Hey Everyone,

So after watching "Occupation 101" I got the urge to go to a city or state council meeting to voice that we, meaning our state/country, should not support nor fund Israel, I found out that even the websites for our local and state governments are really confusing. Even after finding some information on public comment, it turns out that those can only be made if they relate to the agenda items, so now I feel very stifled.

BUT, I have a plan!!!!

Necessities:
Military and Officially Dressed people
Caution Tape
Signs and possibly banners
Clipboards
Fake Travel Request Forms
Volunteers willing to keep De Anza students from passing through the center courtyard
Media spokespeople
Talking points
Legal observer
Police liaison
Cameras!

The Plan
1. Make up a fake movement, maybe call ourselves the De Anza Ranchers, and put up signs proclaiming this is our rightful land, reflecting the Zionist movement.
2. Draft up fake travel request forms, and maybe secondary forms just to emphasize the red tape, and to emphasize the bureaucracy that is involved in Palestinian people wanting to farm their land.
3. Set up a perimeter of caution tape surrounding the water fountain, or at least one path way past it.
4. Have demonstrators dressed in cargo pants and plain t-shirt (or something military looking), with clip boards in hand, stop students who try to pass without first filling out the forms. Explain that if they want to pass, they'll have to either wait for the completed form to be approved or go the long way around.
5. Pass the completed forms off to the people in suits, who have some symbolic signs on the back of their shirts, like the $ and USA, or something that we, or I, come up with.
6. While the person waits for approval, another plain clothed person out side of the occupied zone will hand over the talking points to the unsuspecting student that would explain the point of the action, which I plan to be awareness
7. The suit person will come back with either another form, or the student will just be denied. But no matter what, the suit person has to smile.

During this whole thing, we want public and media attention, so we would submit a press release to media outlets, mostly independent, the night before. We will have media spokes people who understand the reasoning behind each aspect of the action. We will hopefully have legal observers and police liaison, the former of whom could at least stall the police from forcing the action to end. Participants would be encouraged to bring cameras, but only to take pictures at down times because we want to keep the illusion of all seriousness.

Unfortunately, I couldn't think of a way to illustrate the death that has come from the occupation of Palestine that wouldn't be too painful. By that, I mean, it might bring up wayyyyy strong emotions for people who know others in occupied places, and also might force the action to end a whole lot sooner than we hope.

If you're down, contact me, Patrick. I think this would be a great action to bring together activists among many clubs, and so I hope it will have the open support, in the press release, of SFJ and SO. Seriously, if it no one is down, I'm doing this one all my self. That's how I'm feeling right now and I'm sticking to it.

Peace,
Patrick
(818) 419-1605
patacamp@gmail.com

P.S. I just thought of this, but maybe we could actually request some of the space from the Student Activities Office so that the action is totally legit, in terms of cordoning off a part of the area. I dunno yet, I'll look into it.

Just so everyone knows, I tried posting this a while ago. Within the time between my original submission of the post to now, I have spoken to MSA. I asked what they thought about the action, when I should have asked whether they would support the action (without having to participate in it). However, their response, that they are moving onto other things, and that they are done with the Gaza/Palestine issue, really surprised me to the point of apathy. I feel hopeless, being that just today I heard how Israel is moving into Palestinian lands to build more settlements along an area that before, in the hands of Palestine, would have allowed the Palestinians to have West Jerusalem, or something like that. They said an action of that type had been done before, and so I left the conversation feeling very helpless and unoriginal. I still see the struggle that needs attention brought to it, but I feel there's not enough political/activist fervor. If someone else wants to take this up, please let me know. I don't want to burn out, so I'm actually going to hold off on doing this unless more people want to discuss it.

Peace,
Patrick