Maine Jewish Museum To Celebrate Feeding Zionist Stormtroopers

Source: Maine Jewish Museum website

This morning I emailed the message below. 

Dawn LaRochelle
Executive Director
Maine Jewish Museum

Dear ED LaRochelle,

I was shocked to learn of the upcoming Japanese Sushi Girls[sic] exhibit of photographs celebrating the feeding of Israeli's occupation forces responsible for the most brutal genocide of our times. 

This is nothing to celebrate.

Artist Hedva Rokach writes of the cooks, "there was a harmony and order among them that charmed me."  Here's what's not charming: carpet bombing of Gaza, forced relocation to "safe" locations that are subsequently bombed, deliberate sniping of children, detention of thousands to be tortured but never charged with any crime, use of dogs to maul pregnant women, and, most ironically, deliberate starvation.

I don't know if you are aware that both McDonald's and Starbucks publicized their role in feeding the Israeli military and both are now under consumer boycotts that have affected their bottom line. Because those with eyes to see know that genocide is evil and wrong. 

Does the Maine Jewish Museum lack the eyes to see victims unless those victims are Jewish? Why celebrate Zionism, a violent political ideology that expresses delight when Palestinian infants freeze to death in tents where their families have taken refuge?

I am confident you will hear from Jewish Voice for Peace activists in Maine about this show as one of them brought it to my attention. 

An artist friend of mine has exhibited her work at the Maine Jewish Museum in the past. I will be urging her to boycott your institution in the future.

Sincerely,

Lisa Savage

Solon, Maine

p.s. All the embedded links in my message connect to authentic websites that share news from Gaza. If you and others at the museum have the courage to look for the truth, my research may be useful to help you do so.

p.p.s. I would have shared this message with your other staff and board of directors, but your website does not provide contact info for them. So, I ask that you forward this message to all concerned with the governance of the Maine Jewish Museum. 

-end-

Gaza today - Source: Jewish Voice for Peace

Readers, if you'd like to join me in letting the Maine Jewish Museum know how you feel about their upcoming celebration of Zionist violence, the address to use is: dlarochelle@mainejewishmuseum.org. 

Also, note that there is a reception with remarks by the artist on Wednesday, January 15 from 5-6:30pm at 267 Congress St., P0rtland.

BDS Can Be Hard, But It's Worth It

I was with a young grandchild recently as they considered spending their own money on a trendy refillable water container on display in front of a Starbucks. I mentioned to the child that I personally am boycotting Starbucks because they feed the army that is killing people in Gaza. Later they overheard me say something about going to the town of Scarborough and reminded me that I was supposed to be boycotting it LOL Then, a couple of weeks later, they mounted a spirited argument to get me to drop my boycott of McDonald's -- because a certain McDonald's has a PlayPlace indoor playground.

They also tried the argument, But other people in our family go to McDonald's. That was a good opportunity to explain that I don't control other people's choices, only my own.

Boycotting the Zionist entity raises more than one moral dilemma. Many of us here are willing to put our money where our mouth is and boycott businesses based in or doing business with Israel. Easier said than done though, isn't it? If you're not sure which brands to boycott, there's an app (and another one and another one) for that.

The good news is that BDS is working! Here's an explanation of why.

Some boycotts are relatively easy to accomplish. Did you know Valero Energy sells Israel most of its jet fuel? If you live in a state where they operate retail outlets, you could boycott them.

Source: https://boycott-israel.org/boycott.html

But it can take a lot more motivation to locate and employ cumbersome workarounds to replace apps like airbnb or Google maps.

I've been boycotting Amazon for years, and got off Chrome in 2022, but how to actually boycott Google? Because they really, really deserve it.

https://x.com/RyanRozbiani/status/1823937350629499176

Which brings me to one of the most difficult areas to apply the B in BDS: seeds. 

Most tomato and pepper seed crops are grown in California, Israel and Chile. 

Maine Organic Farmers & Growers Association (MOFGA)

Interestingly, research sites I located for information on the provenance of seeds were repeatedly blocked on various browsers I was using (no, not Chrome). But I was able to find a bit of info with a little help from a friend.

Johnny's Seeds was selling mildew resistant Prospera Basil which is sourced from Israel in their 2023 catalog. 

Genesis Seeds Ltd, privately owned, is one of the world’s largest producers of certified organic vegetable, herb and flower seed since 1994. The company is based in Israel (Ashalim, High Negev, South of Be’er Sheva), where all research, and production takes place. All Genesis Seed products are grown only in Israel.

Source: Madein-Israel.com 

On September 21 at 11am we will be taking our monthly statewide coalition protest to the streets of Unity, Maine because thousands of complacent consumers will drive by on their way to the annual Common Ground Fair put on by MOFGA. 

Does that organization know it has vendors selling seeds from Israel? Based on their response to inquiries others have made about this, they do know.

But knowing is not enough. To defeat Israel, we will have to act with conviction. Even when it hurts.

Maine Jews For Palestine Turn Out To Educate Concert-Goers (& About A Zillion Cops)

Okay, a zillion is an exaggeration. But more than one person pointed out that last night would have been the perfect time to do a crime in Portland, Maine because every possible cop was at the entirely non-violent protest of a pro-Israel concert at the State Theater. I couldn't ever capture them all in one photo but here's a sampling. There were also vehicles full of cops parked around the intersection.

