Please join us for an important conversation on the new illegal Israeli annexation plan of Palestine. The webinar will be hosted on Zoom on Monday, June 29, 2020, at 2:00 PM EST/ 11:00 AM PST. Register for this webinar to learn about the implications of the illegal Israeli annexation on Palestinian human rights, U.S foreign policy, and the overall effects on the region. Our speakers will be Diana Buttu, Omar Baddar, Miko Peled, and Josh Ruebner. Zoom invitation will be emailed on the day of the webinar.
Diana Buttu is a Ramallah-based analyst, former legal advisor to Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian negotiators, and Policy Advisor to Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network. She was also recently a fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. After earning a law degree from Queen’s University in Canada and a Masters of Law from Stanford University, Buttu moved to Palestine in 2000. Shortly after her arrival, the second Intifada began and she took a position with the Negotiations Support Unit of the PLO. Buttu decided to explain the Palestinian story to the media. “At the end of the day the world will only accept what it perceives as fair,” she explains. “So I decided to lay out the facts so people could understand life under occupation and the constant discrimination Palestinians face.” Her media work angered Israel’s supporters and cost her her NSU job, but Buttu continues to speak out, working with journalists with the Institute for Middle East Understanding and teaching at Birzeit University. Buttu believes someday freedom and equal rights will come to the Palestinians. “I think this absurdity is going to lead to a real awakening and people will eventually hang their heads and say, ‘What were we thinking?’ I hope justice comes sooner rather than later.” You can follow Buttu on twitter @dianabuttu.
Miko Peled is an Israeli-American activist and author. He is author of the books The General’s Son: The Journey of an Israeli in Palestine and Injustice: The Story of the Holy Land Foundation Five. He is also an international speaker. On his Twitter feed, Peled has written that “IDF lusts for blood,” has called the peace process “a process of apartheid & colonization,” and has accused Israeli officials of “ethnic cleansing Peled supports the movement for boycotts, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. Giving a talk in Queensland, Australia, he supported a BDS campaign against the Israeli-owned Max Brenner chain of chocolate shops, part of the Strauss group of companies, which, he said, “supports a terrorist organization, the Golani Brigade.” BDS, he argued, was a “totally legitimate” means of “trying to stop this Israeli armed juggernaut.” You can follow Peled on twitter @mikopeled.
Josh Ruebner is the author of Shattered Hopes: Obama’s Failure to Broker Israeli-Palestinian Peace (Verso Books, 2013) and Israel: Democracy or Apartheid State? (Interlink Books, 2017). He is Adjunct Professor at Georgetown Univesity’s Justice and Peace Studies department, Managing Director at American Muslims for Palestine, and Senior Principal at Progress Up Consulting, a government relations consulting firm partnering with progressive organizations to affect policy. Ruebner is the former Policy Director of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, a national coalition of hundreds of groups working together for freedom, justice, and equality. He served in this position for sixteen years, building the profile and effectiveness of the Palestinian rights movement on Capitol Hill. He is a former Analyst in Middle East Affairs at Congressional Research Service, a federal government agency providing Members of Congress with policy analysis. He holds a graduate degree in International Affairs from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC. Ruebner’s analysis and commentary on US policy toward the Middle East appear frequently in media such as NBC, ABC Nightline, CSPAN, Al Jazeera, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, The Hill, Detroit Free Press, Huffington Post, Middle East Report, and more. You can follow him on Twitter @joshruebner.
Omar Baddar is a political analyst, digital producer, and human rights advocate based in Washington, DC. His academic research and policy work has focused on US policy on Palestine and Israel. He is the fomer deputy director of the Arab American Institute, and the former executive director of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee of Massachusetts. He has participated in dozens of panels, lectures, and debates on college and university campuses throughout the country, and his media appearances include MSNBC, BBC, Al-Jazeera, Sky News, Voice of America, among other outlets. You can follow him on Twitter at @OmarBaddar.
Date: Monday, June 29, 2020
Time: 2:00 PM EST/ 11 AM PST
Click here to register