2023 October Newsletter

October

Palestinian American Community Center

October Newsletter #SupportTheMission

2023

October 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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October 2023

Palestinian American Community Center

Since October 7th, our world has been turned upside down like many of you. Our hearts, thoughts, and prayers go to our brothers and sisters on the ground in Palestine. We are working every day for a Free Palestine.

PACC continued its programs while taking on several other initiatives including but not limited to: 1. Media Requests 2. Educational Events in and outside of PACC 3. Fundraisers for Gaza 4. Advocacy for Palestinian Americans stuck in Gaza 5. Advocacy to call for a Ceasefire 6. Advocacy and referrals for our community members 7. Protests 8. Educational & Advocacy Toolkit 9. Push to the polls 10. Healing spaces for our community

We are doing everything we can to help our community.

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October 2023

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EVENTS

Collective Space For Community Healing & Empowerment Our Collective Space For Community Healing & Empowerment was a much-needed community gathering. We had support group sessions, art therapy, kids’ businesses, community resources, a tatreez circle, and and health fair. Our community is grieving and in mourning and it’s important that we host safe spaces where people can come together and feel a sense of belonging. The response from our community was heartwarming and we were happy to see them come together to share ideas and provide comfort to each other. We estimate close to two hundred people in attendance. See our pictures of the event here.

University SJP Speaking/Support PACC has been invited to multiple vigils and rallies hosted by local Students for Justice in Palestine chapters. PACC has been able to provide individualized and group support for SJP members who fear being doxxed or silenced. Specifically, both our Palestine Education Director, Basma Bsharat and our Program and Events Coordinator, Fedah Mohammed have attended and spoken at rallies and vigils in Montclair State University and William Paterson University.

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Palestinian American Community Center

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Fundraising NAAMA hosted a fundraising dinner for Gaza at PACC and medical professionals of our community were able to fundraise $300,000 to go to the humanitarian aid on the ground in Gaza. PACC also launched 2 fundraising pages for Palestine which can be found on UNRWA and Anera’s website.

Sunday Series

For our Sunday series this month, we hosted Palestinian activist Abdullah Abu Rahma who discussed the current situation in Gaza and the West Bank and settler violence. Thirty-three people were in attendance. The situation is worsening day by day in Palestine.

Book Talk “A Day In The Life of Abed Salama”

Earlier this month, we hosted Nathan Thrall and Abed Salama at PACC to launch Thrall’s new book “A Day in the Life of Abed Salama.” There were thirty-one people in attendance. This event took place on October 6th and was a timely discussion for a larger context of the situation on the ground.

Board of Education Candidate Forum

We hosted a Board of Education Candidate Forum so our community can get to know their candidates. Community members were able to submit questions to the candidates addressing their concerns. We were happy to see a lot of engaged community members along with their families there asking the candidates questions.

Eighty-three people were in attendance.

October 2023

Palestinian American Community Center

Ask Me Anything About Palestine We hosted a virtual “Ask Me Anything about Palestine”, where Palestinians and allies were able to ask questions and take part in an online discussion about Palestine, and which also served as a collective healing space for our community. We had around 40 people whose contribution to the discussion was invaluable and provided lots of context to the ongoing Occupation.

Women’s Brunch

For this month’s Women’s Brunch, our main focus was community healing and comfort in response to everything happening in Palestine. We provided a safe space for our women to come in for counseling while making mu-ajanat with Aya Mustafa and Ahlam Mohammed. The healing space was very much needed and the women enjoyed their time. We had fourteen women in attendance.

Sign-Making

We held two sign-making sessions this month for those who were interested in making signs to take to protests. The goal was to provide a creative outlet for our community members to take comfort and heal from what is happening in Gaza while also preparing to take action. We had about twenty people in attendance!

William Paterson University Culture Night PACC’s Grassroots Organizing Team tabled at William Paterson’s Culture Night where we pushed several of our ongoing campaigns and upcoming events. Our Palestine education director, Basma Bsharat, and cooking teacher, Aya Mustafa shared some powerful words with the audience about what is happening in Palestine. It was a beautiful night with shared ideas and a reminder to stay grounded in our fight for a free Palestine.

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October 2023

Palestinian American Community Center

Al-Falah Center: Presentation

by Basma Bsharat Our Palestine Education Director Basma Bsharat was invited by the Al-Falah Center to present about Palestine’s History, Activism, and resources. It was an informative and educational space and we were happy to provide this workshop and spread awareness about Palestine. You can watch the full presentation here.

Private School Outreach In an effort to raise awareness what’s happening on the ground and help answer any questions students of our community may have, our Executive Director and Palestine Education Director presented about Palestine’s History and explained the ongoing situation and actions students can take to get involved at both Noble Leadership Academy and Rising Star Academy.

We are happy to accommodate any other requests in the area.

ICPC Friday Forum: Ask Me Anything!

Organized by ICPC-Clifton, our Executive Director Rania Mustafa along with AMP-NJ’s Wassim Kanaan spoke at the Ask Me Anything Friday forum. They went into a discussion about the history of Palestine and answered questions that any attendees had.

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Palestinian American Community Center

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RALLIES & PROTESTS United For Palestine Rally An estimated 5,000 of our community members gathered on Palestine Way, New Jersey to rally in Unity for Gaza. We thank you all for coming and marching with us.

