[van-announce] Speaking up for Palestinian Rights': Free Public Forum (PLEASE NOTE TIME CHANGE)

[Mike Krebs]

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SPEAKING UP FOR PALESTINIAN RIGHTS:
Understanding recent attempts to silence criticism of Israel in Canada

Free Public Forum
Saturday February 12, 6:30 pm
SFU Harbour Centre
515 W. Hastings St.

(PLEASE NOTE TIME CHANGE)


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 Teaching Support Staff Union Social Justice Committee

For more information:
organizer (at) tssu.ca