Israeli apartheid and Palestinian popular resistance with Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh
Mazin Qumsiyeh, Human Rights Activist, currently teaches at Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities in Occupied Palestine. He is president of the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement Between People and coordinator of the Popular Committee to Defend Ush Ghrab (PCDUG)*
*Dr. Qumsiyeh has written several books including the highly acclaimed, Sharing the Land of Canaan: Human Rights and the Israeli/Palestinian Struggle and has served on the faculties of several universities. He has also served on the boards and steering committees of groups including the Peace Action Education Fund, the US Campaign to End Israeli Occupation, the Palestinian American Congress, the Association for One Democratic State in Israel/Palestine, and BoycottIsraeliGoods.org.
Professor Qumsiyeh published over 200 letters and 100 op-ed pieces and has been interviewed on several TV and radio programs.
Appearances in national media include the Washington Post, New York Times, Boston Globe, CNBC, C-Span, and ABC, among others. He also regularly lectures on issues of human rights and international law. He is currently working on a book on Palestinian civil resistance from the beginning of the Zionist project in the 19th century until today. His website is: http://qumsiyeh.org.
Sponsors include: Pittsburgh Palestine Solidarity Committee, U of Pitt Students for Justice in Palestine,
Memorial for the Gaza Dead
MEMORIALIZE THE GAZA DEAD!
A VIGIL
THURSDAY DECEMBER 31, 4 – 6 PM
FEDERAL BUILDING, DOWNTOWN, PITTSBURGH, PA
Sponsors include: Pittsburgh Palestine Solidarity Committee, Students for Justice in Palestine, Codepink, and many more to come…
One Year Anniversary of “Operation Cast Lead” Attacks on Gaza
On 27 December 2008, without warning, Israeli forces began a devastating bombing campaign on the Gaza Strip codenamed Operation “Cast Lead”. Its stated aim was to end rocket attacks into Israel by armed groups affiliated with Hamas and other Palestinian factions. However, the Israeli attack targeted civilians, school, universities, mosques, factories, and farms.
By 18 January 2009 some 1,400 Palestinians had been killed, a third of them children, and large areas of Gaza had been razed to the ground. To this date, and in spite of a massive world outcry against Israel’s murderous assault, not one Israeli government official or military personnel has been brought to justice.
Israel continues to receive full support from President Barak Obama, and the U. S. Congress, even though the UN Human Rights Commission, Amnesty International and other human rights organizations have demanded a full investigation into Israel’s conduct during its latest war.
Gaza remains devastated
On Thursday, December 31, the Pittsburgh Palestine Solidarity Committee and others will join hundreds of groups worldwide to memorialize Israel’s latest war victims with a reading of the names of the dead, along with a visual presentation of Gaza today.
We plan to vigil outside the Federal Building on First Night, between 4 and 6PM.
Your support is needed
Please consider organizational support to the vigil by having your organization endorse and encourage all to attend.
Divest from Israeli Aparheid! University of Pittsburgh. Oct 23-25, 2009
BDS Conference at Pitt
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Against Israel
October 23-25, 2009
Friday, Saturday and Sunday
Hosted by:
Pitt Students for Justice in Palestine
In participation with:
US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation,
Hampshire Students for Justice in Palestine,
and Pittsburgh Palestine Solidarity Committee
REGISTRATION IS FREE. CLICK HERE
For more info, visit Students for Justice in Palestine HERE
Or email SJP at: sjp.pitt@gmail.com
What is BDS???
Boycott, divestment and sanctions are nonviolent tools that were successfully employed to bring justice to South Africans. Now a global movement of students, labor unions, and churches is using these same tools to bring equality to Palestinians and Israelis.
Almost daily, we hear about another successful campaign where a company or group has decided to divest from Israel. Recently, Britain’s unions committed to a mass boycott movement of Israeli goods, the Brazilian Parliament Called for the freeze of the Israel – Mercosur Free Trade Agreement, and the French company, Veolia, pulled out of the light rail project that would connect illegal Israeli settlements to Jerusalem.
Join us in strengthening the BDS movement in the region by attending this very important conference!
DIVEST FROM ISRAELI APARTHEID!
Agenda
for BDS Conference, University of Pittsburgh
October 23-25, 2009
Friday October 23rd
7 PM- 9 PM Opening Cultural Night
with Remi Kanazi — Palestinian-American poet and writer based in New York City. He is the editor of the recently released collection of poetry, spoken word, hip hop, and art, “Poets For Palestine.”
