A statement on behalf of Palestine House, the Canadian Arab Federation and the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid.
April 17th, 2008
On the occasion of April 17th, Palestinian Political Prisoners Day, we extend our solidarity and greetings to the over ten thousand Palestinian prisoners incarcerated in Israeli prisons and detention centers, their families and loved ones, and all those living under siege and occupation. We take this opportunity to insist that justice for the Palestinian people is impossible without the release of all Palestinian political prisoners.
Currently over ten thousand Palestinians are being held in Israeli prisons and detention centers. This figure includes over 350 Palestinian children and 100 women and girls. Virtually all of these prisoners face some of torture and abuse while in detention, including: severe beatings; denial of food and medical treatment; being exposed to painfully loud music; sleep deprivation; being tied for long periods of time in painful, contorted positions; and threats to rape or kill family members.
In violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, Palestinian prisoners from the West Bank and Gaza Strip are taken to detention centers and prisons inside Israel where they are prevented from visits and communication with their families or loved ones. In this manner, thousands of prisoners have been denied any contact with their families for years at a time. Moreover, over one thousand Palestinians are being held in administrative detention, kept behind bars without trial or charge for years at a time.
More than 40 elected members of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) are also being held as political prisoners by Israel. Prominent among these are the renowned Palestinian political leaders, Ahmad Saadat, Marwan Barghouti and Aziz Dweik, the chairperson of the PLC.
These practices are not the accidental policies of the Israeli government or the result of ‘bad apples’ in the Israeli police or military. They are deliberate and systematic. Israel uses torture and abuse consciously – to destroy families and the social fabric of Palestinian society, to intimidate and terrorize a people under military occupation, and, most insidiously, to recruit collaborators with the occupation. Furthermore, Israel uses these prisoners as ‘bargaining chips’ in negotiations, promising to release a few hundred in return for Palestinian ‘concessions’.
By refusing to publicly condemn Israel on its torture and abuse of Palestinian prisoners, the Canadian government is fully complicit in these war crimes. We note that just last week, the Israeli Shin Bet, a notorious secret intelligence force responsible for torture and the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians in detention, publicly admitted that they arrested family members of prisoners without cause, paraded them in front of detainees, and threatened them with abuse if prisoners did not comply. Where is the condemnation of these practices by the Canadian government? Through its refusal to address this and other horrific violations by the Israeli government, the Canadian government’s foreign policy is confirmed for what it is: a mockery of the very notion of ‘human rights’ and ‘democracy’.
We call for the immediate release of all these prisoners without exception. Palestinian prisoners are not hostages to political negotiations but an indivisible part of the struggle for justice. For six decades now, the Palestinian people have continued to demonstrate their steadfastness and refusal to submit to oppression. As organizations in Canada that stand with the Palestinian people in their struggle for justice, we have no doubt that one day, we too shall be celebrating that freedom.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Thursday, April 17, 2008
CUPW Passes Historic Boycott Resolution!
Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) Congratulates Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) on Historic Boycott Resolution!
16 April 2008
CAIA extends its warm congratulations to the delegates of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers national convention held in Ottawa, Canada, April 13-17th 2008. At the convention, CUPW passed an historic resolution, Resolution 338/339, in support of the global campaign of boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israeli Apartheid.
This resolution is an extremely significant landmark for the Palestinian solidarity movement in Canada. It represents the first time in North American history that a national union has passed a BDS resolution. The resolution recognizes Israel as an apartheid state and expresses CUPW’s support for boycott and divestment from Israel. It was passed almost unanimously after nearly one hour of discussion on the convention floor.
CUPW represents more than 50,000 postal workers across Canada and has been at the forefront of campaigns against privatization and deregulation at Canada Post. The union has a proud history of international solidarity. During the South African apartheid years, CUPW was at the forefront of labour solidarity with South African workers and engaged in concrete actions such as the refusal to handle mail from South Africa.
The CUPW resolution was modeled on Resolution 50 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (Ontario), which was passed in May 2006 and re-affirmed in 2007. The resolution commits CUPW to “support the international campaign of BDS until Israel meets its obligations to recognize the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law including the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and lands as stipulated in UN Resolution 194.”
The resolution states that CUPW will work “… with Palestinian solidarity and human rights organizations to develop an educational campaign about the apartheid nature of the Israeli state and the political and economic support of Canada for these practices.” The resolution also calls on the Canadian government to increase humanitarian aid to Palestinians who have been affected by the conflict, and commits CUPW to research on Canadian involvement in the
occupation.
CAIA congratulates CUPW on this vital show of support for Palestinian workers and their families. At a time when the Palestinian people are suffering under brutal siege and daily bombardment this resolution is an important show of solidarity. Today alone, 22 Palestinian civilians, including 5 children, were killed by Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip. The explicit recognition by yet another Canadian union that Israel is an apartheid state, deserving of
international isolation and boycott in the manner of South African Apartheid, is an inspiration for the North American and international labour movements. It is one further confirmation that the Israeli apartheid regime has deservedly become a pariah for progressive movements across the globe.
We call on supporters across the world to take the following action in support of CUPW:
1) Immediately email and fax the CUPW National office congratulating them on their stand against Israeli apartheid (sample letter below). Please fax your letter of support to CUPW National Office at ++ (613) 563-7861 or email endapartheid@riseup.net and we will pass them on to the CUPW national officeholders.
2) If you are a member of a union then get involved! Please contact the CAIA Labour Committee, Labour for Palestine, at labour@caiaweb.org for ideas and ways to get involved in Palestinian solidarity work within your workplace and union.
3) Visit your local post office and thank the workers for this resolution! Let them know that you appreciate this show of solidarity with Palestine.
**************************************************
16 April 2008
CAIA extends its warm congratulations to the delegates of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers national convention held in Ottawa, Canada, April 13-17th 2008. At the convention, CUPW passed an historic resolution, Resolution 338/339, in support of the global campaign of boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israeli Apartheid.
This resolution is an extremely significant landmark for the Palestinian solidarity movement in Canada. It represents the first time in North American history that a national union has passed a BDS resolution. The resolution recognizes Israel as an apartheid state and expresses CUPW’s support for boycott and divestment from Israel. It was passed almost unanimously after nearly one hour of discussion on the convention floor.
