Fida Jiryis, a Palestinian born and raised outside of Palestine now living in Ramallah, discusses the experience of returning from exile to live inside Israel's borders, the differences between writing in English and Arabic, and why she chose to write a women's fiction book with a Canadian non-Palestinian protagonist.
Fida is one of the contributors to the best-selling new book, Kingdom of Olives and Ash: Writers Confront the Occupation, a partnership between the Israeli project Breaking the Silence and U.S.-based authors Ayelet Waldman and Michael Chabon.
Kate Raphael is a San Francisco Bay Area writer, activist, journalist, and clerical worker. She spent eighteen months as a peace worker in Palestine and spent six weeks in Israeli immigration prison because of her activism. She has won a residency at Hedgebrook writer’s colony and was once elected grand marshal of the San Francisco LGBT Freedom Day Parade.
You can find the book at many local bookstores, including Diesel and Laurel in Oakland, Books Inc. (Castro and Opera Plaza), Borderlands, Dog Eared, Modern Times, and Book Passage in San Francisco. Friends have found it at feminist bookstores in Atlanta and Tuscon, so it well might be at one in your city. You can also buy the print or ebook through any online retailer: Indiebound, Amazon, Powell’s, Barnes & Noble.
Nadera Shalhoub Kevorkian and the Jerusalemite Women's Coalition
From Jerusalem, we speak with Nadera Shalhoub Kevorkian, professor of criminology at the Hebrew University, and a member of the Jerusalemite Women’s Coalition. The coalition issued a call for protection to the international community last week.
" WE ARE CALLING FOR PROTECTION AND URGENT ACTIONS TO PREVENT FURTHER AGONIES, UPROOTING, DEMONIZATION, AND SUFFERING."
A Palestinian woman and child pass through an Israeli checkpoint in
Issawiyeh, a neighborhood in Jerusalem, on 15 October.
(Oren Ziv / ActiveStills) electronicintifada
"We, the women of occupied East Jerusalem, are politically orphaned. We are victims without protection, as the Palestinian Authority has no right to protect us in our city, and the Israeli state treats us as terrorists that should be humiliated, attacked, violated, and controlled. The guerrilla state style tactics used in occupied East Jerusalem, be it the attacks on Palestinians in the streets, the beating of the young and old, the attacks on children going to and from school, the invasion of violent settlers to our neighborhoods and homes, the control of our life, water, cell phones, internet, mobility, health, economy, and accessibility to other resources, have situated us in human cages—segregated, restrained by Israeli laws and security theology, unable to know what to anticipate and what will come next." From the Jerusalemite Women's Coalition Call for Protection.
Rabab Abdulhadi and the Commemoration of the Edward Said Palestine Cultural Mural
"You can't be for justice somewhere and not be for justice everywhere."
"...part of the college education is learning how are you going to be part of a better world, part of a better community..."
Rabab Abdulhadi, professor of Ethnic Studies and Race and Resistance Studies at San Francisco State University talks about the commemoration of the Edward Said Palestine Cultural Mural, the only one of its kind on a U.S. college campus. The mural was held up for several years due to fierce opposition from Zionist organizations and campus administrators, but was unveiled in November 2007.
The annual commemoration celebration and banquet on Wednesday, November 5th, 6 to 9 PM will feature a performance of the one-woman show, “Palestine,” by Najla Said, daughter of Edward Said. The event will be held at Jack Adams Hall, 1600 Holloway Ave, San Francisco.
Event: SCREENING: A New Color: The Art of Being Edythe Boone Wednesday, November 4, 7-9 PM Impact Hub Oakland 2323 Broadway, Oakland, CA Director Mo Morris and Artist Edythe Boone along with Muralists Miranda Bergman and Cece Carpio will be engaging dialogue around art and activism following the film screening. Doors open at 6:30 pm Learn more at anewcolordocumentary.com Editor: Maureen Gosling Executive Producer: Jed Riffe
Journalist and author Nora Barrows-Friedman talks about her new book IN OUR POWER: Students Organize for Justice in Palestine, which compiles interviews with 70 young activists from 30 universities around the country who are finding their collective strength. Nora Barrows-Friedman discusses the meteoric rise of the national campus organization, Students for Justice in Palestine, its successes and challenges, and its relationship to other movements including feminist and queer movements on campus.
