UpComing Events, March 2010

Thanks to Jeff Warner from La Jews for Peace for passing these along

Thursday, March 4, 7:30-9 PM

Phyllis Bennis on Ending the War in Afghanistan

Middle East expert and author Phyllis Bennis will present her latest book (co-authored with David Wildman), Ending the US War in Afghanistan: A Primer, followed by a Q & A,

Levantine Cultural Center, 5998 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles CA 90035
street parking and in the CVS underground lot until 10 pm
$10 donation

Co-sponsored by Code Pink

Sunday, March 7, 2010, 10:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.

Scholar-in-Residence J.J. Goldberg

Ameinu (www.ameinu.net) are holding their Annual Spring Seminar

Institute of Jewish Education – 8339 West Third Street, L.A. 90048

Morning Session: Deadlock in the Peace Process — Can Israel Survive?

Afternoon Session: A House Divided: The Lobby, The Community and the Jews

$25 for Ameinu Members / $35 for non-members (includes lunch)

RSVP by Monday, March 1 to    323-655-2842 or LZinLA@aol.com.

Friday, March 12, 7 or 7:30 PM

Screening of “American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein”

Film website            http://www.americanradicalthefilm.com/

Trailer       http://www.americanradicalthefilm.com/trailer.html

Laemmle’s Music Hall 3             310-478-3836
9036 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, 90211
Map & Parking Information

Co-sponsored by LA Jews for Peace

Saturday, April 24, 2010, 6:00 – 9:00 PM

The Rebuilding Alliance 2nd Annual Peacemakers Dinner
at the Red Rock Chateau, Silverado Canyon, Orange County, CA
Speakers:
1   Cindy and Craig Corrie, Parents of Rachel Corrie, Advisory Board members
2   Congressman Brian Baird, Visited Gaza to see for himself, a clear advocate for Palestinian and Israeli human rights
3  Professor Richard Falk, U.N. Special Rapporteur on Palestinian Human Rights

Info and reservations: Mary Bentley Abu-Saba, Rebuilding Alliance Outreach Director
510 205 1469, mabusaba@rebuilding alliance. org

See also this interesting email on the Russell Tribunal

(thanks to whirldpeas for passing this along)

“Dear friends,

I am very pleased and proud to announce that I will soon be producing a web conference on the subject of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine (RTP) (Barcelona, 1 – 3 March, 2010).  The web conference is tentatively scheduled for March 6.  This conference will report on the proceedings and the verdict of the jury in the first session of the RTP and will feature presentations of opinion, analysis and round-table discussions by and between our Host and our Expert Guests regarding the mission of the Tribunal and how the verdict of the jury applies to the U.S. government’s role and responsibilities relative to its relationship with the government of Israel (GOI) (Note: the focus of the Tribunal will be the role, responsibilities and wrongdoing of the European Union, however, most of this also applies to other nations/states and, particularly, the U.S. because the U.S. is, for example, the main supplier of weapons and other military aid to Israel.).

Our host for the conference will be Stephen Lendman (Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization) and our expert guests will include Cynthia McKinney (U.S. Presidential Nominee, Green Party, 2008; former U.S. Democratic Congresswoman, Georgia — if her schedule allows), who will be a member of the Tribunal’s jury.  (Note: we are currently seeking several other experts to be guests in this conference, including organizers and other contributors to the RTP.)

The purpose of this conference is to educate the American public about the Israel-Palestine conflict and our government’s illegal and immoral role in it.

I invite all of you to join Mr. Lendman and Ms. McKinney (and our other guests) in this conference, which will also allow participants to call in with questions for our expert guests (for a Q & A session at the end of the conference, which will make this an interactive learning experience —  especially for any invited friends who may be less informed …  Keep reading …).  I also encourage all of you to take action to help us achieve the goal of this conference – educating the American public – by recruiting at least one person to attend this conference (if we all do this, we can exponentially increase the effectiveness of the message conveyed by this conference to the American public).

We encourage you to invite people who have one or more of the following characteristics:

— Do not know much about the Palestine-Israel conflict;

— Or, appear to be somewhat familiar with the conflict, but appear to not have the same perspective as yourself about the issues which are the essence of the conflict (in other words, they are “average Americans” who have been subjected to the pro-Israel bias of the mainstream news media in this country);

— Or, do not seem to know much about the conflict, but seem interested in social justice and/or human rights and/or seem to think that our government is not pursuing peace in the Middle East in the right way, etc.

Please help us educate our fellow citizens by recruiting a friend, associate, family member, etc., and asking them to make a commitment to participate in this conference.  Please also help us make this effort “viral” by forwarding this email to others.

Please refer anyone who may be interested in this conference to our blog: http://russelltribunalpalestine.blogspot.com/2010/02/russell-tribunal-palestine-web.html

Please also ensure that you let interested persons know that, because we are a nascent non-profit and are not currently funded, a donation will be required to attend this conference (and also note that the first 150 people to sign up will receive a reduced donation rate).  Also, please note that the donation amount and donation process are not yet finalized, but will be this week – and there is a note in the blog about all of this.

Thank you, friends, and I hope you will be able to join us in this conference!

John French

Coalition for U.N. Commission

(Here is some information about the Coalition: We are launching this non-profit concurrent with the web conference project.  Our goal in this project is the education of the American (U.S.) public regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict and the U.S. government’s illegal and immoral role in it.  Our plan, generally, is to achieve this by using web conferences.  This public education project is subordinate to the main mission of our organization which is to build (via existing U.S. NGO networks) a national coalition to support a grassroots campaign which will demand that President Obama take action in the U.N. to create a (U.N.) commission tasked with facilitating negotiations (symmetrical, in terms of power) between the parties in this conflict in order to determine the optimum resolution to the conflict – one based on justice and, therefore, conducive to a sustainable peace.”

Finally, an important reminder (related to imperialism and therefore indirectly to Palestine):

March 4th: Strike and Day of Action to Defend Public Education