First Annual Israeli Apartheid Week Edmonton 2009
Monday, March 2 (7:00 pm)
A Mother From Gaza: Surviving Under Siege
a lecture featuring activist and journalist Laila El-Haddad
TELUS Centre for Professional Development, Room 150 [map]
Laila El-Haddad is a freelance Palestinian journalist, media activist, and mother from Gaza who writes mainly for the Guardian Unlimited and Aljazeera English. She maintains the award-winning blog "Raising Yousuf and Noor: diary of a Palestinian mother" (www.a-mother-from-gaza.blogspot.com), which explores the complex relationships between the personal and political as she raises her children and negotiates displacement and occupation. She is currently based in the United States with her husband, a Palestinian refugee from the ethnically cleansed village of Waarit al-Siris. Laila has also been published in Le Monde Diplmatique, the New Statesmen, the International Herald Tribune and the Washington Post among others. She has made appearances on CNN, NPR, CBC, Democracy Now, Aljazeera International and the BBC.
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Tuesday, March 3 (7:00 pm)
Occupation 101 Film Screening and Discussion
moderated by Dr. Tony Simmons
Central Academic Building, Room 265 [map]
(co-sponsored by Edmonton Small Press Association)
Occupation 101 is a thought-provoking and powerful documentary film on the current and historical root causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It presents a comprehensive analysis of the facts and hidden truths surrounding the never ending controversy and dispels many of its long-perceived myths and misconceptions.
The film also details life under Israeli military rule, the role of the United States in the conflict, and the major obstacles that stand in the way of a lasting and viable peace. The roots of the conflict are explained through first-hand on-the-ground experiences from leading Middle East scholars, peace activists, journalists, religious leaders and humanitarian workers whose voices have too often been suppressed in American media outlets.
The film covers a wide range of topics, including the first wave of Jewish immigration from Europe in the 1880s, the 1920 tensions, the 1948 war, the 1967 war, the first Intifada of 1987, the Oslo Peace Process, Settlement expansion, the role of the United States Government, the second Intifada of 2000, the separation barrier and the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, as well as many heart wrenching testimonials from victims of this tragedy.
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Dr. Tony Simmons is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the Center for Global and Social Analysis at the Athabasca University. Tony's areas of interest are classical and contemporary social theory, postmodernism, Marxism and critical theory, organizational theory along with the philosophy and history of science.
His other interests include race and racism, ethnicity and minority group relations, gender issues, global justice and social movements, as well as peace, war and conflict studies. He is the joint author of Reading Organizational Theory, and is presently working on two other books: Revitalizing the Classics - A Contemporary Guide to Classical Social Theory and A Square Peg in a Round Hole: Memoirs of a Distance Educator.
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Wednesday, March 4 (7:00 pm)
From Turtle Island to Palestine: Indigenous Perspectives on Colonialism and Occupation Panel and Discussion
featuring vincent steinhauer, Dr. Makere Stewart-Harawira, Dr. Bruce Spencer, Dr. Ibrahim Abu-Rabi and Isabel Altamirano-Jiménez
Edmonton Room, Stanley A Milner Library (7 Winston Churchill Square)
vincent steinhauer is a newo iyiniw from oniciskwapowinihk. He is a married man with 5 children and one more on the way in a month. Vincent is currently a doctoral student at Blue Quills First Nations College in north eastern alberta where is studying and privileging Indigenous Knowledge and Traditional Medicines. Vincent is also a traditional ceremonial holder and works with the peoples to heal the wounds of colonization and imperialism.
Dr. Makere Stewart-Harawira is an Associate Professor in Indigenous Education and Globalization at the University of Alberta. A New Zealand Maori, Stewart-Harawira has a background in teaching and research in Indigenous global studies and world order. She is the author of The New Imperial Order: Indigenous responses to globalization.
Dr. Bruce Spencer works in the Centre for Work and Community Studies at Athabasca University.
Professor Abu-Rabi is a Palestinian who was born in Nazareth, Galilee. He holds dual citizenship in the U.S. and Israel. Dr. Abu-Rabi earned three degrees at American universities before becoming a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University. He also held a Rockefeller Fellowship at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas. He is currently the ECMC Chair in Islamic Studies at the University of Alberta. He has a special interest in the study and practice of interfaith dialogue between the Islamic and Christian religious traditions. Dr. Abu-Rabi specializes in issues of contemporary Islamic thought, particularly on religion and society, and mysticism. He is fluent in Hebrew, Arabic, and English. Some of his publications include: Jewish-Muslim Dialogue, Israel’s Fate will be tied to the Middle East’s, and Trends and Issues in Contemporary Arab Thought.