Nora Barrows-Friedman is a journalist, staff editor at The Electronic Intifada and the author of In Our Power: US Students Organize for Justice in Palestine. She has also contributed to Al-Jazeera English, Inter Press Service, Truthout.org, Left Turn magazine, and various other international media outlets. From 2003-2010, she was the Senior Producer and co-host of Flashpoints, an award-winning investigative newsmagazine operating out of KPFA/Pacifica Radio in Berkeley, California. Nora has been regularly reporting from Palestine since 2004.
In the years following Israel’s 2008–9 “Operation Cast Lead” assault on the Palestinians of Gaza, a new kind of student movement emerged on US campuses, in support of the idea that Palestinians should gain the full exercise of their human and political rights within their historic homeland. This new movement of students for justice in Palestine has helped to put “BDS,” the worldwide campaign supporting the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions of Israel until it abides by international law, firmly onto the national map.
In 2013 and early 2014, journalist Nora Barrows-Friedman crisscrossed the United States interviewing the young activists who form the core of this movement, and their voices ring out strongly from every page of her new book. In Our Power reveals the rich political legacy these students are building. This new student movement in support of Palestinian rights faces many challenges from on and off-campus opponents. But the strength and intelligence of the voices revealed in the pages of In Our Power show us that truth, justice, and “people power” are capable of withstanding such attacks and continuing forward to victory.
This Monday we look at an issue that affects us all; how internalize oppression prevents us from healing and keeps us from being the best activists we can be. In her new book "Hope Into Practice : Jewish Women Choosing Justice Despite Our Fears," activist, author and teacher Penny Rosenwasser shows how working through internalized oppression, we can link personal healing with social justice—enabling us to fight more effectively to change systems that are immoral and unfair.
Penny Rosenwasser takes on the most explosive issues today—racism and anti-Semitism, victimization and privilege, and Jewish politics around Israel and Palestine and makes the crucial point that Jewish liberation is interconnected with the liberation of all oppressed people, whether they are African-American, undocumented immigrants, queer or transgender, homeless, or Palestinian. Join us on KPFA's women's Magazine on Monday October 6th from 1-2pm as we talk with Penny Rosenwasser and find hope thru practice.
We'll be offering Hope into Practice as a thank you gift for your pledge to KPFA during this hour. I hope many of you will donate to show your support for feminist programming and progressive, community-controlled radio. But whether you can give or not, please don't miss this hour of great conversation and stirring footage.
Colonel Ann Wright, who left her three-decades career in the military in protest against the Iraq War, is heading to Gaza to support women in the beleaguered Strip, demanding an end to the Israeli siege and the right to live in peace. Ann and the other members of Code Pink's International Women's Day delegation will also check in on Gaza's Ark, an audacious project to enable Palestinians to export their products to the world.
Ann Wright recently returned from the Syrian peace conference in Geneva, where she supported a coalition of Syrian women demanding a seat at the table.
Update: Code Pink founder Medea Benjamin, who was also planning to join the delegation to Gaza, was denied entry to Egypt and detained overnight before being deported to Turkey. According to Benjamin, Egyptian police stomped on her back and broke her arm before dragging her onto a plane.
Groundbreaking Conference in Haifa for Nuclear Free Zone in Israel:
"Enough is enough!" It's time to examine Israel's policy of not admitting they have nuclear weapons; that the existence of nuclear weapons is not an asset but a danger to the area and to Israelis.
Daniel Ellsberg, WSLF Executive Director Jacqueline Cabasso, Rose Aguilar, Dennis Kucinich.Photo by James Lerager
Kate Raphael speaks with Jackie Cabasso, Executive Director of Western States Legal Foundation, about the groundbreaking conference held in Haifa, Israel last month breaking the taboo on discussing Israel's nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. The Haifa conference was organized by a preparatory committee including former members of the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) and dedicated Israeli anti-nuclear and human rights activists from around the world.
Jackie talks about the history of efforts to make the Middle East a zone free of nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction, as over 137 countries around the world are. "You certainly don't have to be an expert to know that nuclear weapons are a really bad thing," says Jackie Cabasso. 21:27 min.
Sexual violence from a historical, economic, cultural, and political perspective.
President Obama has convened a task force to address the epidemic of rape on campus. In this segment Lisa Dettmer talks with Estelle Freedman, professor of history and feminist studies at Stanford, about the history of U.S. definitions and understandings of rape and sexual violence. Freedman is the author of REDEFINING RAPE: Sexual Violence in the Age of Suffrage and Segregation.
