Israeli Apartheid Week | March 5-14th, 2013
The Ninth Annual Israeli Apartheid Week!
9th annual Israeli Apartheid Week featuring inspiring conferences, workshops, film screenings, demonstrations, and cultural events to raise awareness around the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israeli apartheid.
*Tuesday, March 5
Peace vs. Pacification
Speaker: Dr. Abdel Razzaq Takriti
7:00 – 9:00pm, Concordia University, CSU Lounge, 7th Floor, 1455 de Maisonneuve West (Guy-Concordia metro)
https://www.facebook.com/events/168195423329139/?ref=2
Description:
Join Dr. Abdel Razzaq Takriti for a discussion on national liberation, political co-optation, and the question of representation. In this talk, Takriti will draw a distinction between ‘peace’ and ‘pacification’. He will argue that Israeli policy-backed by Canada and the US- is premised on the latter concept, which entails the suppression of the indigenous Palestinian people through the combined use of armed force, diplomatic pressure, political co-optation, and false promises. From this perspective, he posits that genuine peace can only come through supporting the development of Palestinian capacities for resistance while simultaneously depriving apartheid Israel of its military, monetary, and diplomatic bases of support. On the Palestinian side, he will further contend that effective resistance requires a unified national liberation strategy, and that this can only be achieved through the revival of democratic representation and the reclamation of the PLO by means of direct elections to the Palestinian National Council.
Speaker Bio:
Dr Abdel Razzaq Takriti is a Lecturer in International History at the University of Sheffield, England. He received his doctorate from St Antony’s College, Oxford University and was subsequently elected to a research fellowship at St Edmund Hall, Oxford University (2009-2012). He is the author of the award winning book Monsoon Revolution: Republicans, Sultans, and Empires in Oman, 1965-76 (Oxford University Press, 2013), and is currently co-authoring, with Dr Karma Nabulsi, a book on the history of the Palestinian revolution.
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* Wednesday, March 6
Syria’s Popular Revolution: Where Do We Go From Here?
Conference with Razan Ghazzawi
7:00 – 9:00pm, Concordia University, CSU Lounge, 7th Floor, 1455 de Maisonneuve West (Guy-Concordia metro)
https://www.facebook.com/events/456322884436136/
Description:
In this talk, Ghazzawi will give an overview of the phases that the revolution went through. She will speak about the role of Palestinians in Syria in the revolution, as well as Syrians in occupied Golan. Most importantly, Ghazzawi will try to shed light on the recent developments in Syria and discuss the dangers the revolution is facing. Her talk will be a call for solidarity among like-minded revolutionaries worldwide.
Speaker Bio:
Razan Ghazzawi is a Syrian activist and blogger who started blogging using an alias, Golaniya, when Israel launched a war against Lebanon in 2006. She blogged against racism towards Syrian workers in Lebanon, where she completed her master’s degree. Razan started blogging under her real name two years later, advocating along many Syrian bloggers for freedom of speech in her country.
When the Syrian revolution broke out in March 2011, Razan was among those who disseminated updates on demonstrations taking place across Syria using her real name.
She was detained twice during the revolution- her Syria Centre for Media Expression (SCM) colleagues blogger Hussein Ghrer and Hani Zetani along with her boss Mazen Darwich, are still in prison ever since regime security forces raided the SCM office in Damascus on February 16, 2012. Razan was awarded by Front Line Defenders in 2012.
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* Thursday, March 7
Right to Education: From Quebec to Palestine
Speakers: Marc Andre Cry, Dr. Samia Al-Botmeh
7:00pm, UQAM,Pavillon Hubert-Aquin, Room A-2885, 400 Ste Catherine east (corner St-Denis), (Berri-UQAM metro)
https://www.facebook.com/events/126427284205394/
Description:
From February 2012, Quebec students launched a general strike in opposition to tuition increases and the neoliberal restructuring of post-secondary education. For more than six months, students occupied offices, blocked bridges, disrupted tourist events and took to the streets in hundreds of thousands, culminating in the eventual cancellation of the proposed $1625 increase in tuition fees in September 2012.
The ongoing fight against tuition hikes in Quebec is part of a global struggle for accessible education and against austerity. In Palestine, students are still fighting for the right to education under apartheid on a daily basis. Palestinian universities in the West Bank face regular closure by the Israeli military, which often blocks students from accessing campuses such as An-Najah University in Nablus. Furthermore, in the Gaza Strip, entire departments of the Islamic University in Gaza were destroyed in indiscriminate bombings at the turn of 2009.
