PALESTINE SOLIDARITY NETWORK

Meet Green Party Leadership Candidate Dimitri Lascaris
Tuesday, August 18 (8:15 pm)
Wilbur McIntyre Park (83 Ave and 104 St (by the Strathcona Gazebo))

Longtime Palestinian rights activist Dimitri Lascaris is running for the leadership of the Green Party of Canada. Join Dimitri in Edmonton for an event will discuss his foreign policy platform, which includes:

Ending Sanctions that harm the innocent. End Canada’s deference to the U.S. on its withdrawal from the nuclear deal with Iran.

Opposing both annexation and the illegal settlements on Palestinian land in Israel.

Supporting the universal application of international law. The International Criminal Court (ICC) needs to apply its mandate without discrimination around the world.

Stopping the exporting of arms. Cancel the Saudi arms deal and take similar measures toward states that do not comply with UN Human Rights protocols

Supporting nuclear disarmament. Accede immediately to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Resuming relations with Iran. Don’t follow isolationist American policy on Iran.

Those attending will have an opportunity to join the Green Party and support Dimitri’s leadership bid. If you can’t make it to the event to see Dimitri in person, check out his campaign website and consider joining the Green Party in order to support his leadership bid.

Gaza Fights for Freedom Online Webinar
Saturday, March 28, 11:00 am MDT
Online via Zoom (register here)

Please join us for a film webinar for the screening of Gaza Fights for Freedom, a film by US journalist Abby Martin.

This screening is presented by Social Justice Event Collective and co-hosted by Canadian Boat to Gaza, Independent Jewish Voices-London and People for Peace-London, Ontario.

Please register in advance for this webinar. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the screening and webinar.

Filmmaker Abby Martin will join us after the screening to discuss the making of her documentary, including a questions and answers period. Filmed during the height of the Great March Of Return protests, it features riveting exclusive footage of demonstrations. The documentary tells the story of Gaza past and present, showing rare archival footage that explains the history never acknowledged by mass media. You will hear from victims of the ongoing massacre, including journalists, medics and the family of internationally acclaimed paramedic, Razan al-Najjar. At its core, Gaza Fights For Freedom is a thorough indictment of the Israeli military for war crimes, and a stunning cinematic portrayal of Palestinians’ heroic resistance.

We will also be joined for part of the discussion by a Palestinian participant from We Are Not Numbers, a group of aspiring and inspiring young journalists telling their stories of daily life in the Gaza Strip.

The Canadian Boat To Gaza raises awareness and support for the FreedomFlotilla’s sailing against the blockade of Gaza, with a focus on the children and youth of Gaza. The FreedomFlotilla’s next sailing, called For the Children of Gaza, will challenge the blockade, while focusing attention on young people in Gaza, who form more than half of the population in that tiny blockaded area. The Canadian Boat to Gaza is part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, which contributed for a decade to initiatives including the Women’s Boat to Gaza (2016), Solidarity with Gaza Fishers (2017), and Right to a Just Future for Palestine (2018). We welcome all support and endorsements that contribute towards the goals and principles of our campaigns.

If you wish to donate to UNWRA’s COVID-19 urgent response appeal for healthcare in Palestine, see here.

Soufra
Thursday, March 12, 7:00 pm
Humanities Centre Lecture Room 2 (HM L-2)
University of Alberta campus (map)

Invite your friends to the Facebook event.

Soufra, Arabic for “dining table,” is a film to celebrate Universal Women’s Week 2020 in Edmonton. It follows the unlikely and wildly inspirational story of intrepid social entrepreneur, Mariam Shaar – a generational Palestinian refugee who has spent her entire life in the Burj El Barajneh refugee camp just south of Beirut, Lebanon.

The film follows Mariam as she sets out to change her fate by launching a catering company, Soufra, and then expand it into a food truck business with a diverse team of fellow refugee women who now share this camp as their home. Together, they take their future into their own hands through an unrelenting belief in each other. In the process, Mariam is breaking barriers, pulling together Syrian, Iraqi, Palestinian and Lebanese women to work side by side while running this thriving business.

Soufra will shine a new and revealing light on people inside an “extreme economy.” But this film is ultimately about hope, grit, passion and bringing people together. Though Mariam is officially “stateless,” she is a beacon of hope and home for thousands upon thousands of women in the most unlikely of places, and for viewers now of the Soufra story.

The film’s Edmonton screening is organized by the Palestine Solidarity Network (PSN), Mobilization for Justice (M4J), and CEPAL, a group of Canadians volunteers teaching refugee youth in Lebanon.

