3/27: Barbara Lubin, Ziad Abbas to Speak in ABQ on Current Situation in Israel and Palestine

From the Middle East Peace and Justice Alliance:
Barbara Lubin, Founder and Executive Director of the Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA) and Ziad Abbas, co-founder of the Ibdaa Cultural Center, will speak in Albuquerque on March 27, 2010 on the situation in Israel and Palestine today, the experience of occupation, the role of U.S. policy, strategies for peace and the MECA water project.

This event, sponsored by the Middle East Peace and Justice Alliance, and Another Jewish Voice in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, is a benefit for the Middle East Children's Alliance Gaza Water Project. A reception will be held at 6:30 PM followed by the presentation at 7:30 PM at the Mennonite Church at 1300 Girard SE in Albuquerque. There is a suggested $20 donation. Click for flyer

Since 1988, MECA has delivered millions of dollars in humanitarian aid to children's clinics, hospitals, schools and women's organizations in the Occupied Territory and Iraq. Their talk and slide presentation will highlight the relationship between Israeli apartheid policies and the deprivation of life essential to human rights and how we, the international community, can respond

Barbara Lubin is a life-long peace and justice activist. She has led nearly twenty delegations to the Middle East. Her tireless work is an inspiration to many. She has lectured on the issue of Middle East politics and the plight of the children in the region to dozens of schools, universities, conferences, religious institutions and community groups. Barbara is also the former President of the Berkeley Board of Education.

Lubin says, “It has always amazed me that one people is asked to recognize, and the Israelis are never asked or forced to recognize the rights of Palestinians.”

Mr. Abbas was born and raised in Dheisheh Refugee Camp in Bethlehem, where he is the co-director of the Ibdaa Cultural and Community Center and a journalist. When he told his uncle he was going to the U.S., “I told him I was going to America and I said I was taking one of our family keys with me to the US ... that I would show it to the Americans to explain how we owned homes, how we had villages, how we still have keys despite the fact that our houses were destroyed sixty years ago, and how we still have rights to the land.”

The health and well being of virtually every Palestinian child and adult is threatened by the shortage of clean, safe water due to the ongoing, U.S backed Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian Occupied Territory and the siege of Gaza.

For more information, contact Dr. Lori Rudolph 505-550-9553 or lorir@unm.edu.