Harvard University Press says about Estelle Freedman's book: Rape has never had a universally accepted definition, and the uproar over “legitimate rape” during the 2012 U.S. elections confirms that it remains a word in flux. Redefining Rape tells the story of the forces that have shaped the meaning of sexual violence in the United States, through the experiences of accusers, assailants, and advocates for change. In this ambitious new history, Estelle Freedman demonstrates that our definition of rape has depended heavily on dynamics of political power and social privilege. 29:28 min.
Activist, author and teacher Penny Rosenwasser discusses her book, Hope
Into Practice. The book explores the origins and expressions of
anti-Semitism and how its legacy still prevents Jewish American women
from becoming the best activists we can be. The book contains personal stories
of ten Jewish women, including Rosenwasser, blended with scholarship,
exercises for healing and an action-oriented Reader's Guide.
Penny Rosenwasser is the author of two previous books, Voices from a Promised Land: Palestinian & Israeli Peace Activists Speak their Hearts, and VISIONARY VOICES, Women on Power: Conversations with shamans, activists, teachers, artists and healers.
She's also a former KPFA radio host, founding board member of Jewish Voice for Peace, and long-time staff member of Middle East Children's Alliance.
Penny celebrates the release of Hope Into Practice Monday, November 18 at 7 pm
Kehilla Synagogue, Social Hall
1300 Grand Avenue
Oakland (Lake Merritt area)
Hear more about the book, engage in lively discussion, enjoy
wonderful music, sample taste treats
Wheelchair accessible.
"Pinkwashing," a term first used to refer to corporate profiteering off of breast cancer awareness, now has another meaning as well. It describes the efforts of the Israeli government and its supporters to use progressive policies toward gay and trans citizens of Israel to build alliances with queer communities in the U.S. and Europe, and deflect criticism of its defiance of international law and repression of Palestinians - both citizens and non-citizens, queer and straight.
Lesbian activist, filmmaker and author Sarah Schulman's newest book is Israel/Palestine and the Queer International. Schulman brought the concept of "pinkwashing" into the mainstream with an Op-Ed in the New York Times in 2011.
Lisa Dettmer talks with Sarah about pinkwashing and the personal journey which ended in her becoming a key spokesperson for the growing LGBT Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement targeting Israeli human rights violations.
As controversy swirls around the newly released "DSM-5," which many say continues the tradition of overdiagnosing mental disorders, we speak with Mickey Eliason, Ph.Dyk, author of the Dyke Diagnostic Manual (ed. III, Revised). Eliason sheds light on such little-known maladies as Femme Feline Fetish, Lesbian Fusion Disorder and U-Haul Syndrome.
41 years after the first issue of Ms hit newsstands, how close is the publishing industry to realizing gender neutrality? Not nearly close enough, say author Joy Castro and publisher Brooke Warner. Joy Castro is author of Hell or High Water, The Truth Book, and the forthcoming Nearer Home. Brooke Warner, formerly of Seal Press, is now publisher of She Writes Press. They spoke with Tara Dorabji.
Frameline, the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival, is the largest cultural event in the world. For the last four years, the festival has been met by protests over its partnership with the Israeli consulate, which is a featured copresenter and sponsor of several films each year. We hear from Zac Barghouti, a member of the Palestinian Youth Movement and a gay man born in Palestine, about the growing movement to oppose "pinkwashing," the Israeli government's marketing campaign aimed at international LGBT communities.
Lesbiana: A Parallel Revolution (Une Revolution Parallele)
Quebecois Filmmaker Myriam Fougère discusses her documentary, "Lesbiana," which explores "the rise and fall of the lesbian movement of the 1970s and 1980s. The film shows Tuesday, June 25 at the Castro Theater. Find out about tickets.
The month-long multidisciplinary arts festival has 5 visual art exhibitions and over 40 performance events at venues throughout the City. Artistic Director Pam Peniston runs it down. Schedule and ticket info.
Sean Dorsey and Shawna Virago, codirectors of Fresh Meat Productions, tell us about the Twelfth Annual Fresh Meat Festival, a three-day extravaganza featuring transgender and queer performers. This year's festival includes ten top-notch performers in dance, music, spoken word, humor and poetry. Get tickets.
