Susan Abulhawa’s new article, “Solidarity and Realpolitik: My Response to Jeff Halper,” on the Palestine Chronicle has been added to the Deir Yassin Remembered web site.

Protesting “Celebrate Israel” Day

Here is our flyer for the May 20 protest of the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor’s “Celebrate Israel” day. We have noise permit, bullhorn, and need five sturdy volunteers to hoist the 30-foot Palestinian flag. There may be some activists who would rather attend a Nakba memorial event instead of protesting this arrogant display of power, and to them we offer two suggestions: First, the time for such a remembrance is AFTER Palestine has been liberated and we can reminisce about past tragedies. Second is the realization that Palestine can only be liberated by ending the Zionist entity within its borders. This is a Zero-Sum game (all gains made by the Jewish state came at the expense of indigenous Palestinians) and it makes no sense to celebrate “Israel” and Palestine concurrently. The job at hand is to dismantle the Apartheid structure of “Israel”. See you May 20!

Why would any group celebrate the death of the man in the center of this 2005 photo?

Basem abu Rahme was killed by the military forces of “Israel” on April 9, 2009 while peacefully protesting in his own Palestinian village. He was killed in order to preserve the existence of the Jewish state.

We ask you to remember Basem as we protest the Jewish Federation’s “Celebrate ‘Israel'” Day, a “celebration” of ethnic cleansing, massacres and assassinations, continuing today.

Where: The Jewish Community Center
2935 Birch Hollow Drive Ann Arbor, MI 48108
When: Sunday, May 20, 2012
Time: Noon – 5pm

Directions from I-94 and State St:
North on State to Eisenhower
East (right) on Eisenhower to Stone School Road
Right on Stone School Road to Birch Hollow Drive
Right on Birch Hollow Drive to 2935

Download your own copy of the above flyer from

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hersko/Flyers/Fereration%20Protest%20May%202012.doc

Comments?

Nine Vigilers
For Palestine to live, Israel must die
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends

*Susan Abulhawa, April 14, 2012, “Why are Palestinians paying for Germany’s sins?” on DeirYassin.org

*Rich Siegel, January 1, 2012, “The cult of atheist Zionism posing as Judaism” on DeirYassin.org

*Rich Siegel, April 5, 2012, “My Pro-Palestine CD Reviewed & then ‘Un-reviewed’ ” on RighteousJews.org

*Rich Siegel, March 15, 2012, “Permission to examine ‘Jewishness’ ” on RighteousJews.org

*Rich Siegel, February 2012, “The Palestinians as an ‘Invented People’ ” on RighteousJews.org

*Rich Siegel, “Free Speech in Europe and Teaneck, New Jersey” on RighteousJews.org

Part of the Problem

Referring to the Sixties saying, “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem”, we fast forward to the Twenty-Teens and a presentation made by Rollie S (not his real name), an 83-year-old Jewish peace activist from the Detroit area. Rollie is incredibly sharp and gave a masterful presentation to about 100 people at the Unity of Livonia Church on April 10. The topic was “How do Iranians, Israelis and Americans feel about the prospect of war with Iran?” He had traveled to Iran and Israel, interviewing folks there. He described how Iranians respect Americans, but don’t trust our government; they were also suspicious of their own leadership. His message, however, was mixed, and laden with Jewish “tells”, e.g. sharp, unsupported criticism of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, no criticism of the legitimacy of the Jewish state, and a half dozen references to the Holocaust.

His delivery prompted the boiler-plate question: “Does Israel have a right to exist as a Jewish state, and if so, by what right”. Rollie’s answer: I don’t agree with the right of any state to exist as a theocracy. “He’s dodging the question!” screamed the little angel on my right shoulder and right the angel was. His answer could be applied to states such as Iran, but ignores the fact that Muslims did not invade a foreign land from their European homes and expel the Jews and Christians living there to violently create a Muslim state. Why couldn’t Rollie simply say no, Jews had no right to invade, occupy and displace Muslims and Christians living in Palestine in the twentieth century?

Was Rollie one of Gilad Atzmon’s “third-category Jews”, one who places his Jewishness above all his other traits? We think so, and asked Rollie for a one-on-one session to which he graciously agreed. That meeting was held on April 19 in Rollie’s office, where he once again claimed that Ahmedinejad had limited knowledge of the Holocaust, and therefore was not qualified to host the “International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust” in Tehran in 2006. Had Rollie read any revisionist literature on the subject? Answer: Yes, but he did not list a source and had not read Arthur Butz, Robert Faurisson, David Irving nor any other revisionist historian. And he had too much on his reading plate to accept my copy of Debating the Holocaust by Thomas Dalton.

