Activism and BDS Beat 5 January 2012
I first saw these cards at a Palestine activism conference around 2002, when they were still quite new, being distributed by the Ann Arbor Friends Meeting’s Palestine Israel Action Group (PIAG). With the front side featuring a set of maps depicting Palestinian loss of land from pre-Nakba times to present, and the back featuring a contemporary map showing the fragmentation of the West Bank (alongside various statistics and quotes), these cards are simple, convenient, and effective tools which remain popular a decade after their introduction. I’ve met at least one person over the years who actually became a solidarity activist after being given one of these cards.
The Electronic Intifada has just been notified by PIAG that updated versions of the cards are now available, with a choice of three different designs for the back. NOTE: The image of the card front below depicts the 2010 version, but the actual cards are updated for 2011.
Source: www.fosna.org/content/mapcards
The cards can be ordered in quantities of 100 or more from the Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA) website.
Comments
Powerful map
Permalink Melinda Huntley replied on
I support the Palestinian's in their incredible struggle for justice. I write regularly to ameer makhoul, a Palestinian Israeli citizen wrongly convicted.
mapcards
Permalink Anne Remley replied on
Abe, it's great to see the mapcards on your blog. As a PIAG member I can say we are really happy to be able to provide them. We've distributed over half a million, all on request, to people doing events and demonstrations. You can see them at FOSNA.org under "Resources" and they are on QuakerPI.org, too. They should be helpful for BDS work.
We're supporting the approach of American Friends Service Committee, which has an investment screen to assure they don't support companies that are helping to sustain Israel's occupation. They use the 29-company list developed by New England United Methodists after numerous contacts and jawboning with 29 companies that then refused to stop military and infrastructure support for Israel's occupation of Palestinian lands. We'd like to see other denominations follow suit. "You can't pray for peace and invest in violence," as our Quaker hero Jean Zaru says. So we're also hoping the Quaker investment firm, Friends Fiduciary, will adopt a PI investment screen and drop companies that inadvertently have Quakers around the US invested in support for the occupation!