March Against Israeli Brutality

Today around 100 Atlantans gathered at Troy Davis Park (Woodruff Park) and marched to the CNN Center to protest the recent revenge killings of Palestinians by Israeli citizens and the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). These killings can be seen in the wider context of the ongoing brutality of Israel’s military occupation, which has left six Palestinian children and twenty six Palestinian adults dead in 2014 alone.

Now Israel and Israeli citizens are charging all Palestinians, void of evidence, of killing three Israeli teenagers. This purported crime against Israel has been used to justify dropping bombs on the Palestinian population that is living in open air prisons.  While Israeli citizens have autonomy to travel openly, Palestinians are subjected to apartheid occupation and have very little freedom of movement for things such as, travel or work. Sadly, we continue to see Israel using collective punishment against an entire population for crimes which have not yet been fully understood.

How is the conflict across the globe connected to Georgians? Georgia tax dollars, to the tune of 10million per day, are used to fund mothers dying of bombshells and children being beaten, abducted, and shot by IDF soldiers. It is the responsibility of every American not only to care about where their taxes are going, but to be morally indignant at such crimes against humanity. Some of the F16’s the Israeli military uses are made in Marietta, just outside Atlanta

Today’s march was organized by The Movement to End IsraeliApartheid-Georgia is an Atlanta-based group dedicated to the global campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) of Israel until it abides by international law and human rights and supported by a number of groups including American Friends Service Committee.

Hundreds Marched Against the Siege of Gaza

Today , November 24th hundreds of people gathered at Woodruff Park and marched to the CNN Center in protest of the ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza. Movement to End Israeli Apartheid-Georgia (MEIA-G) has called on people of conscience to gather to demand that the US government end all military, financial and political support to Israel until it ends the occupation of Palestine and dismantles its apartheid system.

The 1.7 million people in Gaza are living in an open-air prison, denied many of their most basic rights, including the right to adequate food and clean water, housing, and sanitation, by Israel, a military superpower, enforcing a blockade that the U.N. has deemed to be illegal.

In this most recent assault on the besieged Gaza Strip, Israel has launched over 1600 air strikes killing at least 162 Palestinians. The threat of continued air assaults and ground invasion still remain after Israel killed another Palestinian just hours after an agreed ceasefire.

"Israel's most recent act attacks are a strong reminder that we must engage in and intensify broad-based boycotts, divestment initiatives, and sanction campaigns to expose and sever United States' ties to Israel until it recognizes Palestinians' inalienable right to self-determination," said Aysha Abdullatif.

The global tide of public opinion has turned against the Israeli government as a result of their brutal 2009 bombardment of Gaza, their attack on the international freedom flotillas, and the human rights violation resulting from the siege of Gaza. The tide has yet to reach the United States. The United States continues to give 10 million dollars a day in military aid to the Israeli government, and many of the F16's that drop bombs on Gaza are made in the metro area Lockheed Martin.

It is safe to say that the Israeli governments human rights violations and war crimes are made possibly by our own government. Without our military support Israel might be forced to negotiated a real peace.  

Movement to End Israeli Apartheid-Georgia (MEIA-G) is an Atlanta-based group dedicated to the global campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) of Israel until it abides by international law and human rights. MEIA-G mobilized thousands in January 2009 in the streets of Atlanta to protest Israel's massacre against the Palestinians in Gaza.

American Friends Service Committee played an important role in developing the MEIA-G network, and we're excited to work with MEIA-G moving forward.

GSU Students Denounce Slanderous Attack

Today Georgia State University students and community supporters gathered at the capitol to respond to WSBTV's recent story which implied that members of the student group, GSU Progressive Student Alliance(PSA), were somehow being used by a shady terrorist supporting group
to obtain highly sensitive government secrets.

The press conference articulated the ridiculousness of these accusations. The reality is that PSA has been working, very publicly, with the Movement to End Israeli Apartheid Georgia(MEIAG) on a campaign to end the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange. The exchange basically brings Israeli police to Atlanta to learn drug enforcement tactics while Georgia law enforcement official go to Israel to learn counter insurgency methods, often times in occupied Palestine. PSA had simply filed an open records request in an effort to find out more about the program, which is housed on the GSU campus, and it's impact on the community.

The press conference was held outside of Attorney General Sam Olens office, as he was featured in the story and tossed out some of the more bizarre accusations like claiming PSA’s actions were motivated by the influence of an external organization that may seek a “terrorist attack on local law enforcement.”Or insinuated that GSU students were incapable of developing their own political analysis.

PSA and their community partners have been running a very public campaign, and this is extremely knowable information. All channel 2 or Attorney General Olens would need to do to learn all there is about the campaign to end the GILEE program is do a google search. So either they didn't take the time to do a simply google search, or they left out knowable information in favor of running a story with sensational sinister implications.

It should be noted that Cox Entertainment owns Channel 2, and they're a major contributor to the GILEE program.

One great paradox is that the actual shady organization here isn't PSA or MEIAG, it's GILEE and GILEE's connection to Cox Entertainment and the Attorney General. Let us not forget who these folks are supposed to be serving. Students have the right to ask questions about a program that connects their campus to an apartheid state, to file open records requests, and to do so without being called puppets or terrorists.

See video footage of the press conference shot by Atlanta Indy Media.

How you can you plug into our work? Please call Attorney General Sam Olens at 404-656-3300. Here is an example of what you could say:

Hi, I have a message for Attorney General Sam Olens. My name is ______. Stop the attacks and slandering of the Progressive Student Alliance at Georgia State University. These students have a right to know basic information about their own school’s involvement with Israeli police, who have repeatedly shown a history of human rights violations in their upholding of an apartheid state.


Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee

Nakba Day In Atlanta

Nakba Day is an annual day of commemoration for the Palestinian People of the displacement that accompanied the creation of Israel in 1948.

During the 1948 war an estimated 700,000 Palestinian's were expelled or fled their land and hundreds of Palestinian villages were depopulated and destroyed.

The overwhelming majority of Palestinian refugees, both those outside the 1949 armistice lines at the war's conclusion and those internally displaced, were barred by the newly declared state of Israel from returning to their homes or reclaiming their property. They number several million people today, divided between Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip, with another at least quarter of million internally displaced Palestinians in Israel. It should be noted that descendants of refugees live all over the world, with Atlanta being no exception.

The Loss of Palestine and the dispossession and dispersal of the Palestinian people is known to them as al-Nakba, meaning "the catastrophe," or "the disaster." The Nakba day is one recognized globally, marked by commemorations and resistance actions.

Locally the Movement to End Israeli Apartheid Georgia(MEIAG) held it's third annual Nakba commemoration at Piedmont park. It was a day not only set aside to share stories of family history, but also a day to build community and to enjoy each others company. This years event was by far the largest to date. Over the past year MEIAG has been working with Palestinian refugees in Clarkston , work that AFSC strongly supports whenever we can. Several families fromt the refugee community came out to the park to share their stories, meet new friends, share delicious food, and play games in the park.

Today we hold up Palestinian communities all over the world as we hope for peace and work for justice in the region. To learn more about AFSC's operation's in Palestine Click HERE.


Photo Credit: Ghazal Ahmadi


Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee