Middle East Program
Recent Activities
Fundraiser for Emergency Medical Relief in the Gaza Strip
On April 12th, 2008, the American Friends Service Committee co-sponsored a luncheon fundraiser for emergency medical relief in Gaza. The event was organized by the Arab Jewish Partnership for Peace and Justice in the Middle East and the Islamic Medical Association of Northwestern University. All the proceeds from this event will be donated to MECA to assist in their humanitarian work in the Gaza Strip.
Speakers: Andrew Whitley is the Director of the Representative Office of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East. Whitley has worked as a reporter for the BBC, the Financial Times and other organizations, and has taught at NYU.
Barbara Lubin, Executive Director of the Middle East Children's Alliance (MECA), an organization that supports children and families in Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq through humanitarian aid, education and community-based projects.
Listen to the presentation online -->
Acknowledging the Past, Imagining the Future:
Palestinians and Israelis on 1948 and the Right of Return
On March 31st, 2008, Mohammad Jaradat and Eitan Bronstein spoke about the Israeli and Palestinian experiences of 1948, the creation of the Palestinian refugee crisis and the role of the right of return in any just solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Mohammad Jaradat is a Palestinian activist and co-founder of Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, established in 1998. Badil takes a rights-based approach to the Palestinian refugee issue through research, advocacy and promoting the participation of refugees themselves. Eitan Bronstein is a Jewish Israeli educator, activist, and Director of the Israeli organization, Zochrot. Founded in 2002, Zochrot seeks to educate Jewish Israelis about al-Nakba, the Arabic word for "catastrophe" which refers to the mass 1948 displacement and dispossession of Palestinians.
The events took place at the International House at University of Chicago and at DePaul University.
Listen to the presentation online -->
Birthright Replugged Speaking Tour and Photo Exhibit
On March 22nd, 2008, AFSC presented the Chicago Speaking Tour and Photo Exhibit of Birthright Unplugged Replugged with co-founders Dunya Alwan and Hannah Mermelstein. This exhibit chronicled the journey of 20 Palestinian children from the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank on a three-day journey as they travel through Israeli checkpoints and the separation wall onto Israeli-only roads that surround their communities. The exhibit also includes panels from refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan that look at the children's relationship to the Nakba and their lives and experiences in camps now.
Speakers: Dunya Alwan is Iraqi-American of both Muslim and Jewish descent. Hannah Mermelstein is an American Jew born and raised on the east coast of the United States.
The speaking tour and photo exhibit was sponsored by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee – Chicago and Jewish Voice for Peace-Chicago.
For more information on Birthright Unplugged -->
Standup for Peace:
The Two Comedian Solution to Middle East Peace
On February 10th, 2008, the AFSC co-sponsored “Standup for Peace: The Two Comedian Solution to Middle East Peace.” The event was organized by the Committee for a Just Peace in Israel and Palestine. This groundbreaking comedy show is the creation of Jewish comedian Scott Blakeman and Palestinian-American comedian Dean Obeidallah. Obeidallah is the co-creator of the Comedy Central.com show, “The Watch List,” and was featured on Comedy Central’s Axis of Evil special. Scott Blakeman has made more than thirty national television appearances, and was the warm-up comedian for CBS’ Late Show with David Letterman.
For more information on “Standup for Peace” -->
Chicago Vigil to End the Siege on the People of Gaza! International Day of Action
On January 26th, 2008, a vigil was held at Water Tower Park calling for a comprehensive ceasefire and ending U.S. military aid to Israel. Recently, Gaza's only power generator was shut down because of a lack of fuel and the siege has further created shortages in food and water for the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza. Because the conditions in Gaza have become so desperate, international solidarity organizations in London, Rome and elsewhere around the world mobilized to demand an end to the siege of Gaza in protests on January 26.
For more information on the crisis in Gaza -->
AFSC Middle East Program Fundraiser
On December 10th, 2007, the Chicago office held a dinner fundraiser for the Middle East Program at Alhambra Restaurant. National AFSC experts Adam Horowitz and Peter Lems provided up-to-date and eyewitness reports from the region. Both recently returned from their trip to the Middle East. The dinner was attended by close to 150 people from the Chicagoland area.
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