Occupy AIPAC

Every year in March, close to the time of the Persian New Year, members of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) gather in Washington DC to discuss and plan the organization’s policies for the year to come. Last year, CODEPINK: Women for Peace — with the support of more than 100 other peace organizations, including the Fellowship of Reconciliation — mobilized in Washington to demonstrate broad-based national opposition to AIPAC policy. The  “Move Over AIPAC” event was a success in 2011, with speakers, rallies, and even a direct action that took the message into the AIPAC conference room as its achievements. 

Now, in the midst of increasing and serious threats by U.S. and Israeli lawmakers and media sources toward Iran, it is our responsibility to once again proclaim NO to AIPAC. The Fellowship of Reconciliation is joining with a coalition of 120-plus organizations — including ally groups such as Interfaith Peace-Builders and American Jews for a Just Peace — to say NO to another war propaganda, say NO to AIPAC, and say NO to destruction of yet another nation.

This excerpt from outreach by the organizers provides a good summary of the plans:

The Occupy AIPAC summit will be a long weekend of teach-ins, cultural performances, protests and creative direct actions, and a sneak preview of the forthcoming film Roadmap to Apartheid. Saturday conference will feature educational panels on Iran, Palestine, the Arab Uprisings and the Occupy Movement (see the list of speakers). Sponsors and endorsers include the Institute of Policy Studies, Just Foreign Policy, Interfaith Peace-Builders (IFPB), the US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), Jewish Voice for Peace, Students for Justice in Palestine chapters, and over 120 other groups.