* Israeli Apartheid Week | March 5-13th, 2012
8th annual Israeli Apartheid Week featuring inspiring conferences, workshops, film screenings, demonstrations, and cultural events to raise awareness around the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israeli apartheid.
* Monday, March 5th
Film Screening with Cinema Politica: “Tears of Gaza” (Facebook)
7:00pm, Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve West, room H-110 (Guy-Concordia metro)
http://
Disturbing, powerful and emotionally devastating, Tears of Gaza is less a conventional documentary than a record – presented with minimal gloss – of the 2008 to 2009 bombing of Gaza by the Israeli military. Photographed by several Palestinian cameramen both during and after the offensive, this powerful film by director Vibeke Løkkeberg focuses on the impact of the attacks on the civilian population.
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* Tuesday, March 6th
The Russell Tribunal on Palestine. How can a popular tribunal help the pro-Justice movement? (Facebook)
Presentation by Speaker: Frank Barat
7:00pm, UQAM, 320 Sainte-Catherine East, Pavillon J.-A.-DeSève, room D SR340 (Berri-UQAM metro)
Frank Barat will give a brief historical overview of the work of the Russell Tribunal, including the Vietnam and South America tribunal of the 70s and will then focus on the Palestine tribunal with a strong emphasis on its last session, in Cape Town, that concluded that ‘Israel policies against the Palestinian People were in breach of the prohibition against Apartheid in International Law’. Organized by la Coalition pour la justice en Palestine-UQAM (CJP UQAM).
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* Wednesday, March 7th
Women and Gender in Palestine: Reflections from an Anti-Apartheid Activist (Facebook)
Presentation by Premilla Nadasen
via Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR)
7:30pm, McGill University (McGill metro)
Premilla Nadasen was born in South Africa and although she moved to the United States at a young age, she returned periodically to visit family and saw first hand the discriminatory policies of the Apartheid regime. She received her Ph.D. at Columbia University and her B.A. at the University of Michigan and she currently holds a position as an associate professor of history at Queens College (City University of New York.) In June 2011, Nadasen participated in a delegation of indigenous and women of colour feminists, activists, academics, and artists who visited the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Upon their return the delegation strong endorsement of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Campaign and issued a call to action aimed towards their academic and artist colleagues to follow their lead.
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* Thursday, March 8th:
Workshop: Pinkwashing Israeli Apartheid 101 (Facebook)
12:30 – 2:00pm, UQAM, Pavillon Hubert-Aquin
400 Sainte-Catherine East, room A 1850 (Berri-UQAM metro)
This workshop and facilitated discussion will serve as an introduction to “pinkwashing,” the propaganda campaign targeting Western queers designed to secure their support for the Israeli state. Pinkwashing works by painting Israel as a haven for gays amid an intolerant, backward Middle East. Gay rights in Israel, we are told, justify the brutal, ongoing oppression of Palestinians, via policies that constitute apartheid according to many international observers. As queers, should we just learn to live with the fact that our freedoms may come at the expense of others’ subjugation and suffering, or can we look beyond our individualized identities to a larger solidarity between all those who struggle for justice and dignity? Workshop will be presented by Claire Hurtig, a member of Tadamon Montreal.
* Thursday, March 8th
Demonstration: Solidarity with Palestinian Women!
BDS contingent in the International Women’s Day march
6:00pm, Norman Bethune Square (corner of Guy and de Maisonneuve, Guy-Concordia metro)
Join the contingent with Palestinian flags and the BDS banner. This is an opportunity to express support for Palestinian women fighting against Israeli occupation and apartheid while also joining an international day of action, International Women’s Day, to support women’s liberation struggles, all around the world. Bring your own flags, signs, and noisemakers! For the full callout, visit: http://
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* Friday, March 9th
Film Screening with Cinema Politica: Budrus (Facebook)
7:00pm, Concordia University, Library Building
1400 de Maisonneuve West, De Sève Cinema
(Guy-Concordia metro)
Budrus is an award-winning feature documentary film about a Palestinian community organizer, Ayed Morrar, who unites local Fatah and Hamas members along with Israeli supporters in an unarmed movement to save his village of Budrus from destruction by Israel’s Separation Barrier. Success eludes them until his 15-year-old daughter, Iltezam, launches a women’s contingent that quickly moves to the front lines. Struggling side by side, father and daughter unleash an inspiring, yet little-known, movement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories that is still gaining ground today.
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*Saturday, March 10th
The Ongoing Egyptian Revolution: The challenges and hopes for Egypt, the Palestinian struggle, and the Global Spring (Facebook)
3-4:45pm: Café l’Artère-7000, Avenue du Parc (Metro Parc)
http://artere.coop/
A discussion with Egyptian journalist and activist Deena Gamil also featuring musical performances
In conjunction with Israeli Apartheid Week Montreal 2012.
