months ago in an effort to allow folks that have bad experiences or our denied entry on the border as they try to enter Palestine it's an Israeli discrimination hotline so or few or few you know you you were treated in any way held for longer than usual to to fill out our our hotline intake and and this is helping us build a narrative and and to make a case for the denial of Israel into the US visa waiver program Israel has been trying deliberately and consistently to enter into the US visa waiver program for several years and they have not been able to because they do not meet the requirements as per the US law and the laws of reciprocity that the United States requires and so this this is important for us to to to up the ante to continue making the case and so I really hope that you know there's something that you could look at I just shared the link to everyone in the chat please take a look at it spread it around let people use it and and and make sure that you know we're raising our voice when necessary and of course absolutely never never ever give up on the idea that the nekba will end I think you know our grandparents died with the hope that that this will soon end and we inherited as we inherited their trauma we also inherit their hope that this will certainly end and and Palestine will be free thank you so much Tahir Izala as we inherit their trauma we inherit their hope that's very very powerful I think it's it's great to hear about all the campaigns the hotline and I urge people to visit the website American Muslims for Palestine get involved and get involved in Code Pink too we have a Palestine campaign boycott birthright yes before we talk more about that and look at the petition I would like to introduce our our next guest we have three speakers tonight I'm proud to introduce Nora Corey she is a Palestinian from the Bay Area on Oloni land she has worked for the past two decades as a human rights activist campaign strategist and community organizer Nora lived in Palestine and Egypt prior to which she co-led the Middle East peace program for the American Friends Service Committee Nora currently works as a preschool teacher and serves as an Alwada Palestinian right to return coalition national committee member she's a green party delegate she's part of the beloved community circles where she conspires to destroy walls and build bridges of solidarity at the intersections of labor faith and social justice welcome Nora thank you thank you Marcy and thank you so much Code Pink for having me today I appreciate being able to share with this incredible panel and all the work you all do especially in holding policy makers accountable in the halls of power and not just talking but you know actually taking meaningful action as the speakers have pointed out it's really something special in this day and age and also bringing us together as like-minded folks to build our collective power such as in this format so today I just want to talk a little bit I was asked to talk about my background and just some work I did around Gaza and you know just kind of reflecting as we commemorate 75 years of a neck bear or catastrophe um I I feel that the most uh the biggest tragedy right now is that 75 years later many of our policy makers and elected officials are busy busy celebrating and congratulating Israel in 75 years of existence um literally on the rubble of Palestinian society where they thrive at the expense of engaging in neck bed denialism and erase in the erasure of the indigenous people of Palestine so my background is I studied international relations at San Francisco State University which was literally the birthplace of ethnic studies I am the free speech movement along with UC Berkeley in this country after a long hard fought battle and received most revolutionary education there that truly blew my mind when it taught the truth about U.S. foreign policy and empire it was also following 10 years after the peace talks in Palestine and um you know I think we all lost hope when it became abundantly clear that the politicians of the world had failed miserably to bring peace to the region then the second into photo broke out that's when I decided to drop everything and become the change I wanted to see um and I started doing dialogue also with Zionists only to realize what a colossal waste of time that was um as others have said and by now it was extremely clear that there was a desperate need for more than just talk and that if we wanted true progress we couldn't depend on our so-called leaders and that we the people needed to take a stand so in 2003 literally 20 years ago almost to the day I first met Huweda and immediately he joined the ISM it would it would be my first time in Palestine so I was extremely grateful to have the opportunity to actually take direct action rather than just go as a tourist or talk about the situation as a violence raged on and it was an incredible and life-changing experience and I vowed to return and so I did and I moved there from 2005 to 2007 where I lived and worked at El Haq Human Rights Organization and Badil Refugee and Return Center where I gained invaluable campaign skills and experience that helped me become intimate intimately knowledgeable about international law and human rights so I put those skills to use when I came back and was hired to co-lead the Middle East program at American Friends Service Committee in 2008 to Lobby Congress and we did civilian hearings on the impacts of U.S. weapons and went to the Capitol Hill and brought together some of the most diverse delegations many policymakers commented they had ever seen still they looked at us with utter indifference and blank stares as we talked about the use of banned weapons and white phosphorus and cluster bombs and this is supposedly our liberal Bay Area Democrats just as the after the candidate for hope and change Obama's most vicious and horrifying cast-led war on Gaza in 2009 and a long list of vicious and horrifying wars on Gaza in fact one policymaker after hearing firsthand testimony of civilians being