Rollie also discredited the findings of Shlomo Sand and denied that Ashkenazi Jews had no roots in Palestine. He also claimed that his use of the word “Holocaust” in his presentation was an accurate portrayal of the Israeli’s use of the word in his interviews with them, so he shouldn’t be held responsible for its use in his presentation, prompting a sharp outcry from the Shoulder Angel. To his credit he admitted that Israel should not exist as a Jewish state, but thought that Jews should be able to live there. He also said that no one should be imprisoned for their political views. Good for him.

In the end, however, Rollie did not publicly call for an end to the Jewish state, and immediate Right of Return for the millions of Palestinian refugees, nor did he express any desire to hold his own Jewish community accountable for their participation in the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people. In the view of this author, Rollie will remain part of the problem until he exposes Jewish supremacism.

Phelps’ Presentation Disappointing

This author again traveled to Mount Pleasant, MI to hear Fred Phelps, Jr. and his sister Shirley Phelps-Roper get into childish verbal spats with young students at Central Michigan University this week. One student actually scored a point with this family of the Westboro Baptist Church. After Shirley claimed that no interpretation is needed to understand “Thou Shalt Not Kill” this young man asked whether that meant killing animals? “It means whatever you want it to mean” said Shirley, prompting the student to suggest that her response only proved that biblical verses are indeed open to interpretation.

Billboard Update

Dearborn, Michigan is host to the largest Arab population in the world outside the Middle East, but sadly that community did not rise to the occasion to maintain the billboard existing in the greater Detroit area. It would have taken 400 families (2% of Dearborn’s population of 85,000) contributing only $10 a month to continue the billboard’s existence, but such was not the case, and our contract with the billboard company expires on April 29. It was a good run, however, and we are grateful to IfAmericansKnew, Deir Yassin Remembered, and our friends in Dearborn for the work and help they provided. Sometime soon, inshallah, the billboard will rise again.

Protesting “Celebrate Israel” Day

We are three weeks away from our schedule protest of the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor’s “celebration” of the continuing ethnic cleansing of Palestine, and the usurpation of the majority of Americans tax dollars being spent against their will to prop up the longest, violent colonial expansion project of modern times. We will be at the Jewish Community Center from noon to 5 pm on Sunday, May 20, 2012 to remind this Jewish community that they cannot carry on in such a racist fashion without a response from the peace community.

Where: Jewish Community Center, 2935 Birch Hollow Drive Ann Arbor, MI 48108
When: Sunday May 20, 2012 noon-5pm

Comments?

Nine Vigilers
This reports dedicated to the memory of Louie Leedle
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends

Noise Permit Issued

May 20th is the date Palestine solidarity activists need to circle in their calendars to protest the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor’s “Celebrate Israel” day at the Jewish Community Center. Some may remember a few years back when the Ann Arbor Police Department denied our right to use a bullhorn to get our messages to the celebrants of Israeli Apartheid, claiming we had not (that year) received a noise permit. This year Ann Arbor City Clerk Jacqueline Beaudry issued our permit with the description, “Not Required per ordinance 9:365 (3)”.

There is much to communicate to the Jewish community on that date necessitating the use of a bullhorn, including a reading of the 65 UN resolutions that Israel has violated, names of the innocent Palestinian children killed in the Hanukkah Massacre of 2009, towns and villages destroyed in the 1948 Nakba, names of the 34 US sailors killed by Israel in its 1967 attack on the USS Liberty, etc. Volunteers will be needed to staff the bullhorn and perform these duties, so please step up and make your voice heard on May 20th.

First Amendment Debated in Flint, Michigan

Michigan ACLU attorney Dan Korobkin performed his duties well before Judge Mark Goldsmith in the US District Court (Eastern District of Michigan) on April 19th, arguing the duty of the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority to post an ad on city buses calling citizens to “Boycott ‘Israel’, Boycott Apartheid”. Korobkin said “The only equitable solution is to run the ad”. Arguments by defense attorney Kathleen Klaus grew weaker as the 90-minute proceeding waxed on, culminating with a plea that – because there was no attribution on the sign – the plaintiff was “forc[ing] the AATA to adopt his speech”. It was not clear whether Judge Goldsmith was holding his forehead during Klaus’ presentation, but Korobkin made short work of this last-minute appeal, in part noting that this was a new and untenable claim by defense. He also challenged defense arguments that AATA would lose ridership and revenue with the posting of the ad, claiming that Ms. Klaus’ “solution” was the equivalent of denying a citizen’s First Amendment rights, and therefore not tolerable under the Constitution.