Per DSA's newsletter yesterday:

after receiving over a thousand letters asking them to cancel tonight's performance by Zionist and quintessentially wack rapper Matisyahu, management at the State Theater has failed to even respond. Matisyahu, who regularly brings out Israeli flags and praises the IDF while performing, has already had multiple shows canceled, but the State has failed to follow suit and deplatform this hateful zero-hit-wonder..

Join us as we..make sure attendees are well aware of the pro-genocide views of the guy they're about to see, which they will have to reckon with as they listen a guy that, even outside of his views, makes music that is frankly bad to the point of parody.

 

There were many good signs and banners used in last night's protest, and this was one of my favorites.

The performer is a worthy target to boycott. Among his many public statements on Israel and its ongoing genocide in Gaza, he was quoted in this article about other musicians urging a boycott:

"So I performed for the [Israel Defense Forces] soldiers. Does that make me racist, because I support the country of Israel?"

Matisyahu posted a video to his Instagram in January, showing him performing for the IDF's Golani Brigade as they prepared to invade Gaza.

"Good luck to my boys[sic] headed north," he posted. "It was an honor to breathe the same air as you tonight.

BDS is a strategy to bring economic pressure to bear on Israel and its supporters. So, the news that at least one concert-goer turned away last night after learning about the political views expressed by the performer was welcome, indeed. (And attendance seemed very small compared with crowds I've previously seen lined up to attend concerts at the State Theatre in the past.) From WMTW's coverage:

Mara Presti was going to the concert, but when she saw the protest and researched what the artist believed in, she changed her mind.

"We can't stand behind that," Presti said. "If he was truly all about peace then we could be there in earnestness, but given his stance, we can't."

Tonight should be interesting in Burlington, Vermont where another venue has refused to cancel a Matisyahu show despite hundreds of messages requesting that they do so. You may recall that in Burlington last Thanksgiving weekend three Palestinian college students wearing keffiyeh and chatting in Arabic were shot down in the street. 

Hisham Awartani (on the right) remains paralyzed from the neck down from his injury, incurred while walking to his grandmother's house for dinner. His childhood friends accompanying him, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Ali Ahmad, were also injured in the attack by local resident Jason J. Eaton.

I have family duties or I'd be tempted to travel to Burlington myself today, which is not all that far from Maine. I'm confident there will be a huge turnout even without me. Stay tuned!

 

Shut It Down For Palestine Roundup

I was able to attend two of the many, many actions in solidarity with Palestine in my state this week.

On Friday evening I joined 150 at a demonstration held outside the state capitol building fence, sponsored by the newly minted Maine Coalition for Palestine (which I've now joined). Truly excellent speeches by well-informed activists were interspersed with chants like "Free, free Palestine" and a whole lot of honking from passing motorists. The crowd assembled was quite different from the group I stood with about a month ago at a same time, same place demo. Not nearly as many people of color or Arabic-speaking college students this time. Maybe they have peeled off to join demos nearer to them in our sprawling, sparsely populated state? The crowd last Friday had more oldsters but was predominately white 20 and 30 somethings from coalition organizations like the PSL* and Student for Justice in Palestine.

One of my old friends who has done social work with children in Palestine told another friend who was there of her desire to get arrested opposing Israel's genocide, and to spend Christmas Day in jail. We'll see where that goes.

All Topsham Nov 18 photos by Mary Beth Sullivan

On Saturday we had our regular monthly antiwar meetup with a statewide coalition that now includes the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, Maine Natural Guard, PeaceWorks of Greater Brunswick, Communist Party of Maine, Maine Green Independent Party, Citizens Opposing Active Sonar Threats (COAST), *Party for Socialism & Liberation Maine, Libertarian Party of Maine, People’s Party of Maine, Peace & Justice Center of Eastern Maine, Veterans for Peace - National, and United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC). 

We began the monthly event over a year ago with a focus on objecting to funding a proxy war on Russia, but soon expanded to include a robust set of demands mostly borrowed from UNAC.

I'm glad we did that and especially that we held on to the demand about Israel (when I was on the Jimmy Dore Show in April he read out our demands and commented, "Strong words!" about that one). 

https://youtu.be/v3NQmgnp-EM?si=SNeQSSAfZnNqNyjL&t=98

I'm glad because our monthly gathering on Saturday had clearly morphed into a Palestine solidarity demonstration with flags, kufiyahs, and messaging around stopping the genocide in Gaza. There were 30 of us if you count Beans the dog, who is a regular, and ages ranged from 90+ years to 17 months. Our chanting wasn't as loud as the Augusta group's but it was just as passionate. With an anti-imperialist perspective, it's possible to oppose all the empire's wars without the contradictions that the two corporate parties run into when they brand each war as D or R depending on who's in the White House.

Shared on @pslmaine's Insta feed with other photos from Nov 17 Shut it down event in Augusta

One of the best signs I saw in Augusta called out all of Maine's congressional delegation which includes two Democrats (Jared Golden and Chellie Pingree), a Republican (Susan Collins), and an Independent (Angus King). All are supporting Israel's genocide in Gaza with our tax dollars and Mainers are pissed. All have failed both at representing their constituents and at being decent human beings.

Stay tuned for lots more actions in the days to come!

Can't get out to a demo? Maybe do some boycotting of these brands doing business with Israeli occupiers.