CUPW represents more than 50,000 postal workers across Canada and has been at the forefront of campaigns against privatization and deregulation at Canada Post. The union has a proud history of international solidarity. During the South African apartheid years, CUPW was at the forefront of labour solidarity with South African workers and engaged in concrete actions such as the refusal to handle mail from South Africa.
The CUPW resolution was modeled on Resolution 50 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (Ontario), which was passed in May 2006 and re-affirmed in 2007. The resolution commits CUPW to “support the international campaign of BDS until Israel meets its obligations to recognize the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law including the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and lands as stipulated in UN Resolution 194.”
The resolution states that CUPW will work “… with Palestinian solidarity and human rights organizations to develop an educational campaign about the apartheid nature of the Israeli state and the political and economic support of Canada for these practices.” The resolution also calls on the Canadian government to increase humanitarian aid to Palestinians who have been affected by the conflict, and commits CUPW to research on Canadian involvement in the
occupation.
CAIA congratulates CUPW on this vital show of support for Palestinian workers and their families. At a time when the Palestinian people are suffering under brutal siege and daily bombardment this resolution is an important show of solidarity. Today alone, 22 Palestinian civilians, including 5 children, were killed by Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip. The explicit recognition by yet another Canadian union that Israel is an apartheid state, deserving of
international isolation and boycott in the manner of South African Apartheid, is an inspiration for the North American and international labour movements. It is one further confirmation that the Israeli apartheid regime has deservedly become a pariah for progressive movements across the globe.
We call on supporters across the world to take the following action in support of CUPW:
1) Immediately email and fax the CUPW National office congratulating them on their stand against Israeli apartheid (sample letter below). Please fax your letter of support to CUPW National Office at ++ (613) 563-7861 or email endapartheid@riseup.net and we will pass them on to the CUPW national officeholders.
2) If you are a member of a union then get involved! Please contact the CAIA Labour Committee, Labour for Palestine, at labour@caiaweb.org for ideas and ways to get involved in Palestinian solidarity work within your workplace and union.
3) Visit your local post office and thank the workers for this resolution! Let them know that you appreciate this show of solidarity with Palestine.
**************************************************
Sample letter
Dear CUPW-Executive:
Thank you for passing the resolution to support the campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel.
Like South Africa, Israel will have to be subjected to intense international pressure before it recognizes Palestinians as a people with the right to self-determination. Your union played a critical role in the fight against South African Apartheid – it is wonderful to see you taking on this leadership role again in the fight against Israeli Apartheid.
No doubt you will come under intense pressure from pro-Israeli, pro-apartheid organizations to reverse this courageous decision, but rest assured that the overwhelming majority of people in the world are not fooled by right-wing, racist rhetoric and the mainstream media bias surrounding this issue.
Thank you again!
**************
PCPS Letter of Solidarity to CUPW:
Dear CUPW Executive Committee,
The Peterborough Coalition for Palestinian Solidarity extends its warm congratulations to the delegates of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers 2008 national convention for their vital show of support for Palestinian workers and their families. We are writing to express our gratitude to CUPW for passing an historic resolution, Resolution 338/339, in support of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people including the right of return. CUPW has shown enormous strength of leadership in joining the global campaign of boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israeli Apartheid.
Resolution 338/339 is a significant contribution to Canadian efforts to build labour support for Palestine. CUPW’s important show of international solidarity will help to foster a much-needed space for critical discussion on BDS. The explicit recognition by yet another Canadian union that Israel is an apartheid state, deserving of international isolation and boycott in the manner of South African Apartheid, is an inspiration for the North American and international Palestine-solidarity movements.
Like South Africa, Israel will have to be subjected to intense international pressure before it recognizes Palestinians as a people with the right to self-determination. Your union played a critical role in the fight against South African Apartheid – it is wonderful to see you taking on this leadership role again in the fight against Israeli Apartheid.
No doubt you will come under intense pressure from pro-Israeli, pro-apartheid organizations to reverse this courageous decision, but rest assured that the overwhelming majority of people in the world are not fooled by right-wing, racist rhetoric and the mainstream media bias surrounding this issue.
As a grassroots organization with links to CUPE activists, we hope to build alliances with labour organizers from all sectors and unions who have clearly staked out a position against Israeli apartheid. Thank you for passing this resolution!
In solidarity and struggle,
Peterborough Coalition for Palestinian Solidarity
Peterborough, Ontario
http://peterboroughcps.blogspot.com/
Dear CUPW-Executive:
Thank you for passing the resolution to support the campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel.
Like South Africa, Israel will have to be subjected to intense international pressure before it recognizes Palestinians as a people with the right to self-determination. Your union played a critical role in the fight against South African Apartheid – it is wonderful to see you taking on this leadership role again in the fight against Israeli Apartheid.
No doubt you will come under intense pressure from pro-Israeli, pro-apartheid organizations to reverse this courageous decision, but rest assured that the overwhelming majority of people in the world are not fooled by right-wing, racist rhetoric and the mainstream media bias surrounding this issue.
Thank you again!
**************
PCPS Letter of Solidarity to CUPW:
Dear CUPW Executive Committee,
The Peterborough Coalition for Palestinian Solidarity extends its warm congratulations to the delegates of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers 2008 national convention for their vital show of support for Palestinian workers and their families. We are writing to express our gratitude to CUPW for passing an historic resolution, Resolution 338/339, in support of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people including the right of return. CUPW has shown enormous strength of leadership in joining the global campaign of boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israeli Apartheid.
Resolution 338/339 is a significant contribution to Canadian efforts to build labour support for Palestine. CUPW’s important show of international solidarity will help to foster a much-needed space for critical discussion on BDS. The explicit recognition by yet another Canadian union that Israel is an apartheid state, deserving of international isolation and boycott in the manner of South African Apartheid, is an inspiration for the North American and international Palestine-solidarity movements.
Like South Africa, Israel will have to be subjected to intense international pressure before it recognizes Palestinians as a people with the right to self-determination. Your union played a critical role in the fight against South African Apartheid – it is wonderful to see you taking on this leadership role again in the fight against Israeli Apartheid.
No doubt you will come under intense pressure from pro-Israeli, pro-apartheid organizations to reverse this courageous decision, but rest assured that the overwhelming majority of people in the world are not fooled by right-wing, racist rhetoric and the mainstream media bias surrounding this issue.
