[Fdu] Israeli Apartheid Week 2014: Program released

Wed Feb 26 23:23:46 EST 2014



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                              IAW TORONTO 2014 - Program
                              [Please go to http://apartheidweek.org/toronto or facebook.com/IAWToronto for updates on venue locations for specific events]


                              Tuesday March 4th, 7pm. 
                              Understanding Apartheid, and Building the Global BDS Movement: 
                              From South Africa, Palestine to Turtle Island
                              OISE Auditorium 252 Bloor St W Toronto
                              The 10th Anniversary of Israeli Apartheid Week in Toronto will be inaugurated by Yusuf Saloojee, former ANC Chief Representative to Canada.
                              Yusuf Saloojee, served as the first Chief Representative of the South African National Congress (ANC) in Canada until 1989. Saloojee has since served as the South African Ambassador to several countries. Yusuf Saloojee will deliver a keynote address that will underscore the linkages between South African Apartheid and Israel. He will discuss the political and symbolic importance of why South Africans stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people and their struggle for freedom, justice and equality. Mr. Saloojee will also explain why the ANC endorsed the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions call and its International Solidarity Conference. Also, Mr. Saloojee will touch upon the BDS work that is taking place in South Africa.
                              Hind Awwad, the former coordinator of the Palestinian Boycott National Committee (BNC) will discuss the principles and origins of the BDS movement, its most recent developments in addition to the challenges facing the movement and prospects forward.
                              Chand[ni] De-sai, a member of Students Against Israeli Apartheid will provide an example of a specific BDS campaign in Canada. In particular, she will discuss the student divestment campaign(s) that have grown across campuses in the U.S. and Canada. She will explain why divestment is necessary for students to adopt as a strategy of challenging Israeli apartheid, and ways to further strengthen and build the movement

                              Tuesday March 4th, 6:30pm
                              Film Screening: Mars at Sunrise by Jessica Habie 
                              Bloor Hot Docs Cinema 506 Bloor Street West, Toronto
                              Presented by Cinema Politica. 
                              Co-presented by Toronto Palestine Film Festival 
                              Mars at Sunrise tells the story of a war waged on imagination. When Azzadeh, a young Jewish American poet, travels to Israel she uncovers stories of Israeli soldiers who reflect on their military service; Palestinian families who are displaced and wedged between walls; and artists from both cultures who strive to paint a picture of life surrounded by conflict. While waiting at a checkpoint in Jenin, Azzadeh meets Khaled (played by Ali Suliman of Paradise Now), a Palestinian painter forced from his home in East Jerusalem. Azzadeh accepts a ride from the handsome stranger, whose life story she soon bears witness to as the two come face to face with Eyal, the young officer who once interrogated Khaled, at the next checkpoint. The film abstractly portrays the conflict between artists on either side of Israel's militarized borders, and explores how a powerful creative mind survives, and even thrives, under pressure.

                              Thursday March 6th, 7pm 
                              Resisting settler colonial states through global solidarities and activist campaigns
                              [Location TBA]
                              We will explore movements and campaigns that resist settler colonialism, both in Canada and in Israel, and the possibilities for links of solidarity to be built across these struggles. We will focus on indigenous resistance to tar sands pipelines, and Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns in solidarity with the Palestinian anti-apartheid struggle, both in Canada and in Lebanon. 
                              Carrie Lester is Indigenous to Turtle Island and is an activist on Indigenous issues and environmental protection. 
                              Samah Idriss is a co-founder of the Campaign to Boycott Supporters of Israel, a co-founder of al-Saaha Cultural Club, a lexicographer, a literary critic who had earned his PhD from Columbia University in 1991, and editor-in-chief of al-Adab, a Lebanese arts and culture magazine based in Beirut. He has 10 stories for children (5-10 years old), and 4 novels for young adults on the Lebanese civil war and 2 books on literary criticism. He has translated texts for world renowned scholar-activists including: Tariq Ali, Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein and others. 
                              Speaker on Soda Stream Campaign from the Coalition against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA). CAIA was formed in January 2006 as part of a growing, global movement against Israeli apartheid. Our demands are based upon a July 2005 call from over 170 Palestinian organizations in support of a global campaign of boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS). In the fall of 2013, joining a growing international boycott of SodaStream, we launched a campaign to get SodaStream out of Bed Bath and Beyond stores in Canada.