David Lawrence Hall Room 120
Saturday October 24
10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
BDS Skill-Building Workshops
(all workshops and plenary sessions will be in the University of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning, please register for further details)
10:00-10:30 AM – Welcome & Introductory Plenary (Cathedral of Learning 204)
10:45 AM -12:00 PM – Workshop A
The International Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement / Connecting with Palestinian Activists (Cathedral 204)
or
How to Research Corporations Involved in Israeli Occupation and Apartheid (Cathedral 206)
12:00-1:00 PM – Lunch Break, lunch will be provided to conference participants (Cathedral 236 and 237)
1:15-2:30 PM – Workshop B
How to Research Your University’s Investments (Cathedral 204)
or
Creative Arts in Activism (Cathedral 206)
2:45-4:00 PM – Workshop C
Media 101 (Cathedral 236)
or
Academic and Cultural Boycotts (Cathedral 237)
4:15-4:45 PM – Debrief & Announcements in Plenary (Cathedral 204)
Sunday October 25th
10 AM – 3 PM: Campaign Planning and Action Steps (David Lawrence Hall 207)
10:00 AM -12:00 PM – Workshop report backs and ongoing workshops (David Lawrence 207)
12:00-1:00 PM – Lunch on your own
1:00-3:00 PM – Strategic planning session, come together to plan campaigns using skills from workshops (David Lawrence 209)
3:00-3:30 PM– Evaluation and closing (David Lawrence 209)
3:00-7:00 PM – Dinner on your own
7:00 – 9:00 PM
Theatrical production of My Name is Rachel Corrie
(Location TBA, likely to be in David Lawrence 120 or Grad School of Public Health G23)
Stand for Palestine- Every First Thursday!
Note: The Stands are every First Thursday, at the intersection of Forbes Ave and Bigelow Blvd, outside of the Hillman Library, from 5:30 – 6:30PM
- Join the Pittsburgh Palestine Solidarity Committee, Pitt Students for Justice in Palestine, and members of the community for our weekly “Stand for Palestine.”
- 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza have been under a debilitating military siege for the past two years, creating a “surrealistic situation in the Gaza Strip” forcing the tiny piece of land back to the Middle Ages, according to Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) Karen Abu Zayd.
- On July 3, 2009, in an act of piracy, Israeli forces kidnapped 21 passengers on board a boat of the Free Gaza Movement–A human rights group that in August 2008 sent the first international boats to land in the port of Gaza in 41 years. Their mission is to break the siege of Gaza and to raise international awareness about the prison-like closure of the Gaza Strip. Former US Congreewoman Cynthia McKinney and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mairead Maguire were on the boat and are still in an Israeli prison.
-Learn more about what President Jimmy Carter and Nelson Mandela have called “Worse than Apartheid South Africa” at Stand for Palestine
Palestine Rocks. benefit show for palestine. Thurs July 30
Thursday July 30, 2009
10pm-2am
With DJ James Gyre
Singer Songwriter Leslie Addis
Man in the Street
Live Art with Alberto J Almarza
Poetry
A Monster Raffle
Middle eastern food
and a lot more
$10-20
with no one turned away for lack’o funds
Shadow Lounge
5972 baum blvd
Pittsburgh, PA 15206
for more info contact, joeskillet@riseup.net
I Witness Gaza
A night of arts and eyewitness accounts from Gaza
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
7:00pm – 9:00pm
First Unitarian Church, Shadyside
605 Morewood Ave at Ellsworth
-A book reading by Lora Gordon, a Jewish American who has spent over a year in the Gaza Strip
-Eyewitness accounts from Regina Birchem, past president of Women’s Interntional League for Peace and Freedom
-A reading of Seven Jewish Children, a 10-minute play written in response to the Gaza massacres
-Plus a Short film screening by Palestinian American video artist Edward Salem
Sponsored by: The Pittsburgh Palestine Solidarity Committee, Pitt Students for Justice in Palestine, Unitarian Universalists for Justice in the Middle East, Thomas Merton Center Antiwar Committee, Middle East Peace Forum, Codepink Piitsburgh, Coalition for Peace and Justice in the Middle East, Muslim Student Association, Women’s Interntional League for Peace and Freedom
Gaza in Context
…
Professors Jules Lobel and Magid Shihade will discuss the current crisis in Gaza, its local, regional and global impact, and the role of the United States in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
Monday, March 30, 5pm
Carnegie Mellon, Porter Hall 100
Political Science Professor Majid Shihade is currently an Endowed Visiting Professor on Contemporary Global Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh. He is also a research Associate at the Middle East/South Asia Studies at the University of California, Davis. Dr. Shihade has published articles in the Arab Studies Quarterly (ASQ), the Journal of Alternative Perspectives in the Social Sciences (JAPSS), and in publications such as Men of the Global South. He has also published chapters on comparative violence, race and religion in an edited volume–”Color Struck”– among other places. His manuscript—What a soccer game reveals: Modernity, Colonialism, the State, and Violence among Arabs in Israel, is under an advanced contract with Syracuse University Press.
University of Law Professor Jules Lobel recently traveled to Israel and Palestine with an international human rights delegation and met with high ranking officials from Israel and both Israeli and Palestinian human rights organizations. Professor Lobel has litigated important issues regarding the application of international law in the U.S. courts. He is editor of a text on civil rights litigation and of a collection of essays on the U.S. Constitution, “A Less Than Perfect Union” (Monthly Review Press, 1988). He is author of numerous articles on international law, foreign affairs, and the U.S. Constitution in publications including Yale Law Journal, Harvard International Law Journal, Cornell Law Review, and Virginia Law Review. He is a member of the American Society of International Law.
March 17 – Ali Abunimah in Pittsburgh
Ali Abunimah, co-founder of the Electronic Intifada, speaking on Palestine
March 17
7:00pm
David Lawrence Hall, Room 120
University of Pittsburgh.
Feb 28 – Israeli Anarchists Against the Wall
The Israeli Anarchists Against the Wall
Feb. 28 @ 7:00 in David Lawrence 121
