Palestine place is here!
Palestine Place is here [1] : Artists and Activists put ’Palestine on
the Map’ with two week festival in reclaimed London building
‘We aim to put Palestine on the map with this event. Palestine Place will be a hub for culture, art and activism. If you don’t know anything about Palestine but you’re curious, come over, eat with us, talk with us – this is the place for you’. (Organiser Samira Zaaneen)
In the week commemorating the Naksa (when, following the 1967 war Israel expulsed 300 000 Palestinians from their land) Palestinian artists, writers, academics and lawyers will take part in a festival of art exhibitions, films, workshops and poetry in a reclaimed building in central London between June 2nd-17th
The organisers are a collective of UK activists from human rights, trade union, community, solidarity and Palestinian backgrounds.
Confirmed participants are: Palestinian ‘Paradise Now’ and ‘Amreeka’ actor Amer Hlehel, poet Rafeef Ziadah and writers Selma Dabbagh and Ghada Karmi, Comedian Jeremy Hardy, Egyptian novelist Adhaf Soueif, Author Gilbert Achcar, Photo journalist William Parry, writer and activist Ben White, founder of Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights Daniel Machover, Israeli academic Ilan Pappe and former Israeli combat soldier turned Boycott activist Sebastian Rodriguez.
Live link-ups to Gaza and the West Bank with former hunger striker prisoners and community activists are also planned.
Many ordinary Palestinians will also take part in public conversations dubbed ’Al Awda Forums’ sharing present day realities, and family histories and experiences of the 1948 Nakba (Catastrophe or establishment of the State of Israel where some 700,000 Palestinians were expelled from their lands).
Activist organisations involved include: Smash EDO – which saw activists forcibly ’decommission’ arms manufacturer EDO-MBM in Brighton during Israel’s Gaza war 2009; the International Solidarity Movement; the Free Gaza Movement; Occupy; Climate Camp; P.E.D.A.L, the Israeli ’Boycott fro Within’, Jews for Justice for the Palestinians and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Other human rights groups working on immigration and detention, part.
Contact
Email: palestineplace@riseup.net
Website including events schedule: http://palestineplace.wordpress.com/ Twitter:
@palestineplace
[1] PALESTINE PLACE is at 24 Gray’s Inn Road, WC1X 8HP, nearest tube Chancery Lane on the Central Line. It is a five floor building of a major business with links to Israel’s occupation.
More details TBA
