Past MN Break the Bonds Campaign events
And…Save the Date!
March 30 MN BBC will be back at the Capital for our Day on the Hill. Stay tuned for more information and join us to let our legislators know we demand: MN Break the Bonds! Divest for Justice in Palestine!
Photo: http://bit.ly/ebj9fC
The Israeli Palestinian Conflict in Context
A University for Seniors Course Presented at the University of Minnesota-Duluth
February 8, 15, 22 & March 1 (Tuesdays)
8:30-10:30 a.m. in Kirby Plaza 311 on the UMD campus
The course will focus on the Israeli Palestinian conflict by placing that conflict in its historical and present day context. This context is based on in depth study and firsthand knowledge of the issues and is aimed at providing participants with knowledge and insights that enable them to see through the often inaccurate rhetoric that permeates the issue of Israel and Palestine in the United States.
Course Content
Week 1. Joel Sipress – The Zionist Narrative and the Historical Realities of Israel
Week 2. Pricilla Starratt – Forces for Peace and Violence in the Palestinian/Israeli Conflict.
Week 3. Mayra Gomez and Bret Thiele – The conquest of Palestine: Human right violations and living conditions in present day Israel and Palestine.
Week 4. Film: Anna Balzer – A Witness in Palestine followed by a discussion of the film and the entire course.
Joel Sipress and Pricilla Starratt are professors of history in the Department of Social Inquiry at the University of Wisconsin-Superior. Bret Thiele is a human rights lawyer who has spent significant time travelling in and working on human rights issues in Palestine and Israel. Mayra Gomez is a Ph.D. sociologist and human rights advocate who has also spent significant time travelling in and working on human rights issues in Palestine and Israel and recently visited Gaza as well.
For further information call 726-7637 or visit the U. for Seniors website:
http://www.d.umn.edu/ce/learningopportunities/universityforseniors/groups.html
Participants must be members of University for Seniors. Call or visit the website for further information.
“My great lesson from Auschwitz is whoever wants to dehumanise any other, must first be dehumanized himself. The oppressors are no longer really human whatever uniform they wear” ~ Hajo Meyer
Join MN BBC to hear Hayo Meyer, a Holocaust survivor, physicist and author, share the lesson of his experience in Auschwitz with a speech called “Never Again for Anyone”. He will be joined by Osama Abu Irshaid, founder and editor of the newspaper Al Mezan, and Coya White Hat-Artichoker, a Lakota activist for indigenous rights.
Tuesday, February 8 · 7:00pm – 10:00pm
John B. Davis Lecture Hall Ruth Stricker Dayton Campus Center – Macalaster College
1600 Grand Ave. Saint Paul, MN
* Suggested Donation of $5, but no one turned away for lack of funds *
For more information about the tour and the speakers, go to www.neveragainforanyone.com.
You’re invited!
“Palestine Under Siege: What Every American Needs to Know.”
Thursday, January 20, 6:30 – 8:00 p.m.
Christ United Methodist Church, Education Conference Center
400 5th Avenue SW. Rochester, MN 55902
Representatives from the Minnesota Break the Bonds Campaign will present an hour-long program on the plight of the Palestinians under Israeli occupation. This will be followed by a time for questions.
The BDS (Boycott Divest Sanction) movement (of which MN Break the Bonds is a part) has been gaining momentum in the U.S. as well as the world. This citizens’ initiative marks a turning point: the time for justice is long overdue for the Palestinian people, and traditional peace talks alone are not enough.
MN BBC has been on tour in the state giving programs like this one because as Minnesotans become informed on the ways they are supporting the Israeli government’s unjust policies, they will be asking themselves and others: “Why has our state legislature taken a pro-Israel position in the investment of our tax money?” They will expect their legislators to uphold and apply the same ethical principles to investment in Israeli bonds as was done in the past when Minnesota divested from bonds with Sudan, Iran, and S. Africa. State legislators from southeast Minnesota will be invited and encouraged to attend.
