Israeli Apartheid Week at Concordia

**SUNDAY MARCH 1st, 7pm**
Opening panel of Israeli Apartheid Week
APARTHEID IN CANADA: Frontline voices of Indigenous resistance on Turtle Island
a lecture featuring: Elizabeth Penashue, Judy Da Silva and Laith Marouf
Concordia University, Hall Building, Room H-110
1455 de Maisonneuve West, (métro Guy-Concordia)

* Elizabeth (Tshankuesh) Penashue: Innu elder from Nitassinan (Labrador) Elizabeth was born and raised into a traditional hunting and trapping family whose way of life was devastated by the flooding of their lands and the destruction of hunting equipment. Elizabeth has raised awareness and resisted the militarization and appropriation of Innu territory by NATO low-level military flying exercises out of Goose Bay over land that the Innu use for hunting and fishing. She has also opposed the further development of the Churchill River to power mainly settler communities in the south.
* Judy Da Silva: Anishinabekwe from Grassy Narrows, northwestern Ontario Judy is the mother of 5 children, fighting to protect the way of life of the Anishnabe people. She is active in resisting the environmental devastation and destruction of the land, animals and people, by logging and mining companies and the provincial and federal governments. She is currently involved in an environmental contaminants study of three northwestern Ontario Indigenous communities.
* Laith Marouf: Palestinian member of Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR). Laith has visited and worked in solidarity with various First Nations across Turtle Island and has lectured on the similarity of the struggles for self-determination here and in Palestine. For the past decade he has organized with SPHR and currently is the Branches Coordinator at the National Office of the organization.

**Wednesday, March 4th, 2pm**
Apartheid 101 workshop
QPIRG-Concordia, 1500 de Maisonneuve west, #204

This 2-hour workshop for beginners will focus on the systems and concepts of apartheid, and how it relates to Israel/Palestine, South Africa, and Canada.
*For space considerations, all participants must pre-register by emailing iaw-mtl@riseup.net (please include your name and phone number)*
QPIRG-Concordia is a scent-free, wheelchair-accessible space.

**Thursday, March 5th, 3:00-5:00pm**
Feminist Responses to Israeli Apartheid: The legacy of Lillian Robinson
Presented by the Simone de Beauvoir Institute for Women's Studies and the Women's Studies Students Association (WSSA)
Atwater Library, 1200 Atwater ave. (Metro Atwater)
Panelists: Judy Rebick, Dolores Chew, Fabienne Presentey, Rafeef Ziadah

The world watched in sorrow and anger in early 2009 as the Israeli military pounded the Gaza strip, taking hundreds of lives, and turning cities into rubble. In the midst of all of this, a group of 8 Jewish Women in Toronto walked into the Israeli consulate and occupied it, refusing to be passive bystanders to this war. Their slogan was "Jewish women: Not in our name".

Their action, and those of thousands of other women around the world, sheds light on what women are doing to combat militarism, war, and apartheid in Israel and around the world.

At Concordia University, we remember the legacy of Lillian Robinson, the late principal of the Simone de Beauvoir Institute for Women's Studies, and a tireless defendant of social justice. As a Jewish woman, Lillian not only created an academic base for feminist resistance to Israeli injustices, but also actively spoke out in favour of human rights for the Palestinian people. She was one of the founding members of the Jewish Alliance Against the Occupation in Montreal.

This panel discussion will hear from diverse women activists reflecting on their own experiences and historical examples of combating sexism and racism, and look at how we can build a pro-feminist movement to end Israeli apartheid.

* Judy Rebick is the CAW-Sam Gindin Chair in Social Justice and Democracy at Ryerson University in Toronto. Judy was the founding publisher of rabble.ca, Canada’s most popular progressive online publication. She is the author of several books, the most recent of which is Ten Thousand Roses: The Making of a Feminist Revolution. For most the 1990s, Judy was the host of a national TV show onCBC Newsworld. Previously, she was president of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women, Canada’s largest women’s group.
* Dolores Chew is a founding member of the South Asian Womens' Community Center in Montreal, a member of the 8th March Committee of Women of Diverse Origins collective, a teacher at Marianopolis college, a Research Associate at the Simone de Beauvoir Institute and a member of the Board of CERAS (Centre sur l'asie du sud).
* Fabienne Presentey is a sociologist and a former independent journalist living in Montreal. She was one of the founders of the Jewish Alliance Against the Occupation, and currently works with the Independent Jewish Voices and the Québec-Canada Coordination Committee of the Charter of Human Responsabilities.
* Rafeef Ziadah is a third generation Palestinian refugee, a member of the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid and Sumoud, a spoken word artist, and a political science student in Toronto.
*Moderated by Meg Leitold: a Montreal-based organizer and Women's Studies student at the Simone de Beauvoir Institute. Among other projects, she is a member of the Israeli Apartheid Week Committee in Montreal.

**FRIDAY MARCH 6th, 6:30pm**
A mother from Gaza: Surviving Under Seige
A lecture featuring: Laila El-haddad
Concordia University, Hall Building, Room H-937.
1455 Maisonneuve oust (métro Guy-Concordia)

Laila El-Haddad: is a freelance Palestinian journalist, media activist, and mother from Gaza. She writes mainly for the Guardian and Aljazeera. She has also appeared on CNN, the BBC, NPR, CBC, and Democracy Now among others. Laila has been published in Le Monde Diplmatique, the New Statesmen, the International Herald Tribune and the Washington Post among others. From 2003-2006, Laila was the Gaza correspondent for the the English Aljazeera website. In 2007, she directed two Gaza-based documentaries for Al-Jazeera International (Tunnel Trade and A Rafah Playground) with Tourist With A Typewriter production company. Her award-winning blog “Raising Yousuf and Noor: diary of a Palestinian mother explores the complex relationships between the personal and political as she raises kids and negotiates displacement and occupation. Laila is currently based in the United States. http://www.a-mother-from-gaza.blogspot.com/

**MONDAY MARCH 9th, 7PM**
SLING SHOT HIP-HOP : Hip Hop against Apartheid
Film screening co-presented with Cinema Politica
Concordia University, Hall Building, room H-110
1455 de Maisonneuve West, (métro Guy-Concordia)

* Slingshot Hip Hop: braids together the stories of young Palestinians living in Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank as they discover Hip Hop and employ it as a tool to surmount divisions imposed by occupation and poverty. From internal checkpoints and Separation Walls to gender norms and generational differences, this is the story of young people crossing the borders that separate them. http://www.slingshothiphop.org/