Die-Ins and Street Theatre

Die-ins or Other Blank-ins

* Die-ins are a form of protest that create a powerful visual image of people lying on the ground to raise awareness of a specific conflict. Consider having participants wear similar colors, have messages on their shirts (see Materials section), and/or hold banners and signs.

* Jewish die-in example at Penn Station in NYC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeqhL_wwmUs

* A sit-in/lock-down in front of Jewish Community Relations Council, SF http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1O8il0AxSI

Theater Actions

* Street theater is a creative way of creating a message to the public and can often be focused on a specific audience, depending on timing and placement. Re-enactments, staged incidents, and performances are all possible theater actions.

* An example of street theater in NYC to protest Israeli settlements: http://nyc.indymedia.org/or/2008/03/95884.html

Media and Educational Actions

Exhibits

Host an exhibit of Birthright Re-Plugged photos: http://www.birthrightunplugged.org/replugged/

Web Videos

Make a short publicly-accessible video documenting your action or creatively making your point.
If Not Now, When? is an example of a short film in which Jews speak out against the illusion of Jewish consensus on Israel: http://jewishconscience.blogspot.com/

Blog Campaign

Do you have a blog or online journal? Use it to help educate others about the anniversary of the Nakba as part of a month-long "Blog about the Nakba" campaign kicking off this Passover. You can participate in this whether or not you are hooked in with a local group, all you have to do if post Nakba commemoration related content during this time as little or often as you'd like–history, news, links, reflections, or just the text of the "No time to celebrate" statement. Please tag posts with "Nakba" and "no time to celebrate". Graphics and other materials will be available soon.

While this campaign is targeted towards generating Jewish action, all supporters can spread the word about this campaign online and are encouraged to write their own Naba-related posts as well. If you have friends or acquaintances in the blogosphere that we should talk to, or that you'd like to talk to about participating, please let as know! If you post something, we'd also love it if you'd send us the link. Email all this and any questions to notimetocelebrate (AT) gmail.com with "Blog campaign" in the subject line.

Demonstration with Signs/Posters/Flyers In a strategic setting

Create a demonstration of people commemorating the Nakba. This could include signs, posters, handing out flyers, etc. See the Materials and Messaging section for more resources.

Speaker/Film Events

- Host a local academic, activist or panel of folks to discuss Palestine and/or the Nakba.
- Screen the film Occupation 101
- Set-up an information table in a public space
- Provide information on Nakba Day to passerby in a public place. Use flyers, banners or other resources in the visual images/public art section.

StoryCorps

The No Time To Celebrate Media Action workgroup is encouraging people with stories about the Nakba (Jewish, Palestinian, other) to participate in StoryCorps, an ongoing, national radio/oral history project broadcast on NPR and archived at the Library of Congress (www.storycorps.net).

We will be coordinating the organization of this effort and will need help, especially in reaching out to many localities and looking for people to encourage to participate. So please get in touch if you're interested… and please don't just do it on your own without letting us know, if you have a lead to a good storyteller.

StoryCorps sets up booths around the country in which people can interview someone close to them in a safe space, with the help of an expert facilitator. The booths go on tour, as well, and people can also submit stories on their own with easy-to-access recording equipment. The experience can be very moving for both the interviewer and the interviewee; many people process important experiences from their lives for the fist time in this environment.
If you're interested in helping to coordinate this in your area (or nationally), or if you know of people who have good, first-person stories or relationships to share, contact the Media Action workgroup coordinator: notimetocelebrate (AT) gmail.com with StoryCorps in the subject line.


Peaceful Disruptions of Israel Independence Day Celebrations

This May, Israel will mark 60 years of statehood. In cities across the U.S. and Canada, major Jewish organizations will sponsor celebrations of "Israeli Independence Day." Meanwhile, Palestinians around the world will mourn 60 years since the Nakba - Arabic for "catastrophe" - of 1948. The disruption of Israeli Independence Day celebrations is one of the most powerful ways that we can demonstrate to Palestinians and people across the world, the existence of North American Jewish dissent to Zionism, and solidarity with Palestinian resistance.

For ideas on what a disruption might look like, check out:

* New England Celebrates Israel - http://questionisrael.blogspot.com/2007/05/new-england-commemorates-nakba.html;
* sit-in at the Israeli Consulate in San Francisco - http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/07/17/18288971.php.

To find out about Israel at 60 Celebrations in your area, check out the following:

* Jewish Federation Israel at 60 websites http://www.ujc.org/page.html?ArticleID=162228
* Walk the Land- Israel marches around the world http://walktheland.org/communities/
* Israel on Campus events: http://israelcc.org/events."

Check out action ideas above that can be adapted for peaceful disruption.