About Deena Gamil: Deena is a journalist, writer, revolutionary socialist activist and leading figure in the Popular Socialist Alliance Party. Since 1993, Deena Gamil has been working as a reporter, radio and TV producer and editor at various press and media institutions like Al-Alam al-Youm economic daily newspaper, Rose al-Youssef weekly magazine and the BBC. She is currently the editor of the home section at Al-Shuruq daily newspaper. Deena’s political career started in the early 1990s. She has participated in various fronts and coalitions such as Kefaya and the Popular Committee for Solidarity with the Palestinian Uprising. Deena is a founding member of the largest leftist party in Egypt – the Socialist Popular Alliance Party. She is the editor of the party’s bi-weekly bulletin “Until Victory”. She is also a member of the secretariat of the left platform in the party.
This event is co-sponsored by: Tadamon! Montreal, Egyptian Association of Montreal
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* Sunday, March 11th
Concert: Artists Against Apartheid XVIII (Facebook)
featuring celebrated NYC hip-hop group Rebel Diaz, Haitian hip-hop artist Vox Sambou and Chilean musicians l’Ensemble Acalanto
O Patro Vys, 356 Mont Royal (Mont Royal metro)
Doors 8:00pm, show starts at 9:00pm
Tickets: $10 in advance and $12 at the door
(We regret that this venue is not wheelchair accessible)
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* Monday, March 12 – 16th
Israeli Apartheid Week exhibition: Dimensions of Apartheid
Concordia University, Library Building Atrium, 1400 de Maisonneuve West (Guy-Concordia metro)
An interactive exhibition via Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) at Concordia University demonstrating the obstacles Israeli apartheid policies pose to ongoing Palestinian efforts for equal rights, justice and self-determination.
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* Monday, March 12th
The Syrian Uprisings and the Question of Resistance (Facebook)
Presentation by Bassam Haddad
6:30pm, Concordia University
1455 de Maisonneuve West, H – 763 (Guy-Concordia metro)
In this presentation, Bassam will discuss the structural causes for the emergence of the Syrian uprising and the factors that explain the stalemate thus far. Special emphasis will be placed as well on critical questions of regional politics, particularly those related to the issue of resistance and the left. Bassam Haddad is Director of the Middle East Studies Program and teaches in the Department of Public and International Affairs at George Mason University, and is Visiting Professor at Georgetown University. He is the author of Business Networks in Syria: The Political Economy of Authoritarian Resilience (Stanford University Press, 2011). Bassam also serves on the Editorial Committee of Middle East Report and is Co-Founder/Editor of Jadaliyya Ezine. He is currently a Visiting Scholar at Stanford’s Program for Good Governance and Political Reform in the Arab World. Lecture organized by Tadamon!
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* Tuesday, March 13th
Closing Panel: Systematic Violence Against Indigenous Women (Facebook)
featuring presentations by indigenous activists Sheri Pranteau and Bridget Tolley and Palestinian activist Yafa Jarrar.
6:30pm, Concordia University
1455 de Maisonneuve West
room H-763 (Guy-Concordia metro)
Speakers will discuss systemic violence experienced by indigenous women in Canada, and the struggles faced by women in Palestine on a daily basis. This panel comes on the heels of the call for a UN inquiry into Canada’s human rights abuses with regards to Indigenous women. This event is hosted by the 2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy at Concordia University.
Sheri Pranteau is a First Nations woman of Saulteaux decent from Winnipeg, Manitoba. She is a 33-year-old mother-to-be who is serving out a life sentence for involuntary manslaughter and armed robbery-use of a firearm. She was convicted and sentenced in Winnipeg in 1999, served 13 years of her sentence in prison, and will have served another 2 years of it in a halfway house for women, here in Montreal, come May. Sheri will be serving her sentence for the rest of her life, and can share with you from her perspective the what’s what of the Canadian prison system today, the changes she’s experienced over the years with respect to “rehabilitation,” and the degradation of “creating choices.”
Bridget Tolley is Algonquin from the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation in Quebec. Bridget’s journey for justice began in October 2001 after her mother Gladys Tolley was struck and killed by a Quebec provincial police cruiser. In the past decade she has been advocating for and organizing with families of missing and murdered Aboriginal women and communities affected by police violence. In January 2011 she co-founded Families of Sisters in Spirit (FSIS) a grassroots voluntary non-profit organization based in Ottawa on Algonquin territory, led by and for families of missing and murdered Aboriginal women.
Yafa Jarrar is an organizer with Students Against Israeli Apartheid-Carleton University. She was born in Jerusalem/Palestine and moved to Canada in 2003. Yafa now lives in Ottawa.”
Panel facilitated by Maya Rolbin-Ghanie and Shehla Arif, members of Justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, a campaign of the 2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy in Montreal.
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Israeli Apartheid Week Montreal 2012!
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* Facebook: http://on.fb.me/Av3WKB
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* Accessibility
- All speaking events and workshops will have whisper translation from English to French/French to English
- Entry to the events is by donation (pay what you can) unless otherwise noted
- All events are wheelchair accessible unless otherwise noted
- Childcare is available for most events. Please email us 48 hours in advance at iaw-mtl(at)riseup.net
Israeli Apartheid Week is organized by the following groups: Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (McGill and Concordia), Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG McGill and Concordia), Tadamon, 2110 Centre, and the Coalition for Justice in Palestine-UQAM
Free free Palestine!
* Israeli Apartheid Week 2012 in Montreal
http://
iaw-mtl(at)riseup.net
514-848-7583