Israeli Apartheid Week

#UnitedAgainstRacism

Overview

Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is a tool for mobilizing grassroots support on the global level for the Palestinian struggle for justice. It is a grassroots mechanism to raise awareness about Israeli apartheid and to mobilize support for strategic BDS campaigns to help bring an end to this system of oppression.

IAW provides an opportunity to network and strengthen the links between the Palestinian liberation struggle and other struggles against racism, oppression, and discrimination. In 2023, as in every year since 2005, we will once again join our voices to denounce apartheid and celebrate our diversity.

This year between 13 - 27 March we call on people across the world, including students, academics, artists, workers, churches, and movements for social, racial, gender and climate justice to join IAW 2023 under the slogan People Against Apartheid. Together, let’s make IAW 2023 a global mobilization of grassroot efforts to strengthen the Palestinian anti-apartheid movement and strategic BDS campaigns.

To host an event for IAW in your community, fill out this form to register it with the International Coordinating Committee. Stay tuned for IAW program updates.

All Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) activities must conform to the BDS movement's anti-racist principles and respect its affiliation guidelines.

BDS

Israeli Apartheid Week

IAW 2023 Global Calendar of Events

 

To submit your event please click here. 

Click on your region to find events near you:

AFRICA

ARAB WORLD

ASIA-PACIFIC

EUROPE

LATIN AMERICA

NORTH AMERICA

* All times in the local time zone.

2023 Call Out

 

Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is an opportunity to globally mobilize grassroots solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for freedom, dignity and justice. During IAW we raise awareness about Israeli apartheid and build strategic BDS campaigns in support of the Palestinian struggle to end Israel’s brutal system of apartheid, settler-colonialism and ethnic cleansing. 

IAW provides an opportunity to grow our networks across colonial walls and borders and strengthen solidarity with the Palestinian people. It is also an opportunity to further connect the Palestinian liberation struggle with global justice struggles against racism and all forms of discrimination and oppression. Apartheid Israel has developed technologies and methodologies of violent oppression, including weapons, spyware, illegal military doctrines, testing them on Palestinians and then exporting them to racist far-right governments,  dictatorships and criminal regimes worldwide. 

Israel’s greenwashing, agriwashing, pinkwashing, sportswashing, and techwashing of its brutal crimes against Indigenous Palestinians have also inspired several despotic regimes globally.

Understanding the intrinsic connection of our struggles and inspired by the growing international recognition that Israel is perpetrating the crime against humanity of apartheid, we call on  people across the world, including students, academics, artists, workers, churches, and movements for social, racial, gender and climate justice to join IAW 2023 under the slogan People Against Apartheid. Together, let’s make IAW 2023 a global mobilization of grassroot efforts to strengthen the Palestinian anti-apartheid movement and strategic BDS campaigns.   

Over the past year, the Israeli apartheid regime has intensified its system of segregation, fragmentation and control to maintain its system of settler-colonial oppression and domination over Palestinian lives and land. We have witnessed a devastating number of Palestinians murdered by the Israeli occupation forces, including more than 30 children, and targeted extrajudicial killings, such as that of renowned journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. Israel’s policy of ethnic cleansing has intensified along with forced removals and random acts of violence committed by illegal settlers protected by the occupation forces.

Popular resistance continues with the steadfastness that marks Palestinian life, and with the strength and the determination that are needed to continue the struggle, from Masafer Yatta to Jenin and Gaza, from Sheikh Jarrah to Yafa to Al-Naqab and in exile.

Supporting the Palestinian struggle allows us to reflect on the discrimination and forms of injustice our own communities and societies have to tackle, and increase our determination for a just world without racism, without colonial walls, without corporate impunity.

Join us in the struggle to dismantle apartheid and all forms of racism!

Join IAW 2023!

All Israeli Apartheid Week activities must conform to the BDS movement's principles of non-violence and anti-racism. Any activity that fails to do so cannot be accepted as part of IAW.

Plan and organize local, regional or national IAW events, submit your events for publication on our forthcoming global IAW calendar, and stay tuned for updates and more detailed programs.

The International Coordination Committee, IAW 2023
iawinfo@apartheidweek.org
January 2023

VIDEO OF THE ORIGINS OF IAW

 

 

Organizing Guide

 

For 18 years, people have organized thousands of creative events and actions

Under the banner of Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) and #UnitedAgainstRacism. IAW aims to raise awareness about Israel’s decades-old regime of settler-colonialism and apartheid over the Palestinian people and to mobilize global action to help dismantle it​. Thanks partially to IAW, this regime’s increasingly unmasked institutionalized racism and systematic oppression are increasingly difficult to hide and whitewash. IAW fuels the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement's unstoppable growth in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice, and equality.

Inspired by the ongoing popular resistance across historic Palestine, we hope to make Israeli Apartheid Week 2023 a powerful contribution to the Palestinian liberation struggle.

 

Join us in making this the largest Israeli Apartheid Week yet!
Register your events for the global calendar HERE!