As a grassroots organization with links to CUPE activists, we hope to build alliances with labour organizers from all sectors and unions who have clearly staked out a position against Israeli apartheid. Thank you for passing this resolution!
In solidarity and struggle,
Peterborough Coalition for Palestinian Solidarity
Peterborough, Ontario
http://peterboroughcps.blogspot.com/
Friday, April 4, 2008
April 3rd Event: Campus-based Solidarity Struggles
The Academic Boycott of Apartheid Israel:
Palestine-Solidarity Struggles on University Campuses in Ontario
Thursday 03 April 2008
3:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Champlain College Senior Common Room, Trent University
Featuring faculty and student speakers from Ryerson, McMaster, Queen's, U of T, York and Trent, including:
- Dr. Margaret Pappano, Queen’s University
- Jamila Ghaddar, Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights, McMaster University
- Heather Kere, Vice-President of Education, Ryerson Student Union
- Golta Vahid-Shahidi, Students Against Israeli Apartheid @ U of T
- Ali Mustafa, Students Against Israeli Apartheid @ York
- Dr. Mary-Jo Nadeau, Peterborough Coalition for Palestinian Solidarity and Trent University Faculty Association
- Sarah Kardash, Peterborough Coalition for Palestinian Solidarity and CUPE Local 3908
Zatoun fair trade olive oil and soap from Palestine will be available for purchase.
This event has been endorsed by: CUPE Local 3908 (academic workers at Trent University), Trent Graduate Students’ Association, Trent Central Student Association, Trent Political Studies Department, Trent Students Interrogating Canada, Trent University Canadian International Mediterranean Association, Trent Women’s Centre, Trent Queer Collective, OPIRG – Peterborough, Peterborough Coalition Against Poverty, Community and Race Relations Committee of Peterborough, Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid, and Zatoun.
For more information and links, see below. Stay tuned for further details or email peterboroughcps@gmail.com with questions.
---
On Thursday 03 April 2008 the Peterborough Coalition for Palestinian Solidarity will be hosting an event titled, “The Academic Boycott of Apartheid Israel: Palestine-Solidarity Struggles on University Campuses in Ontario,” from 3:00 – 6:00 p.m. in the Champlain College Senior Common Room. The event will feature faculty and student speakers from Trent, Queen's, Ryerson, McMaster, U of T, and York.
This event is intended to initiate a much-needed dialogue on the Trent campus around issues related to the academic boycott, freedom of speech, academic freedom, and the right to organize against Israeli apartheid. The event will draw connections between how these struggles are playing out at various academic institutions across Ontario. It also provides an opportunity to strengthen ties between activists across university campuses, and to learn from each other's experiences of organizing collectively against Israeli apartheid and in solidarity with Palestine.
We fully concur with the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) that ‘free and open debate on the issue of Israeli apartheid is more urgently needed now than ever before’.
For sixty years, Israel has denied Palestinians the right to live peacefully in their own homes. Through military occupation, illegal settlements, systematic discrimination, destruction of the infrastructure of Palestinian civil society, ethnic cleansing, and an apartheid system of racial segregation, the majority of Palestinians have been forced to leave their land and become part of one of the world's largest refugee populations. Israeli universities and academics play a key role in supporting these policies, while the educational rights of Palestinians are denied.
The movement against Israeli apartheid is rapidly growing across the world. Hundreds of universities, unions, religious groups and social justice organizations have endorsed a comprehensive campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions initiated (July 9th 2005) by over 100 Palestinian NGOs and trade unions. With the United Kingdom’s University and College Union taking the lead on an academic boycott (May 30th 2007) alongside a burgeoning movement of student activism, universities have emerged as a key site of movement building in this broader struggle. This was made especially evident by the great success of Israeli Apartheid Week 2008 on campuses in 25 cities (including Peterborough). We feel it is crucial to build on this strength and add support to the movement by organizing in solidarity at this critical moment.
For this reason we feel it is urgent to reveal and challenge the response against this movement initiated by university Presidents. In the summer of 2007, presidents from over 20 Canadian universities unilaterally issued statements declaring their opposition to the boycott of Israeli academic institutions. These decisions were undertaken without public debate, as in the instance of Trent University President Bonnie Patterson who issued her statement while most students and faculty were away from campus for summer holidays. It is important to highlight that the academic boycott and academic freedom in relation to Israeli apartheid have been surfacing at Trent for years, and yet there has been no open forum for debate at Trent on university responses to the conflict in Israel-Palestine and neither has any campus organization taken a stance in opposition to the President's statement.
Finally, a public discussion is urgent as the Israeli state is escalating its campaign of deadly attacks on Gaza and the Palestinian people. It is also urgent as attacks on academic freedom, free speech and students’ rights to organize have been occurring at alarmingly increasing rates on university campuses in North America – these have taken the form of (attempted) denials of tenure to Indigenous and Palestinian-American faculty, as well as (Jewish) academics whose scholarship criticizes Israeli state policy; attempts by pro-Israel Jewish advocacy groups to silence critical and politicized faculty for alleged 'pro-Palestinian bias' and 'anti-Israel views'; campus-wide bans on the use of the terms 'Israeli apartheid' by university administrators; and the viscous targeting and racist assaults on politicized black student organizers and student groups that call for social change and political justice.
As a relatively newly formed group with links to Trent University, PCPS draws inspiration from the success of Israeli Apartheid Week and from campus-based groups, which have clearly staked out a position against Israeli apartheid. The student movement has shown enormous strength of leadership in their efforts to condemn racism on university campuses, to build support in the academic community for the growing international BDS campaign and to create much needed spaces for critical engagement and dialogue.
