The Predicament of Gaza and Palestine:
US/Israeli policies and the role of Academia

Preamble

This turbulent political environment in Israel, Palestine and the region, coupled
with the devastating socio-economic conditions in Gaza, urgently call for better
understanding, cooperation and positive plan of joint action among
Internationals, Palestinians and Israelis. This conference has been designed as
an aid for such an action.

First Day

9:30 Gaza blockade
Eyad el-Sarraj (President of FFIPP, Founder and Director of Gaza Community
Mental Health Program)
Salim Tamari (Institute for Jerusalem Studies, Board Member of FFIPP)
Hashim Shawa (President of the Bank of Palestine)

11:30-12:00 Coffee Break

Kamalin Shaath

Issam Younis (Director of Al Mizan Centre for Human Rights)
Abdel Karim Ashour (Director of Agriculture Relief Committees)
Mona Farra (The Red Crescent Society).

13:30-14:30 Lunch

14:30-15:30 Israeli policy

Eyal Wiezman (University of London)
Saleh Abdel Jawad (Birzeit University)
Menachem Klein (Bar Ilan University)

15:30-17:00 Questions

Second Day

10:00-11:30 Workshops

Saleh Abdel Jawad (Birzeit University)
Islah Jad (Birzeit University)
Kenneth Mann (Tel Aviv University, Gisha)

11:30-12:00 Coffee Break

12:00-13:30 US policy

Richard Falk (Princeton University, UC Santa Barbara)
Mariano Aguirre (Director of the Peace and Conflicts unit at the Spanish
Institute of International Relations)
Eric Rouleau (Former Chief Middle East Correspondent, Le Monde; former
Ambassador to Morocco and Tunisia)

13:30-14:30 Lunch

14:30-15:30 Discussants

Phyllis Bennis (Institute of Policy Studies)
Bassma Kodmani (Director of Arab Reform Initiative; Board Member of
FFIPP)

15:30-17:00 Questions

Logistics

For questions prior to the conference, call: 054-689-7379 or
E-mail: ffipp.conference@gmail.com

Transportation

There would be transportation organized, free transportation from:
Binyanei H'auma
Hotel Notre Dame
Ramallah
Birzeit University
Tel Aviv University

The other side of Israel's birth

By Alice Rothchild, May 14, 2008

Alice Rothchild, a physician, is the author of "Broken Promises, Broken Dreams: Stories of Jewish and Palestinian Trauma and Resilience" and co-chairwoman of Jewish Voice for Peace, Boston. Aricle.

Forget the two-state solution: Israelis and Palestinians must share the land. Equally

By Saree Makdisi, May 11, 2008

Saree Makdisi is a professor of English and comparative literature at UCLA and the author of "Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation," out this month from W.W. Norton. Article.

Women distributed a call to boycott Israeli billionaire and settlement builder Lev Leviev today, May 3, 2008, in front of Leviev's New York City jewelry store in advance of Mother's Day citing Leviev's companies' destruction of the lives of Palestinian mothers.

Report from Adalah-NY. 

Siege and fuel shortage paralyze life in Gaza.

Israel has subjected the Gaza Strip to a series of collective punishment measures, the main of which is imposing strict siege on the movement of people and goods right after June 2007....
The whole Strip today lives in unprecedented tragic situations, where the entire population of the Strip feel that the situation cannot continue to be in this manner for a long period of time. It is anticipated that this great pressure and high levels of tension experienced by citizens will necessarily be translated into a new cycle of violence, affecting the entire region...

Text

Session I: June 1 - July 4
Session II: June 29 - August 1

* An orientation program and an educational tour of Palestine/Israel that include visits and meetings in Jaffa, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Bilin, Ramallah, Tel-Aviv, Kibbutz Lohamei HaGetaot, al-Ghabisiyya (destroyed 1948 village), Nazareth, Dheisheh refugee camp and settlements around Jerusalem.
* One month of working as a volunteer in a grassroots organization, a research organization, or human rights organization in the occupied Palestinian territories, Israel or Jordan.
* Meetings with Palestinian and Israeli student activists for peace and justice.

A group of 4-6 interns will do the internship in Jordan after
completing the orientation program in Palestine/Israel. Please indicate
in your application if you are interested to do the internship in
Jordan.

Sorry, application process for Summer 2008 is completed.

For University/College student ONLY.

1) Apply on line or download an application. Pay $10.00 application fee by check, paid to ffipp-usa, P.O.Box 2091, Amherst MA 01004 or via the Donate button.

2) Email us your resume to info@ffipp.org

3) Each applicant must forward a recommendation form to the three references (at least two must be faculty) along with a stamped envelope addressed to FFIPP-USA. The letters may also be sent directly by email to info@ffipp.org or by FAX to 413-256-3536.

FFIPP will not be able to accept an applicant without receiving three letters of recommendation.

