*Thursday May 23* Forum and Discussion: War and Resistance in Palestine
Forum and Discussion: War and Resistance in Palestine
Thursday May 23, 2024 6:30 PM
Olympia Center, 222 Columbia St NW, Room A, Olympia, WA
This forum features two accomplished speakers, Zarefah Baroud and Steve Niva. Zarefah Baroud, is a Palestinian-American who is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Exeter’s European Centre for Palestine Studies. Baroud received her Master’s degree in Policy Studies from the University of Washington, where she researched American aid programs to the Israeli military. She will talk about the past and present ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from historic Palestine, including the experience of her family in Gaza today.
Steve Niva is a faculty member at the Evergreen State College, whose specialty is the Middle East. His talk, “Imperial Interests and the Ongoing Nakba: Behind the U.S. Embrace of Israel's War on Gaza”, will focus on what's behind the US embrace of Israel and this genocidal war on Gaza. He will contextualize it to help us understand the longer history of imperialism and support for Israel's colonization of Palestine.
The scale of human catastrophe in Palestine increases every day. Israeli forces have killed over 35,000 Palestinians and injured more than 83,000 since October 2023. 10,000 people are missing. Most homes, schools and hospitals have been destroyed. Despite this horrific reality, the U.S. continues sending billions of dollars in aid to Israel.
Mass protests in the U.S., including a growing wave of university campus occupations, are an important part of the effort to stop military aid to Israel and support a permanent cease fire. Global support for Palestinian resistance against the occupation is at an all-time high.
During the 1948 Nakba (‘catastrophe’ in Arabic), 750,000 Palestinians were displaced, with 78% of historic Palestine seized during the establishment of Israeli statehood. To further understand the ongoing ethnic cleansing, we must examine how we got from the Nakba to this current point in time. This will be a major part of this forum.
The Israeli attacks on Rafah are intensifying. More than 600,000 Palestinians have been forced to flee since May 6 th with nowhere to go that is safe. Most had recently been forced to move there from other parts of Gaza because of this Israeli war.
Israel’s war on Palestine also raises the likelihood of the conflict extending to the rest of the Middle East. For a just resolution, the Nakba that began 76 years ago must end.
Join Palestine Action of the South Sound (PASS), Economics for Everyone and Rachel Corrie Foundation for a discussion on the historical context and future implications of resistance in Gaza and the alliance between Israel and the United States.
