| New on the website | November 2, 2007, JVP E-Newsletter
- JVP-Boston: Defending the right to speak out
- Academic freedom battle at DePaul continues
- 2008 peace calendar
JVP Boston: Defending the right to speak out
On October 27th, JVP-Boston joined forces with the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee of Massachusetts in a solidarity rally with the Sabeel Conference taking place in that city. 
(left to right: Bishop Thomas Shaw SSJE, Episcopal Bishop, Diocese of Massachusetts; Noble Peace Laureate and South African Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu; JVP-Boston activist Martin Federman. Copyright 2007 Stewart Ting Chong)
Sabeel is an international peace movement initiated by Palestinian Christians in the Holy Land who seek a just peace based on two states-Palestine and Israel-as defined by international law and existing United Nations resolutions. Their conference had come under attack by the local JCRC, CAMERA, and the David Project. The main speaker at the conference was Archbishop Desmond Tutu. He thanked Jewish Voice for Peace and the many Jews who are following their conscience and speaking against the Israeli occupation:
"Thanks be to God for the many, many Jews who know what their divine calling is and who want the Israeli Government to live it out. We believe in a two state solution - of two sovereign, viable states each with contiguous borders guaranteed as secure by the international community. We condemn acts of terrorism by whoever they are committed. The suicide bomber has to be condemned for targeting innocent civilians. But equally must the Israelis be condemned for their acts of indiscriminate reprisal. [...]
"The world needs the Jews, Jews who are faithful to their vocation that has meant so much for the world's morality, of its sense of what is right and wrong, what is good and bad, what is just and unjust, what is oppressive and what sets people free. Jews are indispensable for a good compassionate, just and caring world.
And so are Palestinians." JVP was quick to defend the right of Sabeel, Archbishop Tutu, and others to express their views against the Israeli occupation. "Attacking and demonizing someone like Archbishop Tutu by calling him an Anti-Semite because he criticizes Israeli human rights abuses doesn't change the fact that the occupation is wrong," stated Martin Federman, co-chair of the Boston chapter of JVP. "Whatever name you give to it, it's immoral, it's illegal and the world knows it." (You can read his op-ed in The Jewish Advocate here: Bullies on the block)
At the conclusion of the Sabeel conference, clergy participants along with over three hundred members of local, national and international organizations proceeded to Copley Square despite the impending threat of rain to participate in the solidarity rally organized by JVP and the ADC. They were later joined by thousands of activists that, having concluded a march against the Iraq war, wanted to express their concern about the ongoing Israeli occupation.
Archbishop Tutu and other activists from Israel, Palestine, South Africa and the U.S. addressed issues of inequality, violence, justice and peace in Israel/Palestine.
The rally was organized by JVP and the ADC, with additional sponsorships by the American Friends Service Committee, the Boston Coalition for Palestinian Rights, Centro Presente, Jewish Women for Justice and Peace in Israel/Palestine, Pax Christi Massachusetts, Friends of Sabeel North America, and Unitarian Universalists for Peace in the Middle East. Academic freedom battle at DePaul continues
The DePaul University Review Board issued a decision October 26, stating that Professor Mehrene Larudee's rights were violated during her tenure process. Unanimously approved for tenure by her department, the International Studies Program, as well as the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (LA&S), she was turned down by the University Board on Promotion and Tenure (UBPT) in May, and the president denied her tenure in June. It is widely thought that she was denied for supporting Prof. Norman Finkelstein during his controversial tenure case last spring. Larudee, a member of the Chicago chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, is exploring further action to challenge the tenure denial. You can still write a letter of protest to DePaul University's President and Provost. Read background info here.
2008 peace calendar
 Get your copy of the 2008 calendar, "Salaam,Shalom,Solh: Nonviolence and Resistance in the Middle East and Beyond." The calendar was edited by JVP and WRL activist Jim Haber, and includes an introduction by Kathy Kelly, an afterword by Stephen Zunes, and entries from groups active in a wide region from Afghanistan to Algeria.
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