Ammon News - AMMONNEWS (Los Angeles) - A group of Jewish people in Los Angeles said they will call for the shut down of the Consulate General of Israel in Los Angeles, California in a historic protest against Israeli policy.

An ad-hoc, multi-generational group including members of the recently founded International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, will send a message to the Israeli government and its US supporters saying: "Not In Our Name! We will not be silent! Jews demand an end to the Israeli siege on Gaza and an end to Israeli apartheid."

The group is scheduled next week to lead a demonstration across the United States uniting Palestinians, Jewish people, and other Americans outraged by the siege.

"We are shocked and outraged at Israeli's latest act of violent aggression against the Palestinian people. Killing over 950 people, including 250 women and children, bombing schools and mosques and then calling it self-defense—that is the worst kind of hypocrisy. It also amounts to war crimes," said Hannah Howard, a local member of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network.

The group, comprised of ten Jewish people in Los Angeles including a nurse, a school counselor, a retired school teacher, a retired representative, and a community organizer, risked arrest by chaining themselves to the building on Wilshire Boulevard and blocking the driveway and entrance to the Israeli consulate.

"We are shutting down the Israeli consulate today because as Jewish people we cannot allow business as usual while violence is being done in our name. This is a direct betrayal of our Jewish tradition of social justice."

Action participants will also speak out against the US government's unconditional support for Israel's siege and its ongoing war against the Palestinian people. "While US-funded F16's rain down bombs on the people of Gaza, our elected officials locally and nationally offer unqualified support." said Marsha Steinberg, a retired representative. "Our government must stop sending billions of dollars in military and economic aid to the Israeli war machine while defending Israel in the international community," Steinberg said.

Concerned Americans from different backgrounds will call on the new Presidential administration to change its policy towards Middle East.

"While the end of the siege on Gaza is our most immediate priority, this is only the latest chapter in Palestinians' 60 plus year experience of occupation and ethnic cleansing. Peace and justice in the region will only come when Palestinians have freedom and control their own destiny," said Lisa Adler, a community organizer in Los Angeles and a member of the International Jewish Solidarity Network.

"Even before the siege began, Israel's inhumane months-long blockade of Gaza created a major humanitarian crisis. We must end the siege. And we are building a nonviolent international movement of boycott, divestment and sanctions that brings an end to Israel's policies of occupation and apartheid and advances the Palestinian struggle for justice," said Adler.


Photo courtesy: Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times