By The ISM NorCal Team

October 2017

The Northern California chapter is currently providing roughly two-thirds of the funding of ISM-Palestine.  That’s something to be proud of, but it means two things: first, that ISM-Palestine is getting less than half the funds it needs to be effective; second, that other ISM chapters are very weak in fundraising.

We don’t really consider ourselves terribly effective in fundraising, but clearly we need to improve, and even more clearly, we need to help the other groups improve.  Here are some of this year’s accomplishments:

  1. By the end of the year we will have sent more than $7000 to ISM-Palestine and their nonviolent resistance work.
  2. We have sent $12,000 worth of cameras and related equipment to two Palestinian nonviolent resistance groups in Hebron, the leaders of which have been arrested (but currently released), but continue to train the population to capture visual proof of Israeli atrocities. (And no, we can’t give some of this money to ISM-Palestine instead. It was raised specifically for this purpose, and we always respect donor wishes.)
  3. We are one of the organizations, along with al-Awda and the Free Palestine Movement, organizing the 2017 North America Nakba Tour, currently concluding its more than 25 successful events in the eastern US and Canada by the time you read this.
  4. We have bought and resold thousands of dollars of Palestinian products in the US, to help the Palestinian economy and raise money to send volunteers to Palestine.

We welcome and need your help, as local volunteers, volunteers in Palestine, or as donors (or all three).