Protesting AIPAC

Recent Protests &
Planning Ahead

Future Protests

See the report of a recent protest of AIPAC in Oakland that took place in December 2007 here.

Endorse this Statement of Conscience opposing the policies of AIPAC here. 

Get your official Stop AIPAC postcard and spread the word.  We demand peace, not war!

Below is a list of planned protests and protest opportunities.  AIPAC holds membership dinners in many cities around the nation throughout the year.  It holds its main Policy Conference in Washington DC every year, and that is attended by thousands, including usually most of Congress and a few heads of State (often including the Prime Minister of Israel).  Even their smaller dinners are often attended by hundreds of people, including many local politicians.  Isn't it time they knew attending  a celebration of  militarism may be controversial? 

We can expose AIPAC's agenda and hold it accountable to people's desire for a fair foreign policy. 

Let us know when you hear of a AIPAC meeting/gathering, and we will list it here.  Let us share your protest plans, and then we can help you gather support.  We also can share the results. 

Get on our Updates email list.

Only nonviolent, anti-racist protests that support equal rights for all will be reported. 

See below for Recent Protests. 
Possible upcoming protests:

Monday, December 17th, 2007, Oakland, at Marriot City Center, 11th and Broadway (Map)
gather at 6 PM  This protest is will likely be the largest protest of aipac this year. Is your group a endorser?  Please contact us. 

Recent Protests

Columbus, Ohio, May 14th, 2007  A small but spirited group handed out leaflets to passerby at an aipac event. See Photo left.

Sacramento, California, December 3, 2006  Over 100 gather to protest the extremist policies of AIPAC at one of its "membership events".   Story from the SN&R, a Sacramento Weekly.  Endorsers of the protest (not mentioned in the above story, but very significant, included Sacramento Peace Action, Sacramento for Democracy, Veterans for Peace.   Jewish Voice for Peace, Sacramento was mentioned in the article, but they felt it had unfairly reduced the content of their message. (see this letter written in response to SN&R story cited above).   While there were divergent views represented at the protest, some clearly objectionable, it was significant that mainstream peace groups such as Peace Action and a progressive Democratic Party organization participated, and said no to the extremist agenda promoted at the AIPAC event.  Similar protests were held in Santa Clara and Oakland that same week. 

AIPAC and Me- An Activist from Progressive Democrats of America protests at Boston AIPAC dinner.  May 7, 2006

Young Boston Jews hold Passover Seder outside AIPAC offices. 
April 11, 2006 

Note:  As this example shows us, we don't have to wait for an organized AIPAC activity to protest AIPAC.  The folks in Boston went to one of AIPAC's  ten regional offices to protest for a justice and peace.

Propaganda for the Insipid
An opinion piece rather than an actual protest, this is an example of the many people that are generally supportive of Israeli policies, turned off by the extremism and simplistic propaganda of the AIPAC annual show in Washington.  From the point of view of a young Jewish High School senior.  (Outside link)

AIPAC and Me

By Bruce Taub,

Progressive Democrats of America  MA State Coordinator

Friends - Last night I went to the AIPAC fundraising dinner here in Boston, specifically intending to speak out on behalf of the Palestinian people. This was not intended by me as an act of civil disobedience, but as an act of conscience. When I was in the Occupied Territories/Palestine about a month ago and asked the wonderful people I met there what I could do to help end their oppression by the Israeli state, to a person they said, "change US policy, expose AIPAC."

So when I heard AIPAC would be in Boston raising money I felt a virtually uncontrollable desire to act, to speak truth to power, to be as un-good a "good German" as I was capable of being.

The AIPAC affair itself was predictable. The room was immense, with amazing loudspeakers, twin jumbo screens, senators, congressmen and women, security, free flowing alcohol, and nearly 700 wildly applauding AIPAC toadies and sympathizers. Israel was wonderful. The United States was wonderful. The terrorists, the Muslims, the Arabs, the fundamentalists, the mullahs, the leaders of Arab nations, Hamas, the protesters outside the hotel, the sponsors of the divestment action in Somerville, were all detestable abominations. The words "terrorist," "9/11," "Islamic," "Arab," and "enemies of freedom" ran together repeatedly like the refrain of an advertising jingle.

During the incredibly jingoistic, intolerant, uncompromising, arrogant, ass-kicking keynote speaker's speech by U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen [R-FL], lead sponsor of HR4681, the so-called Palestinian Anti-terrorism Act of 2006," (the one that will cut off humanitarian aid to Palestine until the PA halts "all anti-Israel incitement in Palestinian Authority-controlled electronic and print media and in schools, mosques, and other institutions it controls, and replaces these materials, including textbooks, with materials that promote tolerance, peace, and coexistence with Israel,") it was clear to me what I needed to say. Because believe it or not, in over two hours of speeches and declarations, the Palestinian people, the invisible people, the suffering, oppressed, subjugated, ethnically segregated people had never been mentioned once!!

