New York, NY – 120 New Yorkers silently picketed at the entrance to Manhattan’s Chelsea Piers this evening to protest against the Brooklyn-based Hebron Fund’s fundraising event to expand Jewish settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Hebron. The protesters held signs saying “End the Siege of Hebron,” “Remove the Settlers,” “Return the Land,” “Hebron is in Palestine,” “US Dollars Feed Israeli War Crimes,” and other signs with large photos depicting violence by Israeli settlers and soldiers against Palestinian residents of Hebron. The protest was endorsed by sixteen US human rights and peace groups, three of which are Jewish (see groups below).
About forty people held a separate protest organized by J Street U also at Chelsea Piers criticizing the Hebron Fund fundraising event and Israeli settlements. Some Hebron Fund attendees were forced to walk past the two protests in order to reach the Hebron Fund event.
Riham Barghouti from Adalah-NY commented, “On top of the US government’s $3 billion in annual aid to the Israeli government, the Hebron Fund is in New York City raising tax-free money to support some of the most violent and racist Israeli settlers. All Israeli settlements violate international law. We need to end the use of US tax dollars to support Israeli human rights abuses, and stop groups like the Hebron Fund.”
The Friends of the Israel Defense Force held a fancy fundraiser in Manhattan last night, but hundreds of Palestine solidarity activists including Adalah-NY members gathered outside to protest.
New York, NY – One day before the Hebron Fund's controversial fundraising dinner at the New York Mets' Citi Field, a coalition of civil rights and peace organizations released new details about extremist statements by individuals associated with the Hebron Fund, and about its fundraising for illegal purposes. The statements were made by Yossi Baumol, the Executive Director of the Hebron Fund, Rabbi Dov Lior, the Chief Rabbi of the Jewish settlers in Hebron, and Noam Arnon, an honoree at the upcoming dinner. Other examples of racist, violent and illegal activities supported by the Hebron Fund were included in a November 3rd letter to the Mets.
On November 18th, the coalition brought fifty New Yorkers to Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig’s Office, protesting Major League Baseball's connection with the Hebron Fund. That event followed a letter-writing campaign that has generated over 2600 letters to the New York Mets, asking them to cancel the dinner with the settler organization.