Sponsored by the Southeast Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers.
For more information, contact: Jean Chovan: jeanmc@live.com or Carol Brunholzl caroltonybrun@aol.com.
Attention Members and Allies!
As the 2011 Minnesota legislative session opens today, January 4th, at 12:00 noon, MN Break the Bonds (MN BBC, mn.breakthebonds.org) stands strong in our conviction that we, as people of Minnesota, want to cease our financial support of Israel’s atrocities.
Thank you for everything you have done to help us get to where we are as a movement today! It is now time for us to publicly demand that the state of Minnesota divest from Israel Bonds! Please click here to send an e-mail to your state legislators today.
If you are interested in getting more involved during this busy time, please e-mail us at mn@breakthebonds.org. You can also subscribe to our mailing list simply by adding your e-mail address and clicking ‘Subscribe’ in the column to your right. This will guarantee that you receive regular updates, actions items and protest dates. Your individual participation is vital! Together, we can be part of making 2011 a year that moves us ever forward in bringing down apartheid, colonial oppression, occupation, and ushering in a just peace!
So, start now by clicking here to send an e-mail to your state legislatorstelling them that you wantMinnesota to divest from Israel Bonds!
Photo: Flickr.com
You are invited to wine and dine with MN Break the Bonds & Anarchists Against the Wall!
January 9th, 2011
6:00 – 8:30 pm
at Sisters’ Camelot: 2310 Snelling Ave. Minneapolis MN 55404
* * *
Dinner begins at 6:00 pm
Talk with Gal Lugassi of Anarchists Against the Wall begins at 7:00 pm
$10 suggested donation ~ no one turned away for lack of funds
(non-alcoholic beverages will also be served)
About Anarchists Against the Wall (AATW): AATW is a direct action group that was established in 2003 in response to the construction of the wall Israel is building on Palestinian land in the Occupied West Bank. The group works in cooperation with Palestinians in a joint popular struggle against the occupation. With the increase of legal persecution against Palestinian demonstrators, Anarchists Against the Wall are now fundraising to expand its existing legal fund so that it also covers defense costs for Palestinians. This is in addition to covering a standing 15,000 USD debt, resulting from the legal persecution of Israeli anti-wall demonstrators. More for information visit: http://www.awalls.org/.
Photo: http://www.tadamon.ca/resources
This season, you’re invited to learn about another side of life in Bethlehem.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Film Showings of “Sacred Space Denied: Bethlehem and the Wall” in Saint Paul and Northfield
This groundbreaking documentary shares the gripping story of three men—a Palestinian Muslim, a Palestinian Christian, and an Israeli Jew—born into violence and willing to risk everything to bring an end to violence in their lifetime.
Northfielders for Justice in Palestine/Israel present an afternoon of entertainment & education:
Time: 2-4 pm
at the Just Foods Co-op Community Room
Speakers: “Making Room in Bethlehem Today” by Peter Mann @ 2:30 and
“A Presentation on MN Break the Bonds” by Bill McGrath @ 3:00
The film will be shown twice, at 2:00 and 3:30
The American Association for Palestinian Equal Rights – MN presents a film-showing and discussion:
Time: 2:00 – 3:30 PM
@ Rondo Community Outreach Library (461 N Dale St Saint Paul, MN 55103)
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To print a flier for the Northfield event click here: AAPER Event
To print a flier for the Saint Paul event click here: Northfield Event.
The Hebrew Lesson
by Esther Ouray
A “rite of return” about the right of return. “The Hebrew Lesson” is performed with live music and weaves myth, history, and personal narrative into the story of a thwarted journey to deliver an ancestor’s ashes to a homeland perverted by conflict.
December 8 – 11
7:30 pm
at Pillsbury House Theatre
3501 Chicago Ave
Minneapolis, MN 55407
Tickets: $15 adults. $10 students/seniors.
