Upcoming Events
Faculty Panel on the Academic Boycott of Israel
Wednesday April 13 at 4:00 PM, Room 9207
This panel of CUNY academics will discuss their involvement in various boycott efforts, in particular, academic associations. They will also be able to answer questions on academic boycott.
• Ros Petchesky, Distinguished Professor of Political Science Emerita at Hunter College and the CUNY Graduate Center
• Ammiel Alcalay, Professor of English, Comparative Literature, and Middle East Studies at Queens College and the GC
• Naomi Schiller, Assistant Professor at Brooklyn College in the Dept of Anthropology
• Moderator, Anthony Alessandrini, Associate Professor of English at Kingsborough Community College and the GC
Reports From the Frontline: Iyad Burnat on Non-Violent Resistance
Thursday, April 7, 7:30 PM
Hunter College West Building, Room 603
**Non-Hunter guests must register through this link.
Join the discussion with Iyad Burnat about his non-violent struggles against the Israeli abuses at his hometown Bil’in, a small farming village 7 miles west of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. For eleven years Iyad and the Popular Committee have organized the people to Bil’in to participate in weekly non-violent demonstrations against the confiscation of their land, destruction of their olive trees, and Israel’s illegal Separation Wall and settlements. In the summer of 2014, Iyad’s then-15-year-old teenage son Majd was shot in the leg by the Israeli military while attending a nonviolent protest in Bil’in during Israel’s 2014 assault on Gaza. The gunshot severed a nerve in Majd’s leg, causing him to permanently lose all feeling in his foot. Recently Iyad released a book describing his village’s ongoing struggle for justice and freedom (this book will be sold at the event), and what inspires them to continue non-violent resistance.
The Impact of Colonialism: Making Sense of Education in Palestine
Monday, April 11, 7 PM
Hunter College West Building, Room 214W
**Non-Hunter guests must register through this link.
Two students from Palestine—Omar and Shatha—will be coming to Hunter College to speak about the impact of occupation and colonialism on their education. As education is a basic human right, these students will expose to the audience the larger issues they face, as well as highlight Israel’s systematic obstruction of Palestinian education. Meet the students! Omar is a second-year student from Jerusalem. He studies computer engineering at Birzeit University. Shatha is a fourth-year student from Ramallah. She studies economics at Birzeit University.
Human Rights in Palestine: Reports from the Ground & Building Global Solidarity
Monday, April 11, 6PM, CUNY School of Law, 2 Court Sq, Long Island City
Please join CUNY Law School Students for Justice in Palestine and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) for a special evening with leading Palestinian human rights defenders Raji Sourani and Shawan Jabarin, who will be joined by CCR Executive Director Vince Warren. In this rare visit to the United States and on occasion of their first public event, Raji and Shawan will provide timely perspectives from the ground in Gaza-under-closure and in the aftermath of the summer 2014 offensive, and the dynamic situation in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. They will also discuss ongoing efforts to protect basic human rights and struggles for accountability for widespread violations, including before the International Criminal Court. Vince Warren will discuss the growing Palestine solidarity movement and some common themes reflected in the fight for human rights in the U.S. for communities of color, based upon a recent CCR delegation to Palestine.
Doors open at 6:00 PM. Dinner will be served!
Film Screening: Roshmia / Directed by Salim Abu Jamal
April 12th, 2016 | 6:30pm Room 9206/7, The Graduate Center, CUNY
Since 1956, when he became a refugee from downtown Haifa’s Wadi Alsaleeb neighbourhood, 80-year-old Yousef has lived with his wife Amna, a refugee from Yasoor, in a shack in Roshmia Valley. Life is quiet until the Municipality of Haifa plans to build a road across the valley to connect the Mediterranean to Mount Karmel – which will mean the couple’s shack will be demolished, forcing them to find a new home. Their sponsor, acting as middle man between them and the municipality, attempts to negotiate compensation for them, but this will lead to tension among the three individuals.
Salim Abu Jabal was born in the occupied Golan Heights in 1971, and has worked in cinema and television as a production manager and casting director on several Palestinian and international films. He has also worked as a writer, journalist, critic, and producer.
Introduction: Shoumik Bhattacharya (The Graduate Center, CUNY)
Discussant: Tami Gold (Hunter College/The Graduate Center, CUNY)
Upcoming Events across NYC
Saturday, April 9, 2:00 PM
An-Noor Social Center in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. (7114 5TH AVE, Brooklyn, NY 11209)
Join us in welcoming 4 students from the West Bank and East Jerusalem as they discuss the conditions of going to University under occupation. With the current crackdown on student activism in Palestine including mulitple left-wing and political student groups’ offices being ransacked by the IDF and students arrested, it is a crucial time to engage with youth and students who can give us a firsthand report of the conditions on the ground.
The Right to Education tour, first established in 2014, connects indigenous persons actively experiencing Israeli occupation and apartheid to their allies in the United States. R2E has successfully exposed American audiences to Palestinian students, the broad issues they face under occupation, and highlighted Israel’s systematic obstruction of Palestinian education. R2E continues its aim of creating links between student movements in the US and Palestine, building institutional relationships between universities, and exchanging information between Palestinians and social movements (e.g. indigenous, migrant, and black struggles).
Palestinian Right to Education Presentation in NYC
Thursday, April 14, 6:30 PM
NYU, Furman Hall, Room 216
The GSOC referendum on endorsing the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement in solidarity with Palestinians is rapidly approaching. One of the more controversial aspects of the BDS call has been the academic boycott, which targets academic institutions complicit in the violation of Palestinian human and civil rights. How should scholars and academic workers respond to the BDS call? What is required for us to uphold the principles of academic freedom and free speech? Come discuss the BDS academic boycott and the GSOC referendum!
Hosted by the GSOC for BDS caucus, the NYU International Socialist Organization, and NYU Students for Justice in Palestine
Academic Boycott of Israel at Cuny 
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