African-Americans and
Palestinians have good reason to join their struggles together in solidarity.
Featured Speakers:
Aaron Dixon,
Jesse Hagopian, and
Gerald Lenoir
The people of
Palestine live daily under the longest continual occupation in the world today. From racist apartheid laws that give Palestinians living in
Israel the worst schools, homes, social services, and restrict their free speech, to the settler encroachment on the
West Bank, to the blockade on
Gaza that has turned it into what many commentators have called an open air prison, Palestinians face brutal oppression from the
Israeli government, made possible by funding from the
United States.
The U.S. itself has a long legacy of racism, from slavery to
Jim Crow segregation to mass incarceration today--and a long legacy of
Black Americans resisting that oppression and making connections with Palestinians struggling for justice.
Interfaith Peace Builders is an organization that has long been dedicated to actively promoting civil, political and human rights in Palestine and has recently begun sponsoring African
Heritage Delegations to Palestine.
The African Heritage
Delegation builds upon existing efforts within the African Heritage communities and will strengthen work focusing on
Apartheid in Israel, justice in Palestine, and the growth of boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns nationally. In a
2007 "
Letter to
Black America on
Palestinian Rights" over 40 African-American activists urged:
It is time for our people to once again demand that the silence be broken on the injustices faced by the
Palestinian people resulting from the
Israeli occupation.
The second African Heritage Delegation is currently in Palestine meeting African Palestinians, meeting founders of the
Israeli Black Panther Party, exchanging stories with Palestinian civil society organizations, and trading lessons with activists in the West Bank. The first African Heritage Delegation traveled there in July
2011 (click here to read about that trip).
Join us for a discussion of the intersection of Palestinian and African-American struggles with returning African Heritage Delegation members:
Aaron Dixon:
Aaron Dixon is the founder of the
Seattle chapter of the
Black Panther Party--recently chronicled in his memoir
My People Are
Rising (
Haymarket Books)--and is currently in Palestine as part of the second African Heritage Delegation.
Aaron was the
Green Party candidate for
U.S. Senate in
2006 running on a platform of, "Out of war and into our communities." Aaron currently serves as the executive director of
Central House, a homeless shelter for youth. Aaron will be just back from Palestine to share the lessons of his experience in person.
Gerald Lenoir:
Gerald Lenoir has been a leader in progressive social movements for over 30 years. He is currently the
Director of the Black
Alliance for Just
Immigration (BAJI) and founding member and trip leader of the African Heritage Delegation to Palestine. Lenior is currently a board member of the
National Network for Immigrant and
Refugee Rights and is the former executive director of the Black
Coalition on
AIDS in
San Francisco and co-founder/board chair of the
HIV Education and
Prevention Project of
Alameda County in
Oakland, Calif. He was a member of the editorial board of War
Times, an anti-Iraq War newspaper and a long time leader in the racial justice and anti-apartheid movements in the United States. He has also served as a strategic planning consultant for racial justice, immigrant rights,
HIV/AIDS and health-related organizations, and public health departments.
Jesse Hagopian:
Jesse Hagopian is a public high school teacher in Seattle and a founding member of
Social Equality Educators (SEE). He is a contributing author to the recently published books, Education and
Capitalism: Struggles for
Learning and
Liberation and
101 Changemakers (Haymarket Books). He serves on the
Board of Directors of Maha-Lilo—"Many
Hands,
Light Load"—a
Haiti solidarity organization, and traveled with the African Heritage delegation to Palestine in 2011.
Sponsored by:
SUPER UW (Students
United for Palestinian
Equal Rights),
ASA (African
Student Association) and UW
ISO (
International Socialist Organization)
Please contact us at: superuw@uw.edu for more information, or if you with to sponsor this event.
Visit www.superuw.org for more information
More information about the International Socialist Organization at www.pugetsoundsocialists.org
- published: 12 Nov 2012
- views: 1704