US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation

Participation is a key strategy for bringing diverse, yet unified, voices together in the United States to challenge policies that organisers believe are enabling and perpetuating conflict overseas. In that sense, the Campaign is based on a notion of responsibility. Among those taking part are civil and human rights activists, faith-based organisations, peace activists, Arab-American organisations, Jewish groups opposing the occupation, students, and others. Any person or organisation who supports the Campaign's Call to Action is thought to contribute to the fulfillment of its purpose. In short, the Campaign provides all of these individuals and groups with a forum to exchange experiences and share information, hopefully thereby building a powerful national movement to challenge US policies supporting the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

Signatories to the Call to Action are involved in the Campaign by:

• Spreading the word amongst their constituencies
• Sharing "best practices" from their own organising efforts
• Promoting the Campaign as part of their work in other areas
• Responding to Action Alerts, such as that announcing the March 19-20 2005 Global Day of Protest to mark the 2-year anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq.

Participants are also asked to volunteer their time as members of the Campaign's Ad Hoc Task Forces, which include:

• The Legislative Taskforce - coordinates efforts by US citizens to demand that Members of Congress support a balanced, constructive foreign policy to end the occupation and establish a just peace
• The Media Taskforce - coordinates efforts by activists around the United States to influence coverage of Israel and Palestine in various media markets. Member organisation Palestine Media Watch provides fellow members with tools to become more effective media activists (e.g., material on how to set up a media watch group, PowerPoint presentations on media coverage of the occupation, contact information to media, access to documentaries, etc.) and gives them access to a network of media activists focusing on the occupation (hopefully enabling them to coordinate strategic actions and to quickly spread the word)
• The Non-Violent Direct Action Taskforce - offers networking, training, and educational opportunities to organisations interested in taking part in non-violent, direct action to change US policy toward Israel and Palestine
• The Outreach Taskforce - conducts outreach to various constituencies, particularly churches, students, African Americans, labour, and Arab Americans, to build the nationwide coalition
• The Resources and Information Taskforce - identifies educational resources, distributes them to member organisations, and adds to and maintains the Campaign website. This portal offers activists tools to directly provide information on their organisations and list their events in the online, searchable, events calendar. Individuals can find out who's active in their neighbourhood and groups can join forces within and across states. In addition, the Campaign newsletter "Occupation End Notes" is published biweekly to inform activists about events, resources, and lessons learned from experience.

Advocacy - often in concert with fellow activist organisations - is the key action strategy. Examples of campaign projects highlighting this strategy include:

• The Stop the Wall Project - supports the efforts of US groups opposing the 8- to 30-foot high barrier that Israeli forces are building on Palestinian land - with US support. Organisers say that this wall is "destroying the water supply and livelihood of many Palestinian villages and trapping thousands of Palestinians in closed military zones." PENGON (the Palestinian Environmental NGOs Network) is leading this effort
• The Caterpillar Project - a call for an end to sales to the Israeli military of Caterpillar-built bulldozers used in armoured form "to destroy Palestinian homes and lands." The project supports the efforts of member groups to mount legal challenges; educate about home demolitions, the Wall, and agricultural destruction; reach out to labour unions; and take direct action (by, for example, organising a demonstration or contacting Congressional representatives on April 13 2005 - Day of Action against Caterpillar)
• The Divestment Project - seeks to inform, educate, and mobilise the public regarding the role of the US in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the way that funds invested US institutions help sustain the occupation. One approach here involves making the experiences of different groups available on the Campaign website.

Conflict, Rights.

Organisers provide the following background: "Israel gets the largest amount of US foreign aid--close to $3 billion/year in military and economic assistance--plus billions more in loan guarantees even though it violates international law on a daily basis. We supply Israel with the weapons to maintain the occupation, which it often uses in violation of the US Arms Export Control Act. Our aid should support a just settlement where Palestinians and Israelis can live side by side in peace and security. Instead, our government uses its veto at the UN to block an international protection force, although the rest of the world supports it. Such a force would protect both the Palestinian people under occupation and Israeli civilians from the consequences of occupation until it is ended."

In 2001, the Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR) began participating in a dialogue with representatives from non-profit organisations and individual activists to discuss strategies for launching the Campaign. The Campaign's 3 organising conferences in Washington, DC (June 2004, July 2003) and in Chicago (June 2002) brought together several hundred groups and individuals from all over the US. As of July 2004, 140 organisations had signed on to the Campaign.