November 2023 Newsletter

November

Palestinian American Community Center

November Newsletter #SupportTheMission

2023

November 2023

Palestinian American Community Center

If you like anything we are doing, please donate at paccusa.org/donate Every dollar helps keep us going!

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November 2023

Palestinian American Community Center

PACC continues to offer its normal programming while taking on several other initiatives to continuously respond to what’s happening on the ground in Palestine.

We are doing everything we can to help our community.

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Palestinian American Community Center

EVENTS

Teach in On the Genocide in Palestine Abbire Sabbagh, representing the Palestinian Feminist Collective, presented via zoom on the current genocide being inflicted upon the people of Gaza. She covered topics such as media bias, dehumanization, and more. One hundred people were in attendance.

Human Appeal Fundraiser for Gaza We worked with Human Appeal, an international Relief Organization based in the UK, to raise money at PACC so that aid could be sent to Gaza. We also co-sponsored a fundraiser for Gaza with Human Appeal and Chocolate House where all in-store sales went to Gaza. A few days later, we were given the good news that the aid had reached Gaza!

Check out pictures of the aid distribution here.

Fairleigh Dickinson Teach-in Our Executive Director Rania Mustafa taught students at Fairleigh Dickinson University a brief course on the history of Palestine that led up to what is happening in Palestine today. We believe it’s our duty at PACC to remind our community and those who are curious about Palestine of the context behind what many believe was a conflict that started on October 7.

However, we know it did not start on that day but has been an ongoing occupation for 75 years. If you are interested in booking a workshop for your school or university, check out our workshop booking form here.

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Palestinian American Community Center

Know Your Rights Workshop In the wake of the recent rise in anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim bigotry in America, an attorney from, CAIRNJ. Ayah Zaki presented an informative and impactful presentation on how community members can protect themselves legally. Thirty people attended our general workshop and ten people attended our women’s brunch.

The workshop was also Live Streamed to the public. You can watch it here!

Banner Painting & Sign Making Before any protests or vigils, PACC brings the community together. In preparation for the National Washington DC Protest, fifteen community members came to PACC and made signs to take with us. We had our second sign-making session prior to the Silent Vigil PACC hosted in front of Congressman Pascrell’s office. Ten community members gathered to paint a beautiful banner showcasing our demands for a ceasefire now. To prepare the children before the scheduled children’s press conference, 30 families came to PACC and each child wrote a message on a shirt or sign. We believe that art can help heal our community and we were proud to be able to serve them in this capacity.

Giving Tuesday For Giving Tuesday, we fundraised $8,000 exceeding our original goal of $5,000 for community scholarships and emergency funds. Your continued support drives our efforts, and together, we are making a meaningful difference!

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End of Year Fundraiser We launched our End of Year fundraiser on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People by hosting a fundraiser at PACC to help support our continued work! Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib joined our event virtually to share why organizations like PACC need to exist. Thanks to the generosity of our community members, we were able to raise close to $200,000 in one night! Those funds will continue to fuel our mission to empower our community and advance our work toward a liberated Palestine. You can contribute to our campaign here.

Spaces of Exception Documentary Screening In solidarity with our indigenous brothers and sisters, PACC hosted a documentary screening and discussion of“Spaces of Exception” with one of its directors, Matt Peterson. It was an enriching film that compared the shared spaces that Palestinians and Indigenous peoples of America face by interviewing members who lived in refugee camps in Palestine and Native reservations in America. Thirty-eight community members engaged in the discussion on life as refugees, displacement, and solidarity between different struggles.

Rutgers NB Talk With Basma Our Palestine Education Director, Basma Bsharat, joined Rutgers New Brunswick’s PCRF and MSA chapters for a “Gather for Gaza” event. She presented an overview of the history of Palestine as well as the present-day situation and how students can get involved via action items and educational awareness.

November 2023

Palestinian American Community Center

Sabeel Event

Our advocacy team presented on the history of Palestine and how it led to the genocide of Gazans today at Sabeel’s Changing Narratives event.

Followed by the presentation, attendees went into breakout tables to discuss actionable steps to take for Palestine. The purpose of the event was that everyone went home with different actions to take that will support the Palestinian resistance.

We are grateful to Sabeel for organizing such a powerful event and providing the space to educate their community about Palestine. Check out their website here.

Healthcare Press Conference PACC hosted healthcare workers at PACC for a press conference calling for the protection of hospitals against indiscriminate bombing, invasion, and senseless violence. The powerful words that were shared received national media coverage by major news.

