Israeli Apartheid Week 2012 / Semaine contre l'apartheid israélien 2012

Welcome to IAW/SAI 2012 Ottawa!  Join us and dozens of other cities around the world in pushing forward the movement for Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions until Israel complies with international law.  For more information on BDS, visit http://www.bdsmovement.net  Joignez-vous à la 8e semaine internationale contre l'apartheid israélien, une semaine remplie d'activités académiques et culturelles pour mieux comprendre les enjeux du conflit israélo-palestinien et la campagne de boycott, désinvestissement et sanctions contre l'apartheid israélien et appuyer la justice. Pour plus d’informations : vous pouvez écrire à sphr.uofo@gmail.com ou visitez la page Facebook « SPHR UofO » ou/or  saia.carleton@gmail.com 

EVENTS HAPPENING FROM MARCH 5TH TO THE 9TH 2012

MONDAY MARCH 5TH

Panel Discussion: Arab Spring, Apartheid Falls? The Egyptian Uprising and Possibilities for Palestinian Resistance

When: 7:30pm

Where: University of Ottawa campus, Fauteux Hall Room 147A

Deena Gamil is a journalist, writer, revolutionary socialist activist and leading figure and a founding member of the Socialist Popular Alliance Party, the largest leftist party in Egypt. She has participated in various fronts and coalitions such as Kefaya and the Popular Committee for Solidarity with the Palestinian Uprising. She has been working as a reporter, radio and TV producer and editor at various press and media institutions such as Al-Alam al-Youm economic daily newspaper, and the BBC. She is currently the editor of the home section at Al-Shuruq daily newspaper. 

Mostafa Henaway is a Canadian-born Egyptian based in Montreal where he is a community organizer with the Immigrant Workers Centre. He is active with Tadamon! Montreal which works in solidarity with struggles for self-determination, equality, and justice in the Middle East and an end to Israeli Apartheid. Mostafa Henaway also recently co-authored with Rami El-Amine, a people's history of the Egyptian revolution. 

"We're not Buying it" Boycott Israel Workshop

presented by Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME). 

MRT 221 at 2:30 pm
 

TUESDAY MARCH 6

Film Screening: Budrus

When: 7:00pm

Where: Carleton University campus, St. Patrick's Building Room 100

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.

WEDNESDAY MARCH 7

Violence Through Erasure: Colonization and Dispossession in Canada and Palestine

When: 7:00 pm

Where: Carleton University campus, University Centre Room 182

Histories and ongoing realities of colonization and genocide can be understood as a practice of violence through erasure. From the Tera Nullius policies of European settlers to the proclamation that the land that was to become Israel was "a land without a people for a people without a land", Canada and Israel have been built upon the violent denial of the indigenous inhabitants of the area. When denial was not enough, state policies turned towards erasure - seen in the residential school system in Canada, which literally sought to "remove the Indian from the child", and the forced expulsion of thousands of Palestinians. Today, this erasure continues as the Canadian government repeatedly fails to recognize unceded indigenous territory and treaty claims and the question of Palestinian refugees and their right of return is left out of formal negotiations. Recognition and understanding of the violence of erasure is essential for the solidarity movement so that this violence is not reproduced within the movement.

Albert Dumont is an Algonquin leader and poet. Albert has served with the Ottawa Native Concerns Committee since 1993 and also served with the Ottawa and District Injured Workers Group for six years. Albert has dedicated his life to promoting Aboriginal spirituality and healing and to protecting the rights of Aboriginal peoples particularly those as they affect the young. Albert Dumont is the Founder of Turtle Moons Contemplations.

Rana Hamadeh is a Palestinian-Canadian human rights activist whose family was brought to Canada as a result of exile from Palestine. Rana has been involved in organizing against Israeli apartheid in both Canada and Palestine. She spent several months last year writing and reporting from the occupied West Bank. Rana is on the coordinating committee of the Global March to Jerusalem - North America and is an organizer with Students Against Israeli Apartheid Carleton.

THURSDAY MARCH 8

Panel Discussion: Legalized Apartheid and Women's Resistance in Palestine: Principled Solidarity and the Global Struggle for Liberation

When: 7:00pm

Where: University of Ottawa campus, Hagen Hall Room 302 (near Laurier Bus Station)

In its last session, held in Cape Town, South Africa, the Russell Tribunal on Palestine concluded that “Israel subjects the Palestinian people to an institutionalised regime of domination amounting to apartheid as defined under international law. This discriminatory regime manifests in varying intensity and forms against different categories of Palestinians depending on their location . . . Irrespective of such differences, the Tribunal concludes that Israel’s rule over the Palestinian people, wherever they reside, collectively amounts to a single integrated regime of apartheid.”

In honour of International Women’s Day, Students Against Israeli Apartheid is proud present this panel discussion which will examine the Palestine tribunal’s findings and the ongoing struggles of resistance by Palestinians, with an emphasis on women’s resistance. Integral to this discussion are the ways in which international colonial feminist discourses have undermined the struggles of indigenous women and how true principled solidarity can be enacted.

Speaker Profiles:

Rabab Ibrahim Abdulhadi is an Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies/Race and Resistance Studies and the Senior Scholar of the Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Initiative (AMED), in the historic College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University. Professor Abdulhadi has taught at eight international universities and co-founded several Palestinian, Arab and Muslim groups and initiatives. Her most recently published work includes the co-edited anthology Arab and Arab American Feminisms: Gender, Violence and Belonging (Syracuse University Press, 2011).

Frank Barat is a human rights activist and coordinator of the recently completed Russell Tribunal on Palestine. He has edited two books: Gaza in Crisis (Haymarket/Penguin) with Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappe andCorporate Complicity in Israel’s Occupation (Pluto Press) with Asa Winstanley.

FRIDAY MARCH 9

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Accessibility: If you require childcare, ASL/LSQ or French/English whisper translation, please contact saia.carleton@gmail.com for events at Carleton University, or sphr.uofo@gmail.com for events at the University of Ottawa.  We require at least two days notice.

Accessibilité: Si vous avez besoin d'un service de garderie, de traduction ASL pour malentendants ou de traduction chuchotée Français/Anglais, contactez saia.carleton@gmail.com pour les évènements à L'Université Carleton et sphr.uofo@gmail.com pour les évènements à l'Université d'Ottawa. Nous avons besoin d'être avisé deux jours à l'avance.

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We gratefully acknowledge the support of our endorsers for 2012 (in no particular order)

Association of Palestinian Arab Canadians (APAC)
Independent Jewish Voices
Books 2 Prisoners
Faculty 4 Palestine
GRIPO-Ottawa U
OPIRG-Carleton
Carleton University Graduate Student Association (GSA)
General Union of Palestine Students (GUPS)
AGITATE Queer Women of Colour
Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Movement (IPSMO)
Communist Party of Canada
Rosa Luxembourg Club
CUPE 1281
Canadian Arab Federation (CAF)
No One is Illegal- Ottawa (NOIIOTTAWA)
Baladna Revival Group
The Radical Relics- Ottawa
InSol Women of Colour Collective
Communist Party
CUPE 1281
CUPE 4600
CUPE 1979