Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is an annual international series of events held in cities and campuses across the globe. The aim of IAW is to educate people about the nature of Israel as an apartheid system and to build Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns as part of a growing global BDS movement.
Last year, Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) took place in more than 40 cities across the globe. IAW 2009 happened in the wake of Israel’s barbaric assault on the people of Gaza. Lectures, films, and actions made the point that these latest massacres further confirm the true nature of Israeli Apartheid.
Join us in making 2010 a year of struggle against apartheid and for justice, equality, and peace.
Schedule of Events
Click here to download a summarized schedule of events.
Monday, March 1st
Apartheid 101
10:00 AM – 1:00 PM
Wilfred Laurier University (WLU) Concourse
SFPR and Laurier for Palestine (L4P) will be displaying bristol boards at the WLU concourse area outlining the nature of Israel’s apartheid system. Members will walk you through the information and address your questions. Debate is highly encouraged.
March Against Apartheid
1:30 PM – 3:00 PM
Stand up against Israeli Apartheid by joining SFPR and L4P as they march from UW to WLU. We will gather in front of UW’s Dana Porter (DP) library at 1:30 PM, leave to WLU at 2:00 PM, and conclude our march at 2:30 PM at the WLU concourse.
Tuesday, March 2nd
The Road to Gaza
10:00 AM – 4:00 PM
UW Student Life Center (SLC), Great Hall
SFPR and Laurier for Palestine (L4P) will be holding an information booth about the Gaza Strip at UW’s SLC great hall. Bristol boards outlining UN and Amnesty International findings will be displayed, along with a photo gallery and gallery of political cartoons.
Promises and Betrayals: Britain and the Struggle for the Holy Land
1:30 PM – 3:00 PM
UW Student Life Center (SLC), Great Hall
SFPR and L4P will be playing the documentary “Promises and Betrayals: Britain and the Struggle for the Holy Land”, followed by a 30 minute discussion.
This film recounts the complicated history that led to the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. In the words of the former British Ambassador to Egypt, it is a story of intrigue among rival empires and of misguided strategies. It is often claimed that the crisis originated with Jewish emigration to Palestine and the foundation of the State of Israel. Yet the roots of the conflict are to be found earlier.
In 1915, when the Allies were besieged on the Western front, the British wanted to create a second front against Germany, Italy and the Ottoman Empire. Turkish nationalism had spread to the rest of the Ottoman Empire and the British exploited this feeling. They promised Arab groups their own independent states, including Palestine. Secretly, the Allies planned to carve up the Ottoman Empire: France would get “Greater Syria;” Britain would get Iraq for its oil and ports, and Haifa, to distribute the oil; Palestine would be an international zone; Russia would get Constantinople.
The next British government under Lloyd George believed that “worldwide Jewry” was a powerful force, and that the Jews in the new Bolshevik government could prevent the Russian army from deserting the Allied side. This mistaken strategy, along with other factors including the persuasiveness of Chaim Weitzman, led to the Balfour Declaration in 1917, which endorsed a national home for the Jews in Palestine. At the same time, the Arab leader Shariff Hussein was promised that Palestine would be part of a new Arab state. This contradiction has contributed to the ongoing struggle for control in the Holy Land.
The Struggle for Palestinian Rights and the Boycott against Israeli Apartheid
What are its origins? What are its goals?
J.R Courts Engineering Lecture Hall (RCH), Room 307
University of Waterloo
6:00 – 8:00 PM
In 50 cities around the world, people are meeting March 1-7 to discuss the tragic situation of the Palestinians and the call for an end to apartheid in the historical land of Palestine. They discuss the conditions that have led to a call for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israeli apartheid, the measures that can resolve the conflict, and the need for full and unrestricted discussion of these historic issues.
Speakers:
Suzanne Weiss: Holocaust survivor and lifelong human rights advocate. Member of Not In Our Name: (NION) Jewish Voices Opposing Zionism and the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA).
Kiraz Janicke: An internationally prominent analyst of the process of social change in Venezuela. Based in Caracas, she is a staff writer for Venezuelanalysis.com, an independent news service that provides the best-known and most authoritative examinations of political, social and economic developments in Venezuela under the Hugo Chavez presidency. She has written often on labor issues, the role of the media, the role of women in the Bolivarian process, and Venezuela’s foreign relations. She is well versed on international relations of Latin American states and their interaction with the world at large.
Wednesday, March 3rd
Apartheid 101
10:00 AM – 4:00 PM
UW Student Life Center (SLC), Great Hall
SFPR and Laurier for Palestine (L4P) will be displaying bristol boards at UW’s SLC great hall outlining the nature of Israel’s apartheid system. Members will walk you through the information and address your questions. Debate is highly encouraged.
Deconstructing Apartheid: A Journey through the West Bank
A Lecture by Hannah Carter
Multipurpose Room (MPR) at the Student Life Center (SLC)
University of Waterloo, Waterloo ON
6:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Hannah Carter, a noted photographer, humanitarian, and Waterloo local, speaks about her experiences traveling through Palestine’s West Bank.
Thursday, March 4th
The Road to Gaza
10:00 AM – 4:00 PM
UW Student Life Center (SLC), Great Hall
SFPR and Laurier for Palestine (L4P) will be holding an information booth about the Gaza Strip at UW’s SLC great hall. Bristol boards outlining UN and Amnesty International findings will be displayed, along with a photo gallery and gallery of political cartoons.
To See if I’m Smiling
6:00 – 7:30 PM
UW, Math and Computer Building (MC), Room 4021
SFPR and L4P will be playing the documentary “To See if I’m Smiling“, followed by a 30 minute discussion.
Israel is the only country in the world where there is compulsory army service for women. While this singularity is common place, we rarely hear about the experiences of Israeli women soldiers and how this experience has influenced their lives. When these stories specifically focus on women’s military service in Gaza and the West Bank, it is pioneering stuff.
In Tamar Yarom’s award winning documentary six Israeli women share their experiences as soldiers in the occupied territories during the bloody period since the first Palestinian uprising.
With impressive candor they talk about what they saw and what they did; the way they tried to make sense of this ‘other world’ and, how they tried to reconcile their experiences with the self they were familiar with, stripped of army uniform.
“To See if I’m Smiling” powerfully explores the way gender, ethics, power and moral responsibility interact in times of war. Its rare tapestry of women’s testimonies leaves us to ponder some of the most burning questions of our times.
Saturday, March 6th
Canada and Israel: Building Apartheid
A lecture by Yves Engler
7:00 PM – 10:00 PM
KWCCSJ – Kitchener Waterloo Community Centre for Social Justice
63 Courtland, Kitchener, ON
Former Vice President of the Concordia Student Union, Yves Engler is a Montréal activist and author. He has published three books: The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy; Playing Left Wing: From Rink Rat to Student Radical; and (with Anthony Fenton) Canada in Haiti: Waging War on The Poor Majority.
Engler’s book, “Canada and Israel”, is the first critical primer about Canada’s ties to Israel. It is a devastating account of Canadian complicity in 20th and 21st century colonialism, dispossession and war crimes. The book documents the history of Canadian Christian Zionism, Lester Pearson’s important role in the United Nations negotiations to create a Jewish state on Palestinian land, the millions of dollars in tax-deductable donations used to expand Israeli settlements in the West Bank and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service ties to Israel’s Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations (Mossad).
Students For Palestinian Rights 