The following announcement was provided by Watertown Citizens for Peace, Justice and the Environment:
Please join us at the October Monthly Meeting of Watertown Citizens for Peace, Justice, and the Environment for a very special program “Israeli Annexation – Geopolitical Implications and the Future of Palestine.”
Date: Wednesday, October 21, 6:45 PM to 9:00 PM
Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86157111785?pwd=a1NJMU1qaG5jbjh5bGtmWTIrbkVVQT09
We are very excited to have as our guests Phyllis Bennis, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, one of the founders of U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, board member of Jewish Voice for Peace and author of Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Primer and Leila Farsakh, Associate Professor and Chair of the Political Science Department at the UMass Boston, Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Development Studies at Birzeit University, West Bank and author of Palestinian Labor Migration to Israel: Labor, Land and Occupation.
The government of Israel threatened to formally annex parts of the West Bank in July 2020, while they have been carrying out de facto annexation for years, since 1967 – by confiscating land, building the wall within the Green line, demolishing homes and expelling Palestinians. July 1 came and went without annexation – and then we learned in Sept. that the UAE, and subsequently Bahrain, agreed to normalize relations with Israel, in return for which (or so it seems) “formal” annexation has been delayed. Our speakers will present the geopolitical context in which all this is happening and what annexation actually means for Palestinians in the occupied territories and within Israel proper (within the Green line).
Jeff Klein, Coordinator of Mass Peace Action’s Israel/Palestine Committee and member of the Steering Committee of Massachusetts Against Israeli Annexation, will close the program by presenting action items that the participants can take to address the issue of annexation and occupation.
For questions email watertowncitizens@gmail.com and visit us at watertowncitizens.org
Co-sponsors: Mass. Peace Action, The Community Church of Boston, Unitarian Universalists for Justice in the Middle East – MA Chapter, Jewish Voice for Peace Boston.
Good to see all sides represented here. Oh wait, except Israel’s! Three people, and not one to explain Israel’s point of view? How is ignoring the legitimate rights and concerns of one of the parties to a conflict supposed to lead to peace and justice? Well, it will be moot soon enough, as Arab nations are lining up to join Israel, tired, as we all are, of the Palestinians’ uncanny ability to never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
Once again, a so-called unbiased forum is, in fact, biased against Israel. If you really wanted to have a fair and open discussion, then invite all the parties, not just the ones that agree with your position. But that would mean being honest, and well, that just ain’t gonna happen.
I’m relieved to know that you two have appointed yourselves as arbiters of what is fair. Annexation violates international law. The folks running this forum are good people. I’d say that it is you who is biased.