May 24-26, Detroit MI
https://peoplesconferenceforpalestine.org
We are in an unprecedented moment in history. As we bear witness to the ongoing and brutal genocide against the Palestinian people, we are also part of building a mass movement that is committed to struggling for Palestinian national liberation. The demands for an end to the genocide, lifting of the siege of Gaza, an end to all US aid for Israel, and a free Palestine echo in the streets, in classrooms and universities, disrupting the halls of government and the daily lives of all genocide-profiteers.
All backers of Zionism, Israel, and US imperialism have been put on notice. The perpetrators of genocide and occupation have names and faces, and the masses of people around the world stand against them in the millions. The movement for Palestine has never been stronger: but with this strength comes a monumental responsibility.
This moment calls on us to strengthen our relationships, our strategies, our tactics, and our unity for the struggle ahead. We must build a shared assessment of the moment, and chart out the next phase of our struggle. The Palestinian people have been fighting for liberation for over 100 years, and are committed to continuing this fight generation after generation, until victory. Join us as organizations, collectives, movement leaders, community members, students and intellectuals, artists and cultural workers, and activists for a three-day convening to reflect, exchange, and strengthen ourselves and our fight for a free Palestine.
Registration is now open to the public for the upcoming People’s Conference for Palestine! The conference will take place from May 24-26 at Huntington Place in Detroit, Michigan.
We have seen over the past several months that the politicians in Washington have been unable to ignore our collective power in the streets. However, with the Israeli invasion of Rafah still looming and the Biden administration unwilling to take serious action to stop Israel from committing this foretold atrocity, now is the time to keep up the pressure. We must deepen our relationships, our strategies, our tactics, and our unity for the struggle ahead.
The conference in Detroit will feature panels, workshops, exhibitions, and cultural performances, and will be an opportunity to come together and build upon this critical juncture in our struggle through education and advancing popular consciousness.
Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, joins dozens of Palestinian, Arab-American, Muslim, and anti-war organizations in bringing together this crucial effort.
Al Awda’s response to official iftars hosted by the US government amid genocide in Gaza
We will not attend your iftars laced with the blood of our people.
We are families of Men, Women and Children who were murdered in Gaza and are being starved to death in the month of Ramadan. We write this open letter to call on all sectors of our community throughout the US to unequivocally reject the fig leaf offered to us through attendance of Iftar with mayors and US administration officials who kill us with one hand and offer food with the other. The Biden administration vetoed UN Security Council resolutions calling for the end of the genocide by proposing a ceasefire on three separate occasions. Tens of billions of US tax dollars are channeled to the colonial state of Israel to uphold the siege of Gaza and sustain apartheid in the form of military aid while a few boxes of food are air dropped on the heads of the injured and dying. As of today, the US, with the help of Israel, killed more than 31,971 civilians, injured 78,236, with more than 8,000 are still under the rubble, of whom there are 13,790 children, 9,100 women killed in Women’s History Month, and 8,650 men. 27 children died due to dehydration and starvation. 418 people were killed in the West Bank, including 113 children, with 4,690 injured.
More than 65,000 tons of US-supplied bombs were dropped on Gaza between October 2023 and January 2024, equivalent to 5.5 nuclear bombs. The carnage continued well after. New reports have shown that the US sent troops into Gaza and high-ranking US officers were already killed by the resistance and sent home in body bags. All of this occurs after destroying 27 hospitals in Gaza, in clear violation of humanitarian laws.
We write to tell you that we shall not betray the blood of our people. After 16 years of US-Israeli siege, and blocking of food, water and fuel under the bombing, our people are having iftar on the rubble of their homes, often under the rain, in the cold, and can only muster a plucked cucumber, tomato, and bread made of grass mixed with animal feed. This is supposed to sustain them for the next day of fasting. This is not a famine, but a deliberate starvation campaign decided upon by Netanyahu and funded by Biden, while directly overseen by Blinken. These war criminals called upon many mayors in the US to undermine city resolutions calling for a ceasefire but reach out to our communities so that Biden and the Democrats could raise their dismal polls. To be clear, we and our allies will do everything we can to see this administration lose and be swept into the garbage bin of history, where they belong, along with Hitler, Goebbels, Ngo Din Diem, and other criminals. We will continue to pursue them legally, here in the US, and internationally, until they pay for their crimes against our families and people.
The answer to your invitation is NO, unless you walked out of your comfortable office and marched with us against the carnage. The answer is NO, unless your city passed a clear resolution calling for the end of genocide and condemned US and Israeli crimes.
We also caution limelight-seeking opportunists in our communities to not cross our picket lines, whether they are virtual or physical. We stand in protest of such insults to our collective intelligence, and we shall work to shut down every attempt at dividing our Arab and Muslim communities. A cheap photo opportunity and a handshake with some low-ranking politician will not wash the blood off the hands of those who are complicit in the continued genocide against our people. We shall not provide cover for your tacit resistance to doing the right thing, and we shall do everything in our power to expose and boycott those who do participate in such traitorous affairs.
We are inspired by the actions of Mayor Abdullah Hammoud of Dearborn, MI, who was the first to point out the betrayal of the Biden Administration to a community that decisively handed him the presidency. The swing state of MI and the Democratic base will take back this support. Biden’s threats with Trump’s fascism are hypocritical and disingenuous, and the proof is that Trump continues to campaign and rise towards the oval office, with no repercussions of the January 6th insurrection or other racist actions he oversaw, in spite of the killing of Black and Brown people by the racist police and neo-Nazis. Biden could have moved the US embassy back out of Jerusalem, but he obviously supported Trump’s actions in violating international law with respect to the status of both Jerusalem and the Syrian Golan Heights.
We stand united in the face of Biden’s racist attacks and the mayors who chose his camp over that of justice, freedom, and equality.
Newsessentials Blog 
Posted on April 29, 2024
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