In many respects, our education system and universities are complicit in supporting Israeli apartheid. Yet, the call for solidarity with Palestinian students is gaining momentum through the academic boycott. In 2008, l’Association pour une Solidarité Syndicale Étudiante (ASSÉ), a coalition of student unions that was deeply involved in the student strike, became the first major student union in North America to support the growing boycott, divestment and sanctions movement in solidarity with with Palestine. With this in mind, join us for a panel exploring struggles for accessible education from Quebec to Palestine. The event will feature Dr. Samia Al-Botmeh and Marc-André Cyr.
Speaker Bios:
Dr. Samia Al-Botmeh is the Director of the Center for Development Studies at Birzeit University in Ramallah, West Bank. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies, and her thesis is entitled “Gender Differentials in Labor Market Outcomes in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.” Samia is on the steering committee of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) has published extensively on contemporary Palestinian economics, labor markets, and gender differentials.
Marc-André Cyr is a historian of social movements. He is also currently a doctoral student in political science.
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* Friday, March 8
Demonstration: Solidarity with Palestinian Women! BDS contingent in the International Women’s Day march
6:00pm, Place Emilie Gamelin (Berri-UQAM metro)
Join the contingent with Palestinian flags and the BDS banner. This is an opportunity to express support for Palestinian women fighting against Israeli occupation and apartheid while also joining an international day of action, International Women’s Day, to support women’s liberation struggles, all around the world. Bring your own flags, signs, and noisemakers!
https://www.facebook.com/events/452201331518773/?ref=3
For the full callout, visit: http://wdofdo.wordpress.com/
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*Sunday, March 10
Imaging Apartheid Artist Talk
5:00pm – 7:00pm, Le Cagibi, 5490 St. Laurent (corner St-Viateur)
https://www.facebook.com/events/163927523759195/
Description:
Join Imaging Apartheid collective for a community arts panel on our work within the context of Israeli Apartheid Week 2013, with presentations by local artists who initiated and are working on the Imaging Apartheid poster project for Palestine.
The event will also feature a presentation by Nasrin Himada the co-guest editor of a recent edition of FUSE magazine (http://fusemagazine.org/) focused on Palestine.
Imaging Apartheid is a Montreal-based initiative with a global reach, aimed at bringing awareness and support to the Palestinian struggle for liberation through the production and dissemination of poster art. We are a small collective of artists and activists who strongly believe in the intersection of art and politics as a means of advancing social change.
Featuring presentations by:
Kevin Yuen-Kit Lo is a Montreal-based graphic designer, art director and teacher. He runs the design studio LOKi design and publishes the zine Four Minutes to Midnight, exploring the instersections of typography, poetics and politics. As a community organiser and activist, Kevin is engaged on many levels with various organisations in Montreal and beyond. He is a founding member of Howl! Arts Collective, a member of the Artivistic Collective, a board member for Archive Montreal, a contributing editor at Art threat, and a long-standing jury member for Memefest. He holds an MA in Typo/Graphic Design from the London College of Printing and a Graduate Certificate Degree and BFA in Design Art from Concordia University. http://www.lokidesign.net/
Nasrin Himada is a writer, independent film curator and teacher residing in Montreal. Her writing appears in Montreal Serai, West Coast Line, Inflexions: A Journal for Research-Creation, and FUSE Magazine. Her curatorial work has been programmed in such festivals as Image+Nation: Montreal’s International LGBTQ Film > Festival, and in collaboration with 16 Beaver in New York City. She teaches part-time in Geography, Urban Planning and Environment , and is currently completing a PhD in the Interdisciplinary Program in Society and Culture at Concordia University. Nasrin’s research focuses on the militarization of urban space through prison infrastructure and police surveillance. She sits on the editorial board of the journal Scapegoat: Architecture/Landscape/Political Economy.
Stefan Christoff is a musician, community activist and writer.
Imaging Apartheid project:
http://twitter.com/imageapartheid
http://www.facebook.com/imagingapartheid
http://www.imagingapartheid.org/
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*Monday, March 11
Roadmap to Apartheid: Film Screening with Cinema Politica
7:00pm, Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve West, Room H-110 (Guy-Concordia metro)
Admission by donation.
Description:
Join Cinema Politica Concordia and Israeli Apartheid Week- Montreal for a co-presentation of Roadmap to Apartheid, an essay film that compares policies in South Africa and Israel. The event will also feature special guests, along with a discussion following the film.