massacred in Maine by internationally banned Israeli U.S. weapons had the nerve to respond that we're trying to make a better cluster bomb so they don't detonate again after they first explode so this was the context in which we were trying to appeal to these people in power fast forward 14 years later and now in some ways I believe we've regressed and it's not only the right wing or centrist politicians that are providing this cover it's literally the otherwise most progressive women of color Democrats such as SF mayor London Breed who's being hosted as we speak as well as the so by the Israeli government in Israel today as well as the so called Maverick for peace and justice representative Barbara Lee who I'm sorry to say has you know thankfully signed on to the new McCollum bill but has still refused to sign on to Rashida Tlaib's neck but bill that you know Kevin speaker Kevin Carthy tried to shut down last week in fact since that time many more otherwise progressive except Palestine otherwise known as peps policy makers have become more emboldened to show support for Israel and these peps provide real cover to this openly right wing fascist government that's not even giving the normal lip service to the liberal democracy that Israel has tried so hard to paint itself as for all of his existence let's be clear Israel's government is literally a very openly calling for more neckbiz more bloodshed and more genocide as it comes very close to completing its final plan to consolidate all the settlements around Jerusalem to the settlements in the West Bank by stealing more land and killing and maiming more Palestinians than ever some people speculate why politicians do this but I'm not really interested in their motives only their actions whether it's political cowardice opportunitism in this form of a senate run or they have messianic tendencies does not matter and will not come in it will come to an end eventually the only question is just when and how much violence needs to happen before Zionist realize Palestinians will never leave our land and we will never give up our right to return home it's also no exaggeration to stay say that standing and taking meaningful steps for Palestine and Palestinians are also taking a massive step towards global peace and collective liberation everywhere since 1948 Israel has been indirectly and directly involved in not only the oppression and violence in Palestine but has sold weapons and armed violent regimes and actors throughout the world if not then it will be much easier to continue to further consolidate the police state and fascist control and takeover there and here their collaboration with white supremacy and fascist groups and leaders the world over allows them to sell these weapons also creates this global corporate fascism which funds state violence militarism and allows corporations to take over our public institutions that go to the highest bitter as we are currently seeing it's mostly most clear on campuses and free speech where Zionists have been working overtime to take over and silence facts while bullying and attacking anyone who dares speak truth to power just as is now happening at San Francisco State University with Zionist attacks on Ahmed the Arab Muslim ethnic diaspora studies program and Professor Rebobadil Hadi who's been basically under tax since its inception and most recently under the guise of these new departments for diversity and equity the administration is partnering with Zionist organizations and to you know for the first and only Arab and Muslim program in the country and on campuses everywhere can't administrators are rolling back all the progress that has been made that have been made nationally so Palestinian youth are resisting and will continue to resist but the Palestinian people are tired and they need us and that's why we as us taxpayers providing weapons and cover to this criminal enterprise must hold not only Zionism but anyone who collaborates with it as equally complicit so masking that you please contact mayor London breed and express your shock and disappointment and ask her instead to have a sister city partnership with a Palestinian town or village and also you demand that your rep sign on to Rashida's leaves neck bit bill and I'll put the link in the in the chat to do that and thank you so much yes thank you Nora Corey it's wonderful to hear all of the work that you've done here about that and your call to action and thank you for posting that in the chat and I couldn't agree more that we need to hold our representatives accountable and let them know that we don't want them visiting Israel on a trip funded by the Israel lobby you know go visit the West Bank yes visit Gaza but we don't want you spending a dime to patronize the system that so thoroughly oppresses others it is truly an apartheid system we are going to go now to a Q&A with the three guests and we invite you to post your questions in the chat I'll ask media to ask some of these questions and then after that we had we're going to take action we're going to ask our representatives to support those bills that were mentioned McCollum's bill and she had to leave spill on the knock but so for now let's go to our Q&A and Mahat you could highlight all three we can ask some questions media go for us yes well there's one question we have about people like Bernie Sanders who has done so much to bring up the issue of Palestine and got the room which is nice to know for Rashida and the all the people who came to the overflowing crowd but what has he done to introduce legislation resolutions why is there no companion bill to McCollum bill in the in the Senate why is there always just kind of jabber about conditioning aid to Israel but then we never see anything concrete about that and I address that to any of you but Tahir maybe we could start with you since you do a lot of this DC work thank you so we do we do have an advocacy director that actually handles this where I'm on the grassroots side however I'll tell you this so there's that there's a Sanders bowman letter