                              Friday March 7th, 7pm 
                              Homonationalism, Pink washing and Love under the time of Apartheid
                              [Location TBA]
                              In the past decade, Israel has been rebranding itself through progressive discourses on being the only liberal democracy in the Middle East that protects the rights of LGBTQ communities, defying and essentialising the entire Middle East as backwards and a space that is devoid of sexual liberty and progress. In doing so, Israel is engaged in Pink washing it's war crimes and settler colonial practices of daily harassment, discrimination and oppression of Palestinians.
                              As well, Israeli violence has extended to the most private and intimate parts of Palestinian lives through creating laws such as the Citizenship and Entry Law. This law denies and prevents reunification of Palestinian families when one partner holds Israeli citizenship (or Jerusalem residency), and the other is a resident of the occupied Palestinian territories. Israel deprives these families of their civil, political, economic and social rights. Despite these conditions, many Palestinians continue to resist the control over their private lives, and manage to defy the apartheid system by meeting, falling in love, and starting families.
                              Zeina Amro is a member of the campaign Love under the time of Apartheid in Palestine; she will discuss Israel's Citizenship and Entry Law and the resistance to this law that is being undertaken by the Love under the Time of Apartheid Campaign.
                              Natalie Kouri-Towe, a member of Queers against Israeli Apartheid Toronto, will speak about the ways in which Homonationalism and Pink washing are used by Israel as a way to hide its violent, and Zionist discriminatory policies. Natalie will also speak to the work of campaigns that are working in opposition to homonationalism and pink washing.

                              Saturday March 8th 
                              Rethinking the Syrian Golan in the context of Apartheid
                              [Location TBA]
                              The 1967 ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people in the Golan turned 97 percent of the people of the Golan into refugees, which was a continuation of the Nakba colonial process, in which Israel learned not to leave the Indigenous behind but forced their movement out of Palestine.
                              Bashar Tarabieh, a member the Arab Academic Association for Development of the Golan will speak to the history of the 1967 ethnic cleansing in the Golan. Bashar has conducted archival research to show that what happened is indeed ethnic cleansing in Golan, and will provide a historical context of what happened and the ramifications of this in the contemporary moment. As well Bashar can also talk about investments in the Golan and the importance of severing these investments.

                              Saturday March 8th, 7pm: [Location TBA]
                              Cultural Event Evening: 
                              [Location TBA]
                              An evening of performances.

                              Monday March 10th, 7pm 
                              Reaching the Tipping Point? Anti-Normalization and Academic Boycott from South Africa, Palestine to Canada 
                              [Location TBA]
                              As Omar Barghouti of PACBI has recently stated, the growth in support for the boycott of Israeli academic institutions has reached a "tipping point". On April 1st 2011, The University of Johannesburg (UJ) officially announced that it will cut ties with Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. On this day, the BDS campaign witnessed a landmark moment as UJ became the first institution to officially sever relations with an Israeli university. This boycott decision, coming from a South African institution, was of particular significance as it set a precedent, and started a domino boycott effect.
                              As well, as the boycott movement is gaining mainstream attention, academic ties between Canada and Israel are increasing. The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC) recently signed a major collaboration document with its counterparts in Israel that marks an intensification of normalizing ties. This partnership agreement with the Association of University Heads of Israel marks an intensification of normalizing ties with Israeli institutions on Canadian university and college campuses. The intention of this partnership is to coordinate, expand, regularize, and institutionally entrench research, teaching and other ties with Israeli universities.
                              Salim Vally is the director of the Centre for Education Rights and Transformation, and associate professor at the Faculty of Education at the University of Johannesburg. Salim was involved in a campaign that convinced the University of Johannesburg (UJ) to severe its institutional ties from Ben Gurion University. UJ was the first institution to officially sever relations with an Israeli university. Vally was a leading member of the South African Students Movement in 1976/1977 and left the country after its banning by the erstwhile apartheid regime and after severe repression. He returned to South Africa in 1982. From 1985 to 1994 he was the education officer for CCAWUSA (later SACCAWU) and was a founder member of Congress of South African Trade Union (COSATU). Vally was an activist for Palestinian solidarity since the days of apartheid in South Africa and after the first democratic elections in 1994 campaigned for the boycott of Israel and with others founded the Palestine Solidarity Committee. In 2001, he was a leading member of social movements and trade unions that organised the 10 000 strong march at the UN World Conference against Racism (WCAR) which marched behind a banner that read "Zionism is Racism" and pledged to form the second anti-apartheid movement against apartheid Israel. He taught at York University between 2007-2009 and was a member of Coalition against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) and Faculty 4 Palestine. In 2010, together with student organisations, trade unions and academics convinced the University of Johannesburg to break links established during the days of apartheid with Ben Gurion University. Vally was prevented last year by the apartheid authorities in Israeli from delivering a keynote address on education at Bir Zeit University in Occupied Palestine. Salim Vally will speak about the importance of the academic boycott, in particular the academic boycott work that is being done in South Africa.
                              Linda Tabar, is a member of faculty for Palestine. She will speak about the significance of the academic boycott, and will offer insights on perspectives from Palestine.
                              Sue Ferguson, a member from Faculty for Palestine will speak about the ways in which Israel is normalizing its ties with Canadian University and college campuses. She will underscore the importance of the academic boycott, in particular the academic boycott campaign that Faculty for Palestine has recently established and launched in Canada.

                              Tuesday March 11:
                              Displacing the displaced: Addressing Palestinian Refugees in Syria University of Toronto Mississauga, Room TBA 
                              Tah'er al-Shali is a Palestinian Syrian Filmmaker from Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus, Syria. He will talk about the experience of Palestinian-Syrians and the experience of the Yarmouk camp.

                              Specific event details can be found at
                              http://apartheidweek.org/ or facebook.com/IAWToronto
                             
                       
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