Help protect our right to boycott Israeli apartheid & human rights abuses - Your action needed now!

Sun Apr 10 17:59:31 PDT 2016

Please help stop AB 2844 <http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB2844&firstNav=tracking> ! This CA Assembly bill violates free speech and attacks efforts to end Israel’s occupation, apartheid, and violations of human rights by penalizing companies that are identified as observing a boycott of Israel. Share on facebook.

1) This Wed., April 13, 2016, 9am please attend the Accountability and Administrative Review (AAR) Committee hearing on the bill, State Capitol Room 437.  A couple of main speakers will speak against the bill and all others can briefly state their opposition. The more the better to show legislators how many of us care.  If AB 2844 passes at this first hearing, it will be considered by the Judiciary Committee April 19. Save the date.

2)  Please send an email now to the members of the AAR committee telling them to vote against AB 2844. Ask them to enter your opposition as part of the public record. You can copy and paste their emails below into one message: 

Accountability and Administrative Review:  
assemblymembergarcia at assembly.ca.gov, assemblymemberburke at assembly.ca.gov, assemblymemberfrazier at assembly.ca.gov, assemblymemberirwin at assembly.ca.gov, assemblymembermedina at assembly.ca.gov, assemblymemberrodriguez at assembly.ca.gov,  <mailto:assemblymembergarcia at assembly.ca.gov>  <mailto:assemblymembergarcia at assembly.ca.gov> 
assemblymemberlackey at assembly.ca.gov, assemblymemberbrough at assembly.ca.gov,  <mailto:assemblymembergarcia at assembly.ca.gov> assemblymembergaines at assembly.ca.gov, 

Please copy and paste as a cc: Legislative directors:
Ashley.medina@@asm.ca.gov <mailto:ashley.medina at asm.ca.gov> , allison.ruff at asm.ca.gov, robert.simpson at asm.ca.gov, brett.williams at asm.ca.gov, erica.costa at asm.ca.gov, philip.horner at asm.ca.gov, tim.townsend at asm.ca.gov, christina.hulick at asm.ca.gov, danny.martinez at asm.ca.gov

Please bcc:  SacReg4PalestinianRights at gmail.com

Sample message:       

Dear Members of the Assembly Committee on Accountability and Administrative Review:
     I call on you and your committee to oppose AB 2844, an unconstitutional attack on free speech with provisions that would be impossible to implement in any rational manner.
     Whether or not one agrees with any particular boycott or divestment campaign aimed at pressing Israel to end its occupation, obey international law and respect Palestinian human rights, participation in such activities, in response to a call from Palestinians using nonviolent methods to secure their freedom, is a legitimate form of expression, protected by the U.S. and state constitutions. The state must not deny financial relationships to people or organizations on account of their political views. 
     California can lead the way in stopping a wave of such illegal legislation around the country. I look forward to hearing your commitment to oppose AB 2844 or anything like it.
     Please register my opposition to AB 2844 as part of the public record.
Sincerely,

3) Email your own Assembly member and tell her or him to speak out now against AB 2844. Here are emails for some Sacramento area Assembly members; if yours isn’t on the list or you aren’t sure who it is, click here <http://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov/> .

Assemblymember Kevin McCarty Assemblymember.McCarty at assembly.ca.gov
Assemblymember Jim Cooper assemblymember.cooper at assembly.ca.gov 
Assemblymember Ken Cooley assemblymember.cooley at assembly.ca.gov
Assemblymember Bill Dodd assemblymember.Dodd at assembly.ca.gov
Assemblymember Beth Gaines assemblymember.gaines at assembly.ca.gov (If Gaines is your Assembly member, please call her also, as she is on the Committee on Accountability and Administrative Review (916) 319-2006 <tel:%28916%29%20319-2006> 

4) Spread the word <https://sac4palestine.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/take-action-to-stop-ab-2844.pdf>  and Share on facebook.