 

A. Background to Israeli Apartheid Week

Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) began in Toronto, Canada in February 2005. Organized by the Arab Students’ Collective at the University of Toronto, it was a great success, with capacity-filled events that attracted media attention around the world. IAW spread to other Canadian cities in 2006 and by 2013, had grown to more than 200 cities worldwide.

Originally just taking place on university campuses, IAW events now take place all over our communities. IAW is a key part of the international BDS movement for Palestinian rights.

Israeli Apartheid Week has two main goals:

  • Raise awareness about Israel’s ongoing regime of occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid over the Palestinian people.
    Israel’s regime meets the definition of apartheid under international law, as now recognized by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, B’Tselem, UN experts,  Al Haq, among others. The BDS movement has always recognized apartheid as an integral manifestation and tool of Israeli settler-colonialism, highlighting the role of Zionism at the core of this regime. IAW uses this framework to make historical and concrete connections with other struggles against racism, discrimination, and colonialism. There are more resources about this framework in Section F.
     
  • Building support for the Palestinian-led BDS movement.
    Almost 18 years since its launch, the BDS movement is now widely recognised by Palestinians, the solidarity mo​vement, and even by Israel and its anti-Palestinian lobby as a key form of pressure to hold Israel to account and end international support for its regime of apartheid and settler-colonialism.

 

B. How to Participate

All IAW activities must conform to the BDS movement’s anti-racist principles and respect its affiliation guidelines in order to be listed on the global calendar.

To register your events for IAW 2023, please fill out this form!

NOTE: registering through the form does not mean your group/planned event will be listed on the website, it will be vetted according to the BDS guidelines above.

  • Listing your events at ​bdsmovement.net/iaw
    One of our important shared resources is the IAW webpage, where events taking place across the world are listed.
    Once you have registered, your event will be vetted by the IAW International Coordinating Committee (IAW ICC), and then uploaded to the global calendar that is forthcoming on the website. This means people in your local community will be able to find your event easily.
     
  • Share your events and actions online! #IsraeliApartheidWeek
    Please share your amazing organizing with the wider movement and the world. Take photos and videos, write short reports, and share them all using the hashtags #IsraeliApartheidWeek and #UnitedAgainstRacism. We’ll be sharing on social media on the accounts:

 

C. Theme for Israeli Apartheid Week 2023

Understanding the intrinsic connection of our struggles and inspired by the growing international recognition that Israel is perpetrating the crime against humanity of apartheid, we call on people across the world, including students, academics, artists, workers, churches, and movements for social, racial, gender and climate justice to join IAW 2023 under the slogan People Against Apartheid. Together, let’s make IAW 2023 a global mobilization of grassroots efforts to strengthen the Palestinian anti-apartheid movement and strategic BDS campaigns.  

IAW provides an opportunity to grow our networks across colonial walls and borders and strengthen solidarity with the Palestinian people. It is also an opportunity to further connect the Palestinian liberation struggle with global justice struggles against racism and all forms of discrimination and oppression. Apartheid Israel has developed technologies and methodologies of violent oppression, including weapons, spyware, illegal military doctrines, testing them on Palestinians and then exporting them to racist far-right governments,  dictatorships and criminal regimes worldwide.

Here you can read the full 2023 call out.

 

D. Organizing Ideas and Inspiration

Being part of Israeli Apartheid Week is easy – here is an example of a full week of IAW events put on by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at the University of Houston in 2021. Below are 8 ideas for things your group could organize:

  1. Show a Film
  2. Hear from Inspiring Speakers
  3. Host a Cultural Event or Concert
  4. Organize a Creative BDS Protest/Action
    Among the many creative possible opportunities, you can see a complete guide from National Students for Justice in Palestine on how to build an Israel Apartheid Wall on your campus/in your community.
    Check out this action planning guide from Seeds for Change for ideas and tips on planning your action.
  5. Hear From an Organization in Palestine via Zoom/Phone
  6. Bring People Together for a BDS Workshop
  7. Build Connections With Other Movements
    Join events and initiatives with other justice movements that explore how different forms of oppression are linked and how we face common opponents can help us to build intersectional bonds and strengthen our commitment to a world free from oppression.

 

E. Basis of Unity

Israeli Apartheid Week is part of the BDS movement for Palestinian rights. As such, the following key documents form IAW’s basis of unity:

 

F. Resources
  1. Graphics, Materials & Posters
    The blank templates for graphics to be used for your IAW 2023 organizing can be found here (flier/poster and social media graphics)

    You can also check
  2. Articles and Reports

 

 

Resources

 

Register your IAW 2023 event with the International Coordinating Committee to be uploaded to our global calendar by submitting here.

Visit our  and learn more about the apartheid analysis, its legal aspects, and implications. 

Contact us at  if you have any questions or need support for IAW organizing.

Impact

Since its beginnings in 2005, IAW has organized thousands of events in hundreds of cities worldwide. Thanks to IAW, Israel's apartheid policies of institutionalized racism and systematic oppression against the Palestinian people are increasingly difficult to hide and whitewash.
IAW is a collective growing success that fuels the global BDS movement's unstoppable growth in the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice, and equality.
Now more than ever, let's continue to stand together.

#UnitedAgainstRacism.