Protest Planned at LA Gala Fundraiser Benefiting Israel Defense Forces

Media Advisory for:
Thursday, December 6, 2012

Stevie Wonder's Cancellation Heartens Activists
Protest Planned at LA Gala Fundraiser Benefiting Israel Defense Forces

WHEN: 4:30PM, Thursday, Dec 6, 2012
WHERE: Outside the Hyatt Century Plaza, 2025 Ave. of the Stars, L.A. 90067    
WHO: Confirmed Speakers Miko Peled, son of Israeli general Matti Peled and author of "The General's Son, Journey of an Israeli in Palestine", Shakeel Syed, Steering Committee member of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation and Huda Bayaa of the Palestine Children's Relief Fund*, Occupy Whittier, and representing one of the event organizers. Presser Emcee: Jim Lafferty, Executive Director, National Lawyers Guild of LA.
WHAT: Press Conference 4:30 PM, followed by mock funeral, protest, and rally, as gala attendees arrive.    
VISUALS: Mock funeral procession, with child’s casket, 170 placards worn by participants, bearing the names and ages of IDF's “Operation Pillar of Defense” victims.    

LOS ANGELES, CA (Dec. 3) -- Thousands of activists around the world using social media, e-mail and phone calls helped to persuade legendary musical artist and humanitarian Stevie Wonder to cancel his highly publicized performance at "Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces (FIDF) Annual Gala" fundraiser. The event generates tens of millions of dollars for Israel's military machine, most recently responsible for the massacre and wounding of hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza, many of them children.    

With their victorious effort to persuade Wonder in hand, a diverse coalition of local and national organizations has now announced a protest outside the event itself.    

“I served in the IDF, my father was a general in the IDF during the 1967 war,” said author Miko Peled who will join the protesters. “The IDF today is one of the best armed and best financed terror organizations in the world, responsible for the death of countless Palestinians. Rather than funding it, people must call for the IDF to be dismantled and banned.”    

FIDF director and CEO, Israeli Army Major General Yitzhak Gershon expressed "regret" [over Wonder’s cancellation] and claimed that FIDF is a "non-political" and "humanitarian" organization. “Gershon himself is implicated in war crimes committed when he commanded Israeli forces attacking Palestinians in Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, during the second intifada,” according to the website The Electronic Intifada.    

The annual event is hosted by Israeli-American billionaire Haim Saban who told the New Yorker in 2010, "I’m a one-issue guy, and my issue is Israel.” Saban's wife a co-host of Gala, Cheryl Saban, was nominated just last September by President Obama to represent the U.S. at the UN General Assembly.

ENDORSERS: ORGANIZATIONS:

Al-Awda (PRRC); Addicted to War; Advocates for Peace and Justice, Irvine United Congregational Church; American Muslims for Palestine (AMP); ANSWER-LA; Antiracist Action Network; BDS-LA/Dump Veolia; Cafe Intifada; Campaign to End Israeli Apartheid-Southern Calif. (CEIA-LA); Free Gaza Southern California; Friends of Sabeel, Southern California; International Action Center (IAC); Israel Divestment Campaign - Southern California; Jews for Palestinian Right of Return; Jewish Voice for Peace-LA (JVP-LA); LA Jews for Peace; Labor for Palestine; LA-Palestine Labor Solidarity Commmittee; National Lawyer's Guild-LA (NLG-LA); New York City Labor Against the War; Occupy Whittier; Palestinian American Women's Association for Southern California; School of the Americas Watch-LA; Students for Justice In Palestine (SJP) UCLA, UCI, UCSD, UCSB, UCR, UC Berkeley, USC and Loyola Marymount; RAC-LA; US Campaign for Academic and Cultural Boycott (USCACBI); US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation; Women in Black-Los Angeles (WIB-LA).

INDIVIDUALS: Hussam Ayloush, *Council on American Islamic Relations-LA (CAIR-LA);* Huda Bayaa, Palestine Children's Relief Fund* and Occupy Whittier; The Rev. Gary Commins, Rector, St Luke’s Episcopal Church, Long Beach; Felicity Figueroa, educator, Irvine, CA; The Rev. Canon Warren S. Nyback; Miko Peled, son of Israeli general Matti Peled and Author of "The General's Son, Journey of an Israeli in Palestine;” David A. Smith, Professor of Sociology, UC-Irvine Sociologist; Shakeel Syed, US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation;Vicki Tamoush, Pacifist.
*Organizations listed for identification purposes only.

FB EVENT PAGE    

To schedule an advance interview with: Miko Peled, Son of Israeli general Matti Peled and author of "The General's Son, Journey of an Israeli in Palestine,” see below contact.    

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Karen Pomer [email protected] / 310-463-7025
Karin Pally [email protected] / 310-399-1921