Event:2014/08/31 Ben Lorber: Palestinian Occupation and Creating Solidarity

In summer 2011, community organizer Ben Lorber spent two months as a student in a Zionist religious educational institution in Israel, and then four months in the Israeli-occupied West Bank as an activist and journalist. He stood with Palestinians in nonviolent marches against the Apartheid Wall, helped Palestinian families harvest olive trees in the shadow of Israeli settlements, documented Israeli settler abuse against Palestinian homes and communities, and bore witness to the struggle and resilience of Palestinian daily life under Israeli occupation. Today, Mr. Lorber is an active member of Chicago-area Jewish solidarity groups such as Jews for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace-Chicago, and If Not Now, When?- Chicago. Since Israel’s devastating bombardment of Gaza in Operation Protective Edge, he has worked alongside a vibrant and mobilized Chicago-area Palestinian community in a dynamic movement which has brought tens of thousands of people to the streets in protest against Israeli occupation and apartheid.

In this talk, Mr. Lorber will share reflections and experiences from his time in occupied Palestine. He will also give a reportback from the evolving protests in Chicago. Finally, he will share the viewpoints held by the growing community of American Jews, such as himself, who stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people against a brutal occupation which claims to speak for the global Jewish community.

Transcript of a speech delivered by Mr. Lorber on behalf of the Chicago collective Jews for Justice in Palestine, at a rally shortly before the commencement of Operation Protective Edge, in July 2014:

http://mondoweiss.net/2014/07/apartheid-occupation-committed.html

First-hand reporting by Mr. Lorber from the occupied West Bank- http://electronicintifada.net/content/west-bank-village-steps-protests-against-israels-theft-land/10687

http://electronicintifada.net/content/daily-ordeal-getting-school-hebron/10698

http://electronicintifada.net/content/harvesting-olives-statement-resistance/10514

--- Ben Lorber is a community organizer, journalist and activist. His work has appeared in a variety of online and print publications, including The Abolitionist, In These Times, the Earth First! Journal, The Electronic Intifada, Tikkun, Mondoweiss, Jewish Currents, The Palestine Chronicle, The Indypendent, Green Left Weekly, +972mag, LINKS International Journal of Socialist Renewal, Occupied Palestine, the Monthly Review Zine, and many more. He currently works as an Organizer in Chicago, IL with Grassroots Collaborative, a coalition of labor unions and community organizations that fights for racial and economic justice.