Let’s continue to speak up for Palestine until we see liberation. Let’s also remember that there are multiple ways to take ACTION and we have made it easy for you! All you have to do is text FreePalestine to (833) 648-0391 for a list of actions! See pictures from the rally here.

Stand With Palestine Rally

PACC co-sponsored a rally in Newark, NJ where we joined with other allies and solidarity groups to demand a ceasefire now. Newark is historically known for people coming together and speaking up against injustices. Our Palestine Education Director Basma shared a powerful speech about Israel’s mounting war crimes and how it’s all funded by the U.S. See pictures from the rally here.

October 2023

Palestinian American Community Center

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National Day of Action: Flood Brooklyn For Palestine We joined Within Our Lifetime’s protest in Brooklyn with 2 buses full of our community members where we expressed our anger and frustration about the ongoing bombardment of Palestinians in Gaza.

United Rally for Peace

PACC was invited by United Jumma in Morris County for a “United Prayer and Rally for Peace.” PACC spoke about the ongoing genocidal campaign against Gaza, the false media narrative, and action items that PACC has been encouraging people to do in support of Palestine.

PRESS & MEDIA

Press Email

We have had to create a press email to manage all the press content and intake for the past couple of weeks. The email is press@paccusa.org. PACC has fielded over 100 media requests about Palestine. Early October, one of the journalists said that all Palestinian coverage was coming out of NJ and she thought that was because of PACC. We have been fielding and facilitating press meetings, interviews, and visits to PACC in order to address and shift the biased one-sided media narrative.

Community Gathering & Press Conference for Palestine

In response to the genocide happening in Gaza, we had a community gathering on Palestine Way. We had speakers from PACC, AMP-NJ, CAIR-NJ, JVP-NJ, and Black Lives Matter Paterson who shared powerful words for Palestine. Check out the highlights here.

October 2023

Palestinian American Community Center

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Press Conference For Palestine With CAIR-NJ To respond to all the press and media demands, we hosted a press conference with CAIR-NJ at PACC and invited reporters to hear our statement on the attacks on Gaza.

Watch the press conference here.

AMP & CAIR-NJ Press Conference We were invited by AMP-NJ and CAIR-NJ to speak at their press conference in response to the ongoing airstrikes on Gaza at the hands of the IOF. We remained unwavering in our support of Palestine and our demand for a ceasefire and the end of the occupation.

ADVOCACY AND OUTREACH Launch GOT! We launched our Fall/ Winter 2023 Grassroots Organizing Team! Besides having our orientation meeting, we tabled at our Community Healing event and William Paterson’s Culture Night. Our team also engaged in phone banking for a week to demand Congress call for a ceasefire.

Phone Banking Federal Representatives

We hosted a week of phone banking sessions to call federal representatives with two demands: A Ceasefire and to get all Palestinian U.S. Citizens out of Gaza.

Get Out The Vote Elections are around the corner so we conducted a focus group of 6 people to understand the circumstances around voting when it comes to Arab Americans.

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Palestinian American Community Center

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Meeting with Governor Phil Murphy Salah Mustafa, Ibrahim Fahmy, Rania Mustafa, Sami Shaban, and Selaedin Maksut, were invited to meet with Governor Murphy yesterday. The group discussed the devastating impacts of Governor Murphy’s words/stances and the unprecedented levels of Islamaphobic attacks in NJ.

Meeting With Clifton Officials Rania Mustafa, Diab Mustafa, and Basma Bsharat met with local Clifton officials including the Mayor, BOE President, Superintendent, and Vice Superintendent Gengaro to advocate for our Arab, Muslim, and Palestinian students’ concerns over the rising bias and discrimination against our community. We wanted to ensure that Clifton prioritizes the well-being of our students.

MARKETING

PACC’s Solidarity & Advocacy Toolkit

In response to what’s happening in Palestine, PACC staff along with PACC volunteers put together a Solidarity and Advocacy Toolkit that includes resources such as talking points, graphics, news articles, ways to take action, and letters to employers/schools.

Look through our toolkit here.

#SpeakUpForPalestine - We want to hear your stories

We want to amplify Palestinian voices and document the stories of those facing backlash, discrimination, or on-the-ground aggression from the IOF in Palestine. This month, we launched our #SpeakForPalestine campaign to collect those stories. If you or anyone would like to share their story, please fill out our form here.

Olive Harvest Season in Palestine This month was Olive Harvest season, a time when we are reminded of the importance of connecting to the land as a form of preservation of our culture and resistance to settler colonialism. We created a video of our community garden, a space for us to hold onto traditional Palestinian gardening practices and use it as a way to pass down these practices to future generations. Check out our reel here.

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Palestinian American Community Center

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PROGRAMS Our community members have been enjoying our Annual & Fall 2023 programs so far!

In our Dabka program alone, we have eighty registrants between the ages of 8 to 16 and fifteen registrants in our class for our younger 6 and 7 year olds. We are so excited to see the different routines that are created by the end of June. Our English Conversation class has also been a huge hit this session with more than fifteen people registered– one of our highest numbers yet! We hope to continue attracting more registrants for our programs in future sessions.

October 2023

Palestinian American Community Center

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October

Palestinian American Community Center

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2023