Tag: Idle No More

Events

Fifth Annual Edmonton Israeli Apartheid Week

The full schedule for Edmonton’s Fifth Annual Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW), March 4 – 8, 2013 is now available!

First launched in Toronto in 2005, Israeli Apartheid Week has grown to become one of the most important global events in the Palestine solidarity calendar. Last year’s IAW was incredibly successful, with 216 cities participating. The Israeli Ministry of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs has even announced it will be dispatching “envoys” around the world in an attempt to undermine the week.

This year, Palestinians have endured another massacre in Gaza, the enlargement of illegal Israeli settlements in Occupied Palestine, increased settler violence and ongoing daily indignities and brutality under occupation. Hence our role in the international community to support the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement is more important than ever. This year’s IAW will highlight many faces involved in the Palestinian struggle, from the periphery and the centre, from the diaspora to diplomats, Indigenous groups in solidarity to Palestinian professors, highlighting the many levels of resistance to Israeli apartheid.

IAW 2013 will also take special care to voice the narrative of the changing regional context. Around the world, people are standing in solidarity with each other in struggles for democracy, equity, human rights and economic justice. The resolve of Palestinians as they continue their 64-year struggle against colonization, occupation and apartheid has provided inspiration for movements struggling for freedom, justice and equality around the world. Palestine, too, will be free.

IAW 2013 Edmonton highlights include:

Keynote presentation by Cindy & Craig Corrie, parents of Rachel Corrie, who was killed 10 years ago in March 2003 defending a Palestinian homes from destruction by the Israeli Defense Forces

Palestinian-American poet and activist Remi Kanazi speaking on the cultural and academic boycott movement

Idle No More to Occupation No More: a panel discussion on the connections between grassroots Indigenous movements and the role of solidarity activists from Turtle Island to Palestine

Artists Against Apartheid poetry night at Rouge Lounge, featuring local poets and a guest set of spoken work by Palestinian-American poet Remi Kanazi

A film screening of the award-winning documentary Roadmap to Apartheid, and discussion of the parallels and differences between the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa and Palestine

A presentation of women’s voices from the Palestinian diaspora to mark International Women’s Day (March 8, 2013)

 

Commentary/Analysis

Haaretz article on connections between Idle No More and Palestine

The Israeli daily Haaretz published this January 29 article on the links between Idle No More and the Palestinian struggle. Include great insights from Mike Krebs, who spoke at the 2012 Israeli Apartheid Week in Edmonton.

Palestinians and Canadian natives join hands to protest colonization

Palestinians, both at home and abroad, have found an unlikely partner in the struggle against colonization: First Nations, the indigenous peoples of Canada.

By Hadani Ditmars

Native peoples from all over the world joined together on Monday as part of an international day of solidarity with Idle No More, an indigenous uprising that has supporters across the globe.

Idle No More began in Canada, but it has sparked support from peoples including North African Tuaregs and New Zealand Maoris.

And with the many messages of support that came on Monday from indigenous peoples across the globe were messages of solidarity from Palestinians – both in their historic homeland and flung throughout the diaspora.

On the homepage of the Canada Palestine Association (CPA) is a link proclaiming “Palestinians in Solidarity with Idle No More and Indigenous Rights.”

It opens with an excerpt from the Mahmoud Darwish poem, “The Last Speech of the ‘Red Indian’ to the White Man”:

“You who come from beyond the sea, bent on war,
don’t cut down the tree of our names,
don’t gallop your flaming horses across
the open plains …
Don’t bury your God
in books that back up your claim of
your land over our land …” Continue reading “Haaretz article on connections between Idle No More and Palestine” →