Events
al-Nakbah Commemmoration Week, May 5-May 8
Students for Justice in Palestine will be hosting two daytime events and two evening events the week of May 5th-9th.
This year marks the 60th year of Al-Nakba (”the catastrophe”). Al-Nakba refers to the ethnic cleansing of the native Palestinian peoples. During this time, approximately 750,000 Palestinians were made refugees, more than 500 villages were razed to the ground, and 24 organized massacres occurred.
Village Commemoration Ceremony, 12-1 pm
Monday, May 5th Sproul Plaza (Savio Steps):
We will be using the speaker system on Sproul to announce the names of the 512 Palestinian villages razed in 1948 by armies of the Zionist project.
Cal Student Panel: Going Home? 7-9 pm
Tuesday, May 6th 145 Dwinelle:
Jewish-American, Israeli, and Palestinian students will be having a dialog about their travels to Palestine, to Israel, and the realities and disparities involved in “going home.” A student-run, student-lead event with sincere discussions about their personal encounters regarding Israel-Palestine.
Mock Checkpoint, 10-2 pm
Wednesday, May 7th Sproul Plaza (Sather Crescent):
Checkpoints are a daily impediment in the occupied territories for students going to school, people going to work, patients trying to reach hospitals, or families visiting family. This will be a mild example of what Palestinians go through on a daily basis.
Remembering Al-Nakba - 60 Years of Resistance, Dinner 6:30-7:00 pm, program 7-9pm
Thursday, May 8th Heller Lounge Multicultural Center:
This final event to conclude our week of remembrance will explore and celebrate the various forms of cultural resistance practiced by Palestinians struggling against occupation and apartheid today. We will invite artists, musicians, and other performers to demonstrate how their craft is an integral part of their resistance. Donations for food will be accepted along a sliding scale and proceeds will go to Ibdaa’ Cultural Center in Dheisheh refugee camp in Palestine. No one turned away for lack of funds!
Bring your family and friends, we hope to see you there!!!
Past Events
“Liberated” Women: War & Oppression in Occupied Iraq, Palestine, and Afghanistan
Tuesday March 18, UC Berkeley, Heller Lounge in Martin Luther King Jr. Building, 7-930pm
Featuring: Professor Fathia al-Joumaily, Annie Fukushima, Hosai Ehsan, Dr. Razia Iqbal, Margo Okazawa-Rey, and speakers from MECA and AfghanHands. Will also include an artistic performance by Dina Omar.
Speakers and participants will provide personal experiences and activist perspectives on the plight of women in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Palestine. The symposium’s objective is to complicate the language surrounding the occupation of these three countries–to expose the exploitation and disenfranchisement that directly result from occupation, and to delve deeper into how war and invasion disproportionately affect women. As the anti-war movement organizes to critique war, this event highlights the gendered dynamics to US expansion in the name of “democracy.” While the treatment of Abu Ghraib has become the most visible in the US, this symposium will make visible women’s experiences.
Bil’in Habibti (Bil’in, my Love): Film Screening and Speaking Tour
Wednesday March 19th, Goldberg Room, Law School (Boalt Hall), UC Berkeley (7:00-9:00). Near Cafe Zeb.
Featuring: Mansour Mansour, a Palestinian activist; Shai Carmeli Pollak, Israeli activist and film maker.
Come see the documentary film “Bil’in Habibti” about the West Bank town Bil’in, where Palestinians as well as Israeli and international activists have been resisting the israeli occupation and the devastating confiscation of the land from the building of the Wall. For the past three years, dedicated activists have come together every Friday to protest against these violations and in solidarity with the people of Bil’in. Their commitment, and creative forsm of resistance, are an inspirational testament to the power of popular protest.
In solidarity with the world-wide Israeli Apartheid Week
and the besieged people of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank
Students for Justice in Palestine Presents:
Israeli Apartheid Week at UC Berkeley
Monday 2/4
Human Rights Activist Mark Turner
7pm, 20 Barrows, UC Berkeley
“Redefining the Occupation in Palestine:” International human rights activist, Mark Turner, recently spent nine months in Balata Refugee Camp in Nablus where he volunteered with medical crews during Israeli military invasions and operations. Mark’s films bring attention to the continued illegal use of human shields by the Israeli military, including an incident in which soldiers kidnapped an eleven-year-old girl. In 2003, Mark founded the Research Journalism Initiative (RJI), an interactive program that provides tools to teachers and students learning about the Occupation. RJI staff living in the West Bank work with Palestinian students to produce film, radio, photographic and print media, then facilitate live videoconferences between American high school students and Palestinian university students, creating opportunities for a direct exchange that is free of the filters typical of the mainstream American media.
