US Campaign Adopts Proposals on Apartheid, Boycott, and Nakba at 6th Annual Organizers' Conference

More than 100 delegates from more than 50 member organizations of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation met this weekend at the Arlington Campus of George Mason University in Arlington, Virginia for the US Campaign's 6th Annual National Organizers' Conference.

Delegates to the conference amended and then passed by consensus all three proposals submitted for consideration. The proposals, which will guide the work of the US Campaign for the next year, call for the US Campaign to:

Organize a national Anti-Apartheid speaking and organizing tour;
Launch a national boycott campaign against Motorola for profiting from Israeli occupation; and
Commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Nakba through educational campaigns and days of action

Conference delegates also elected four new members to the US Campaign's 12-person Steering Committee to replace members whose terms expired at the conference. The newly-elected Steering Committee members are:

Omar Baddar, SUSTAIN-Memphis
Adam Horowitz, American Friends Service Committee
Judith LeBlanc, United for Peace and Justice
Ashley Wilkinson, General Board of Global Ministries, United Methodist Church
(Organizations are listed for identification purposes only. Members of the US Campaign’s Steering Committee serve in their individual capacities, not as representatives of organizations.)

The newly-elected Steering Committee members fill the places of the following outgoing members who completed their terms:

Huwaida Arraf, International Solidarity Movement
Mark Lance, SUSTAIN-DC/Coalition for Justice and Accountability (Co-Chair)
Samir Moukaddam, American Friends Service Committee—Southeast
Mazin Qumsiyeh, Middle East Crisis Committee
The US Campaign would like to express its profound gratitude to Huwaida, Mark, Samir, and Mazin for their hard work and inspiring guidance over the years.

Other highlights of the conference included an inspiring Friday night panel entitled "Success Stories in Advocating for Palestinian Human Rights" and a Saturday night cultural event which featured the world-premier screening of "The World Says NO to Israeli Occupation," a documentary on the US Campaign’s June 10 protest in Washington, DC marking 40 years of Israel’s military occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip.

Yesterday dozens of conference attendees stayed for the US Campaign's lobbying day on Capitol Hill. Conference attendees met with their Members of Congress and staff to express their opposition to $30 billion in U.S. military aid to Israel over the next ten years; their support for legislation to ban the export of cluster munitions; their support for renewed U.S. peace-making efforts based on human rights and international law; and their concern about the Israel's denial of the right of entry to the Occupied Palestinian Territories to U.S. passport holders.

The US Campaign would also like to thank Students for Justice in Palestine at George Mason University for sponsoring and hosting the conference and the George Mason University administration and police department for ensuring that it was safe and successful. Although George Mason University was pressured to cancel the conference, it admirably stood up for our right of free speech against individuals who tried unsuccessfully to shut the conference down.

Within the next few weeks, the US Campaign will post videos from the conference, a conference report, and the texts of the proposals passed as amended.

US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation