and repression
Friday, October 16, 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Saturday, October 17, 9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Steelworkers Hall, 25 Cecil Street , Toronto
Friday Opening Panel:
Sharing Stories of Repression and Fightback
Panelists include Javier Davila, Adnan Husain, Golta Shahidi, and Palestinian educator, Saed Abu-Hijleh. Liisa Schofield will present a video short she made about Mohammad Othman from Stop the Wall who was arrested last month upon his return from Norway where he was campaigning for Palestinian rights.
Saturday: Keynote addresses: Yafa Jarrar and Sherene Razack
Also: Legal Context: Know Your Rights as Activists - Yutaka Dirks and Irina Ceric and
Sectoral Workshops: Post-Secondary Faculty - Academic Research, Conferences, Publication and Organizing * Post-Secondary Faculty -Teaching and the Curriculum * Elementary and Secondary Teachers – The Classroom, the Curriculum and Finding Spaces within the Union * Student Organizing * Community
Registration: $5–$30 sliding scale (includes lunch with vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free options). Please register by Wednesday October 14th at Noon to receive the lunch.
For further information and to pre-register, contact us at
freedomtoteach.registration@
Organized by Educators for Peace and Justice, Faculty for Palestine , and
Students Against Israeli Apartheid
Also coming up this week:
Three important presentations to be delivered by visiting Palestinian scholar, Saed Abu-Hijleh.
Special thanks to Ottawa activists for coordinating the tour, and to the Departments and Palestinian Solidarity organizations providing venues for us to hear from Professor Abu-Hijleh..
* * * * * * * * * * **
#1 WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 3:00 - 5:00 p.m
"The Political Geography of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict"
Room 2125, Sidney Smith Hall, 100 St. George St., University of Toronto
Hosted by the University of Toronto Department of Geography. Providing an overview of the historical geography of Palestine from the beginning of the Zionist project till today, Professor Abu-Hijleh will explain how the political map has changed, and identify the main forces that worked to shape it on the local, regional, and international levels. The presentation will also provide an evaluation of the different proposed schemes for the resolution of the conflict, and what they entail geographically.
#2 FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
Guest speaker on "Sharing Stories of Repression and Fightback" panel at Israel/Palestine: Freedom of Speech, Freedom to Teach Conference Steelworkers Hall, 25 Cecil Street (co-organized by Faculty4Palestine, Students Against Israeli Apartheid, and Educators for Peace and Justice) TO PRE-REGISTER FOR TWO-DAY CONFERENCE send an e-mail to
freedomtoteach.registration@
#3 MONDAY, OCTOBER 19, 12:00 noon
"Education Under Military Occupation and Apartheid"
SESE Seminar Room, 12th Floor, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), 252 Bloor St
Hosted by the OISE Graduate Students' Association Right to Education Committee. An overview of the different aspects of teaching and learning under the regimes set by the Israeli military occupation, identifying and classifying the different Israeli violations of the Palestinian Right to Education. The presentation explains how Palestinian students and academics are trying to
counter the effects of the Apartheid-like policies on the Palestinian educational system. Examples are given from the day-to-day life under occupation.
Saed J. Abu-Hijleh (2009)
Saed J. Abu-Hijleh is a Palestinian human geographer, poet, and radio show host, who is currently working as a lecturer of political and environmental geography at An-Najah National University in Nablus, Palestine. He is the founder & director of the Center for Global Consciousness (CGC), an independent media and cultural exchange institute dedicated to building bridges between Palestine and the world.
Mr. Abu-Hijleh holds a BS in International Development Studies from the University of Iowa and an MA in Political Geography from the University of Northern Iowa, USA. In the past fifteen years, Mr. Abu-Hijleh worked with key Palestinian public and private organizations in the fields of international development, public relations and protocol, and small and medium enterprises development projects. Mr. Abu-Hijleh is the former Director Public Relations Department of An-Najah University (2005-2007). Since 2004, Mr. Abu-Hijleh prepared and hosted a talk show on An-Najah University FM station called “Global Perspectives” in which he interviewed many
international personalities who visited Palestine on key contemporary political, economic, and cultural issues. Mr. Abu-Hijleh has conducted academic research on the political geography of Palestinian statehood and the multidimensional obstacles facing its realization. His current
research interests focus on the human geography of Palestinian identity & Diaspora, Israeli territoriality, Palestinian liberation theology, and the geography of the Palestinian environmental movement. He also conducted research on the new social media and the problems of media coverage in conflict zones. Mr. Abu-Hijleh is presently preparing to publish a poetry collection entitled “Words of a Palestinian Dinosaur!”
Like many other Palestinians who grew up under the Israeli military occupation, Mr. Abu-Hijleh started his political activism at an early stage in his life. He was only 10 years old when he joined student demonstrations against the occupation authorities. In April 1982, at the age of 15, he was seriously wounded by Israeli soldiers when they opened fire on a student demonstration in the city of Nablus. This did not stop him from continuing his activism for the realization of peace
and justice in Palestine and around the world.
On October 11, 2002, Israeli soldiers assassinated his mother Shaden Abu-Hijleh, a renowned Palestinian peace activist and philanthropist, and injured him and his father Dr. Jamal Abu-Hijleh. (www.remembershaden.org)