(Wednesdays @ The House are Pay-What-You-Can-Preview)
More information and tickets at 612-825-0459 or www.pillsburyhousetheatre.org.
Esther Ouray and M. Cochise Anderson share the program.
Watch the trailer below, click here to read the City Pages Review, and most importantly, go see:
BudrusThe Lagoon Theatre1320 Lagoon Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55408
(612) 825-6006
Playing November 26th – December 2nd @ 2:40, 4:50, 7:10
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From the official Budrus website: Budrus is an award-winning feature documentary film about a Palestinian community organizer, Ayed Morrar, who unites local Fatah and Hamas members along with Israeli supporters in an unarmed movement to save his village of Budrus from destruction by Israel’s Separation Barrier. Success eludes them until his 15-year-old daughter, Iltezam, launches a women’s contingent that quickly moves to the front lines. Struggling side by side, father and daughter unleash an inspiring, yet little-known, movement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories that is still gaining ground today. In an action-filled documentary chronicling this movement from its infancy, Budrus shines a light on people who choose nonviolence to confront a threat. The movie is directed by award-winning filmmaker Julia Bacha (co-writer and editor of Control Room and co-director Encounter Point), and produced by Bacha, Palestinian journalist Rula Salameh, and filmmaker and human rights advocate Ronit Avni (formerly of WITNESS, Director of Encounter Point).
While this film is about one Palestinian village, it tells a much bigger story about what is possible in the Middle East. Ayed succeeded in doing what many people believe to be impossible: he united feuding Palestinian political groups, including Fatah and Hamas; he brought women to the heart of the struggle by encouraging his daughter Iltezam’s leadership; and welcoming hundreds of Israelis to cross into Palestinian territory for the first time and join this nonviolent effort. Many of the activists who joined the villagers of Budrus are now continuing to support nonviolence efforts in villages from Bil’in to Nabi Saleh to Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem.
Budrus includes diverse voices– from the Palestinian leaders of the movement and their Israeli allies to an Israeli military spokesman, Doron Spielman, and Yasmine Levy, the Israeli border police captain stationed in the village at that time. While many documentaries about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict either romanticize the notion of peace, or dwell entirely on the suffering of victims to the conflict, this film focuses on the success of a Palestinian-led nonviolent movement.
In a keynote address immediately following the world premiere of Budrus at a Gala screening at the Dubai International Film Festival in December 2009, Her Majesty Queen Noor Al Hussein of Jordan praised the film, stating that Budrus: “Gives an enormous amount of hope… It’s a story which will have an impact and can help bring [about] change.”
Budrus received the Panorama Audience Award, Second Prize, at the Berlin International Film Festival in February 2010.
DVDs of Lectures and Presentations on the Palestine-Israel Issue recommended for showing on Duluth PACTV (Cable Channel 20) by Twin Ports Break the Bonds, local affiliate of Minnesota Break the bonds.
All showings are at 2 p.m. and 11 p.m. on the dates listed below. Each one is an hour in length.
Contact Person: Bob Kosuth, 1224 E. 11th Street, 218-724-4800, rkosuth@hotmail.com
Twin Ports BBC: http://twinportsbbc.blogspot.com/
Title Producer Length Date
Life in Occupied Palestine Anna Baltzer 59 minutes 11/11
Jennifer Lowenstein Our World in Depth 58 min. 57 sec. 11/18
Gaza One Year Later, Part I
Jennifer Lowenstein Our World in Depth 59 minutes 11/25
Gaza One Year Later, Part 2
(Also Q & A and David Rovics mini-concert)
Omar Barghouti Our World in Depth 58 min. 15 sec. 12/2
The Need To Boycott Israel, Part I
Omar Barghouti Our World in Depth 58 min. 15 sec. 12/9
The Need To Boycott Israel, Part 2
From One West Bank to Another: Our World in Depth 58 min. 45 sec. 12/16
Two Locals’ Stories from Palestine
