[Stopwar-l] Fwd: 'Speaking up for Palestinian Rights': Free Public Forum February 12th

[StopWar]

> 
> 
> * Please Distribute Widely*
> *Sorry for any cross-postings*
> 
> 
> SPEAKING UP FOR PALESTINIAN RIGHTS:
> Understanding recent attempts to silence criticism of Israel in Canada
> 
> Free Public Forum
> Saturday February 12, 6 pm
> SFU Harbour Centre
> 515 W. Hastings St.
> 
> Featured Speakers:
> 
> Jenny Peto
>  - Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (Toronto)
> 
> Omar Chaaban
>  - Solidarity with Palestinian Human Rights – UBC
> 
> Brian Campbell
>  - Seriously Free Speech Committee
> 
> 
> Over the past few months, two student organizations at UBC have come
> under attack for their efforts to oppose Israel’s illegal siege of the
> Gaza Strip.
> 
> The situation at UBC began when the Social Justice Centre approved a
> donation for the Canadian Boat to Gaza at the request of the UBC
> chapter of Solidarity with Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR). The
> Canadian Boat is part of an international effort to break the illegal
> siege on Gaza and expose the Canadian government's unjustified support
> for Israel.
> 
> Since then, zionist groups on campus have engaged in a vicious
> campaign to both block this donation from being granted and to
> undermine the work of these student groups.
> 
> This campaign is part of a wider strategy by pro-Israel groups in
> Canada to undermine solidarity work for Palestine. As recently
> documented by Al Jazeera, attacks on Palestinian-solidarity
> organizations and individual activists are escalating in Canada, from
> the defunding of the Canadian Arab Federation and KAIROS to the
> banning of British MP George Galloway from entering Canada, the
> condemnation of Israeli Apartheid Week, and the attempts to ban Queers
> Against Israeli Apartheid from the Toronto Pride Parade.
> 
> This repression is happening at a time when, around the world,
> opposition is growing to the ongoing human rights violations and war
> crimes committed by Israel against the Palestinian people. It is also
> happening at a time of increased repression within the state of Israel
> itself, where efforts by both Palestinian citizens of Israel and
> Israeli human rights organizations to challenge Israel's apartheid
> policies are increasingly criminalized.
> 
> Join us for a free public forum to discuss why these attacks on free
> speech are happening in the context of Palestine support work in
> Canada, and what we can do to stop them.
> 
> 
> About Jenny Peto:
> 
> A member of the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid in Toronto, Jenny
> has a Master's degree in Sociology and Equity Studies from the Ontario
> Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of
> Toronto. Her Master's thesis, entitled  ‘The Victimhood of the
> Powerful: White Jews, Zionism and the Racism of Hegemonic Holocaust
> Education,’ has been at the centre of a recent firestorm generated by
> pro-Israel groups in Canada. Jenny has faced personal attacks in the
> media and her work was condemned by three members of the Ontario
> legislature. These attacks have been met with a powerful response from
> hundreds of outraged individuals and from a wide range of
> organizations including Faculty for Palestine, PACBI, IJV, the
> Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) and the Committee
> on Academic Freedom of the Middle East Studies Association of North
> America (MESA).
> 
> 
> For more background information please check out the following links:
> 
> http://www.socialjusticecentre.org/
> http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/faultlines/2010/12/2010121125638329942.html
> http://pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=1429&key=peto
> http://www.caiaweb.org/committees/faculty-for-palestine/
> 
> 
> Sponsored by the SFU Teachers Support Staff Union
> 
> For more information:
> organizer (at) tssu.ca

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