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hersko/Photos/Boycott%20Israel%20ad.jpg

Ann Arbor Chronicle Reports on City Council Presentation

Dave Askins of the Ann Arbor Chronicle noted our presentation to Ann Arbor City Council April 2nd, in an article posted April 9th . Text of his report follows signature.

Billboard Update

Starting Monday, April 23, the billboard financed by Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends, IfAmericansKnew, and Deir Yassin Remembered will greet southbound traffic on I-275 just north of the Ecorse Road exit in Canton, Michigan. Passing motorists will see “$8 Million/Day to Israel? 1-855-ITS-OUR-MONEY” (dialing this number provides the caller with additional information and accepts donations). Tax deductible contributions to maintain this billboard are accepted at IfAmericansKnew.org and deiryassin.org. Please note “Billboard Project” with your donations.

Comments?

Six Vigilers
Zionism: Kosher Apartheid
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends

Ann Arbor Chronicle

Comm/Comm: Lack of Prosecution

Henry Herskovitz told the council that on Feb. 4, 2012 his group was conducting its weekly vigil (demonstrating against support for Israel outside the Beth Israel synagogue) when he’d noticed someone removing a sign from a windshield of one of his group’s cars and then placing it in his own car. As the man was getting in the driver’s seat, Herskovitz asked him to return the sign. Herskovitz told the council that the man had told him he wasn’t going to get his sign back. So Herskovitz’s group called the Ann Arbor police department dispatch and reported the license plate and car description.

Officer Kevin Kleitsch came out and made a report, Herskovitz said. The case was referred to the detective bureau, assigned to Craig Lee. A month later, Herskovitz said, he looked at a photo lineup and correctly identified the man who’d taken the sign. In spite of the correct identification of the man, and the fact that the license plate was registered to the man that he’d identified, his group had been notified that the city attorney had decided not to prosecute.

Herskovitz described his group as peaceful protestors who’d been in this position before. He then gave other examples, in one case going back to 2006, where offenses were committed against members of his group, and arrests were made, but did not result in prosecution. Without enforcement of such offenses, Herskovitz said that their First Amendment rights are weakened. His group looked to the council to affirm its pledge to uphold the U.S. Constitution.

The text that follows was submitted to Deir Yassin Remembered by someone who wishes to remain anonymous. It is presented here for your consideration and discussion.

Foreword to Model Palestinian Declaration of Independence

The chances for a Palestinian state seem to be evaporating, yet things aren’t hopeless. “Facts on the ground” are not immutable unless they’re assumed to be. Whatever can be built also can be torn down or abandoned. However, the “peace process” is not the way to a viable Palestinian state.

Yet the Palestinians are slow to abandon it. Some see unity as a way to strengthen themselves in the “process”. But the “process” is a charade to buy Israel time to complete its expropriation of Palestine.

Palestinians need to realize that the U.S. also is their oppressor. Much of the U.S. aid they get is to enhance Israeli security, and it is subject to being frozen or withdrawn if they do not comply with Israeli demands. The Palestinians need to make a clean break from the U.S., Israel, and all nations, organizations and “processes” antithetical to their interests. They need to redouble their efforts to cultivate new friends and allies. They need to declare anew their unified independence and pursue it unwaveringly. The 1988 Palestinian Declaration of Independence could not anticipate their current dependency, the new abuses inflicted upon them, or the new options open to them. A new document is needed to declare their accumulated grievances to the world, to break counterproductive dependency, to reject the “peace” process as currently constituted, and to appeal to the non-Israel aligned world for support, especially through boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel. Ironically, the U.S. Declaration of Independence provides an ideal template for such a document.

The following is an example of what could be done in this regard. An efficacious document would have to be generated by Palestinian leadership.

(Model)
New Declaration of Independence
of
The State of Palestine

Preamble

On July 4, 1776, under occupation, oppression and colonization by England, the United States of America’s forefathers declared a free and independent nation. Now we Palestinians are enduring occupation, oppression and colonization by Israel with American support. Firmly resolved to throw off our oppressor and to establish our independence, and taking for our model America’s Declaration of Independence, we hereby state our case and declare our intentions before God and the world.

