On today's show we share with you the first three segments (out of five) of a recent conference: "The Legal Assault Against Palestinian Rights Activism" sponsored by the Institute of Palestine Studies, and held on November 21, 20014 in Washington D.C. Among other issues, the panelists discuss the criminalization of Palestinian advocacy and the targeting of individual Palestinian rights activists for surveillance, investigation, harassment, and even criminal prosecution, citing numerous cases.
The panel was moderated by Journal of Palestine Studies editor Rashid I. Khalidi and featured civil rights attorneys Andrew Dalack, Dima Khalidi and Yaman Salahi and Professor Steven Salaita, whose firing by the University of Illinois has drawn increased attention to the aggressive silencing of pro-Palestinian voices in the US. The panelists discussed the criminalization of Palestinian advocacy and the targeting of individual Palestinian rights activists for surveillance, investigation, and criminal prosecution, referencing the cases against longtime Chicago activist Rasmea Odeh, the so-called Holy Land Five (Ghassan Elashi, Shukri Abu-Baker, Mufid Abdulqader, Abdulrahman Odeh, and Mohammad El-Mezain), and former University of South Florida Professor Sami al-Arian. The panelists also discussed the campus politics surrounding student activism whereby pro-Israel groups apply pressure to university administrations to silence or hinder pro-Palestinian activism through accusations of anti-Semitism and even threatening legal action for alleged ties to terrorism. Even though such efforts are ultimately unsuccessful, they may have a chilling effect on students. Panelists also discussed ways to counter such efforts and support pro-Palestinian activism on university campuses.
The first segment features opening remarks by Michelle Esposito and Columbia University prof. Rashid Khaladi. This next segment features civil rights attorney Andrew Daleck discussing the prosecution of Palestinian rights activist Rasmea Odeh. The final segment features attorney Dimi Khaladi speaking about her work in defense of Palestinian activists who are under assault across the country for that activism.
This Week In Palestine (a weekly part of Truth and Justice Radio) is an award-winning three-quarter-hour segment of news from Palestine and discussion of issues relevant to the Palestinians' struggle for freedom from Israel's brutal military occupation and colonization of their homeland. It speaks from the point of view of Palestinians and those who care about them.
It's a regular part of Truth and Justice Radio, aired Sundays 6-10am ET on WZBC 90.3FM, Newton, MA, streaming and archived for two weeks at wzbc.org; TJR's website, truthandjusticeradio.org, has a link to This Week In Palestine archives back thru 1-6-2008; earlier editions are obtainable from radio4all.net or by navigating through our playlists. (At this important time, TJR has been airing a lot of Palestine coverage IN ADDITION to that provided by This Week In Palestine.) We hope you'll write to us at tjr@bluebottle.com if you rebroadcast our work, or have questions or comments.