For more information on the academic boycott of apartheid Israel, please visit these links:
Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) Campus Committee
Palestinian Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel
Birzeit University, Palestine: Education Denied
"The Ivory Tower Behind the Apartheid Wall" by Margaret Aziza Pappano
"Towards a viable academic boycott campaign" by Laith Marouf
"The Case for the Academic Boycott Against Israel" by the Alternative Information Center
"The Academic Boycott Debate" by Justin Podur
"Academic Freedom is at Risk in America" by Saree Makdisi
"Ilan Pappe: I'm not a traitor" by Ayelet Negev
"The Case for Boycotting Israel" by Virginia Tilley
"The South African Boycott Experience" by Jonathan Hyslop, Salim Vally, and Shireen Hassim
Palestine-Solidarity Struggles on University Campuses in Ontario
Thursday 03 April 2008
3:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Champlain College Senior Common Room, Trent University
Featuring faculty and student speakers from Ryerson, McMaster, Queen's, U of T, York and Trent, including:
- Dr. Margaret Pappano, Queen’s University
- Jamila Ghaddar, Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights, McMaster University
- Heather Kere, Vice-President of Education, Ryerson Student Union
- Golta Vahid-Shahidi, Students Against Israeli Apartheid @ U of T
- Ali Mustafa, Students Against Israeli Apartheid @ York
- Dr. Mary-Jo Nadeau, Peterborough Coalition for Palestinian Solidarity and Trent University Faculty Association
- Sarah Kardash, Peterborough Coalition for Palestinian Solidarity and CUPE Local 3908
Zatoun fair trade olive oil and soap from Palestine will be available for purchase.
This event has been endorsed by: CUPE Local 3908 (academic workers at Trent University), Trent Graduate Students’ Association, Trent Central Student Association, Trent Political Studies Department, Trent Students Interrogating Canada, Trent University Canadian International Mediterranean Association, Trent Women’s Centre, Trent Queer Collective, OPIRG – Peterborough, Peterborough Coalition Against Poverty, Community and Race Relations Committee of Peterborough, Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid, and Zatoun.
For more information and links, see below. Stay tuned for further details or email peterboroughcps@gmail.com with questions.
---
“I supported the boycott because I believe that without pressure, Israel will not end the occupation … I believe that things would change only if Israel receives a strong message that as long as the occupation continues it would not be a legitimate member of the international community, and that until then its academics, doctors and authors would not be welcome. A similar boycott was imposed on South Africa. It took 21 years, but it eventually led to the end of Apartheid.”
(Ilan Pappe, Historian, Israeli academic)
On Thursday 03 April 2008 the Peterborough Coalition for Palestinian Solidarity will be hosting an event titled, “The Academic Boycott of Apartheid Israel: Palestine-Solidarity Struggles on University Campuses in Ontario,” from 3:00 – 6:00 p.m. in the Champlain College Senior Common Room. The event will feature faculty and student speakers from Trent, Queen's, Ryerson, McMaster, U of T, and York.
This event is intended to initiate a much-needed dialogue on the Trent campus around issues related to the academic boycott, freedom of speech, academic freedom, and the right to organize against Israeli apartheid. The event will draw connections between how these struggles are playing out at various academic institutions across Ontario. It also provides an opportunity to strengthen ties between activists across university campuses, and to learn from each other's experiences of organizing collectively against Israeli apartheid and in solidarity with Palestine.
We fully concur with the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) that ‘free and open debate on the issue of Israeli apartheid is more urgently needed now than ever before’.
For sixty years, Israel has denied Palestinians the right to live peacefully in their own homes. Through military occupation, illegal settlements, systematic discrimination, destruction of the infrastructure of Palestinian civil society, ethnic cleansing, and an apartheid system of racial segregation, the majority of Palestinians have been forced to leave their land and become part of one of the world's largest refugee populations. Israeli universities and academics play a key role in supporting these policies, while the educational rights of Palestinians are denied.
The movement against Israeli apartheid is rapidly growing across the world. Hundreds of universities, unions, religious groups and social justice organizations have endorsed a comprehensive campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions initiated (July 9th 2005) by over 100 Palestinian NGOs and trade unions. With the United Kingdom’s University and College Union taking the lead on an academic boycott (May 30th 2007) alongside a burgeoning movement of student activism, universities have emerged as a key site of movement building in this broader struggle. This was made especially evident by the great success of Israeli Apartheid Week 2008 on campuses in 25 cities (including Peterborough). We feel it is crucial to build on this strength and add support to the movement by organizing in solidarity at this critical moment.
For this reason we feel it is urgent to reveal and challenge the response against this movement initiated by university Presidents. In the summer of 2007, presidents from over 20 Canadian universities unilaterally issued statements declaring their opposition to the boycott of Israeli academic institutions. These decisions were undertaken without public debate, as in the instance of Trent University President Bonnie Patterson who issued her statement while most students and faculty were away from campus for summer holidays. It is important to highlight that the academic boycott and academic freedom in relation to Israeli apartheid have been surfacing at Trent for years, and yet there has been no open forum for debate at Trent on university responses to the conflict in Israel-Palestine and neither has any campus organization taken a stance in opposition to the President's statement.
Finally, a public discussion is urgent as the Israeli state is escalating its campaign of deadly attacks on Gaza and the Palestinian people. It is also urgent as attacks on academic freedom, free speech and students’ rights to organize have been occurring at alarmingly increasing rates on university campuses in North America – these have taken the form of (attempted) denials of tenure to Indigenous and Palestinian-American faculty, as well as (Jewish) academics whose scholarship criticizes Israeli state policy; attempts by pro-Israel Jewish advocacy groups to silence critical and politicized faculty for alleged 'pro-Palestinian bias' and 'anti-Israel views'; campus-wide bans on the use of the terms 'Israeli apartheid' by university administrators; and the viscous targeting and racist assaults on politicized black student organizers and student groups that call for social change and political justice.
As a relatively newly formed group with links to Trent University, PCPS draws inspiration from the success of Israeli Apartheid Week and from campus-based groups, which have clearly staked out a position against Israeli apartheid. The student movement has shown enormous strength of leadership in their efforts to condemn racism on university campuses, to build support in the academic community for the growing international BDS campaign and to create much needed spaces for critical engagement and dialogue.
