Unfortunately, events on the ground in Israel and Palestine have made Students for Justice in Palestine's second annual Palestine Awareness Week (PAW) as timely as ever. The recent Israeli assassination of Ahmed Yassin, spiritual leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, has left many analysts fearing that the conflict may soon reach terrifying new levels of violence. Just this week, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the U.N. body established to care for Palestinian refugees, announced that ever-increasing Israeli restrictions on the movement of refugee personnel have forced it to suspend delivery of food aid to approximately 600,000 needy Palestinians in Gaza, an action which is bound to increase levels of malnutrition that are already on par with those of some sub-Saharan African countries.
These are just a few of the reasons why we're putting on another PAW. From today through Thursday, we hope to raise awareness of the plight of the Palestinian people and the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict, as well as the U.S. role in it. We will focus on illustrating the social, political, cultural, and economic elements of the Palestinian experience. We will have guest lectures, presentations and documentary films from 11:30 a.m. until 10:30 p.m. Speakers will include Dr. Hussein Ibish of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee; Dr. Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies; Dr. Norman Finkelstein of DePaul University; and Dr. Michael Fischbach of Randolph-Macon College, among others. We'll also have cultural events, including poetry, dance and music, as well as lots of free, authentic Arab food.
So if you want to learn how this all started, if you're curious about hearing Palestinian voices which are often absent in the U.S. media, if you need information for a paper you're writing, or even if you just want some free food, this is your chance. Our tent will be up on the Quad all week. We'll have lots of informational material, from news articles to human rights reports, and we'll do our best to answer any questions you might have. Check us out.
Nathan Stock is a first year M.A. student in the School of International Service and an officer in Students for Justice in Palestine. For more information about PAW, email SJPAU@maktoob.com, call 202 669 8188, or visit http://www.dcpalestine.org.