Also check out the action planning checklist entry for important know your rights materials


Passover Seders and Candle-lighting

Passover Haggadah Supplement

Host or attend a Passover Seder with the theme of liberation, social justice, and reflection on Palestine and the 60 years since the Nakba.

Recently added: Download a copy of the No Time to Celebrate Haggadah Supplement with suggested additional readings for your seder!

Liberation Candle-lighting

Commemorate the Nakba and honor Palestinian resistance with a silent action in a strategic location, using candles, signs, stickers, flyers or banners. Think about what would make this action visually powerful.

* Cheap candles can be ordered here

Consider putting stickers on candles that convey our message. Or create candles that commemorate different Nakba dates or destroyed Palestinian villages.

View a map of depopulated Palestinian villages, or type a date (e.g., "May 1, 1948″) in the Search page and see a list of the villages occupied on that day.

For example:

SALAMA
Palestinian village, destroyed April 25, 1948
Population 1948: 7,807
Population 1998: 47,942
more info: www.palestineremembered.com

or:

ETHNIC CLEANSING IS NOT A JEWISH VALUE
In 1948, 750,000 Palestinians were forced from their homes and villages in order to make a Jewish state.
More info at www.palestineremembered.com



Support Palestinian-Led Events

As anti-Zionist Jews we stand in solidarity with 60+ Years of Palestinian Resistance to Zionism. Throughout North American we can show our solidarity through support of local Nakba commemoration and organizing actions and events sponsored by Palestinians and the Palestine solidarity movement.

To find out about what is being organized in your area, check out the list of Nakba Commemoration events around the world at http://www.badil.org/campaign40-60/calendar/calendar.html (know about an event not listed here, e-mail info@badil.org to add it to the list).

Or visit http://www.endtheoccupation.org/groups.php to find contact info for Palestinian and Palestine solidarity organizations in cities across the United States.


Visual Images/Public Art

Zochrot Map http://www.zochrot.org/index.php?id=522

* Prepare an interactive public art event to commemorate the Nakba. For this activity, organizers or participants create a large-scale "map" of the land of Israel/Palestine in a public space. During the activity, participants make or receive cards representing each of the Palestinian localities destroyed during the Nakba, which they return to their correct location on the map. For instructions on organizing this, please visit the site above, prepared by the organization Zochrot ("Remembering"), based in Tel Aviv.

* Images of previous Zochrot Map actions from U.S. cities: http://questionisrael.blogspot.com/2007/05/boston-commemoration-action.html http://questionisrael.blogspot.com/2007/05/minneapolis-commemorates-nakba.html


Street Art

* Go digital! Graffiti Research Lab http://graffitiresearchlab.com/
o DESCRIPTION HERE
o Examples of the digital graffiti http://www.vimeo.com/631167/

* Low-tech options include stencils, stickers, posters, or chalk.


Banner Drops

* Display a message in a public place - over a highway, on a building, anywhere! Consider timing and location. For slogan ideas, see Messaging section.

* For Nakba commemoration, consider having banner drops with different villages each day for a week (or longer). Example for May 1: "Jews Remember _____, Palestinian village, Population _____, Destroyed/occupied/ethnically cleansed: May 1, 1948." For more information, visit www.palestineremembered.com.

* Example of a banner drop in Philadelphia: http://jewishconscience.blogspot.com/2006/08/philly-banner-drop-images-8-22-2006.html


Ads and Billboards

* To reach a large number of people at once, consider contributing funds towards an advertisement in a news source or public place. For help with messaging ideas or support, please contact us: notimetocelebrate+localaction (AT) gmail.com

* Or, consider altering some existing advertisements, as this "Almost Forgot" group reminds Tel Aviv and Jaffa residents of the Nakba: http://www.zochrot.org/index.php?id=413

* For more ideas check out: http://www.billboardliberation.com

Slogans:

* "We stand in solidarity with 60+ years of Palestinian Resistance to Zionism"
* "Nakba is not a Jewish value"
* "Ethnic cleansing is not a Jewish value"

Other Creative Ideas

Other suggestions:
(add your own using the "Comments" option below!)

* Get a float in the Israel Day parade if there is one

* Create a big map of all of "Israel" and do a short performance piece where you take it off and it's now Palestine, with all the villages (use Salman Abu Sitta's map from www.plands.org)

* Create a performance where each person wears the name/picture of an Israeli community, then lifts it and under neath finds a name/picture of a Palestinian village

* Make "Remember the Nakba" pins/stickers to distribute

* At Israel Day celebrations, hand out information about Palestine on small accessible flyers about anything from destroyed villages to cultural appropriation

* Graffiti or chalk or paint Nakba messages on the ground where event will be held the next day

* Make an anti-JNF poster with before and after pictures of the Palestinian village Saffourieh