For more information on the academic boycott of apartheid Israel, please visit these links:
Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) Campus Committee
Palestinian Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel
Birzeit University, Palestine: Education Denied
"The Ivory Tower Behind the Apartheid Wall" by Margaret Aziza Pappano
"Towards a viable academic boycott campaign" by Laith Marouf
"The Case for the Academic Boycott Against Israel" by the Alternative Information Center
"The Academic Boycott Debate" by Justin Podur
"Academic Freedom is at Risk in America" by Saree Makdisi
"Ilan Pappe: I'm not a traitor" by Ayelet Negev
"The Case for Boycotting Israel" by Virginia Tilley
"The South African Boycott Experience" by Jonathan Hyslop, Salim Vally, and Shireen Hassim
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Demand that President Patterson retract her July 25, 2007 statement condemning the academic boycott of apartheid Israel
On July 25, 2007, Trent University President and Vice-Chancellor Bonnie M. Patterson issued the following statement from the Office of the President:
Form email:
To: Bonnie M. Patterson, Trent University President and Vice-ChancellorI am writing to ask that you immediately remove from the Trent University website your 'statement' of condemnation, "On the academic boycott of Israeli universities being considered by Britain's University and College Union," issued by the Office of the President on July 25, 2007. I feel that this statement pre-empts debate about the very grave and pressing issues that prompted the UCU to consider such a significant action. Given that Trent University students are exhorted to learn "to make a world of difference," educators must embrace this controversy as an opportunity to bring a subject of great import before our students, faculty, staff and wider university community. Unfortunately, such an opportunity for discussion is severely curtailed when a single administrator pretends to speak for the entire community. Indeed, the opportunity for real debate was foreclosed by your unilateral decision to issue the statement during the summer holidays when most students and faculty are away from campus. To rectify this situation, I call on the President's office to plan and fund two public forums,
(1) on the subject of Israeli policies on the West Bank and Gaza and their impact on primary, secondary and post-secondary education; and
(2) on the subject of Trent University's response to the proposed academic boycott of Israeli academic institutions.
Until that time, I call on you to retract your statement and desist from further threats or pressure to condemn the proposed boycott.Sincerely, [your name]
On the boycott of Israeli Universities by the United Kingdom's University and College UnionIt is unacceptable for President Patterson to take a political position on the academic boycott in the name of the entire Trent University academic community. Please send President Patterson an email to this effect: bmpatterson@trentu.ca
The exchange of knowledge and ideas are essential to the advancement of human development. It is through sharing and collaboration that culture, science and civic society will meet the challenges of the future.
The United Kingdom's University and College Union's proposed boycott of Israeli universities and scholars is the union's attempt to show their displeasure over Israel's policies regarding Palestinians. At its most fundamental level, this boycott is a violation of the academy's core values and should be denounced.
Any attempt to constrain the ability of university scholars to engage freely in their research and scholarly activity is an attack on the fundamental value of academic freedom. At its very core, academic freedom must be unfettered by dogmas, religion and political systems.
We live in a world in which universities and their faculty members should seek to promote scholarly understanding and to remove barriers to academic exchange, expression and collaboration.
To this end, I urge our British university colleagues to reject the boycott proposal. Trent University condemns any attempt to limit academic freedom of colleagues, anywhere around the world, and promotes free academic expression as a core value that defines all university environments.
Form email:
To: Bonnie M. Patterson, Trent University President and Vice-ChancellorI am writing to ask that you immediately remove from the Trent University website your 'statement' of condemnation, "On the academic boycott of Israeli universities being considered by Britain's University and College Union," issued by the Office of the President on July 25, 2007. I feel that this statement pre-empts debate about the very grave and pressing issues that prompted the UCU to consider such a significant action. Given that Trent University students are exhorted to learn "to make a world of difference," educators must embrace this controversy as an opportunity to bring a subject of great import before our students, faculty, staff and wider university community. Unfortunately, such an opportunity for discussion is severely curtailed when a single administrator pretends to speak for the entire community. Indeed, the opportunity for real debate was foreclosed by your unilateral decision to issue the statement during the summer holidays when most students and faculty are away from campus. To rectify this situation, I call on the President's office to plan and fund two public forums,
(1) on the subject of Israeli policies on the West Bank and Gaza and their impact on primary, secondary and post-secondary education; and
(2) on the subject of Trent University's response to the proposed academic boycott of Israeli academic institutions.
Until that time, I call on you to retract your statement and desist from further threats or pressure to condemn the proposed boycott.Sincerely, [your name]
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Zatoun Day - 26 March
The Peterborough Coalition for Palestinian Solidarity presents
ZATOUN DAY!
Affordable fair trade products from Palestine
Extra virgin olive oil - $15/bottle
Za'atar (thyme spice mix) - $5/bag
Pure olive oil soap - $4/bar
Olive oil soap collection (lemon, honey, goat's milk, and mud from the
Dead Sea) - $20/package
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26
10 AM - 4 PM
IN FRONT OF BATA LIBRARY
For more information on Zatoun products visit www.zatoun.com
ZATOUN DAY!
Affordable fair trade products from Palestine
Extra virgin olive oil - $15/bottle
Za'atar (thyme spice mix) - $5/bag
Pure olive oil soap - $4/bar
Olive oil soap collection (lemon, honey, goat's milk, and mud from the
Dead Sea) - $20/package
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26
10 AM - 4 PM
IN FRONT OF BATA LIBRARY
For more information on Zatoun products visit www.zatoun.com
Thursday, March 13, 2008
An Open Letter to All Feminists
Statement of Solidarity with Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim Women Facing War and Occupation
As feminists and people of conscience, we call for solidarity with Palestinian women in Gaza suffering due to the escalating military attacks that Israel turned into an open war on civilians. This war has targeted women and children, and all those who live under Israeli occupation in the West Bank , and are also denied the right to freedom of movement, health, and education.
We stand in solidarity with Iraqi women whose daughters, sisters, brothers, or sons have been abused, tortured, and raped in U.S. prisons such as Abu Ghraib. Women in Iraq continue to live under a U.S. occupation that has devastated families and homes, and are experiencing a rise in religious extremism and restrictions on their freedom that were unheard of before the U.S. invasion, “Operation Iraqi Freedom,” in 2003.
At this moment in Afghanistan , women are living with the return of the Taliban and other misogynistic groups such as the Northern Alliance, a U.S. ally, and with the violence of continuing U.S. and NATO attacks on civilians, despite theU.S. war to “liberate” Afghan women in 2001.
As of March 6, 2008, over 120 Palestinians, including 39 children and 6 women (more than a third of the victims), in Gaza were killed by Israeli air strikes and escalated attacks on civilians over a period of five days, according to human rights groups.[1] Hospitals have been struggling to treat 370 injured children, as reported by medical officials. Homes have been destroyed as well as civilian facilities including the headquarters of the General Federation of Palestinian Trade Unions.[2] On February 29, 2008, Israel ’s Deputy Defense Minister, Matan Valnai, threatened Palestinians in Gaza with a “bigger Shoah,” the Hebrew word usually used only for the Holocaust.[3] What does it mean that the international community is standing by while this is happening?