Recommendation form

4) Sign and send the Internship agreement

More Information

Summer 2007 interns visited the Ibdaa center at Dheisheh Refugee Camp and the fence in Bilin. (photos by Ann-Lise)

For faculty, educators and peace activists.
Tour will include visits and meetings in Jaffa, Jerusalem, Bethlehem,
Bilin, Ramallah, Tel-Aviv, Kibbutz Lohamei HaGetaot, al-Ghabisiyya
(destroyed 1948 village), Nazareth, Dheisheh refugee camp and
settlements around Jerusalem.

More Information.

Arab-American University under siege

Jenin / PNN – For going on 18 hours now, Israeli forces have besieged the Arab – American University near Jenin City. Students are appealing for help.
Via telephone, Student Council Member, Murad Abu Rabb is asking that humanitarian and media institutions intervene to lift the siege. "The presence in such density on the campus and neighboring area is unprecedented. Helicopters are circling overhead and they are launching flare bombs."
Israeli forces have arrested at least 30 students, while 10 others students and staff are still unable to leave the besieged student housing buildings. "We expect them to break down the doors at any moment."

All roads in the area are closed, while hundreds of residents, students and staff re unable to move. Director of Public Relations for the University, Jamal Sana, said that the siege on his building began "abruptly at 3:00 am."
Israeli forces "set up barriers and aircraft began flying low and soldiers were jumping out. Dozens of soldiers are in the neighboring mountains. All faculty, students and staff are forbidden to move. They have spread themselves throughout every corner of campus."
A brother and sister were in the roads nearby and instead of passing home were held for hours under interrogation, reported their father Khalid Kamil.
In an adjacent village Israeli soldiers used dogs and explosives inside homes, forcing several families outside. They were also blowing up water wells, as reported by eyewitnesses.
Journalists were unable to get close, while one photographer was severely beaten. All were threatened with arrest and beatings if they did not leave, including from Reuters and Al Jazeera.

The FFIPP community remembers the peace heroine Rachel Corrie.

To learn about Rachel Corrie, visit the web site Rachel's Words or purchase the book " Let me stand alone" which is the complete journals of Rachel Corrie.

Joint Israeli-Palestinian call for ceasefire.

Due to the severe escalation in and around the Gaza Strip, Israelis and Palestinians started an emergency initiative of collecting signatures on a joint petition calling for a ceasefire and end to the bloodshed, as well as an end to the siege on Gaza. The Israeli Coalition Against the Siege, and the Gaza-based Campaign 'End the Siege', which jointly organised the supply convoy last month, are mobilizing to promote this petition.
Sign the petition.

FFIPP-Israel participated in an
Israeli-Palestinian countrywide relief convoy and a demonstration in
solidarity on the Gaza border with a parallel Palestinian demonstration
in the Strip. Press release.

RELIEF SUPPLIES HAVE BROKEN THE BLOCKADE
  

"We recognize January's march to Erez as a turning point and a new start
which we all must embrace to rebuild trust in peace and in peace camps"

Dr. Eyad Sarraj, president of FFIPP-International, in Open letter from
'Palestinian International Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza'. See letter.

From Gush Shalom website. 

Democracy Now, New York City
MIFTAH, Jerusalem and Ramallah
Alternative Information Center, Jerusalem
Bilin News, Bilin

See An-Najah National University Web Site

See Birzeit University Web Site

Thirty students from seven countries - France, Italy, Germany, Holland, China, Canada and the US - participated in the Summer 2007 program. They come from universities such as Colby College, Columbia University, University of Bordeaux, Sorbonne University, University of Michigan, Swathmore College, Yeshiva University, Emory University, Smith College, Harvard University, Earlham College, Umass Amherst, University Pennsylvania, Portland State University, Princeton University, and University of Arizona.

Photos: Interns visited the remains of the 48 village Saffuriyya and the city of Nazareth (photos by Ann-Lise)

Each student participates in a weeklong orientation program before being placed in an organization to do internship. The orientation program includes visits and meetings in Jaffa, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Bilin, Ramallah, Tel-Aviv and Nazareth. During the orientation week the students stay at the guesthouse of the Ibdaa Cultural Center in Dheisheh refugee camp. Students did internship and volunteer work in following organizations: Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem in Bethlehem, Rabbis for Human Rights in Jerusalem, Freedom Theatre in Jenin, Israeli Committee Against House Demolition, Project Hope in Nablus, Ibdaa Cultural Center in Dheisheh refugee camp, Kyan a feminist organization for Israeli Palestinian women in Haifa, Arab American University in Jenin, Alternative information Center in Jerusalem, Palestinian Farmers union in Ramallah, and summer camp in Shaknin, Israel.

Summer interns visited the historical exhibition Act of State 1967-2007 at Minshar Art Gallery in Tel Aviv. Information and photos.

Photos: Interns working at the Freedom Theatre in Jenin,
Summer 2007 interns Suhad and Dorit

PHOTO: Mairead Maguire, a Nobel Peace Prize winner from Northern Ireland, was shot with a rubber-coated steel bullet by Israeli Occupation Forces in Bil'in on April 20, 2007, (www.palsolidarity.org). Democracy Now Interview of Mairead Maguire

The Palestinian-International Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza. Information. Fate of about 3,000 Students Threatened by the Closure of the Gaza Strip. Information.