Apartheid Free Zones: Toolkit for Organizers
News
The Presbyterian Church (USA), in its 225th General Assembly, voted to officially recognize that Israel’s laws, policies, and practices constitute apartheid against the Palestinian people and urgning its members and staff to seek ways to bring an end to Israeli apartheid
The New England Conference of The United Methodist Church overwhelmingly adopted a resolution recognizing that the Israeli government has established a system of apartheid and calling on the U.S. government to condition U.S. funding to Israel upon Israel’s willingness to dismantle its apartheid system.
The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) issued a “Compelled to Witness” pastoral letter affirming that Israeli policies and practices that discriminate against Palestinians are consistent with the international legal definition of the crime of apartheid, and supporting the use of economic measures to hold countries and companies accountable.
The Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinic Council issued an open letter to the Jewish community, Israeli Apartheid and the Path to Teshuvah, supporting the use of the term ‘apartheid’ to describe Israeli rule over Palestinians and calling on the Jewish community to actively repair of the harms of apartheid.
Episcopalians in the Diocese of Washington overwhelmingly adopted a resolution opposing Israel’s apartheid and calling on the U.S. government to condemn and oppose Israel’s apartheid by all appropriate means, including imposition of sanctions and suspension of military aid.
The Episcopal Diocese of Vermont passed a resolution Recognition of Apartheid in Israel/Palestine, which called on the U.S. government to “withhold military funding from the State of Israel until Israel eliminates apartheid laws, respects Palestinian human rights, and stops violating international law.” This is the first time that any entity within the Episcopal Church had named Israeli policy toward Palestinians apartheid.
The United Church of Christ’s 33rd General Synod overwhelmingly adopted a resolution rejecting reject any laws and legal procedures which are used by one race or religion or political entity to enshrine one people in a privileged legal position at the expense of another, including Israel’s apartheid system of laws and legal procedures.
The American Friends Service Committee approved a new investment policy statement for the organization, incorporating a groundbreaking invest/divest framework, and the first to addresses Israeli apartheid.
Resources
Al-Haq
The Legal Architecture of Apartheid
B’Tselem
A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid
American Friends Service Committee
Investigate:
Amnesty International
Israel’s Apartheid against Palestinians: Cruel System of Domination and Crime against Humanity
Human Rights Watch
A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution
Jonathan Kuttab
Is Israel an apartheid state?
Mike Merryman-Lotze
Why AFSC uses the term “Israeli apartheid”
Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinic Council
Israeli Apartheid and the Path to Teshuvah: An Open Letter to the Jewish Community