TO ALL PEOPLE OF CONSCIENCE:
PROTEST THE FRIENDS OF THE ISRAELI DEFENSE FORCES
JOIN PHILLY BDS on NOVEMBER 18TH at 6 PM at 600 N BROAD ST
NO FUNDRAISING FOR ISRAELI WAR CRIMINALS IN PHILLY!!!
On Monday, Nov. 18th, the Pennsylvania and South NJ branch of the Friends of the IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] will hold their third annual fundraising gala at Vie restaurant at 600 N Broad St. in Philly. Friends of the IDF support the men and women who serve in the Israel Defense Forces. Former Chief of the IDF General Staff General (Res.) Gabi Ashkenazi, who was the head of the Israel Defense Forces from 2007-11, will deliver the keynote speech at the Gala.
Ashkenazi’s forty year military career included serving as Commander of the Golani Brigade. Under Ashkenazi’s command, the Israel Defense Forces invaded Gaza and massacred over 1400 Palestinians during Operation Cast Lead over a three week period from December, 2008 –January, 2009. The United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, known as the Goldstone Report, concluded war crimes were committed by the IDF. Its conclusion was that Israel had engaged in a “deliberately disproportionate attack to punish, humiliate, and terrorize a civilian population.”
The documented war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Operation Cast Lead, emblematic of the Israel Defense Forces, remain uninvestigated. Today, the Israel Defense Forces continue to implement policies of occupation that include a system of apartheid that discriminates against Palestinians, depriving refugees and non-Jewish residents of Israel and the Occupied Territories rights guaranteed under international law.
The number of children injured by the Israelis since the start of the Second Intifada against Israel’s occupation has now reached 6,000. 1,518 Palestinian children were killed by Israel’s occupation forces from the outbreak of the second Intifada in September 2000 up to April 2013. That’s the equivalent of one Palestinian child killed by Israel every 3 days for almost 13 years.*
WE ARE NOT FRIENDS OF WAR CRIMINALS!
WE ARE NOT FRIENDS OF ETHNIC CLEANSING AND MILITARY OCCUPATION!
WE ARE FRIENDS OF JUSTICE, EQUALITY, AND HUMAN RIGHTS!
