PALESTINE SOLIDARITY NETWORK

Fourteen years of a brutal, life-threatening blockade has denied Gaza of water, food, electricity, shelter and held two million people captive. Gaza was deemed “unlivable” by international agencies in 2020. Now the recent Israeli bombardment has only worsened the humanitarian disaster:
roughly 60,000 people have been made homeless by the bombing, 800,000 people left without access to piped water.  Six hospitals and eleven primary health-care centers, as well as 54 schools and educational facilities, damaged by the bombing.

With a severe lack of fuel due to the Israeli blockade and recent bombing damage to the electricity network, Gazans are reduced to an average of 4-6 hours of electricity per day. Besides the terrible impact on daily life, the lack of electricity hugely compounds the difficulty in providing health care. Gaza’s health system was already completely overwhelmed by a surge in COVID-19 cases in 2021; now the only laboratory for Covid-19 testing has been damaged.

About half of Gaza’s population is under 18, and there are many children who have lived through several of these terrifying Israel bombardments in their short lives. Even before this latest destruction, 80% or more of the population was dependent on humanitarian aid for survival. Now the need is more urgent than ever.

HOW YOU CAN HELP NOW
Besides advocating for justice for the Palestinian people, we know we are also called to help those in dire need. There are many options for your giving; here are three respected organizations that have a good track record of getting urgent aid into the hands and homes of those who need it. (Courtesy of United Methodists for Kairos Response)

1) UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) 

2) M.A.P. (Medical Aid to Palestine)

3) Care Canada

June 10, 2021 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm EDT

In the last month Israel’s grave human rights abuses have received unprecedented recognition and public condemnation in Canada. Across the country we have seen mass protests and demonstrations in many cities, statements by sitting MPs and senators, and the multiplication of calls for boycotts and sanctions. In response, the institutional Jewish community has linked these protests and condemnations to claims that there has been a significant rise in antisemitism, conflating the movement for Palestinian liberation with hatred towards Jews.

Complicating these claims are the isolated incidents of antisemitism which have taken place, some of which have been shown to be false, and others that can only be seen as verifiable instances of Jew-hatred.

How are we to understand the institutional Jewish community’s attempts to conflate a liberatory popular movement for Palestine with rising antisemitism? How is antisemitism being weaponized to push back against the growing movement for Palestinian liberation, and how can we work to counter this weaponization while standing steadfast against real antisemitism? What is the political strategy being used in this current moment to attack the Palestine solidarity movement, and how does that strategy rely on faulty assumptions and the structures of racism embedded in Canada?These are some of the questions this webinar will seek to address. IJV is proud to host experts from both academic and political backgrounds to engage these difficult but important topics. By discussing antisemitism, its history of weaponization in Canada, and our institutional Jewish community, the speakers will seek to gain a clearer insight of what is really happening, and what we need to do about it.

Click here to register!

Once again, missiles and rockets flew between Israel and Gaza. When the ceasefire was finally declared on Thursday, at least 242 Palestinians – including at least 66 children – in Gaza had been killed, along with 10 Israelis, including two children. At least 14 Palestinians in the West Bank protesting the violence in Gaza were killed by Israeli security forces. Gaza suffered immense property destruction. And 75,000 Palestinians were forced to seek shelter in UN schools and other locations to escape the missiles.

As international human rights observers, we believe that the firing by Israel of missiles and shells into heavily populated areas of Gaza, its dreadful toll on civilians, property destruction and bombing of international media offices constitute war crimes. We also believe that the firing of rockets by Palestinian armed groups into Israeli urban areas violates international law. These actions must be investigated by the International Criminal Court.

Click here to read the rest of Michael Lynk’s article

(courtesy of Amnesty International)

Amid an upsurge in reports of antisemitic incidents in recent weeks, the Edmonton Palestine Solidarity Network reiterates that we categorically condemn and denounce all acts of antisemitism in the strongest possible terms. Those committing such attacks are not in solidarity with Palestinians, they are in solidarity with racism, the very force we are struggling to overcome.

We are committed to the liberation of the Palestinian people and are opposed to Israeli war crimes and their continued violation of Palestinian human rights, which have escalated in recent weeks. We are also committed to fighting all forms of racism, including antisemitism, with our allies.

This is a brief history of the events leading to the establishment of the state of Isreal on Palestinian land.