Valnai’s threat of a Holocaust against Palestinians was not just a slip of the tongue, for the war on Gaza is a continuation of genocidal activities against the indigenous population. Israel has controlled the land and sea borders and airspace of Gaza for more than a year and a half, confining 1.5 million Palestinians to a giant prison. Supported by the U.S. , Israelhas imposed a near total blockade on Gaza since June 2007 which has led to a breakdown in basic services, including water and sanitation, lack of electricity, fuel, and medical supplies. As a result of these sanctions, 30% of children under 5 years suffer from stunted growth and malnutrition. Over 80% of the population cannot afford a balanced meal.[4]
Is this humanitarian crisis going to approach a situation similar to that of the sanctions against Iraq from 1991-2003, when an estimated 500,000 Iraqi children died to lack of nutrition and medical supplies, and the woman who was then Secretary of State, Madeline Albright, proclaimed that the death of a half million Iraqi children was worth the price of U.S. national security?
As feminists and anti-imperialist people of conscience, we oppose direct and indirect policies of ethnic cleansing and decimation of native populations by all nation-states.
In the current climate of U.S.-initiated or U.S.-backed assaults on women in Palestine, Iraq, and Afghanistan, we are deeply troubled by one kind of hypocritical Western feminist discourse that continues to be preoccupied with particular kinds of violence against Muslim or Middle Eastern women, while choosing to remain silent on the lethal violence inflicted on women and families by military occupation, F-16s, Apache helicopters, and missiles paid for by U.S. tax payers. This is a moment when U.S. imperialism brazenly uses direct colonial occupation, masked in a civilizational discourse of bringing Western “freedom” and “democracy.” Such acts echo the language of Manifest Destiny that was used to justify U.S. colonization of the Philippines and Pacific territories in the 19th century, not to mention the genocide of Native Americans. U.S. covert, and not so covert, interventions in Central, South America,Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean have devastated the lives of countless indigenous peoples, and other civilians, in this region throughout the 20th century. The U.S., as well its proxy militias or client regimes, has inflicted violence on women and girls from Vietnam, Okinawa, and Pakistan to Chile, El Salvador, and Somalia and has avenged the deaths of its soldiers by its own “honor killings” that lay siege to entire towns, such as Fallujah in Iraq.
It is appalling that in these catastrophic times, many U.S. liberal feminists are focused only on misogynistic practices associated with particular local cultures, as if these exist in capsules, far from the arena of imperial occupation. Indeed, imperial violence has given fuel to some of these patriarchal practices of misogyny and sexism. They should also know that such a narrow vision furthers a much older tradition of feminist mobilizing in the service of colonialism—“saving brown, or black women, from brown men,” as observed by Gayatri Spivak.
While we too oppose abuses including domestic violence, “honor killings,” forced marriage, and brutal punishment, we are disturbed that some U.S. feminists—as well as Muslim or Middle Eastern women who claim to be “authorities” on Islam and are employed by right-wing think tanks—are participating in a selective discourse of universal women’s rights that ignores U.S. war crimes and abuses of human rights.
While some progressive U.S. feminists claim to oppose the hijacking of women’s rights to justify U.S. invasions, they simultaneously evade any mention about the plight of women in Palestine , Iraq , or Afghanistan . Their statements continue to focus only on female genital mutilation or dowry deaths under the guise of breaking the “politically correct” silence on abuses of women in the “Muslim world” that the Right disingenuously laments.[5]
Some progressives may support such statements with good intentions, but these critiques ignore the fact that Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim feminists have been working on these issues for generations, focusing on the intersections of gender, sexuality, race, class, and nationalism. Their work is ignored by North American feminists who claim to advocate for a “global sisterhood” but are disillusioned to discover that women in the U.S.military participated in the acts of torture at Abu Ghraib.
We are concerned about these silences and selective condemnations given that the U.S. mainstream media bolsters this imperialist feminism by using an (often liberal) Orientalist approach to covering the Middle East orSouth Asia . For example, on March 5, 2008, as the death toll due to Israeli attacks in Gaza was mounting, the New York Times chose to publish an article just below its report on the Israeli military incursions that focused on the sentencing of a Palestinian man in Israel for an honor killing; the report was deemed worthy of international coverage because the Palestinian women had broken “the code of silence” by resorting to Israeli courts.[6]
The implications of this juxtaposition of two unrelated events are that Palestinians belong to a backward, patriarchal culture that, rightly or wrongly, is under attack by a modern, “democratic” state with a legal apparatus that supports women’s rights. Others have shown that the New York Times gave disproportionate attention to the Human Rights Watch report in 2006 on domestic violence against Palestinian women relative to its scant mention of the 76 reports of Israeli abuses of Palestinian rights by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the Israeli organization, B’Tselem.[7]
Similar coverage exists of women from other countries outside the U.S. that are portrayed as victims only of their own cultural traditions, rather than also of the ravages of Western imperialism and predatory global capitalism. No attention is paid in the mainstream U.S. media to reports such as that in Haaretz documenting that Palestinian women citizens of Israelare the most exploited group in the Israeli workforce, making only 47% of the wages earned by their Jewish counterparts in Israel , and with double the rate of unemployment of Jewish women.[8] Little is known in the U.S. about what the lives of Iraqi women are really like now that they are pressured to cover themselves in public or not work outside the house, nor of Afghani women whose homes are still being bombed in a war that was supposed to have liberated them many years ago.
We stand in solidarity with feminist and liberatory movements that are opposing U.S. imperialism, U.S.-backed occupation, militarism, and economic exploitation as well as resisting religious and secular fundamentalisms.
We also support the struggles of those within the U.S. opposing the War on Terror and racist practices of detention, deportation, surveillance, and torture linked to the military-industrial-prison complex that selectively targets immigrants, minorities, and youth of color. We are grateful for the courageous scholarship of academics who are at risk of not getting tenure or employment because they do research related to settler colonialism or taboo topics such as Palestinian rights and expose controversial aspects of U.S. policies here and abroad.
At a moment when U.S. military interventions have made “democracy” a dirty word in much of the world, we strive for true democracy and for freedom and justice for all our sisters and brothers.
Piya Chatterjee, University of California-Riverside
Sunaina Maira, University of California-Davis
Campaign of Solidarity with Women Resisting U.S. Wars and Occupation
South Asians for the Liberation of Falastin
[1] “The Tragedy in Gaza ,” Kinder USA, www.kinderusa.org. March 5, 2008.