* * *

WHEN, IN THE COURSE OF HUMAN EVENTS, IT BECOMES NECESSARY FOR ONE people to dissolve the bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of humankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths self-evident: That all people are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among people, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any government imposes itself without such consent, it is the right of the people to alter, abolish, or disown it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation upon such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience has shown that humankind is more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object of expropriating all of historic Palestine, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these territories; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of Israel and its precursor Zionist entity is one of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the absolute conquest of our country, tyranny over, and expulsion of, our indigenous population, and the colonization and annexation to itself of our lands and properties. These following wrongs have been, and continue to be, by and large, aided and abetted by the United States of America, the self-proclaimed champion of freedom, equality and democracy, and by certain of its allies. To prove all this, let facts be submitted to a candid world:

Decades before the European holocaust, the Zionist entity claimed Palestine for the Jews based on presumed ancient configurations, in total disregard for contemporary demographic and legal realities and the natural rights and aspirations of we, the Palestinian majority, living therein.

For centuries we had lived in peace with the native Jews in Palestine. We would have welcomed the Jewish immigrants had they wished to equitably share Palestine with us. But they wished to turn Palestine into a state for themselves, compelling us to resist.

Seeking a place not only for holocaust refugees but also for all Jews everywhere, the Zionist entity used deceit and terror to drive us from our homes and lands in western Palestine, making us refugees and casting us into exile in the West Bank, Gaza, and around the globe. Those of us it did not subject to ethnic cleansing it relegated to second-class citizenship.

Backed by America at the United Nations, the Zionist entity recast itself as the state of Israel, which used lethal force to bar us from returning to our homes and lands in western Palestine. Many of these properties it conveyed to its own people without compensation to us.

Having no immediate use for them and to prevent our return to them, Israel obliterated 531 of our villages, drove us out, and confiscated their land on the pretext that we had abandoned the villages.

In wanton ethnic cleansing, Israel and the Zionist entity systematically terrorized and massacred our men, women and children at over 30 of our villages, most notoriously at Deir Yassin in 1948..

Israel used deadly force, imprisonment and torture against us when we tried to return to our properties in western Palestine, calling us infiltrators and terrorists despite our being at first almost entirely unarmed.

Not satiated by its theft of our property and its destruction of our livelihoods, Israel’s prime minister declared, in further effort to erase us, “There is no such thing as a Palestinian!”

To portray itself as a democracy, Israel permitted a small minority of us to remain in its race-based state. There we subsist, discriminated against in immigration and emigration rights, property rights, transportation, education, employment, housing, healthcare, political opportunities, and more.

Jews from anywhere can easily enter and exit Israel, and readily immigrate to and emigrate from Israel. If we leave and do not return in a short time we cannot return; we cannot immigrate to Israel, and if we emigrate it is virtually impossible to return.

In 1967 Israel attacked and occupied the rest of Palestine – the West Bank and Gaza – where many of us had taken refuge from its 1948 ravages. There it has maimed and murdered us, demolished our homes and confiscated our properties, destroyed our livelihoods, and facilitated the transfer of over 500,000 of its preferred people to the West Bank. All of this has made many of us refugees all over again.

It subsidizes its preferred people to build on our land and protects them with its American-subsidized army.

It has encircled us with a high wall that cuts far into the West Bank, separating us from our fields, workplaces, business associates, schools, relatives, friends and neighbors.

It has encumbered our West Bank roads with hundreds of checkpoints and roadblocks that harm our society and cripple our economy.

It endlessly harasses us with the aim of inducing us to leave our homeland, never to return.

It forces those of us who do not leave into increasingly small cantons, ghettoizing us under apartheid-like conditions.

It excludes us from its segregated, Jews-only roads and public transportation system.

Though it removed its settlements from Gaza in 2005, it continues to tyrannize us there by its suffocating control of our borders that represses our commerce with the outside world, impoverishes us, and turns Gaza into our Warsaw Ghetto.

With the full support of the United States, it responds to our desperate resisters by branding us terrorists and striking our civilian communities with massive, disproportionate force. It uses illegal weapons against our civilians, including white phosphorus and cluster bombs in its 2009 massacre of 1400 us in Gaza. Four hundred of our children and women were among those it murdered there.