To join the Nakba 2021 Day of Action go to:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7hA1uUx_6Y

A new PSN Reading Group has just been initiated; the book to be discussed will be Decolonizing Israel, Liberating Palestine, a recently released title by Jeff Halper. If time permits, we may also consider Jonathan Kuttab’s, Beyond the Two-State Solution and then subsequently compare the political proposals and strategies for peace that are outlined in the two works.

An organizing meeting is scheduled for Monday, May 24 at 7pm to decide how to organize the readings and discussion, and how often and when to meet. If you are interested in being part of this, please email psnedmonton@gmail.com. We’ll get back with more details and a Zoom link for the organizational meeting.

Zoom event: https://www.facebook.com/events/2986448885011447

Join us at the International Al-Quds Day virtual event on Saturday 8 May and stand for solidarity with the Palestinian people and advocate for peace and justice.In the face of continued human rights violations from the apartheid Israeli occupation regime, the International Al-Quds Day is a crucial opportunity for us to raise our voices against these violations. Al-Quds Day is an annual event observed throughout the world on the last weekend of the month of Ramadan (a holy month in the Islamic calendar, when Muslims fast from sunrise to sundown everyday), reminding all humanity of the duty to stand up for justice and peace for Palestine.This year’s virtual event will feature several speakers and activists who will analyze the latest developments and offer their insights for the road ahead. We believe in a bright future, a day when Palestine will be free of Zionist occupation.Organizers and endorsers (the list is being updated as more groups and organizations endorse the event):
Mobilization For Justice (M4J)
Palestine Solidarity Network (PSN) – Edmonton
Edmonton Coalition Against War and Racism (ECAWAR)
Mennonite Central Committee (MCC)
Mobilization Against War & Occupation (MAWO)
Misagh (میثاق)
University of Waterloo Students For Palestinian Rights (UW SFPR)
Thaqalayn Muslim Association Waterloo (TMA)
Centre Communautaire Musulman de Montréal (CCMM)
Canadian Defenders for Human Rights (CD4HR)
We look forward to having you in our event. Please spread the word!

Click here for registration

PSN – Edmonton is pleased to present a screening of the film ‘The Village Under the Forest’. The film will be followed by a panel discussion and question and answer session.

A meditation on erasure:
The Village Under the Forest
film screening & discussion 

6 pm, Wednesday, April 7, 2021

The Village Under The Forest explores the hidden remains of the destroyed Palestinian village of Lubya, which lies under a purposefully cultivated forest plantation called South Africa Forest.

Directed by Emmy-winner Mark J Kaplan and written and narrated by scholar and author Heidi Grunebaum, The Village Under The Forest unfolds as a personal meditation from the Jewish Diaspora. Using the forest and the village ruins as metaphors, the documentary explores themes related to the erasure and persistence of memory and dares to imagine a future in which dignity, acknowledgement and co-habitation become shared possibilities in Israel/Palestine.

The event starts at 6 pm MDT (5 pm PDT) on April 7, 2021. There will be a brief introduction and participants will receive a free link to the film. After viewing, we will reassemble one hour later for the panel discussion.

Please register to join this Zoom webinar. 

About the panelists

Ghada Ageel is a Visiting Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Alberta, a columnist in Middle East Eye London and the editor of Apartheid in Palestine: Hard Laws and Harder Experiences. She holds a PhD and MA in Middle East Politics from the University of Exeter (Britain) and a BA in Education from the Islamic University/Gaza. Dr. Ageel research interests focus on rights-based approaches to forced migration, Palestinian refugees in comparative perspective, oral history, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the permanent status issues involved in the Middle East peace process.

Ghaida Hamdan is a fourth generation Palestinian refugee born and raised in the Gaza Strip. She received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Alberta in Human Geography and Political Science, and holds a Masters in Immigration and Settlement Studies from Ryerson University. The focus of her research was on the role of collective memory and oral histories, in solidifying national identity in resisting the colonial projects of memoricide. After graduation she completed a post-grad course on the Greek Island of Lesvos that focused on the recent crisis of refugee flows into Europe. In 2020, she interned with the United Nations Department of Global Communications in New York.

Lucia Pizarro is the Founding Spiritual Director at the Jewish Liberation Theology Institute. In 2017 she became a mom and the first Mexican woman ordained as a rabbi in the Conservative movement. She holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Essex in the UK, and has been involved in Palestine solidarity work since 2002. She is a member of Independent Jewish Voices’ Spiritual and Cultural Network, and Jewish Voice for Peace’s Rabbinical Council.

PSN event faciliators: Dr. Masoud Shadnam, Jeff Winkelaar, Suliman Elatrash