* Roadmap to Apartheid
Eron Davidson and Ana Norgueira/US/2012/95 min/English-Hebrew-Arabic/S.T. English
In this award-winning documentary, the first-time directors take a detailed look at the apartheid analogy commonly used to describe the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Narrated by Alice Walker (author of The Color Purple), Roadmap to Apartheid is as much a historical document of the rise and fall of apartheid in South Africa, as it is a film about why many Palestinians feel they are living in an apartheid system today, and why an increasing number of people around the world agree with them. While not perfect, the apartheid analogy is a useful framework by which to educate people on the complex issues facing Israelis and Palestinians. Our film delves into those issues, comparing the many similar laws and tools used by both Israel and apartheid-era South Africa. The audience will see what life is like for Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and inside Israel while gaining a deeper understanding of the conflict with the help of respected analysts on the subject. Combined with archival material and anecdotes from South Africans, the film forms a complete picture as to why the analogy is being used with increasing frequency and potency.
For more information: http://www.cinemapolitica.org/screening/concordia/roadmap-apartheid
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* Tuesday, March 12
Zionism in Academia
Speaker: Douglas Smith
7:00pm, McGill University, Leacock 26, 855 Sherbrooke West (McGill metro)
Description:
The purpose of this panel is to engage with some the ways in which the Academy in North America as an institution is complicit in privileging Zionist discourses, implicitly and explicitly, thereby rendering the study, analysis, and even discussion of Palestine invisible. We would like to open our discussion to productive reflections on ways that we can resist this, building on shared knowledge about the processes at work and how to navigate academic spaces.
Speakers:
The event is to be facilitated by Michelle Hartman, professor of Arabic Literature at the Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill University.
Douglas Smith is a PhD student, researcher and social-justice activist. Over the years, he has been active with Montreal campus-based Palestine solidarity work as well as with the Tadamon! collective.
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* Wednesday, March 13
Closing Panel: Defending the land – From Turtle Island to Palestine
Speakers: Art Manuel, Monira Kitmitto
7:00pm, Location: Moot Court, New Chancellor Day Hall, McGill University 3644 Peel (metro Peel)
https://www.facebook.com/events/136068083229778/?ref=22
Description:
This closing panel will highlight Indigenous land struggles and resistance on Turtle Island and will make links with the Palestinian struggle of defending the land and resisting Israeli occupation. Land defense as a way of resisting ongoing occupation and colonialism is integral to Indigenous decolonizing movements both in Turtle Island and Palestine.
Speakers:
Arthur Manuel: Art is a spokesperson for the Indigenous Network on Economies and Trade and Defenders of the Land network. Former chairperson of the Interior Alliance of BC First Nations, Manuel has been a leading voice of opposition to the Canadian government’s agenda to “extinguish” Aboriginal and Treaty rights and assimilate Indigenous peoples into the Canadian body politic. Active locally in Secwepemc land struggles, and at the national level, he has also taken the struggle international at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, following in the path of his father, the late George Manuel, President of the National Indian Brotherhood and founder of the World Council of Indigenous Peoples.
Monira Kitmitto is a Palestinian activist, a member of the coordinating committee of Coalition Against Israel Apartheid, she is also a board member of Palestine House in Toronto. She was a former international anti-apartheid activist— supported the ANC and the people of South Africa in their fight for liberation. she has worked in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon and was an active member in Palestinian Women movement.
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* Thursday, March 14
Rock Against Racism: Punks Against Apartheid
An evening to celebrate and build punk rock solidarity with Palestine
Katacombes, 1635 St-Laurent (Metro St-Laurent)
$6-10 (sliding scale)
Doors at 8:00pm, bands at 8:30pm
(regrettably this space is not wheelchair accessible)
Description:
* Autosuficiencia
Paralisis Permanente covers
* LOUDbag
* Silent Bones
http://silentbones.bandcamp.com/
* MayDay
http://maydaymtl.bandcamp.com/
DJs// 23h30
Aaron Maiden + invites
https://www.facebook.com/events/119743764870859/
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Israeli Apartheid Week Montreal 2013!
(Above is a preliminary event calendar. Full event details will be updated at www.iawmontreal.org)
Follow us online!
* Facebook: http://on.fb.me/Av3WKB
* Twitter: www.twitter.com/SAI_Montreal
*Accessibility
– All speaking events and workshops will have whisper translation from English to French and French to English
– Entry to the events is by donation (pay what you can) unless otherwise noted
– All events are wheelchair accessible unless otherwise noted
– Childcare is available for most events. Please email us 48 hours in advance at iaw-mtl@riseup.net
Israeli Apartheid Week is organized by the following groups: Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (McGill and Concordia), Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG McGill and Concordia), Tadamon, 2110 Centre, and the Coalition for Justice in Palestine- UQAM
Free Palestine!
* Israeli Apartheid Week 2013 in Montreal
iaw-mtl@riseup.net
514-848-7583
