[van-announce] Israeli Apartheid Week - Vancouver 2012: February 29-March 12

[Charlotte Kates]

*Israeli Apartheid Week - Vancouver
2012<http://www.boycottisraeliapartheid.org/iawvancouver/>
*

<http://www.boycottisraeliapartheid.org/biac/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/iawvan.jpg>

*ISRAELI APARTHEID WEEK VANCOUVER *

***February 29-March 12, 2012*

Israeli Apartheid Week <http://apartheidweek.org> is an international
series of events held each March in cities and campuses across the globe.
This year, Vancouver will be joining more than 70 cities around the world
in raising awareness about the system of apartheid in Israel and building
the growing international movement of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions
(BDS) campaigns. Get updates on Vancouver's IAW at:
http://www.boycottisraeliapartheid.org/iawvancouver/

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9vRM0k2TdA&feature=player_embedded

*WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 29*
*Film Screening: “Salt of this Sea”*
6:00 pm, Woodward 6, Woodward Library, University of British Columbia
A Film by Annemarie Jacir

Soraya, born in Brooklyn in a working class community of Palestinian
refugees, discovers that her grandfather’s savings were frozen in a bank
account in Jaffa when he was exiled in 1948. Stubborn, passionate and
determined to reclaim what is hers, she fulfills her life-long dream of
“returning” to Palestine.

Film’s official Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SaltofthisSea

Event sponsored by Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR – UBC)

*FRIDAY, MARCH 2*
*Confronting Israeli Apartheid in the Academy: Academic and Cultural Boycott
*
*A public lecture by Nada Elia*
6:00 pm, Woodward 2, Woodward Library, University of British Columbia.

Nada Elia is a faculty member at Antioch University, Seattle, where she
teaches Gender and Global Studies. She is co-founder of RAWAN (the Radical
Arab Women’s Activist Network), chairs the Anti-Militarism and Occupation
taskforce of Incite! Women of Color Against Violence, and serves on the
Organizing Committee of the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural
Boycott of Israel.

Event sponsored by Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR-UBC)

*MONDAY, MARCH 5*
*Canada and Israel: Allies in apartheid, allies in colonialism*
<http://www.boycottisraeliapartheid.org/2012/march-5-canada-and-israel-allies-in-apartheid-allies-in-colonialism/>7
pm @ SFU Harbour Centre, 515 W. Hastings Street (room 7000, 7th floor)

*Speakers:*
Glen Coulthard
Dana Mohammed Olwan
Mike Krebs

On a recent trip to Israel, Canadian foreign minister John Baird stated
that ‘Israel has no greater friend in the world than Canada.’ This is only
the latest statement of strong support by the Conservative government for
Israel, at a time when around the world Israel is coming under growing
criticism for its ongoing policies of apartheid towards Palestinian people,
the continued occupation of their lands, and the denial of their right to
return to the lands from which they have been displaced in repeated wars of
colonization since 1948.

This increased awareness about Israel’s policies of apartheid is reflected
in the growing world-wide campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions
(BDS) targeting Israel until it complies with international law, and is a
response to the 2005 call from Palestinian civil society for BDS as one of
the most effective ways for people to support the Palestinian struggle
against Israeli apartheid and occupation.

Meanwhile, the resistance of indigenous people continues all across Canada,
including struggles against the continued theft of indigenous lands and
resources, surviving the countless abuses of the residential school system,
and demanding an end to the gendered colonial violence that continues
against indigenous women.

How does the Canadian government’s support for Israel relate to Canada’s
own historical and ongoing colonization of indigenous people here? What are
the implications for supporters of the Palestinian struggle in carrying out
solidarity work from within a ‘fellow’ settler society?

About the speakers:

Glen Coulthard is a member of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation and an
assistant professor in the First Nations Studies Program and the Department
of Political Science at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver.

Dana Mohammed Olwan teaches in the Department of Gender, Sexuality, and
Women’s Studies at Simon Fraser University. She is former national chair of
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights and a current member of Faculty for
Palestine.