It acts in cynical bad faith in the so-called “peace process”, typically demanding unreasonable preconditions and raising egregious objections to stall or break down negotiations; it uses the time gained thereby to further colonize the West Bank and East Jerusalem and to strengthen its hold on our land. We will not participate further in these negotiations in the absence of Israeli recognition of our right to exist, an effective moratorium on new Jewish settlements, and the elimination of all unreasonable Israeli preconditions.

It incessantly demands that we acknowledge its “right” to exist as a state in which Jews are given priority over us, on lands it has taken from us by violence and contrivance; but it refuses to acknowledge our right to exist freely in our own land. We recognize Israel only in that it exists and reject all claims that it has a right to exist as a state in which Jews are privileged over all others.

It resists calling us by our rightful name, dismissing us as “Arabs” of vague provenance; it destroys our buildings, streets and villages; and its endeavors in innumerable other ways to erase our history, culture, and very existence.

It withholds tax revenues from us to further dominate and coerce us.

It hinders our farmers from accessing their fields to sow, tend, and harvest their crops.

It destroys our crops and prevents our produce from reaching its markets.

It obstructs our sick, injured, pregnant and elderly from getting timely medical care.

It hinders and delays our students from reaching their schools and universities, harming their career prospects and irrevocably damaging our economy.

It violently attacks our non-violent protests and demonstrations against its inhuman actions .

It conducts “extra-judicial killings”, targeting our resisters without due process of law, often maiming and killing our innocent bystanders including many children and women.

It conducts unannounced night searches reminiscent of the Gestapo, breaking and entering our homes without warrants, dragging away those of us it chooses, “detaining” us indefinitely without charges or legal representation, interrogating us under duress and torture, and imprisoning us indefinitely without sentence.

It has defied, ignored and circumvented United Nations resolutions calling for it to end its occupation and colonization of our lands and to honor our right to return to our homes.

In collaboration with the United States, it obstructs recognition of our statehood by the United Nations and advocates sanctions against us seeking it.

In further collaboration with the United States, it endeavors to divide us in order to weaken us, and to punish us for attempting to unite by withholding tax revenues paid by us and by the suspension of financial aid from the United States.

It assaults and murders unarmed civilians in international waters attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to us in Gaza.

It provokes a few of our desperate youth to self-destructive violence, then condemns us as terrorists and attacks our communities with indiscriminate lethal force.

It demands that we end all violence as a precondition for peace negotiations, but persists in its provocations. If we cannot suppress all reaction to its provocations, it proclaims that it has no partner for peace.

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms; our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A state such as Israel, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define tyranny, is unfit to be included in the community of free nations.

Nor have we been wanting in our attentions to our Israeli brethren. We have warned them from time to time, of their attempts to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our presence here. We have appealed to their justice and magnanimity; and we have conjured them, by the ties of our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. With few exceptions, they have been deaf to the voice of justice and reason. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity which announces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies if they continue their assaults upon us, friends if they desist and make amends.

We, therefore, the Palestinian representatives of the West Bank and Gaza, in general congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the authority of the good people of these territories, solemnly publish and declare, that these territories are, and rightfully ought to be A FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATE; and that they are absolved from all association with the Israel-United States collaboration, and that all political, economic, financial, taxation and military connection between them and the Israel-United States collaboration is, and rightfully ought to be, totally dissolved; and that, as a free and independent state, the STATE OF PALESTINE has the right to defend itself, to conclude peace, to contract alliances, to levy and collect its own taxes, to establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may rightfully do. And for the support of this declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. Rejecting aggression and violence against civilians and having inadequate force of arms to free ourselves from our oppressor, who is so abundantly underwritten, subsidized and armed by the United States of America, we earnestly appeal to fair-minded, freedom-loving people and nations everywhere to rally to our cause by providing us such financial assistance as they are able; by BOYCOTTING every consumer, academic, and cultural product of the Zionist state; by DIVESTING from all companies, corporations, and organizations profiting or otherwise benefiting from its occupation of our land and domination of our people; and by petitioning their governments to institute SANCTIONS against Israel until it accedes in our absolute sovereignty over and right to exist in independence, freedom, and peace in our sovereign STATE OF PALESTINE encompassing the West Bank including East Jerusalem; Gaza; and an effective, secure connecting corridor.