MORE INFORMATION

Remember California Assembly Bills 1551 and 1552? Introduced in January, they would have barred state pension fund investment in and state/local government contracting with companies, churches, unions, etc. that were thought to be engaged in boycott of Israel, in some form. 

Many of you helped kill these bills by telling legislators that they were an unconstitutional infringement on political speech, were impossibly vague and had a hidden agenda of legitimizing illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. 

The bills languished in limbo until last week, but after a complex set of parliamentary maneuvers, they have reemerged with a new name and number: AB 2844 <http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB2844> . It was hastily assigned to two committees: Accountability and Administrative Review will hear it Wed., April 13. If it passes there, Judiciary will consider it April 19. 

AB 2844 is narrower in scope and some ways less extreme (e.g. it applies only to for-profit corporations), but it is still unconstitutionally violates free speech and remains loaded with vagueness and arbitrariness.

Either of these committees can kill AB 2844, and with your encouragement, they will. 

Thanks! Together we’ll stop AB 2844.

If you have not already done so, please sign these pettions to support Palestinian rights: 

►  <http://org.salsalabs.com/o/641/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=19467> Tell the IRS to Investigate the Charity Status of the JNF.

►  <http://www.codepink.org/protect_pal_human_rights_defenders?utm_campaign=pal_hum_rights&utm_medium=email&utm_source=codepink> Sign the petition: Protect Palestinian human rights defenders.

► <https://actionsprout.io/754F12/initial> Tell Santana not to play in Israel.  

More petitions at: www.sacbds.org/petitions

Upcoming events:

Tuesday, April 12, 2016: National day of Action: <http://www.vtjp.org/icecream/FCD_Alert.html?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Free+Cone+Day+Action+Update+from+...&utm_source=YMLP&utm_term=...jp.org%2Ficecream%2FFCD_Alert.html>  Tell Ben & Jerry's to stop selling in Israel's illegal Settlements. Location and time TBA. FMI: SacramentoBDS at gmail.com

Tuesday, April 12, 2016, 6:30pm, Palestine Awareness Week. <https://www.facebook.com/events/1766166010294259/>  Panel on BDS Movement. Wellman 226, UC Davis campus, Davis. FMI: sjpatucd.gmail.com

Wednesday, April 13, 2016, 6:30pm, Palestine Awareness Week. <https://www.facebook.com/events/1766166010294259/>  No Way to Treat a Child. Wellman 226, UC Davis campus, Davis. FMI: sjpatucd.gmail.com

Friday, April 15, 2016, 6pm, Palestine Awareness Week. <https://www.facebook.com/events/1766166010294259/>  Palestinian Food Night. Location TBA, UC Davis campus, Davis. FMI: sjpatucd.gmail.com

Tuesday, April 19, 2016, 4 - 6pm, Vigil for Palestinian Rights. End U.S. aid to Israel. <http://www.aidtoisrael.org/section.php?id=379>  & Boycott companies aiding Israel's abuses <http://www.sacbds.org/products> . Sign petitions for Palestinian rights <http://www.sacbds.org/petitions> . 16th & J, Sacramento. 916-448-7157.

Saturday, April 30, 2016, 6pm, Benefit Dinner for the needy people of Palestine <https://www.facebook.com/events/194143594276033/> . Guest Speakers: Hussam Ayloush (CAIR Executive Director LA) and Imam Sh. Abdeljalil Mezgouri. Valley Oak Ballroom, Wackford Acquatic Complex, 9014 Bruceville Rd Elk Grove. FMI: hjamali at irusa.org; 916-230-8887

Sunday, May 15, 2016, 12:30pm Protest Annual Celebrate Israel <http://jewishsac.org/jewishheritagefestival> i Apartheid event, Raley Field, West Sacramento. FMI: SacReg4PalestinianRights at gmail.com

For more Sacramento Area Events on Peace, Justice and the Environment, please see the online community calendar: www.SacPeace.org

To subscribe, unsubscribe or for questions or comments, email:  <mailto:SacReg4PalestiniaRights at gmail.com> SacReg4PalestiniaRights at gmail.com.

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