Mike Krebs is a Vancouver-based indigenous activist of Blackfoot
and European descent. He is a member of the Boycott Israeli Apartheid
Campaign in Vancouver.

Organized by Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign (Vancouver).

*FRIDAY, MARCH 9*
*A Child’s View from Gaza: Art Exhibition Opening*
 <http://childsviewfromgaza.org/>7:30 pm, Unitarian Church, 949 W. 49th
Avenue, Vancouver
*Guest speaker: Barbara Lubin, Middle East Children’s Alliance, Oakland*

BIAC is one of the sponsoring organizations for A Child’s View from Gaza
Vancouver exhibition. The show is an exhibition of 25 children’s art
pieces, which are part of the 75-piece exhibition that was created in 2009
by the children of Gaza who witnessed the destruction of Operation Cast
Lead and who participated in after-school children’s therapy programs.
“Cast Lead,” Israel’s December 2008/January 2009 attack on a virtually
unarmed Gaza, killed 1400 Palestinians, including 320 children.

The exhibition will open on Friday, March 9 and BIAC encourages all IAW
participants and supporters of Palestine to attend. Guest speaker Barbara
Lubin, Founder and Executive Director of the Middle East Children’s
Alliance, is a life-long peace, justice and disability rights activist. For
more details about the exhibition’s visit to Vancouver, see
childsviewfromgaza.org.

*MONDAY, MARCH 12*
*Resistance Culture: An Evening of Spoken Word, Poetry and Art*
<http://www.boycottisraeliapartheid.org/2012/march-12-resistance-culture-an-evening-of-spoken-word-poetry-and-art/>7:00
pm, InterUrban Gallery, 1 East Hastings St., Vancouver (suggested donation
$10)
**

*Featuring:*
*Remi Kanazi, Palestinian poet from New York *
*Special guests including Indigenous poet Kat Norris*
**

*and the Palestinian children’s art exhibition, *
*A Child’s View from Gaza  *
- additional performers to be announced!-

Join the Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign for a powerful night of
cultural resistance and poetic in/justice. Art, culture, poetry and
performance are a part of the struggle for liberation, reflecting its
creative potential, insisting on existence in the face of genocide,
colonialism, occupation and imperialism, speaking truth to power and
tearing down apartheid walls.

Featuring powerful spoken word and poetry from:

Remi Kanazi, acclaimed  Palestinian-American poet, writer, and activist
based in New York City. He is the editor of Poets For Palestine (Al Jisser
Group, 2008). His political commentary has been featured by news outlets
throughout the world, including Al Jazeera English, GRITtv with Laura
Flanders, and BBC Radio. His poetry has taken him across North America, the
UK, and the Middle East, and he recently appeared in the Palestine Festival
of Literature as well as Poetry International. Remi is the author of the
long-awaited collection Poetic Injustice: Writings on Resistance and
Palestine, a diverse mix of unabashed resistance poems. You can find out
more about Remi and Poetic Injustice at poeticinjustice.net.

Videos of Remi’s performances: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQ60E1Y-yNE,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZJ4bWfPa1k&feature=related

Kat Norris is the founder of Indigenous Action Movement and survivor of the
Kuper Island Residential School. Kat joined the American Indian Movement
and has been a social activist since.

…and presenting the art exhibition, A Child’s View From Gaza, featuring 25
drawings and paintings created by Palestinian children and youth from the
Gaza Strip following the 2009 Israeli assault on Gaza. It will be touring
the Vancouver area, organized by the Vancouver Child’s View From Gaza
Committee. The full exhibition will join us at InterUrban Gallery for this
evening of resistance culture!

Organized by Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign (Vancouver).

For more information on IAW globally:
http://apartheidweek.org

For more information:
http://boycottisraeliapartheid.org
boycottapartheid at gmail.com
https://www.facebook.com/BIACVAN
https://twitter.com/BIACVancouver



-- 
Charlotte L. Kates     charlotte.kates at gmail.com