Washington Report on Middle East Affairs
September/October 2005
Anti-Occupation Conference in Madison a Big Success
More than 100 community members and activists from seven states and more than 20 organizations came to Madison, Wisconsin June 24 to 26 to attend the Upper Midwest Regional Organizers’ Conference of the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation. The conference was hosted by the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project, a member organization of the U.S. Campaign, a three-year-old coalition of more than 200 groups working to end U.S. support for Israel’s illegal military occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem.
Norman Finkelstein, professor of political theory at DePaul University in Chicago, kicked off the conference on Friday night with a keynote address entitled “Beyond Chutzpah: The Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History.” Finkelstein took the title of his talk from his upcoming book, available from the AET Book Club, in which he challenges the arguments and scholarship of Alan Dershowitz, in his book The Case for Israel. Finkelstein argued that Dershowitz’s claims and those of other “pro-Israel” advocates are easily refutable by referring to Israeli and international human rights reports.
The next day focused on skills-building workshops designed to boost the confidence and ability of grassroots activists to work in their communities to change U.S. policy toward Israel and Palestine on a local level. Attendees learned from Rima Mutreja, of Palestine Media Watch, different techniques to challenge inaccurate local media coverage. Mohammed Abed and Karima Berkani, of al-Awda Wisconsin, shared their successful experience in pushing divestment resolutions through various University of Wisconsin campuses and demonstrated how to set up similar campaigns. This writer, the grassroots advocacy coordinator of the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, worked with attendees on developing strategies to be effective with their elected representatives, and members of the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project provided participants with a hands-on approach toward developing Palestinian solidarity campaigns in their communities.
Community members and conference attendees packed The Crossing, a University of Wisconsin campus-based Christian ecumenical center, on a rainy Saturday night for a Palestinian-style dinner. Afterward, in a panel entitled “Rebuilding Homes, Rebuilding Hopes in Gaza,” special guests Cindy and Craig Corrie and Khaled and Samah Nasrallah spoke about the ties that bind their two families together (see story on p. 46). The panel was preceded by an introduction and tribute from Joe Carr, a member of the Christian Peacemaker Teams, who was with the Corrie’s daughter, Rachel, when she was killed by the Israeli army with a Caterpillar bulldozer in Rafah in March 2003, as she nonviolently protected the Nasrallahs’ house from demolition. The emotional and uplifting presentation was part of a speaking tour by the Corrie and Nasrallah families on behalf of the Rebuilding Alliance.
The conference concluded on Sunday morning with a freewheeling strategizing session on grassroots organizing. Conferencegoers synthesized what they had learned over the weekend and laid plans to create or add to grassroots organizing campaigns in their communities to end U.S. support for Israeli occupation.
The goals of the conference, according to Kymberlie Quong Charles, the U.S. Campaign’s membership outreach coordinator, were to “strengthen local organizing efforts, provide inspiring forums for skills-building and sharing, expand the membership of our coalition, and to network individuals and organizations across the region.”
Conference attendees pronounced themselves satisfied that the gathering met these goals.
The Upper Midwest Regional Organizers’ Conference was the third in an ongoing series of regional organizing conferences led by the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation. Previous conferences took place in New Orleans in April 2005 (hosted by New Orleans Louisiana Palestine Solidarity) and in Kansas City in November 2004 (hosted by Citizens for Justice in the Middle East).
Following its 4th Annual National Organizers’ Conference, from July 29 to Aug. 1 in Atlanta, GA, the U.S. Campaign plans to bring regional organizing conferences to the Pacific Northwest in Fall 2005, and to the Southwest in Winter 2006
For more information, see the U.S. Campaign’s Web site, .
—Josh Ruebner