[signed by Palestinian leadership]

Taking Justice to the Streets

Last week we reported that Ira Levy of Ann Arbor stole a sign from our vigil group on February 4, 2012. We also reported that City Attorney Bob West denied charges based, in part, on the alibi created by Levy that he had sold the car prior to the theft of our sign. To “prove” this sale, Levy produced a copy of the title signed only by him and Elizabeth Levy, his current wife. No buyer was identified, but the copy provides proof enough, according to local legal experts, of terminated ownership. We are hoping, however, that Mr. West will re-open the case if we can produce evidence that Levy still owns the car. So Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends offers a $100 reward for a dated photograph of a blue 2009 Honda Fit, Michigan license plate no. BVV8408, most likely still prowling around southeast Michigan. Keep your eyes open!

We also mounted a sign campaign to bring resolution to this crime. Pictured below are members of our vigil team imploring the congregants of Beth Israel to send a clear message to the sign thief in their midst.

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hersko/Photos/Levy%20sign%20lg.JPG

Vigil supporter M. wonders if it would help to also remind Mr. Levy and the other congregants on the 8th commandment: “Thou shalt not steal”. Probably not, it doesn’t stop many Jews from supporting the violent Jewish theft of Palestine in 1948 and 1967, which reminds us that this Monday is Deir Yassin Day.

JWPF Supports ‘Occupy the PGA’

Three members of JWPF met with the Rev. Ed Pinkney in Ann Arbor on Sunday to discuss plans for a huge protest in Benton Harbor May 23-27, the dates of the Senior Men’s PGA tournament which will be played on stolen land, aka The Golf Club at Harbor Shores. We pass along open invitations from our good friends Ed and his wife Dorothy to join them in protesting what he refers to as the genocide of Benton Harbor.

JWPF Addresses City Council

Two members of JWPF showed up in City Council chambers to apprise the council of the theft of our sign, and to recap other Jewish crimes against us. Text of speech follows signature.

Billboard Update

Starting Monday, April 9, the billboard financed by Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends, IfAmericansKnew, and Deir Yassin Remembered will greet southbound traffic on the Southfield Freeway (M-39) just south of the Interstate 96 intersection. Passing motorists will see “$8 Million/Day to Israel? 1-855-ITS-OUR-MONEY” (dialing this number provides the caller with additional information and accepts donations). Tax deductible contributions to maintain this billboard are accepted at IfAmericansKnew.org and deiryassin.org. Please note “Billboard Project” with your donations. Hopefully, this week’s location will engage and energize members of the Dearborn population and we can pass control of this billboard to them.

Comments?

Six Vigilers
Rachel Corrie – American killed by the Jewish State 2003
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends

Address to Ann Arbor City Council:

April 2, 2012 [396 words]
Good Evening,
We were conducting our weekly vigil February 4th on Washtenaw Avenue when I noticed a man remove a sign from the windshield of one of our cars. He placed the sign into his car and as he was getting into the driver’s seat, I approached his vehicle and asked him to return our sign. He said, “You’re not getting the sign back.” We call AAPD Dispatch with license plate number & car description; Officer KEVIN KLEITSCH came out and made a report. The case was referred to the Detective Bureau and Lieutenant CRAIG LEE was assigned, with the help of Detective MIKE LENCIONI. One month later I correctly identified the man who stole the sign from a photo lineup as IRA LEVY, 4770 Northgate Dr. in the Loch Alpine subdivision.
In spite of correctly identifying Mr. Levy, in spite of the license plate still registered to him as of March 12, and in spite of a professionally written 8-page police report, we were notified that the City Attorney’s office elected not to prosecute.
We peaceful protesters have been in this position before: In September 2006 – ABRAHAM SELIGMAN of Cleveland, Ohio assaulted a member of our protest group in front of at least four uniformed AAPD officers. He was dutifully cuffed and removed by police and again an excellent report was provided. But when it came time for him to face the music, the City Attorney’s office dropped the charges.
There are more instances when peaceful protesters were victims of assault: for example, in April 2010 – DAVID FAUMAN physically assaulted a member of our group while her back was turned. Again, excellent police work by Detective AMY ELLINGER, but no follow up, this time by the county prosecutor’s office.
Detective DAVE MONROE did a super job of questioning ELI AVNY after he drove his car at us in 2006, but again the county prosecutors dropped the ball.
I hope that council is not sending us the message that we are all alone out there. Without enforcement our first amendment rights are weakened, and we look to you to provide that enforcement and to reaffirm your pledge to uphold our constitution.
When I noticed that council is considering the purchase of three new vehicles for the detective bureau I felt compelled to give my support to these professionals. Ann Arbor should be proud of them.

Thank you