US civil society groups join anti-Apartheid coalition

Two hundred American civil society institutions, churches and trade unions have joined the Apartheid-Free Communities coalition aimed at confronting the ongoing Israeli atrocities against the Palestinian people, Maan news site has reported.

The coalition calls on member organisations to educate their members about the crimes committed daily by the Israeli apartheid regime against the Palestinian people. It shares guidelines on how to lead advocacy campaigns as well as specific steps that can be taken or adopted to combat the apartheid system imposed by Israel.

Formed at the end of last year in North America in the wake of the emerging consensus among international human rights organisations that Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian people amounts to the crime of apartheid, the coalition also requires its member organisations to first adopt a public written pledge against all forms of racism, intolerance and oppression. The pledge includes opposition to racial discrimination, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and xenophobia in their communities.

It also seeks to educate US communities about the devastation of Palestinian lives under military occupation, settler colonialism and apartheid, and about the links between North America and Israel’s settler colonialism, racial oppression and military aggression.

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