[2] Weekly Report on Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory : “Wide-Scale Israeli Military Operations Against the Gaza Strip.” Palestinian Centre for Human Rights,http://www.pchrgaza.org. March 6, 2008.
[3] Rory McCarthy, “Israeli Minister Warns of Holocaust for Gaza if Violence Continues.” The Guardian, March 1, 2008. www.guardian.co.uk.
[4] “The Tragedy in Gaza .”
[5] For example, Katha Pollitt’s petition, “An Open Letter from American Feminists,” posted at: http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2008/01/6901_an_open_letter.html.
See also: Debra Dickerson, “What NOW? Feminist Fatigue and the Global Quest for Women’s Rights,” Mother Jones. www.MotherJones_com.News.mht
[6] “16-Year Sentence in Honor Killing,” The New York Times, March 5, 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/05/world/middleeast/05honor.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Honor+Killing+March+5%2C+2008&st=nyt&oref=slogin.
[7] Patrick O’Connor and Rachel Roberts, “The New York Times Marginalizes Palestinian Women and Palestinian Rights.” November 7, 2006.
[8] Ruth Sinai, “Arab Women – the Most Exploited Group in Israeli Workforce.” Haaretz, January 2, 2008. www.haaretz.com
As feminists and people of conscience, we call for solidarity with Palestinian women in Gaza suffering due to the escalating military attacks that Israel turned into an open war on civilians. This war has targeted women and children, and all those who live under Israeli occupation in the West Bank , and are also denied the right to freedom of movement, health, and education.
We stand in solidarity with Iraqi women whose daughters, sisters, brothers, or sons have been abused, tortured, and raped in U.S. prisons such as Abu Ghraib. Women in Iraq continue to live under a U.S. occupation that has devastated families and homes, and are experiencing a rise in religious extremism and restrictions on their freedom that were unheard of before the U.S. invasion, “Operation Iraqi Freedom,” in 2003.
At this moment in Afghanistan , women are living with the return of the Taliban and other misogynistic groups such as the Northern Alliance, a U.S. ally, and with the violence of continuing U.S. and NATO attacks on civilians, despite theU.S. war to “liberate” Afghan women in 2001.
As of March 6, 2008, over 120 Palestinians, including 39 children and 6 women (more than a third of the victims), in Gaza were killed by Israeli air strikes and escalated attacks on civilians over a period of five days, according to human rights groups.[1] Hospitals have been struggling to treat 370 injured children, as reported by medical officials. Homes have been destroyed as well as civilian facilities including the headquarters of the General Federation of Palestinian Trade Unions.[2] On February 29, 2008, Israel ’s Deputy Defense Minister, Matan Valnai, threatened Palestinians in Gaza with a “bigger Shoah,” the Hebrew word usually used only for the Holocaust.[3] What does it mean that the international community is standing by while this is happening?
Valnai’s threat of a Holocaust against Palestinians was not just a slip of the tongue, for the war on Gaza is a continuation of genocidal activities against the indigenous population. Israel has controlled the land and sea borders and airspace of Gaza for more than a year and a half, confining 1.5 million Palestinians to a giant prison. Supported by the U.S. , Israelhas imposed a near total blockade on Gaza since June 2007 which has led to a breakdown in basic services, including water and sanitation, lack of electricity, fuel, and medical supplies. As a result of these sanctions, 30% of children under 5 years suffer from stunted growth and malnutrition. Over 80% of the population cannot afford a balanced meal.[4]
Is this humanitarian crisis going to approach a situation similar to that of the sanctions against Iraq from 1991-2003, when an estimated 500,000 Iraqi children died to lack of nutrition and medical supplies, and the woman who was then Secretary of State, Madeline Albright, proclaimed that the death of a half million Iraqi children was worth the price of U.S. national security?
As feminists and anti-imperialist people of conscience, we oppose direct and indirect policies of ethnic cleansing and decimation of native populations by all nation-states.
In the current climate of U.S.-initiated or U.S.-backed assaults on women in Palestine, Iraq, and Afghanistan, we are deeply troubled by one kind of hypocritical Western feminist discourse that continues to be preoccupied with particular kinds of violence against Muslim or Middle Eastern women, while choosing to remain silent on the lethal violence inflicted on women and families by military occupation, F-16s, Apache helicopters, and missiles paid for by U.S. tax payers. This is a moment when U.S. imperialism brazenly uses direct colonial occupation, masked in a civilizational discourse of bringing Western “freedom” and “democracy.” Such acts echo the language of Manifest Destiny that was used to justify U.S. colonization of the Philippines and Pacific territories in the 19th century, not to mention the genocide of Native Americans. U.S. covert, and not so covert, interventions in Central, South America,Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean have devastated the lives of countless indigenous peoples, and other civilians, in this region throughout the 20th century. The U.S., as well its proxy militias or client regimes, has inflicted violence on women and girls from Vietnam, Okinawa, and Pakistan to Chile, El Salvador, and Somalia and has avenged the deaths of its soldiers by its own “honor killings” that lay siege to entire towns, such as Fallujah in Iraq.
It is appalling that in these catastrophic times, many U.S. liberal feminists are focused only on misogynistic practices associated with particular local cultures, as if these exist in capsules, far from the arena of imperial occupation. Indeed, imperial violence has given fuel to some of these patriarchal practices of misogyny and sexism. They should also know that such a narrow vision furthers a much older tradition of feminist mobilizing in the service of colonialism—“saving brown, or black women, from brown men,” as observed by Gayatri Spivak.
While we too oppose abuses including domestic violence, “honor killings,” forced marriage, and brutal punishment, we are disturbed that some U.S. feminists—as well as Muslim or Middle Eastern women who claim to be “authorities” on Islam and are employed by right-wing think tanks—are participating in a selective discourse of universal women’s rights that ignores U.S. war crimes and abuses of human rights.