This event is free of charge, and all are welcome. Palestinian foods and the Soufra cookbook also will be available for sale.

For more information, or to confirm attendance, email cepal.edmonton@gmail.com

Unlawful Bottle of Wine: A David-and-Goliath Struggle for Truthful Labels on Israeli Settlement Wines
Featuring Dr. David Kattenburg
Tuesday, March 3, 7:30 pm
Hudson’s Pub, Side Room
10307 Whyte Avenue (map)

Invite your friends to the Facebook event.

Over a glass of wine (or beer) come hear Dr. David Kattenburg recount his three-year struggle for truthful labeling of wines from the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and for the rule of law in Canada. Last summer, the Federal Court of Canada agreed that wines produced in the occupied Palestinian territories cannot be described as products of Israel. That decision is now under appeal by the federal government.

Dr. Kattenburg will discuss how this case touches on free speech and ethical shopping, and the implications of the federal government’s decision to appeal.

Note: Dr. Kattenburg is giving a similar talk at 3:30 pm on March 3, in Room 113 of the Law Centre on the University of Alberta campus (map).

Palestinization of Kashmir
Featuring David Barsamian
Friday, November 22, 6:00 pm
Room 150, Telus International Centre
Corner of 111 St and 87 Avenue, University of Alberta Campus (map)

Invite your friends to the Facebook event.

The Mobilization for Justice (M4J) is hosting renowned journalist David Barsamian for a lecture on the crisis in Kashmir and its parallels with Palestine.

This is a free event, everyone is welcome.

Organized by M4J and the ECMC Chair in Islamic Studies at University of Alberta.

About David Barsamian

One of America’s most tireless and wide-ranging investigative journalists, David Barsamian has altered the independent media landscape, both with his weekly radio show Alternative Radio—now in its 34th year—and his books with Noam Chomsky, Eqbal Ahmad, Howard Zinn, Tariq Ali, Richard Wolff, Arundhati Roy and Edward Said. His latest books are with Noam Chomsky: Global Discontents: Rising Threats to Democracy and Edward Said: Culture and Resistance. He lectures on world affairs, imperialism, capitalism, propaganda, the media and global rebellions.

David Barsamian is the winner of the Media Education Award, the ACLU’s Upton Sinclair Award for independent journalism, and the Cultural Freedom Fellowship from the Lannan Foundation. The Institute for Alternative Journalism named him one of its Top Ten Media Heroes. He is the recipient of Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Democracy Alliance of Vancouver, the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center and the Radical Desi. He has collaborated with the world-renowned Kronos Quartet in events in New York, London, Vienna, San Francisco and elsewhere.

Barsamian was deported from India due to his work on Kashmir and other revolts. He is still barred from traveling to “the world’s largest democracy.”

As a kid, David was a bit of a rebel and frequently played hooky from school. Growing up in New York in the shadow of the Armenian Genocide sparked an interest in history and politics. His first interview was with his mother, Araxie. He says, that interview was the most difficult he has ever done. He then went on to do a series of interviews with survivors.

He says he was further radicalized when his beloved Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team moved to Los Angeles. He said, “That’s all I needed to know about capitalism.”

Making Ground for Sumoud on World Refugee Day
Thursday, June 20 (Noon – 1:00 pm)
Telus Building Room 131
Corner of 111 St & 87 Ave, U of A campus (map)

You are invited to this free noon-hour presentation delivered to mark this year’s World Refugee Day.

The event features two University of Alberta-based speakers who will use their involvements with Palestinians to consider how local groups or individuals can lend further support to refugees. The speakers’ experiences are separate and different, but they similarly rely on the importance of sumoud (roughly translated from Arabic as “steadfastness”) among Palestinians. It’s a condition which describes well the actions and outlooks of camp residents in Palestine, Jordan, and Lebanon. While it’s an attitude upheld by refugees in these countries, it also might be adopted by others, in struggles to support them globally.

Coffee will be provided, BYO lunch.

About the speakers

Dr. Ghada Ageel is a visiting professor in Political Science, an independent scholar, and is active in Faculty4Palestine-Alberta)

John Doyle, who retired in 2018 from his position as programs director with the Alberta School of Business’ Centre for International Business Studies, recently taught at two Palestinian refugee camps in Sour (Tyre), Lebanon.

About World Refugee Day

June 20 is the annual, UN-designated day to commemorate strength, courage, and perseverance of refugees, who now number more than 25 million globally, over half under 18 years old. Schools, municipalities, faith groups, and NGOs in Canada have used this Day to share ways for standing with refugees, as well as asylum claimants and internally displaced persons.