that came out several months ago addressing some of the key issues that we've been working on and there hasn't been any traction in the Senate for years on anything related to Palestine frankly despite Bernie Sanders advocacy and one of the main reasons for that is Sanders doesn't serve on the foreign relations committee he serves on he serves on other committees so there's like a there's like a sort of a technical reason for that but there's also sometimes a lack of willingness unfortunately to to address some of the key issues and I think there needs to be a block of at least senators senator van Holland in my opinion from Maryland has been much more critical over the past two years of Israel and and and the work that he's been doing it's frankly especially with regards to the murder of Shireen Abu Aqla which we are still working on accountability for he's he's he's been he's been great I mean his statements have been very strong his his pressure on the US State Department and Tony Blinken has been excellent and and honestly what exactly what we need and so there are others that we've been working with beyond Bernie who's been great in general and has lent his support but I think there's there's a lot of room to grow on the senate I think on the senate we have not we have not made the inroads that I think we we have made with with the house thank you Tahir I have a question so a a question was posted in the chat give us some updates on the bds movement your assessment of it the bds campaign boycott divestment and sanctioned Israel until all are free and equal where are the the bright spots where the success stories and just generally your assessment so that's for all three of you nowhere you want to go oh um let's see um that's a big question I know it really is and to be quite honest I think we have a lot of room to grow in this area I know um folks in Palestine have been holding you know a lot more um actions and uh accountability and like in in the UK they've been Palestine action has been incredible at holding um the Elbit systems uh like occupying that space in ways that are really um you know kind of impressive and inspiring um I think we have a lot of we're under attack so by so many ways in in in the US that I feel like we haven't done nearly as much as we need to and that's just my um my kind of off the cuff I would love to hear from others though I appreciate your honesty what do you think wayda I would just encourage people to actually get involved and see about undertaking a boycott or divestment action because it is something that we can all do uh whether you know in your place of work it has been in the US it has been acted on a lot by student groups in universities which has been great but also uh people you know seeing certain Israeli products in their supermarket for example can take action there distributing flyers to let meeting with the you know supermarket letting them know distributing flyers educating people doing other kinds of fun actions in your school in your place to work in your state if your state has um Israeli state bonds you can start a campaign there it's something that you can start very locally and it's something that is extremely helpful if for anyone that doesn't know I mean the VDS campaign aims to a boycott and divest from entities that are in any way support Israel settler colonial project and and the demands are simple and the demands are based in in human rights law it is that for Israel to end the occupation of Arab lands and go on heights West Bank Gaza for Palestinian citizens of Israel to be treated as equals to have full equal rights and for the refugees to be able to come home which is a right enshrined in international law those are the three demands of the VDS movement and it calls on people from all over the world to do really what our um leaders have not done world leaders they our world leaders have not sanctioned Israel so people can undertake local campaigns to boycott and to divest and the more that those grow those put we don't think there are any numbers on the economic impact on Israel but there have been a number of successes and what that does is continue to show that the world is not going to stay silent and continue to cooperate with these entities that profit from what Israel is doing and I think it sends a strong message so thank you my two cents would be all right let's step it up yeah appreciate that Oida what about Utah here any final thoughts on this subject at the VDS campaign I think I mean one of the most important things for me about VDS is that it it removes the um uh this this this desire by some to only appeal to power uh state power uh to change the condition of the Palestinian people this this gives us all a particular responsibility and agency to work for this just a noble cause uh in our own circles in our own communities in our own markets in our own mosques and this is very important I think what's happening though today um is that I think there is a rupture that's taking place finally uh in in corporate America especially after the events of 2021 where we're seeing uh some some tidal wave uh success um on on the corporate level which which was really something that has been worked for for for quite some time the the VDS call was made in 2005 so it's only been 18 years whereas you know you look at the South African anti-apartheid struggle that the boycott calls were made as as early as the 1950s and it took them 45 years before they started getting any real success and so for us to to have Ben and Jerry's for example openly announced and withdraw from Israel and then fight their parent company in the court of law to ensure that they stayed out of Israel that's unprecedented that that's that's that's a true victory there uh that you're not only uh engaged in in the economic divestiture of Israel but you have corporate chair chair people uh board members uh actively uh advocating for for Palestinian rights and I think that's and that's a major thing Pillsbury had a similar situation um and so we're seeing this slowly take place