While some progressive U.S. feminists claim to oppose the hijacking of women’s rights to justify U.S. invasions, they simultaneously evade any mention about the plight of women in Palestine , Iraq , or Afghanistan . Their statements continue to focus only on female genital mutilation or dowry deaths under the guise of breaking the “politically correct” silence on abuses of women in the “Muslim world” that the Right disingenuously laments.[5]
Some progressives may support such statements with good intentions, but these critiques ignore the fact that Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim feminists have been working on these issues for generations, focusing on the intersections of gender, sexuality, race, class, and nationalism. Their work is ignored by North American feminists who claim to advocate for a “global sisterhood” but are disillusioned to discover that women in the U.S.military participated in the acts of torture at Abu Ghraib.
We are concerned about these silences and selective condemnations given that the U.S. mainstream media bolsters this imperialist feminism by using an (often liberal) Orientalist approach to covering the Middle East orSouth Asia . For example, on March 5, 2008, as the death toll due to Israeli attacks in Gaza was mounting, the New York Times chose to publish an article just below its report on the Israeli military incursions that focused on the sentencing of a Palestinian man in Israel for an honor killing; the report was deemed worthy of international coverage because the Palestinian women had broken “the code of silence” by resorting to Israeli courts.[6]
The implications of this juxtaposition of two unrelated events are that Palestinians belong to a backward, patriarchal culture that, rightly or wrongly, is under attack by a modern, “democratic” state with a legal apparatus that supports women’s rights. Others have shown that the New York Times gave disproportionate attention to the Human Rights Watch report in 2006 on domestic violence against Palestinian women relative to its scant mention of the 76 reports of Israeli abuses of Palestinian rights by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the Israeli organization, B’Tselem.[7]
Similar coverage exists of women from other countries outside the U.S. that are portrayed as victims only of their own cultural traditions, rather than also of the ravages of Western imperialism and predatory global capitalism. No attention is paid in the mainstream U.S. media to reports such as that in Haaretz documenting that Palestinian women citizens of Israelare the most exploited group in the Israeli workforce, making only 47% of the wages earned by their Jewish counterparts in Israel , and with double the rate of unemployment of Jewish women.[8] Little is known in the U.S. about what the lives of Iraqi women are really like now that they are pressured to cover themselves in public or not work outside the house, nor of Afghani women whose homes are still being bombed in a war that was supposed to have liberated them many years ago.
We stand in solidarity with feminist and liberatory movements that are opposing U.S. imperialism, U.S.-backed occupation, militarism, and economic exploitation as well as resisting religious and secular fundamentalisms.
We also support the struggles of those within the U.S. opposing the War on Terror and racist practices of detention, deportation, surveillance, and torture linked to the military-industrial-prison complex that selectively targets immigrants, minorities, and youth of color. We are grateful for the courageous scholarship of academics who are at risk of not getting tenure or employment because they do research related to settler colonialism or taboo topics such as Palestinian rights and expose controversial aspects of U.S. policies here and abroad.
At a moment when U.S. military interventions have made “democracy” a dirty word in much of the world, we strive for true democracy and for freedom and justice for all our sisters and brothers.
Piya Chatterjee, University of California-Riverside
Sunaina Maira, University of California-Davis
Campaign of Solidarity with Women Resisting U.S. Wars and Occupation
South Asians for the Liberation of Falastin
[1] “The Tragedy in Gaza ,” Kinder USA, www.kinderusa.org. March 5, 2008.
[2] Weekly Report on Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory : “Wide-Scale Israeli Military Operations Against the Gaza Strip.” Palestinian Centre for Human Rights,http://www.pchrgaza.org. March 6, 2008.
[3] Rory McCarthy, “Israeli Minister Warns of Holocaust for Gaza if Violence Continues.” The Guardian, March 1, 2008. www.guardian.co.uk.
[4] “The Tragedy in Gaza .”
[5] For example, Katha Pollitt’s petition, “An Open Letter from American Feminists,” posted at: http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2008/01/6901_an_open_letter.html.
See also: Debra Dickerson, “What NOW? Feminist Fatigue and the Global Quest for Women’s Rights,” Mother Jones. www.MotherJones_com.News.mht
[6] “16-Year Sentence in Honor Killing,” The New York Times, March 5, 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/05/world/middleeast/05honor.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Honor+Killing+March+5%2C+2008&st=nyt&oref=slogin.
[7] Patrick O’Connor and Rachel Roberts, “The New York Times Marginalizes Palestinian Women and Palestinian Rights.” November 7, 2006.
[8] Ruth Sinai, “Arab Women – the Most Exploited Group in Israeli Workforce.” Haaretz, January 2, 2008. www.haaretz.com
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
March 2nd Event - Building Movements Against Apartheid
Building Movements Against Apartheid: From South Africa to Palestine to Canada
Sunday 2 March 2008
11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Peterborough Public Library
345 Aylmer Street North
Panel Speakers:
*Paula Sherman, Co-Chief of the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation and Indigenous Studies Professor at Trent University.
*Salim Vally, South African activist and former regional executive member of the high school South African Student's Movement (SASM). He is the chairperson of the Palestine Solidarity Committee and the Anti-War Coalition in South Africa and is currently a visiting scholar at the School of Social Sciences at York University.
*Kole Kilibarda, organizer with the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) in Toronto
A Canadian news documentary on 'Canada Park' will also be screened. Built over three destroyed Palestinian villages, Canada Park serves the Israeli public as a recreation area. The documentary reveals the complicity of the Jewish National Fund of Canada, which enjoys charitable status, in ethnic cleansing, land expropriation and occupation.
Zatoun Fair Trade Olive Oil and Soap from Palestine will be available for sale.
For more information email: peterboroughcps@gmail.com
Sunday 2 March 2008
11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Peterborough Public Library
345 Aylmer Street North
Panel Speakers:
*Paula Sherman, Co-Chief of the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation and Indigenous Studies Professor at Trent University.
*Salim Vally, South African activist and former regional executive member of the high school South African Student's Movement (SASM). He is the chairperson of the Palestine Solidarity Committee and the Anti-War Coalition in South Africa and is currently a visiting scholar at the School of Social Sciences at York University.
*Kole Kilibarda, organizer with the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) in Toronto
A Canadian news documentary on 'Canada Park' will also be screened. Built over three destroyed Palestinian villages, Canada Park serves the Israeli public as a recreation area. The documentary reveals the complicity of the Jewish National Fund of Canada, which enjoys charitable status, in ethnic cleansing, land expropriation and occupation.
Zatoun Fair Trade Olive Oil and Soap from Palestine will be available for sale.
For more information email: peterboroughcps@gmail.com
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