Watch the livestream here.

SJP Convening With all the difficulty our students are facing on campus, 20 local SJP chapter e-boards members were invited to join an engaging workshop that started with PACC sharing our resources, a National SJP representative sharing their resources and ways students can protect themselves, and ended with a session by Khadija Salim on addressing “Activism Burnout”.

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MEDIA

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We have continued to field many media requests, the most notable ones are:

Palestinian American Community in NJ on CNN We sat down with CNN this month for an article that focused on the grief felt by the Palestinian American Community in Paterson and Clifton. We also spoke about our mission at PACC which is to provide support to our community in many aspects. This article resonated with many of our community members as it is the first news coverage of its kind. You can read the full article here.

Interview with Spotlight News Our Executive Director, Rania Mustafa was given a platform with spotlight news to discuss the importance of the Palestinian Narrative.

Rania went into detail about the effects of the genocide on the Palestinian Community in Gaza and how everyone we know has lost family members in Gaza. Watch the full interview here.

Palestinian American Teens Speak Out This month we wanted the narratives of our Palestinian youths to be highlighted so we arranged for CNN to come and speak to five of our high school students at PACC. They shared powerful words and sentiments along with their grief at seeing their family members in Gaza martyred by the genocide.

Please watch this groundbreaking interview here.

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Palestinian American Community Center

Dishes and Dreams To highlight the beauty of Palestinian culture during this time where our identity is being threatened, we worked with nj.com to highlight dishes beloved by Palestinians such as maklouba. Our Executive Director Rania Mustafa invited NJ.com to her home to celebrate Palestinian culture through cuisine, specifically our beloved maklouba dish. Check out the wonderful article here.

RALLIES & PROTESTS Washington DC National Protest We organized and mobilized 5 buses and 250 people to Washington DC’s national protest.

We took the national stage when our Executive Director shared a message with the protestors and urged them to continue the work in each of their own communities. Watch her words here.

Shut It Down For Palestine #CeaseFireNow For the national Shut It Down For Palestine Day, PACC Organized a silent Protest in front of Congressman Bill Pascrell’s office, to demand he call for a ceasefire. We centered speakers who have family members that were killed and heavily injured in Gaza. They shared their heartbreaking narrative to the crowd of people that attended. We also took turns reading out the names of those who were martyred in Gaza.

It was a powerful action that not only helped heal our community but allowed us to let our voices be heard. Check out the livestream here and pictures of the event here.

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World Children’s Day Rally in Trenton For World Children’s Day, PACC along with other organizations rallied in front of the State House in Trenton to call for the protection of the children of Palestine as they continue to be murdered and dehumanized. Watch our Palestine Education Director’s full speech here.

Teaneck Rally Despite a lot of pressure from the town of Teaneck, Teaneck High students organized and led a walkout in support of Palestine. PACC showed support by speaking and giving the students a platform through PACC to share their experience despite getting threats from pro-zionists. Check out our Palestine Education Director’s speech here.

Vigil for Peace

Mayor of Paterson, Andre Sayegh, held a vigil for peace at Patereson City Hall and PACC co-sponsored and spoke at the event. At the vigil, Mayor Sayegh reiterated his support for a permanent ceasefire. Check out our word here.

Press Conference with AMP and CAIR CAIR held a press conference at their office in Newark where they were demanding more from our local officials and calling them out for not supporting a ceasefire. Our Palestine Education Director shared the community’s disappointment in our leader’s inaction and lack of support for a ceasefire.

November 2023

Palestinian American Community Center

ADVOCACY AND OUTREACH PACC Week of Action

To motivate our community to join our advocacy efforts, we planned a week of action that included voting for the local elections, banner and poster making, a silent protest, phone banking, and a youth convening for activism burnout.

Election Day Led by our grassroots organizing team, we wanted to Get Out the Vote for the local November 7th elections. We faced some challenges and pushback from our community due to the genocide taking place in Palestine. However, we believe that not partaking in the elections is only a setback to getting our voices and representation out. Our team made close to 1,000 phone calls to encourage people to head to the polls while offering important election information. We also offered to drive people to the polls!

Meeting with Senator Booker

Our Executive Director Rania Mustafa, among other community leaders, met with Senator Booker to demand a call for a Ceasefire in Palestine. Meetings with our elected officials have brought the Palestinian narrative to the table and remind them that we are here and that we won’t be silent. We have also been working closely with members of Senator Booker’s staff to get Palestinian Americans out of Gaza.

