[Indigsol] Israeli Apartheid Week March 2-8 2009 in Ottawa

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******Please Circulate Widely******
 
Students Against Israeli Apartheid (Carleton) and Solidarity for Palestinian Human 
Rights (U of O) invite you participate in Israeli Apartheid  Week 2009 
Standing United with the People of Gaza
 
In this e-mail:
 
(1) Israeli Apartheid Week Schedule of Events and Speaker Biographies
(2) About Israeli Apartheid Week
(3) Campus Repression on Carleton surrounding Israeli Apartheid Week
 
E-mail sphr.uofo at gmail.com or saia.carleton at gmail.com. 
For more information: www.apartheidweek.org
 
(1) Israeli Apartheid Week – Standing United with the People of Gaza


Monday, March 2, 7:30pm
Political Prisoners from Turtle Island to Palestine
Speakers: Robert Lovelace and Yafa Jarrar
University of Ottawa, Room: Fauteux 232


Robert Lovelace is a retired Chief of the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation. On February 15, 2008, Robert was sentenced to 6 months in prison for contempt of court. His crime was taking a leadership role in securing Algonquin land and refusing to permit exploration for uranium near Ardoch, Ontario. He is an Adjunct Lecturer in Global Development Studies at Queen's University and a professor in Ecosystems Management at Sir Sandford Fleming College. He has written about community development as a de-colonizing strategy.


Yafa Jarrar is a member of the Peterborough Coalition for Palestinian Solidarity. She was born in Jerusalem, Palestine, moved to Canada in 2003 to attend Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacific. She has represented Palestine in the Arab League of Nations in Cairo in 2001 to speak on the effects of the Israeli occupation on the Palestinian educational process and then elected to represent Palestine to speak at the United Nations, in the same year. She is currently finishing her degree in Politics and International Development Studies at Trent University.


Tuesday, March 3, 6:30pm
Film and Panel Discussion: The Invisible Nation, The Story of the Algonquin 
Presented by the Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Movement: Ottawa
Location: Auditorium, Library and Archives Canada, 395 Wellington Street


We are honoured to have Dr. William Commanda, the most respected 95-year old Algonquin Elder, Founder, Circle of All Nations, to conduct an opening ceremony for us on this evening!

Panelists: Claudette Commanda, Algonquin, Anishinabeg, National Coordinator of First Nations Confederacy of Cultural Education Centre, Richard Desjardins and Robert Monderie, Directors - The Invisible Nation 
 
The Algonquin once lived in harmony with the vast territory they occupied. This balance was upset when the Europeans arrived in the 16th century. Gradually, their Aboriginal traditions were undermined and their natural resources plundered. Today, barely 9,000 Algonquin are left. They live in about 10 communities, often enduring abject poverty and human rights abuses. – NFB.ca 


Wednesday, March 4, 7:30pm
Apartheid Israel: Democracy as an Existential Threat
Speaker: Omar Barghouti, Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel
University of Ottawa , Room: Fauteux B147


Omar Barghouti is an independent Palestinian researcher, commentator and human rights activist. He is a founding member of the Palestinian campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) to force Israel to uphold international law and universal human rights.
He holds a bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering from Columbia University, NY. He contributed to the philosophical volume, "Controversies and Subjectivity" (John Benjamins, 2005) and to "The New Intifada: Resisting Israel's Apartheid" (Verso Books, 2001). He advocates an ethical vision for a unitary, secular democratic state in historic Palestine.


Thursday, March 5, 7:00pm
Boycott Israel - The Apartheid State
Speaker: Ronnie Kasrils, a Jewish South African and a former Minister in an ANC government
Moderater: Professor Radha Jhappan (Political Science)
Carleton University, Room: 301 Azrieli Theatre


Ronnie Kasrils was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, 1938.  His grandparents are  Jewish immigrants from Czarist Russia (Lithuania).  He joined the ANC 1960 after Sharpeville massacre. This led to a lifetime of political activism. Ronnie was a member of ANC's military wing at its inception in 1961. He became chief of military intelligence, operated from exile in neighbouring African states and clandestinely in South Africa. For many years, he was a member of both ANC and Communist Party national executive committees. Ronnie was appointed deputy minister of defence in South Africa's first democratic government (1994-99); Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry (1999-2004); Minister Intelligence Services (2004-2008). He has retired from government and devotes himself to writing, lecturing and Palestine solidarity work. His autobiography is entitled "Armed & Dangerous" (publisher Jonathan Ball, Johannesburg).


Friday, March 6, 7:00pm
>From Warsaw Ghetto to Gaza Ghetto
Speakers: Suzanne Weiss, a Jewish holocaust survivor, and Samah Sabawi, a Palestinian Canadian born in Gaza
Carleton University, Room: 102 Azrieli Theatre


Suzanne Weiss is an activist in anti-imperialist movements in Canada, including the Coalition to End Israeli Apartheid, and its sister organization, Not In Our Name (NION): Jewish Voices Opposing Zionisn. She is the author of "Anti-Semitism, Zionism, and the Defense of Palestinian Rights", and also co-author of "Venezuela Eyewitness: Achievements and Challenges Facing the Bolivarian Revolution Today". She is a Jewish holocaust survivor.