Isabel Altamirano-Jiménez is an Indigenous Zapotec scholar from southern Mexico. She is holds a join appointment as Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta. She recently concluded the research project ”Mapping Back Metsi and Miskito Lands”, which is a comparative and collaborative research project involving Indigenous peoples from Canada and Nicaragua and researchers from both countries. Her research interests include Indigenous comparative politics, gender and nationalism, the politics of indigeneity, among other issues. Altamirano-Jiménez has published a number of articles and book chapters, including “North American First Peoples: Slipping up into Market Citizenship?" “The Construction of Difference and Indigenous Transnationalism in North America,” “Indigenous Peoples and the Topography of Gender in Mexico and Canada,” and “The Neo-liberal and Social Investment Re-Constructions of Woman and Indigeneity.”
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Thursday, March 5 (7:00 pm)
Responses to Apartheid Panel and Discussion
featuring Dr. Anas Muwais , Peggy Morton, and Dr. Baha Abu-Laban
Tory Building Lecture 12 [map]
Dr. Anas Walid Muwais PhD is a writer, philosopher and activst. His talk is on "Exposing the criminality of the Zionist project."
Peggy Morton is a well-known jounalist for The Marxist-Leninist Daily (TML). The TML focuses on the problems facing the workers' movement and the political affairs of Alberta. She is the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada (MPLC) candidate in Edmonton Centre. From the age of 17 she has vigorously fought against war and for the affirmation of women. Former president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees for 22 years, she fights for workers' rights and advocates economic change. Peggy is also an active member of the Edmonton Coalition Against War and Racism, organizing against the illegal invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan and against the illegal and unprecedented massacre in Gaza. Her talk is on "Canada's Undermining of International Law and the Rights of the Palestinian People."
Dr. Baha Abu-Laban, an Arab-Canadian, has taught at Stanford University, the American University of Beirut, and the University of Alberta, where he is Professor Emeritus of Sociology. He is a former Chair of the Department of Sociology, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, and Associate Vice-President (Research). Dr. Abu-Laban is the co-founder and past editor of the Journal of International Migration and Integration (JIMI), and is also Co-Director of the Prairie Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Integration in Edmonton. His talk is entitled "Reversing the Tide of Israeli Apartheid."
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Saturday, March 7 (6:00 - 9:00 pm)
Expression Against Repression
open mic featuring the People's Poets & Dear (Your Name Here)
Sub Stage, U of A Students' Union Building [map]
Join us for a night of cultural resistance to colonialism, oppression, occupation and injustice. Enjoy performances by local artists and take part by sharing poetry, song, spoken word, or any other expression against repression. All are welcome.
The People’s Poets are three Edmonton MCs who rap about social justice issues, local and global. rosouljah, 4 Life and solidario joined up in the fall of 2006 with the intention of making critically conscious hip hop. They then hooked up with Edmonton's renowned cut artist DJ Dice, who has over two decades of experience in contributing to the local Hip Hop scene. Representing their Latino refugee roots from Chile and El Salvador this hip hop colectivo mixes rhymes about life experiences with social and political commentary. They are committed to building and networking at a community level for social change and development. These RAPTIVISTS are involved in a variety of issues and movements such as affordable housing, labour education, and youth empowerment. “We be the people’s poets and we believe another world is possible.”
The summer of 2006 saw Dear (Your Name Here) recording a debut album, “A Speck of White” under the supervision of producer Brian Johnson (Coldplay, John Mayer, Elvis Costello, Lifehouse). The following summer found Dear (Your Name Here) engaged in the artist’s first ever solo acoustic tour, a three-month excursion. Dear (Your Name Here) then evolved to a full touring band touring Western Canada in the spring of 2008, promoting their most recent release entitled "A Speck of White," recorded with producer Mark Troyer (Kiros, Traced Image, Jay & the Lovebirds).
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Israeli Apartheid Week events in Edmonton are organized by the Palestine Solidarity Network Edmonton, the Graduate Students Group of the Global Education Network, and the Edmonton Small Press Association.
To contact PSN, email psnedmonton@gmail.com
Find PSN on Facebook by searching for "Palestine Solidarity Network - Edmonton"
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