Chicago, IL – Pro-Palestinian protesters gathered July 8 at the office of U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky to demand she sign onto HR2590. The bill would ensure taxpayer funds are not used by Israel to support the military detention of Palestinian children, the unlawful seizure and destruction of Palestinian property and forcible transfer of civilians in the West Bank, or annexation of Palestinian land.

The protest was a part of a week of action called for by the U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN). The bill would be a very important step in limiting U.S. aid to the Israeli apartheid state, which uses the aid for the ethnic cleansing and abuse Palestinians.

To date, Representative Schakowsky has refused to sign on to the bill, despite pressure from her constituents to do so. USPCN has said that it is past time for politicians who claim to be progressive to prove it by supporting the rights of the Palestinian people.

#ChicagoIL #AntiwarMovement #Philippines #USPalestinianCommunityNetwork #USRepresentativeJanSchakowsky #HR2590 #Asia

USPCN uplifts the demands of our people who have called on us to shed light on the so-called Palestinian Authority (PA), its corruption, and its use of brutal force to silence, murder, and imprison dissenting voices!

We demand freedom for all Palestinian political prisoners who have been targeted by the traitorous PA and its security apparatus in the past few days. Every branch is an enemy to the cause of liberation, and the PA never has been and never will be a legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.

The PA is only empowered because of Oslo and its funders; and because its source of power are those who ethnically cleanse and oppress the Palestinian people, we are not surprised by the PA’s recent mass arrests of dignified Palestinian activists following its murder of the esteemed shaheed, Nizar Banat.

Those arrested include Ubai al Aboudi and his wife, Hind. Ubai played a critical role in framing USPCN’s Campaign for Liberation and Dignity, which has raised over $65,000 of unconditional aid for the people. Fortunately, Ubai and Hind were released hours ago and are now safely in the company of family.

Meanwhile, the PA furthered its corruption with vaccine deals, squandered conditional aid money to fund its Western tastes, and sat with U.S. Secretary of State Blinken while doing the bidding of the Zionist enemy, Israel.

Banat was killed for pointing out these patterns. After targeting Hind and Ubai, former prisoners, journalists, professors, students, and lawyers have all been rounded up for arrest as well. Mays Abu Ghosh is one of those arrested, and managing to release a text message before her phone was taken away, she shared that all were taken away for interrogation. They collectively refused to sign an agreement, and then the women and men were separated. Some have reportedly been beaten, according to Mays.

Please share these posts and continue to press for the release of all Palestinian and Arab political prisoners from Israeli and PA jails. #FreeAllPalestinianPoliticalPrisoners #CondemnThePA #FreePalestine

Until Liberation and Return,

USPCN

#UnitedStates #Palestine #MiddleEast #PeoplesStruggles #PalestinianAuthority #USPalestinianCommunityNetwork

Chicago, IL – About 25 Palestinian community organizers, members and allies, led by the U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), filled Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky's office, June 10 to demand she support HR 2590, the Palestinian Children and Families Act. If passed, the bill would end U.S. military aid to Israel used for the imprisonment of children, the demolition of homes or annexation of Palestinian land.

When the protesters asked to speak with Representative Schakowsky they were told she was too busy to answer the phone. The protesters began to sit and started to chant “Hey Jan, what do you say? Support Palestinian children today!”

Shortly after, the congresswoman suddenly became available for a phone call.

“At the very least Congresswoman, can't you say that we don't want children to be tortured by the Israelis? This bill is not asking for very much,” said Hatem Abudayyeh, of USPCN, to Representative Schakowsky on the phone on behalf of the sit-in. “We've given you a pass for way too long.”

Schakowsky refused to commit support for HR 2590, and instead claimed that she has been “critical of the state of Israel.” Abudayyeh responded, “That is not enough. We want you to support the legislation like your colleagues from the state of Illinois. You claim to be a progressive, then act on it.”

The group continued to protest inside and then outside of the office, informing those driving and passing by that Jan Schakowsky supports the torture of Palestinian children.

USPCN vowed to return and to continue putting pressure on Representative Jan Schakowsky to sponsor HR 2590.

#ChicagoIL #Palestine #MiddleEast #PeoplesStruggles #USPalestinianCommunityNetwork

Chicago, IL – The Coalition for Justice for Palestine in Chicago rallied and marched to the Israeli Consulate in Chicago May 12. 10,000 people from the Palestinian community and their supporters chanted, “Free, free Palestine!” And “Netanyahu, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide!”

A new chant seemed to tap into the emotion of the crowd: “The only solution, Intifada revolution!”