Samah Sabawi is a Palestinian Canadian writer who was born in Gaza and was displaced with her family in the aftermath of Israel’s occupation of the Gaza strip in 1967. Today, Samah still has family and loved ones living under Israeli siege in Gaza. Her work reflects her passion about her heritage and her desire for a peaceful resolution that is based on justice and respect of human rights for all. Ms. Sabawi has written and produced two plays and she continues to be involved with various grass roots organizations in Canada as well as in the Palestinian Occupied Territories.


(2) About Israeli Apartheid Week 


Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is an annual international series of events held in cities and campuses across the globe. The aim of IAW is to educate people about the nature of Israel as an apartheid system and to build Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns as part of a growing global BDS movement.


Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is taking place in more than 40 cities across the globe (the number of cities is growing daily). This year, IAW happens in the wake of Israel's barbaric assault on the people of Gaza. Lectures, films, and actions will make the point that these latest massacres further confirm the true nature of Israeli Apartheid. IAW 2009 will continue to build and strengthen the growing BDS movement at a global level.


Prominent Palestinians, Jewish anti-Zionists, and South Africans have been at the forefront of this struggle. At the same time, an international divestment campaign has gained momentum in response to a statement issued in July 2005 by over 170 Palestinian civil society organizations calling for boycotts, divestments and sanctions (BDS) against apartheid Israel . Important gains have recently been made in this campaign in countries like South Africa , the United Kingdom , Canada and the United States .


The aim of IAW is to contribute to this chorus of international opposition to Israeli apartheid and to bolster support for the BDS campaign in accordance with the demands outlined in the July 2005 Statement: full equality for Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel, an end to the occupation and colonization of all Arab lands – including the Golan Heights, the Occupied West Bank with East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip – and dismantling the Wall, and the protection of Palestinian refugees’ right to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in U.N. resolution 194.


In previous years IAW has played an important role in raising awareness and disseminating information about Zionism, the Palestinian liberation struggle and its similarities with the indigenous sovereignty struggle in North America and the South African anti-Apartheid movement. Join us in making this a year of struggle against apartheid and for justice, equality, and peace.


www.apartheidweek.org 


(3) Campus Repression of Israeli Apartheid Week in Ottawa
 
The Carleton University Administration has banned the IAW poster from public view on Carleton University property. Equity services, a body of the University Administration, took this unilateral decision on the poster after “several complaints” from students about the poster. Students Against Israeli Apartheid made several attempts to understand the University’s rationale behind this decision. Equity Services has cited the following two reasons for banning the poster:
 
1) The image on the poster “could be seen to incite others to infringe rights protected in the Ontario Human Rights code.”


2) The poster is “insensitive to the norms of civil discourse in a free and democratic society.”


Thus, SAIA has not been accused of breaking the Carleton Human Rights code or the Ontario Human Rights Code through the use of this poster, but it has been banned nonetheless. Equity Services has refused to elaborate on/explain these reasons, and it refuses to comment further. 


Given this decision, SAIA decided to cover up the parts of the poster that were deemed offensive and show the censored posters at our table in the Atrium in the University Centre. In the afternoon, two security officials from the University confiscated 50 of these censored posters. SAIA has yet to hear any news on this decision.



Furthermore, Carleton’s interim Provost, Feridun Hamdullahpur sent the entire student body and faculty a mass e-mail. In this e-mail, Hamdullhapur stated:


We understand that some events may be planned which may be related to some serious and emotional world issues. I would therefore ask everyone to take a few moments to become familiar with the Carleton University Human Rights Policy and Procedures and the Student Rights and Responsibilities Policy. Both documents play an important role at the University and provide us with guidance towards civil and collegial behaviour. However, they are also tools to be used to address inappropriate behaviours including discrimination and harassment. Among other sanctions that may be applied under these policies, students can be withdrawn from their studies indefinitely.
 
SAIA has taken this statement very seriously and understand it to be an attempt to intimidate the organizers of Israeli Apartheid Week by threatening us with expulsion if the Administration deems our events as inappropriate. This is part of a wider pattern of repression of academic freedom and rights to free expression, especially on Israel/Palestine, on Canadian campuses. This threat to freedom of expression affects the entire community and not just SAIA Carleton.
 
Please support Israeli Apartheid week by attending the various events. 


Israeli Apartheid Week Ottawa 2009 is endorsed by the following organizations:


Agitate! Queer Women of Colour Collective
Association of Palestinian Arab Canadians
Books To Prisoners – Ottawa 
Canadian Arab Federation
Canadian Union of Postal Workers
Canadian Union of Public Employees (local 4600)
Carleton University New Democrats
Carleton University Womyn’s Centre
Coalition of Canadian Arab Professional and Community Associations
Common Cause Ottawa
CUPE Ontario International Solidarity Committee
Faculty for Palestine
Independent Jewish Voices – Canada 
Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Movement of Ottawa
Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies - Human Rights Program (Carleton)
No One Is Illegal – Ottawa 
Not in our Name – Jewish Voices Opposing Zionism
NOWAR-PAIX
OPIRG-GRIPO (Ottawa) 
Ottawa Palestine Solidarity Network
Ottawa Palestine Support Network
Ottawa Raging Grannies
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights – Carleton
The Socialist Project
Women in Solidarity with Palestine
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