"The people missing from this meeting are the Palestinian people," I called out as loudly as I could. "The issue of the Palestinian people is the painful crippling pebble in Israel's shoe. Without justice for the Palestinians there can be no peace for Israel."

Upon which I was promptly grabbed by some heroic AIPAC supporters, the plain clothes security detail I had identified earlier, and three guys who appeared out of nowhere and were each the size of an SUV.

As I was being escorted out, I placed some of the handouts I had prepared on one of the reception tables, where they were picked up by security no sooner than I had left them. I was in no position to argue. So here's a copy of that handout (below), with reference to the web site I mentioned - www.justandpeaceful.org - at the end. If you get a chance I hope you'll read it. The site was created in an effort to help advance the cause of peace and justice in Palestine and Israel and to provide some modest support to the many Palestinian, Israeli, and U.S peace activists who labor so passionately and conscientiously to realize a new vision for Israel and Palestine. Submissions to the site are more than welcome.

In peace and struggle, Salaam, Shalom, Bruce

Originally from AfterDowningStreet.org & Progressive Democrats of America

There was also a peaceful protest outside the Westin Hotel in Boston. 
See here and some photos here. 

Young Boston Jews hold Passover seder outside AIPAC, JCRC offices
Hannah Mermelstein, The Electronic Intifada, 17 April 2006
 

On Tuesday, April 11, at 5:00 pm, 20 young Jewish people gathered for a seder (traditional celebration of Passover) outside 126 High Street in Boston, the building that houses the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and Boston's Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC). The group expressed their support for Palestinian human rights and opposition to AIPAC's and JCRC's unquestioning support for Israel and its governmental policies. With a banner that read "Passover means liberation for all. Justice for Palestine," they conveyed the message to the organizations inside and to the media that AIPAC and JCRC do not speak for all Jews.

The group set up a seder table and recited Passover's traditional four questions, one of the many ways the story of Exodus is told during Passover. The four questions include symbols and explanations for why we use these symbols during the holiday. The group's explanations included facts about Israel's demolition of Palestinian homes, confiscation and destruction of Palestine's land resources for the expansion of settlements and the Separation Wall, and malnutrition and poverty in Palestine caused by Israeli closure and movement restrictions.

According to Marjorie Kent, one of the organizers of the seder, "During Passover, every generation of Jewish people is commanded to remember that we were slaves and to tell the story of the Exodus so that we can recognize oppression that happens today and work to stop it. Today we committed ourselves to this task."

AIPAC pushes the US government to support Israeli policies which result in the brutal oppression of Palestinian people and denial of their internationally recognized human rights. JCRC, while claiming to speak for all Jews, invests enormous time and energy suppressing any voice of opposition to Israeli policies, especially Jewish voices. "Our generation has had enough of AIPAC's and JCRC's complicity in Israel's human rights abuses of Palestinians," said Hannah Mermelstein, another seder organizer. "Their support of these policies betray the libratory message of Passover."

Not everyone agreed. One man walked briskly past the group and screamed, "Race traitors! Religion traitors! I am a proud Jew and will not give my homeland to the Arabs." Other passersby stopped to watch or ask questions. Most people leaving the building did not engage with the group, but clearly knew why the group was there.

 

The group called on people leaving the building to take the message of "liberation for all" home with them this Passover. They handed out supplements for people to add to their traditional Passover seders. The final question of the four, traditionally asking why we recline instead of sitting straight in our chairs, asked instead: "On Passover, we usually sit on soft chairs. Why do we stand at this seder?" The answer: "Avadot hayinu. We were slaves. Because this year, it is time for each of us to make a choice. Do we stand for justice? Or do we sit and do nothing as others are oppressed in our name? Do we stand against the oppression of our Palestinian sisters and brothers? Or do we sit and allow AIPAC, JCRC, and others to betray our traditions? Do we act in the true spirit of Passover, or do we remain silent and betray the meaning of our sacred tradition? Today, we choose to stand!"

As the group left, the police arrived with specific instructions to arrest them. An officer said to one member of the group, "Thank you for not making us arrest you just before Easter."


Hannah Mermelstein is a member of the International Women's Peace Service and co-founder of Birthright Unplugged. Originally from the Philadelphia area, she now lives part-time in Boston and part-time in Palestine.

Originally from Electronic Intifidah

Stop AIPAC!  PO BOX 11311 · Berkeley CA · 94712