FROM PALESTINE TO NYC
CHECKPOINTS = TOOL OF SUPPRESSION

 Fast Facts about checkpoints in the West Bank:

• 522 roadblocks and checkpoints obstruct Palestinian movement in the West Bank, compared to 503 in July 2010.
• So far in 2011, an additional 495 ad-hoc ‘flying’ checkpoints obstructed movement around the West Bank each month (on average), compared to 351 in the past two years.
• 200,000 people from 70 villages are forced to use detours between two to five times longer than the direct route to their closest city due to movement restrictions.
• One or more of the main entrances are blocked to Palestinian traffic in ten out of eleven major West Bank cities.
• Palestinians holding West Bank IDs require entry permits to enter East Jerusalem and are limited to using four of the 16 checkpoints along the Barrier.
• 62 percent of the Barrier is completed, with 80 percent of the Barrier route built inside the West Bank, with highly limited access to areas behind the Barrier.
• Four of the five roads into the Jordan Valley are not accessible to most Palestinian vehicles.
• Almost 80 percent of land in the Jordan Valley is off-limits to Palestinians, with the land designated for Israeli settlements, ‘firing zones’ and ‘nature reserves.’
• 122 closure obstacles shut off the Old City of Hebron from the rest of the city.
• Palestinian access to their private land around 55 Israeli settlements is highly restricted.

This information is from the September 2011 United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) report “Movement and Access in the West Bank.”

 IDF, NYPD – Enforcing Inequality! 

Join us at the Free University for Occupy Wall Street, Not Palestine: The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement to End Israeli Apartheid

Where: Free University at Madison Square Park, pool area

When: Saturday, September 22, 12 pm to 2 pm

What: Discussion of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement for Palestinian rights. Members of Global Justice will elucidate how and why this global call from Palestinian civil society groups fits within the parameters of the Occupy movement. Representatives from local Palestine solidarity groups will give an overview of the BDS movement—its goals, history, strategies, and analysis. And finally local activists working on specific boycott and divestment campaigns will highlight their successes and challenges. Please bring your questions and concerns and join us for this important discussion.

Madison Square Park is located between Fifth and Sixth Avenues and 23rd and 26th Streets.

For more information about the Free University, visit freeuniversitynyc.org.