Mon.Mar.12.2007@6:00PM to Mon.Mar.12.2007@8:00PM

Call to Protest AIPAC’s Annual Conference Issued 2/21/07 MONDAY, MARCH 12 - 6 to 8 PM DC Convention Center, Mount Vernon Place between 7th & 9th Streets NW

CONGRESS, STAND UP TO AIPAC

Stop Funding Crimes Against Palestinians And Iraq and Iran Wars

DC Antiwar Network invites other peace and justice organizations to endorse and/or participate in a peaceful “Congress Stand Up to AIPAC” demonstration on Monday, March 12 from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. We will protest the “Gala Banquet” of the 2007 American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) annual conference being held at the DC Convention Center.

 

Dozens of congressional representatives and executive branch officials will attend the AIPAC banquet. Senate leaders Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell and house leader Nancy Pelosi will speak. We encourage those inside and outside of D.C. who cannot attend to take other action:

* call congressional representatives, especially Reid, McConnel and Pelosi, and ask them NOT to attend the AIPAC conference.

* lobby congressional representatives in person or via phone on March 13th for Palestinian rights and/or against Iraq and Iran wars. On the afternoon of March 13th one thousand or more AIPAC conference goers will be lobbying congress in person against Palestinian rights and in support of war against Iran.

To endorse this call and be listed in the press release e-mail dawnactivists@yahoo.com by noon March 8, 2007. Feel free to include a web page link, e-mail or phone contact for our web page http://dawndc.net

OUR CONCERNS

We protest AIPAC, a non-registered agent of the State of Israel, bribing and bullying American congressional representatives into supporting Israel, often in ways that ultimately harm Americans. Although AIPAC does not even represent a majority of American Jews, its massive network of allied political groups and committed supporters raise money and apply political muscle with two main goals:

* AIPAC works to perpetuate Israel’s illegal occupation and apartheid practices in the West Bank and Gaza, including the building of an “apartheid” wall which has been condemned as illegal by the International Court of Justice. It supports ongoing discriminatory practices, land confiscation and ethnic cleansing in both the occupied territories and Israel. AIPAC and its allies’ propaganda efforts have misled most Americans into thinking the Palestinians merely are terrorists trying to destroy Israel, instead of being victims of 60 years of Israeli aggression who seek equal political rights, including to return to their illegally confiscated lands and homes.

* AIPAC works to protect Israel’s confiscated Palestinian lands by promoting U.S. dominance in the Middle East. AIPAC and its “neoconservative” and “Christian Zionist” allies promoted an illegal American war against Iraq. They now promote an Israeli and/or U.S. attack on Iran, even though the U.S. Department of Justice is prosecuting former AIPAC staffers for spying on the U.S. to gain information about Iran to relay to Israel. AIPAC supports Israeli threats to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities to force President Bush to do so. Any attack on Iran could lead to the first use of nuclear weapons since 1945, deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iranian civilians, retaliations by Iran and Shiites in Iraq that could kill thousands of U.S. troops in Iraq, a cut off of oil supplies that could devastate the world economy, and escalation to regional or even world nuclear war.

AIPAC’s destructiveness has been highlighted in the last year by the writings of respected Professors Walt and Mearsheimer (“The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy”) and former President Jimmy Carter (“Palestine: Peace Not Apatheid”). Dozens of pundits, left, right and mainstream have echoed their analysis. AIPAC provides ideological propaganda and political muscle to promote wars that its military contractor allies need to profit from wars. These special interests undermine American democracy by making congressional representatives and the president more responsive to them than to American voters.

Those who sign on to this call demand congress stand up to special interests like AIPAC, end U.S. support for illegal Israeli policies, end war on and occupation of Iraq and prevent any war against Iran. We support just reparations for aggrieved Palestinians and Lebanese for their economic and personal suffering over many decades.

We predict that should either Israel or the U.S. initiate war against Iran, the various peace and justice movements, as well as Americans from a variety of groupings, will work to hold accountable those responsible for mass murder against innocent Arabs and Muslims, as well as the unnecessary deaths of thousands of American service people. Such initiatives might include: driving responsible representatives and officials from office and electing ones who truly represent the American people; registering AIPAC and other defacto Israel lobbies as foreign agents; forbidding anyone with dual citizenship from working in the United States government; permanently ending all aid to Israel; prosecuting for war crimes the most culpable American and Israeli officials and lobbyists; and many other efforts.

Organizer: DC Anti-War Network.
Endorsers as of 2/25/07

 

American Council on Mideast Policy
The Howard County Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation
DC911truth.org
Global Exchange
Northern Virginians for Peace and Justice
 

Individual Endorsers

William and Ursula Slavick, Portland, ME
Mike Maggio, Author, Sifting Through the Madness
Hedy Epstein, St. Louis, MO Women in Black
Rev. Dr. Betty Jane Bailey, United Church of Christ
Rev. Dr. J. Martin Bailey, United Church of Christ
Jack Lally
Eleanor Wesley, Elverta, CA
Paula Abrams-Houranim, Women in Black, Vienna
William and Ursula Slavick, ME
Arlene Halfon, Virginia
Jeanne Raymond, Corvallis, OR

Groups working against the Israel Lobby:
AntiWar.Com
American Council on Mideast Policy
Council for National Interest
StopAIPAC.Org
Middleeast.org
CounterPunch.Org
Fight the Israel Lobby
Israel Lobby Watch
The (Jimmy) Carter Center
Middle East Research and Information Project
IfAmeriansKnew.Org
StopTheWarNow.Net
Walt and Mearsheimer "Israel Lobby" paper

 

Location: Mount Vernon Place between 7 & 9th Sts NW, across from Convention Center, Washington, DC
Metro: Gallery Pl/Chinatown