Presentation and open discussion with Khaled Barakat

 

Among Palestinians and their allies, there is much discussion of division and disunity in the Palestinian liberation struggle, and even questions of how to understand that struggle: toward liberation, toward statehood? At this critical time for the Palestinian movement, join Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network for a discussion of the Palestinian political situation today, the challenges facing the Palestinian movement, and the path forward toward the liberation of Palestine, the end of apartheid and occupation, and the return of Palestinian refugees displaced from their land.

 

The Palestinian prisoners' movement has always been at the centre of the Palestinian peoples' resistance: a clear voice for justice and liberation, rejecting compromise of Palestinian national rights, holding fast to resistance, defying occupation and apartheid. The recent prisoners' hunger strikes - and the ongoing hunger strikes of Palestinian political prisoners such as Hassan Safadi, Samer al-Barq, Ayman Sharawna and Samer al-Issawi - have provided new hope and inspiration for Palestinians inside and outside Palestine, from longtime activists to new youth voices in the community.

 

Imprisoned Palestinian national leader Ahmad Sa'adat recently called for Palestinians to mobilize to end internal division, "expose the crimes of the occupation and build resistance through all and varied forms of struggle" and to reject the "absurd" path of negotiations and a "peace process" that has done so much to undermine Palestinian rights to self-determination, return, and liberation. This conversation is a step toward such a much-needed mobilization of the Palestinian and Arab community and their allies and supporters here. 

 

Presentation by Palestinian writer and community activist KHALED BARAKAT, followed by an open and participatory discussion.

 

Khaled Barakat is a Palestinian writer and journalist. He is a longtime community organizer in the Palestinian and Arab communities in Vancouver and across North America. His writings have been widely published in a variety of Arabic-language media outlets, including Al-Quds al-Arabi, el-Badeel daily newspaper of Egypt, as-Safir of Lebanon, and Arabs48. He is active with Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network and has co-founded various Palestinian and solidarity organizations in Canada and the US. He recently coordinated Resistance, Refugees, Rights and Return, a Vancouver to Gaza solidarity delegation.