Halifax 2009

BACKGROUND
Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is taking place in more than 40 cities
across the globe (the number of cities is growing daily). This year,
IAW happens in the wake of Israel's barbaric assault on the people of
Gaza, and in Halifax, will in fact continue throughout the month of
March with a series actions, workshops, and film screening, while
continuing to build and strengthen the growing Boycott, Divestment,
and Sanctions (BDS) movement at a global level.

EVENTS

Sunday, March 8: Halifax Women for Palestine Speak Up: International Women's Day

Thursday, March 12: Film Screening "The Iron Wall", St. Mary's University, Sobey's Building, Room SB260, 7-9 PM

In 1923 Vladimir Jabotinsky, leading intellectual of the Zionist movement and father of the right wing of that movement, wrote:

"Zionist colonization must either stop, or else proceed regardless of the native population. Which means that it can proceed and develop only under the protection of a power that is independent of the native population - behind an IRON WALL, which the native population cannot breach."

From that day these words became the official and unspoken policy of the Zionist movement and later the state of Israel. Settlements were used from the beginning to create a Zionist foothold in Palestine.

Mohammed Alatar's 2006 film goes to the historical root of the conflict by exploring Jewish settlements throughout Occupied Palestine, and their aims of creating facts on the ground and making the creation of a Palestinian state impossible. There are now more than 200 settlements and outposts scattered throughout the West Bank blocking the geographic possibility of a contiguous Palestinian territory. The Iron Wall documentary exposes this phenomenon and follows the timeline, size, population of the settlements, and its impact on the peace process. This film also touches on the latest project to make the settlements a permanent fact on the ground - the wall that Israel is building in the West Bank and its impact on the Palestinian's peoples.

Settlements and related infrastructures are impacting every aspect of life for all Palestinians from land confiscation, theft of natural resources, confiscation of the basic human rights, creation of an apartheid-like system, to the devastating impact in regards to the future of the region and the prospect of the peace process. Palestinians and Israelis began the peace process based on a very simple principle: land for peace. Settlements destroy that principle and create a land with no peace.

Thursday, March 19: Film Screening: Checkpoint, St. Mary's University, Sobey's Building, Room SB260, 7-9 PM

The West Bank and Gaza Strip have been under Israeli Military authority since 1967, with over three million Palestinians living under Israeli occupation. When traveling from one village or city to another to go to work, to visit relatives, or to get medical treatment, they must pass through Israeli checkpoints. These checkpoints, essentially the first points of contact between the two people, have an enormous significance in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Wednesday, March 25: Media Analysis Workshop: Debunking the Media's Normalizing of Apartheid

Thursday, March 26: Artists Against Apartheid: Film Screening: Arna'a Children, St. Mary's University, Sobey's Building, Room SB260, 7-9 PM

Shot over a period of ten years from 1992 to 2002 by Arna's son Juliano Mer Khamis, the film follows first Arna Mer-Khamis, a Palestinian Jewish woman, a legendary activist for the rights of the Palestinian people. During the First Intifada she helped establish a children's theatre group in Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank, teaching children, including Zakaria Zubeidi, to express themselves through acting. Her son Juliano, a well-known actor in Israeli television and the director for the group, filmed Arna working with the children over a 6-year period. Following Arna's death, he returns to the camp to find out what became of the young refugees.

Israeli Apartheid Month Halifax is endorsed by:
Palestine Solidarity Society
NSPIRG
Student Coalition Against War
Canada Palestine Association

To ENDORSE Israeli Apartheid Month in Halifax, to make
a DONATION or GET INVOLVED with the
organizing please email info@freepalestine.ca