Ithaca College

From Gaza Strip

"Know Justice, Know Peace," a film-speaker series sponsored by the Students for a Just Peace, begins Thursday at Ithaca College. This series addresses the origins and impact of Israel's military occupation. The student organization hopes that greater understanding of the context and consequences of the occupation will help to create the conditions for establishing a just and enduring solution to the conflict, where both Jewish Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace.

Thursday, March 27, 7 p.m., the films and speakers will focus on the impact of the Israeli victory of 1948 on Palestinian people. The event includes two films, Palestine: 1890-1990 and Al Nakba: The Palestinian Catastrophe of 1948. Munther Younes, senior lecturer in Arabic and linguistics at Cornell University, will discuss how the creation of the State of Israel has affected the lives of his family and other Palestinians. Deborah Starr, Cornell professor of Near Eastern Studies, will analyze the influence of the "new historians" on political discourse in Israel.

Thursday, April 3, Sara Roy, research associate at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University, will speak at two events at Ithaca College. Roy is the author of Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of De-Development. At 5:30 p.m., Roy will talk about "Living with the Holocaust: The Journey of a Child of Holocaust Survivors" in the Clark Lounge. This event is co-sponsored by Hillel. Roy writes, "The Holocaust has been the defining feature of my life. It could not have been otherwise. I lost over 100 members of my family and extended family in the Nazi ghettos and death camps in Poland." Roy will share how "living with the Holocaust" has influenced her work in the Palestinian territories. At 7:30 p.m., the film Jerusalem: Occupation Set in Stone will be shown in Textor 102. Roy will speak about "The Failure of the Oslo Peace Process."

Thursday, April 10, 7 p.m., the film Gaza Strip, cinema verite produced by James Longley in 2001, will be shown in Textor 102. Angela Bukowy, who recently returned from volunteering in Gaza with the International Solidarity Movement, will speak after the film.

Sunday, April 13, the final event will focus on films about Israeli peace activists who oppose the military occupation of Gaza and the West Bank. Videos about the refuseniks, who are Israeli soldiers who have refused to serve in the Occupied Territories, the Israeli Coalition Against Housing Demolitions, and Ta'ayush, a group of Jewish and Palestinian Israelis who offer material and political support to Palestinians in the Territories, will be shown in Textor 101, Sunday, April 13, 6:30 p.m.

Cosponsors for the "Know Justice, Know Peace" events include: the politics department, the Center for the Study of Race, Religion, and Ethnicity, the sociology department, the Young Democratic Socialists, the Honors Program, and the Diversity Awareness Committee. The film/speaker series is free and open to the public.

For information, contact Students for a Just Peace or Beth Harris.

Contributed by Beth Harris