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Serving In The Gaza Strip 🚨 Webinar on Sunday, February 4th Link in bio 👉 Join the Green Olive Collective with Extend and Benzion Sanders to discuss how his experience serving in the Israeli military in 2014 in the Gaza Strip motivated him to become an activist against the occupation. Benzion is a veteran of the IDF whose time in the army convinced him that the violence of military rule must end. He will speak about how his experience in Operation Protective Edge helped him realize that Israeli policies of siege, closure, bombardment, and ground invasion have not brought anyone closer to a future of dignity and security.

Please watch and listen to @benzionsanders as he’s sharing a brilliant analysis based on his own experience as a former Idf soldier. Thank you for your work! @benzionsanders @emmanuelmacron @francediplo listen to this!

Two in one post - the reminder in the first slides and then following call to action in the last slides.

Residents of Masafer Yatta deserve to live in peace and safety. End the occupation. FREE PALESTINE 🇵🇸 * repost from @extendprograms & @cjnvgram 🚨CALL TO ACTION 🚨 from our friends at @cinvgram and in Masafer Yatta. With the world's eyes (understandably) on Gaza, settlers in the West Bank have ramped up their violent incursions on Palestinian villages in the West Bank. Residents of Masafer Yatta, a collection of villages in the South Hebron Hills who alreadv face ceaseless demolitions of their homes by the Israeli military, have reported targeted attacks and land seizures by settlers in recent days. Settlers near Susiya in particular have demanded that Palestinian residents leave their land or face more violence. This is an emergency. Follow the action items on the first slide and follow @cjnvgram for updates. [Slides 2-4 are from CJNV] #masaferyatta #susiya #southhebronhills #westbank #gaza #palestine #freepalestine🇵🇸 #freepalestine #noneofusarefreeuntilallofusarefree

on the heels of filipino-american history month which celebrates the legacy of social justice by filipino-americans in various movements, and as a filipino from the bay who has chosen to move back to the homeland, i stand in solidarity with our palestinian pamilya until freedom from the occupation is at hand, until they too can say i'm moving back home 🇵🇸🇵🇭 repost from @extendprograms : 🔴CALL TO ACTION🔴 from our friends at @cjnvgram and in Masafer Yatta. With the world’s eyes (understandably) on Gaza, settlers in the West Bank have ramped up their violent incursions on Palestinian villages in the West Bank. Residents of Masafer Yatta, a collection of villages in the South Hebron Hills who already face ceaseless demolitions of their homes by the Israeli military, have reported targeted attacks and land seizures by settlers in recent days. Settlers near Susiya in particular have demanded that Palestinian residents leave their land or face more violence. This is an emergency. Follow the action items on the first slide and follow @cjnvgram for updates.

Another critical read: yesterday's Guest Essay by Benzion Sanders, program director of @extendprograms . We continue to be asked, Do you condemn Hamas?? Of course we do. But do those who continue to ask this question really want peace? Sanders writes, "All our casualties and the suffering brought on Palestinians in Gaza accomplished nothing since our leaders refused to work on creating a political reality in which more violence would not be inevitable. While I believe in self-defense, fighting in Gaza taught me that if my government doesn’t change its approach from crushing Palestinian hope to committing to Palestinian independence, not only will this war kill an untold number of Israelis and Palestinians in addition to the thousands who already have died, but it also will not decisively end terror. A ground invasion is doomed to failure... "That’s the lie they told us, and the lie that’s being repeated today: that we can decisively eliminate the threat of Hamas through a military operation. In the years since, Hamas has only grown stronger, despite our sacrifices and despite the death and destruction we had wrought on Gaza."

Our members are speaking loudly and clearly about the values that unite our community: Opposition to this horrific violence, and a commitment to Israeli/Palestinian partnership on the path to ending it, and achieving peace and equality.

BENZI SANDERS’ ISRAELISM STORY: The IDF veteran recalls what attracted him to Israel and his decision to join the Israeli military, and the horrors of the occupation and assaults on Gaza he witnessed that pushed him to activism with @breakingthesilenceisrael and @extendprograms In the comments or in your own video, tell us: WHAT IS YOUR ISRAELISM STORY? #MyIsraelismStory #visitpalestine

In five days, we will be honoring five inspiring Jewish human rights heroes at our annual 2023 gala. Anne Germanacos will be receiving the Kemach Torah Award for her commitment to the Jewish movement for justice as a generous philanthropic leader at T'ruah. "It is her belief in what is possible when we believe in one another that has made Anne Germanacos a pillar of the American Jewish movement for justice in Israel/Palestine," Sam Sussman, Executive Director of Extend writes. "Anne's belief in me when I was a young activist changed my life." Learn more at truah.org/gala.

Days 9-10 ~ East Jerusalem and the West Bank I left israel 10 days ago and have struggled with how to post about the 2 mentally and physically challenging days I spent in East Jerusalem and the West Bank (South Hebron Hills and Hebron). Through @extendprograms I, along with 13 or so others, met with leading human rights, civil society, and political actors in Israel-Palestine — whom, in different ways, are working to end the occupation and create a future of mutual freedom for Palestinians and Israelis. I took this video when my group visited the Palestinian village of Tuwani. We met Sameeha and Ali, two 24- and 25-year old Palestinians, who talked to us about their lives under occupation and the land we were on - the Mothers of Sumud Garden - which the Israeli army demolished just weeks before. 15 or so minutes into our conversation, the Israeli army quickly arrived and told us they were there “for your protection.” Our group leader told the soldiers that the Palestinians with us are our friends and we didn’t need military protection, but the soldier insisted we did. The reality is that the soldiers were there to intimidate our Palestinian partners from telling their stories, as happens across the occupied territories.  The tactic worked. Sameeha and Ali didn’t feel comfortable continuing to talk and our group had to relocate. Out of all the conversations and tours, I chose to share this because it‘a a small example of the new Israeli government’s goal of deepening the repression of Palestinians and widening the target to anyone who stands in solidarity with Palestinians. There is so much more I could write about these 2 days and I’m still processing it all. But what I can say for sure is that no reading, learning, or social media content about the occupation comes close to seeing its horror with your own eyes. I also know I love Israel and care about its security – and all of this can be part of one identity.

Tune in for a conversation about travel experiences in Israel-Palestine, holding space for different perspectives, and new possibilities for young jewish activism. Find the link to the Beyond Birthright webinar in our bio! #peacenow #jstreet #extendprograms #palestinianperspectives #travelexperience #westbank #jerusalem #socialjustice #tikkunolam