Learn more about RJI at http://researchjournalisminitiative.net/.
Tuesday 2/5
Right to Education Campaign Teach-In
7pm, 60 Evans, UC Berkeley
Featuring presentations by “FRESH!” (Freshly Redefining Education for Students through Hip-hop) and other local community education activists and a screening of the short film “Lucky Ahmed” on barriers students face in trying to complete their education under Occupation, prepared by student activists in the West Bank.
From the Bay to the Mediterranean, brown, poor disenfranchised people are fighting for their basic rights. Hundreds of miles away, Palestinians are deprived of their education in the Occupied Palestinian Territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and their cousins are denied a narrative because of apartheid exclusion within the state of Israel. At the same time, our own education system lies about the history of minorities in this country and deprives people of color of their right to education. Our communities can learn from each other’s struggles and successes, so we are gathering together in this event to teach one another how to commit organized struggle for the right to our minds and stories.
Wednesday 2/6
Noon: Rally at Sproul Plaza - WEAR BLACK!
with Barbara Lubin from the Middle East Children’s Alliance and other community leaders
Sproul Plaza, UC Berkeley, 12:00 Noon
Evening: Opening of “Jerusalem Dispossessed” Photo Exhibit
7 p.m. at Mudrakers Cafe with student speakers who have lived and worked in Jerusalem (2801 Telegraph Avenue near Andronico’s) with additional photos shown at Fertile Grounds Cafe (1796 Shattuck Avenue near Hearst)
“Jerusalem Dispossessed” is a collection of photographs put together by the photo collective ActiveStills and the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolition (ICAHD). The photos capture the tragedy and injustices that are currently being played out in the city of Jerusalem against the Palestinian residents in the form of home demolitions, discriminatory municipal policy, resource allocation, and the continued construction of the Separation Wall.
For more information on ICAHD and the exhibit please visit http://activestills.org/jerusalem/jerusalem.html and http://icahd.org/eng/
Thursday 2/7
Writer Anna Baltzer
7pm, 145 Dwinelle, UC Berkeley
Anna Baltzer, a Jewish-American Columbia graduate, Fulbright scholar, and volunteer with the International Women’s Peace Service, is touring the U.S. with a presentation and book describing her experiences documenting human rights abuses in the West Bank and supporting Palestinian and Israeli nonviolent resistance to the Occupation. Anna’s presentation will cover checkpoints, Israeli activism, the Apartheid Wall, censorship, nonviolent resistance and other topics rarely covered in mainstream US media.
More information can be found about Anna at www.AnnaInTheMiddleEast.com.
Friday 2/8
Apartheid and the Youth of Palestine
closing event, featuring Ziad Abbas, Co-Director of Ibdaa’ Cultural Center (Dheisheh Refugee Camp, Bethlehem) and journalist Nora Barrows-Friedman; poetry by Dina Omar, slide show, debkeh, and Palestinian food. $5-10 suggested donation, noone turned away for lack of funds.
7pm, Heller Multicultural Center, MLK Jr Bulding, UC Berkeley
Where do we go from here? This event, featuring two dedicated individuals who will talk about their experiences working with youth living under occupation and apartheid. They will provide their visions of what a just future for these youth and their communities will look like and will provide inspiration of what we can do here, in the U.S., to organize and work for peace and justice in Israel/Palestine. Ziad Abbas, journalist and community organizer, is a recognized leader in his community and traveled throughout the world, as a representative and advocate for the rights of his people, bringing special attention to the issue of the right of return for Palestinian refugees. Nora Barrows-Friedman has gained international recognition as an investigative journalist, focusing specifically on issues in the Middle East. Her current projects in the West Bank include Freedom Radio, the first radio station in a Palestinian refugee camp, and a Hip-Hop production workshop for youth with members of the Palestinian hip-hop group DAM.
To learn more about Flashpoints please visit http://www.flashpoints.net/.
To learn more about Ibdaa’ Cultural Center please visit http://www.mecaforpeace.org/.