UPCOMING EVENT FOR PALESTINE: Norman Finkelstein Visits YorkU- How to solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict
Date: Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Time: 4:00pm until 7:00pm
Where: Founders Assembly Hall
Description:
Dear Friends and Family,
Join us as MESA and CJPME once again hosts Dr. Norman Finkelstein for a lecture focused on practical approaches to resolving the Israel-Palestine Conflict.
Admission:
10 dollars for york students
15 for non york
Doors will open at 3:45 pm
For those of you who don’t know who Dr. Finkelstein is, here’s his bio:
Norman Gary Finkelstein is a political scientist, author, and pundit on the Middle East. His primary field of research is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He is a graduate of Binghamton University and received his Ph.D in Political Science from Princeton University. He has held faculty positions at Brooklyn College, Rutgers University, Hunter College, New York University, and, most recently, DePaul University, where he was an assistant professor from 2001 to 2007. At present, he devotes all his time to his writing. He has published a number of books.
Join us as MESA and CJPME once again hosts Dr. Norman Finkelstein for a lecture focused on practical approaches to resolving the Israel-Palestine Conflict.
Admission:
10 dollars for york students
15 for non york
Doors will open at 3:45 pm
For those of you who don’t know who Dr. Finkelstein is, here’s his bio:
Norman Gary Finkelstein is a political scientist, author, and pundit on the Middle East. His primary field of research is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He is a graduate of Binghamton University and received his Ph.D in Political Science from Princeton University. He has held faculty positions at Brooklyn College, Rutgers University, Hunter College, New York University, and, most recently, DePaul University, where he was an assistant professor from 2001 to 2007. At present, he devotes all his time to his writing. He has published a number of books.
(Source: facebook.com)
![reverenceblog:
Photography by John P. Santos
“The future of two people is one future,” Amira Hass speaks about the Israel/Palestine conflict
“Why [are] Israeli soldiers sent to demolish cisterns, which collect rainwater, in south of the West Bank?” asked Amira Hass at a talk held at the University of Toronto’s McCleod Auditorium. She stood at the podium surrounded by an air of fatigue like a woman who has withstood harsh oppositional winds with unyielding conviction. “They do it and they claim that the cisterns are not legal. The use of water should be limited. What does the demolishing of these cisterns have to do with security? The war against terror? I don’t understand,” Hass conceeds.
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Hass, a Ramallah-based Jewish Israeli journalist for Haaretz newspaper, has been covering the occupied regions of Gaza and West Bank since 1993. Her presentation, organized by Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME), moved rather slowly and was sometimes difficult to follow. She began by acknowledging that many of the attendees had prior knowledge of the oppression faced by Palestinians, but kept the talk to a general overview for the unconverted.
Left-winger Hass has documented the injustices faced by civilian Palestinians in Gaza and West Bank under Israeli occupation. Identifying with the Palestinians, Hass refuses to keep silent about their dispossession and seeks to hold Israeli policies and soldiers accountable within Palestinian territories.
“Israelis have shown, consistently, that they refuse to listen to words of reason. [People have told them that] this occupation is immoral and unhuman, that it is not sustainable, that it is dangerous. In the country, we feel that in the past 20 years the Israeli are much more entrenched in their superiority and colonialist attitude against the Palestinians.”
In addition to restrictions on the flow of water throughout Palestinian regions, Hass has focused on freedom of movement (or lack thereof). Frustrated with the restrictions on movement imposed by Israeli policies on Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, she resists the double standard. In this case, the unequal treatment manifests as Israelis are free to roam and travel, whereas Palestinians require permits, must cross checkpoints, drive along designated roads, and can be refused entry.The volatile situation in the region, and the blatant double standard Hass says, “is not condusive to trust and peace relations.”
In order to explain how Palestinians found themselves in this position, under the control of Israeli policies, Hass uses an analogy. ”When you throw a frog into a pot full of boiling water, the frog will know how to jump and save itself. But when you put the frog in luke warm water and slowly, slowly raise the temperature of the water it will miss the point when it is too late - it will not jump, it will not save itself.”
This quick tale is meant to represent the colonization, beginning in the 1800s by European Zionists, the UN’s ill distrubution of land in 1947, the war of 1947-49 in which Israel captured 78% of Palestine, which led to the “Intifada” uprising in 2000 and the current control and destabilization of Palestinian territories. As Israeli military forces established themselves in Palestinian areas, the balance of power was greatly teetering to one side. The situation has become dangerous and progress stagnated.
The talk was relatively well-received, however, it did not provide a comprehensive analysis of the conflict, nor did it provide a reasonable alternative view. However, the topic is a highly convoluted one, with several points of view among Palestinians themselves and several issues with intricate historical roots. Speaking with the rights of civilians in mind, Hass tried to show the diminishing Palestinian quality of life and held inaction (locally and globally) as the culprit for their present state.
She concluded by saying a one-state solution (consolidating the Israel, West Bank and Gaza strip territories to create one state) is the way for Palestinians to gain equal rights, liberation and peace.
With Reverence,
C.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lsr9wb3FO71r1k8hfo1_500.jpg)
CJPME is delighted to announce that it is co-hosting a 11-city speaking tour with award-winning Israeli human rights journalist Amira Hass from Sept. 27 through Oct. 8. 
Tuesday, September, 27, 2011, 7:30 p.m.Location (map below): Bob Wright Centre, Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Room B150, University of Victoria, 3800 Finnerty Road, Victoria, BC, V8P 5C2. All Victoria details on 
Wednesday, September 28, 2011, 7:30 p.m.Location: HEBB Theatre, University of British Columbia, 2045 East Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z1. All Vancouver details on 
Friday, September 30, 2011, 7:30 p.m.Location: Room 4M31, Manitoba Hall, University of Winnipeg, 515 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg, MB, R3B 2E9. All Winnipeg details on 
Saturday, October 01, 2011, 7:30 p.m.Location (map below): Neatby-Timlin Lecture Theatre, Arts Building (second floor), 9 Campus Drive, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 5A5. All Saskatoon details on 
Tuesday, October 04, 2011, 7:30 p.m.Location (map below): Wolf Perfomance Hall, London Public Library, 251 Dundas Street, London, ON, N6A 6H9. All London details on 
DOWNTOWN. Wednesday, October 05, 2011, 7:30 p.m.Location (map below): McLeod Auditorium, Medical Sciences Building, 1 Kings College Circle, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, M5S 1A8. All Toronto (downtown) details on 
NEW DATE: Thursday, October 06, 2011, 7:30 p.m.Location: TBA. Please watch 
Friday, October 07, 2011, 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011, 7:30 p.m.Location (map below): McNally Auditorium, Saint Mary’s University, 923 Robie Street, Halifax, NS, B3H 3C3. All Halifax details on 