Meeting with Congresswoman Mikie Sherril Another elected official we met with this month was Congresswoman Mikie Sherril, who stated that she would not support a ceasefire. We urge our community to call her office to voice their disappointment with her decisions. You can call her office here.

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Palestinian American Community Center

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Meeting with Assemblywoman Shavonda E. Sumpter PACC and ICPC had a meeting with Assemblywoman Shavonda E. Sumpter to stress the importance of a Ceasefire in Gaza. As a result of the meeting, she is co-sponsoring Bill AR196 that calls for a ceasefire in Gaza and the West Bank. We ask community members to email her in office and thank her for co-sponsoring the bill.

Meeting with Paterson Public Schools Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent To ensure the safety of our students in Paterson schools, we had a meeting with the Paterson Public Schools Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent to discuss how they can meet the needs of their Palestinian students.

PACC Billboard This month, we raised funds through our PACC Young Adults group and were able to raise $21,750 that contributed to posting 5 Palestine awareness billboards in the NJ area!

Palestinian Americans in Gaza

Our Executive Director Rania Mustafa has been working around the clock to help NJ Residents who are stuck in Gaza. We have been helping 12 families and 11 out of the 12 made it out safely. We were recently able to reunite a community member, Dina Massoud with her kids who were stuck in Gaza!

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Palestinian American Community Center

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MARKETING What would it look like if Israel was bombing you?

To help our social media followers visualize the scale of Israel’s bombardment on Gaza and understand the extent of the damage, we posted a carousel of graphics comparing its size with other U.S. cities.Swipe through the post here.

Acknowledging One Month Since The Bombing of Gaza November 7th marked one month since the beginning of the callous and indiscriminate murder of the people of Palestine. We compiled a video of all the actions that PACC organized or attended to share how we gathered in community to demand justice for Palestinians and a Ceasefire immediately. Check out the video here!

Statement in Support of Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib In support of Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, we posted a carousel post on instagram and facebook vehemently expressing our disappointment by the 22 democrats who voted in favor of the censorship resolution. Read our post here.

1948 Nakba Comparison to 2023 We dedicated a post to compare the Nakba in 1948 to the present day evacuations of Gazans from the north to the south. Read about it here.

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Palestinian American Community Center

Falastin Call for Submissions It’s time for our next issue of our Literary Magazine, Falastin! This month we are collecting art, poetry, essays and graphics for our magazine that you can submit to falastin@paccusa.org. Check out our past issue here.

Vermont Shooting of the 3 Palestinian College Students On November 25th, we were deeply saddened and disturbed by the senseless and hateful shooting of three Palestinian College Students in Burlington, Vermont. We released a statement expressing our unwavering support for the three Palestinian Men and condemned such acts of violence and called for justice to be served. Read our full statement here.

International Day of Solidarity With the Palestinian People November 29th marks the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.

To honor this day, we posted a graphic on our instagram that included our PACC Solidarity and Advocacy Toolkit that can be accessed here.

Boycott for Justice on Black Friday and Cyber Monday During the two biggest shopping events of the year, we called on the national community to boycott products that were complicit in the ongoing genocide in Palestine. We also wanted to highlight another ongoing genocide that was happening in the world: the one in Congo. We call on everyone to research their products before buying and educate themselves about what is happening in both countries and how overconsumption plays a role in their oppression.

Swipe through our post here.

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PROGRAMS We haven’t only been fighting settler colonialism in Palestine through our Calls to Action, protests, and events– we have also been combatting it through our cultural youth and adult programs, which we host at our center year round. By continuing to teach our community how to do Dabka, how to create intricate Tatreez (traditional Palestinian embroidery) designs, how to cook traditional Palestinian food, etc., we are continuing to fight cultural appropriation and preserve our Palestinian identity.

We plan on starting our winter session in January for anybody interested in registering for our Community Programs. For more information about our programs or to register, please visit the Programs page on our website.

HOPE We continued HOPE this month, which is our Holding Onto Palestine’s Existence course for high school students. Along with the curriculum that we usually teach, we have been talking to our students about what’s been currently happening in Palestine and providing them with a space to discuss their thoughts and feelings about the situation. For those who want to learn more about Palestine, we will be starting our Freedom is the Future course for ages 18+ in January.

Plan ahead and sign our interest form here!

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Palestinian American Community Center

paccusa

2023