Jewish Voice for Peace-Atlanta Chapter

🚨Evict Elbit Alert🚨For the close of a Hanukkah week of action against Elbit Systems — Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer and global arms merchant — community members returned to the offices of Newmark Real Estate and demanded that Newmark stop leasing office space to an Elbit company in Duluth, Georgia.

See below for an urgent statement issued by those who occupied Newmark’s lobby to demand that Newmark EVICT ELBIT.

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WE ARE HERE TO DEMAND NEWMARK EVICT ELBIT NOW!

“We are here because Hanukkah is a celebration of anti-colonial resistance. As anti-zionist jews, we cannot celebrate historical anticolonial resistance without standing against the genocidal war machine that is furthering the colonization of Palestine today..."

“Zionist propaganda falsely claims, that the only way for Jewish people to be safe, is to create an ethnostate through genocide, land theft, and ethnic cleansing. We reject this firmly, knowing that Jewish safety can only come through struggling together in the communities we live in, towards liberation for all. Living in the US, we recognize this war machine is funded by our tax dollars today. A war machine that designs and manufactures technologies of surveillance, and mass slaughter on stolen land. Down the street from our homes, next to our children's schools, across from places of worship. Our tax dollars pay Elbit to kill Palestinians and steal their land! Our tax dollars pay Elbit to develop technologies for ICE to surveil, brutalize, detain, and deport our immigrant loved ones, neighbors, and community members!..."
.. WE ARE HERE TO DEMAND THAT NEWMARK EVICT ELBIT

One day, we will all be ancestors. What will our descendants remember us for?

Following the third night of Hanukkah we honor the legacy of Arna Mer-Khamis (1929-1995) Z’’L. Arna was born to Lithuanian Jewish settlers in British occupied Palestine. Arna was a teacher and activist who founded the organization, Defense of Children under Occupation/Care and Learning during the First Intifada. She focused on developing creative teaching methods, using theatre and art to help children in the Jenin Refugee Camp cope with chronic fear, depression, and trauma. Arna, alongside other women in the camp, led the program, creating a therapeutic space for healing and self-expression.

Arna was raised Zionist and fought in the underground Palmach unit during the 1948 and the 1967 wars. After marrying Palestinian Christian Saliba Khamis, secretary of Israel’s Communist Party, she moved to Nazareth. By 1967, she began protesting the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and was imprisoned multiple times for her activism.

In 1993 she was awarded the Right Livelihood Award for her “passionate commitment to the defense and education of the children of Palestine”, her lifelong mission was to establish educational and cultural centers where children could recover from trauma.

The Israeli government’s genocide of Palestinians is not over, it is expanding. With funding and support from the US, the Israeli state is entrenching the long-term illegal control and annexation of territory in Gaza. In the face of vicious repression and escalating state violence here in the United States, we renew our commitment to ending the genocide. Our anti-Zionist Jewish ancestors give us strength. May their legacy light the path toward liberation.

The miracle of Hanukkah was that against all odds the light endured—it was never extinguished. Hanukkah teaches us to persist, even in the darkest of moments. Inspired by our ancestors and out of a commitment to justice we keep going.

Originally prepared for Dwell in Revolution: Ancestors for Judaism Beyond Zionism, a zine and portrait project by , , . Art by:

SAVE THE DATE: mark your calendars for our antizionist Passover Seder! Details and RSVP link to follow.

Image Description: Text reads “ATL Anti-Zionist Community Passover, April 19th. Save the date - RSVP link coming soon!” on a yellow background under which three illustrated hands of varying skin tones, with nails painted in the style of flags of many countries whose citizens are still fighting for liberation or equality, and tattoos that read “live free” and “solidarity”, are linked together. JVP Atlanta logo in bottom corner.