Overwhelmingly youth from the Arab community, the march was called in response to the attacks by Zionist mobs and Israeli police in Jerusalem, and the Israeli occupation military in air strikes against the people of Gaza. As of May 12, 65 Palestinians have been killed, including many children. Hundreds have been seriously wounded in both Gaza and Jerusalem.

According to the US Palestinian Community Network, the violent attacks on Palestinians started with Israeli efforts to forcibly displace over 2000 Palestinians from the neighborhoods of Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan – as part of the ongoing ethnic cleansing and ‘Judaization’ of Jerusalem.

Frank Chapman of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression and Erica Kadel of Freedom Road Socialist Organization both gave solidarity speeches at rallies before the march, and in front of the Israeli consulate, respectively.

#ChicagoIL #Palestine #MiddleEast #PeoplesStruggles #FreePalestine #USPalestinianCommunityNetwork

Chicago, IL – On September 15, the Chicago Coalition for Justice in Palestine (CJP) held a press conference to reject the charade that was happening the same day in Washington, DC, where the Trump administration was holding a signing ceremony for a ‘peace’ arrangement between Israel and both the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

CJP represents all of the major Palestinian organizations in Chicago. They spoke against the Arab regimes' ‘normalization’ with the Zionist Israeli enemy. Solidarity activists with the American Friends Service Committee and the Chicago Faith Coalition on Middle East Policy and others the agreement and criticized the U.S. role in continuing to support Israel's crimes against the Palestinian people.

Husam Marajda, co-chair of the Chicago chapter of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network, spoke at the press conference, “This will not in any way change the material conditions faced by the Palestinians. The annexation plan was halted not because of a deal with the UAE, but because of the worldwide resistance to U.S. support of Israeli colonization and occupation of our lands. The Palestinian, Arab and world streets already reject these agreements, and will remain steadfast in fighting for our full liberation – from the river to the sea!”

#ChicagoIL #Palestine #PeoplesStruggles #USPalestinianCommunityNetwork #ChicagoCoalitionForJusticeInPalestine #MiddleEast

The U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) categorically rejects Donald Trump's executive order today recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Syrian Golan Heights. As always, the U.S. continues to act with impunity against the will of the Arab people and with clear disregard of international law. This comes two years and three months after the U.S. administration’s public recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of the Zionist entity.

Trump was sitting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he signed the order. Netanyahu’s reelection campaign (Israeli election day has been hastened to April 9) coincides with a new attack on Gaza; an uptick in home invasions, arrests, and expulsions in the West Bank; and an attempt to impose the U.S.’ imperialist will on Lebanon’s government, clearly the aim of Pompeo’s trip last week to Beirut.

It is also clear that Israel and the U.S. are attempting to consolidate their alliances with reactionary Arab regimes like those in the Gulf, and expedite their joint project of land invasion, resource extortion, and political domination of Arab territories. By colonizing and destabilizing Syria, Israel and the U.S. seek only to further their extractive and expansionist aims and erase any prospect of the Palestinian Right of Return.

This executive order is not only an infringement on Syria’s sovereignty, but also a violation of international law. Trump has chosen to ignore a half century of United Nations Security Council Resolutions—namely 242, 338, and 497—that declare the Israeli occupation illegitimate, and that call upon the Zionist entity to rescind its military presence and territorial claim of the land.

USPCN adamantly rejects Trump’s farcical declaration that the Golan Heights is part of Israel. We stand by our guiding principle of opposing the occupation and colonization of all Arab lands, and will defy this Trump maneuver that, in the service of “Israel’s Sovereignty,” stomps on the sovereignty of Syria as well as the sovereignty of a free and liberated Palestine. We salute the brave Syrian people who continue to valiantly resist Israeli occupation.

Finally, we call upon all our members and allies to also publicly reject this flagrant defiance of international law and Arab self-determination.

Just as Jerusalem will always be Arab Palestinian, the Golan Heights will always be Arab Syrian!

USPCN National Coordinating Committee

Monday, March 25, 2019

#UnitedStates #Palestine #PeoplesStruggles #Syria #GolanHeights #USPalestinianCommunityNetwork #MiddleEast

Chicago, IL – On Jan. 20, over 200,000 people marched through downtown Chicago on the anniversary of Trump’s inauguration as part of nationwide Women’s Marches.

The Arab contingent at the Chicago Women’s March, led by young women from the U.S. Palestinian Community Network brought signs about Ahed Tamimi, a young Palestinian girl currently in Israeli occupation jails for daring to defend her land and rights.

Young Arab women led the chants, “Ahed Tamimi was a freedom fighter and she taught us how to fight,” and “When Palestinian women are under attack, what do we do? Stand up fight back!”

#ChicagoIL #Palestine #WomensMarch #AhedTamimi #USPalestinianCommunityNetwork