that the internal discussions and the internal struggle of Google and Amazon employees against the project Nimbus uh that was announced in 2021 also or 2020 excuse me was also a major uh rupture point where you have tech workers now openly uh uh resisting their company's uh involvement and complicity in Israel's occupation this is something I think is unique and and I'm very hopeful that this is the direction that we're going to see many many companies go thank you to here for that helpful statement yeah I often think that the bds the the most powerful part of that is the boycott because it raises people's consciousness they understand what a boycott is uh whereas divestment and sanctions you know takes a little time to explain uh also it it it really goes to the heart of the image of Israel um it challenges the narrative of Israel as a sanctuary so uh I think all of us can make a contribution in that regard challenge I mean you know whenever I meet somebody who says oh this doesn't happen very often but if they say they're sending their their child on a birthright trip I'm like why why would you do that you know and that starts a whole conversation Medea if you have one last question then we'll go to our action uh yes there was a question in the chat that asked about christian zionism and you know we hear a lot about apac and hueda you talked about the zionist groups that attacked your speech uh how much do we hear on a regular basis from uh the christian zionist like coofy in terms of uh attacks on people who are trying to do something to uh support the palestinians and maybe hueda you could start so if the question is specifically about do we find you know those of ourselves that uh those of us that are attacked by um organized zionist groups are any of them the christian zionist I don't think I have personally been um so that I can't I can't speak to that actually with any kind of concrete information I mean we do know that the christian zionists have a very strong presence when it comes to uh israel and advocating and lobbying for israel and they have a their place in in the right wing kind of movements here in the united states but in terms of how much they are engaged in actually attacking uh activists and whatnot that organize on palestine I don't know I'm sorry I don't know if anybody else does any further thoughts yeah I mean I know there's been a lot of work happening by fosna and you know some of their partner orcs and allies in the presbyterian church and the methodist church to sort of build their constituency to talk in the pulpits about um you know just trying to spread awareness and from a christian perspective I think it's you know like a lot of uh jewish friends say that jews need to talk to jews about the the ways in which jewish oppression happens I think that a lot of that's happening in christian zionist spaces as well where our allies are working on building relationships and power with some of the more right wing um government I mean churches and we can support fosna who's doing really good work around that terrific well I just want to thank all three of you uh to hear her zala norah quarry and hueda araw for joining us today I'm codepin congress and at this point let's unmute and thank our guests well thank you all for being here thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you the rest of you now we're going to take action that's right we're going to get on the phone uh maha will uh share our script thank you in the chat and I don't I don't have the bill number uh for Rashida's bill but if somebody has that please post it in the chat we can include that basically the script goes like this hello oh we've got the phone number um perhaps you have the direct line to your congress person in your cell phone if not you can leave a comment by dialing 202-224-3121 and our script hello my name is and I am your constituent in zip code please cosponsor congresswoman Betty McCollum's bill h.r.3103 what does this bill do the bill prohibits the israeli government from using US taxpayer dollars in the occupied west bank for the military detention abuse or ill treatment of Palestinian children and Israeli military detention it prohibits the seizure and destruction of Palestinian property and homes and violation of international law or any assistance or support for unilateral annexation of Palestinian lands support h.r.3103 cosponsor Betty McCollum's bill thank you that's a mouthful but uh you get the message and we want to send a message to them too so let's get on the phone and make some calls thank you we have thank you uh David Mandel for putting in the uh Rashida resolution it's 388 so protect Palestinian children that's uh Betty McCollum's resolution 3103 and and uh support the NAFTA resolution shout out to David thank you okay let's get on the phone hi there congresswoman june my name is vince at just step non-calling from bass into california in the 911 thank uh many of us got an opportunity to make those phone calls and maha if you can lower the music there we go yeah and please uh i think ma posted in the chat a link to a code pink petition boycott birthright let's all sign that and we'll share it with you if you're in our google group as well so do sign up for that maha at code pink dot org you can put you on the on the list uh i think was a really rich evening and i'm heartened to hear about the successes that we have experienced the shift in public opinion i see it i notice it and i urge all of us to continue with these calls and write to our representatives as well and you know as Nora mentioned about the mayor of london i've heard that the mayor of uh london breed the mayor of san francisco going to israel to join up with sister city i think uh it behooves us all to ask our cities to adopt a city from a city in gaza anywhere in palestine where palestinians are under occupation to be a sister city as an act of solidarity so with that i just want to thank you all for showing up tonight and for being part of this movement for equality and justice for all in palestine thank you