<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<div class="ViewDetails_Title"><b><big><big>Birzeit students hold
solidarity event with Black struggle in US</big></big></b></div>
<div>
<div class="ViewDetails_Stamp">Published 12/18/2014</div>
</div>
<div class="ViewDetails_ImgDiv"><b><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=748239">http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=748239</a></small></small></b><br>
<iframe style="width: 109px; height: 20px;"
data-twttr-rendered="true" title="Twitter Tweet Button"
class="twitter-share-button twitter-tweet-button
twitter-share-button twitter-count-horizontal"
src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets/tweet_button.ff7d9077a26377d36b6a53b1a95be617.en.html#_=1418924171048&count=horizontal&id=twitter-widget-0&lang=en&original_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.maannews.net%2Feng%2FViewDetails.aspx%3FID%3D748239&size=m&text=Birzeit%20students%20hold%20solidarity%20event%20with%20Black%20struggle%20in%20US%20%7C%20Maan%20News%20Agency&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.maannews.net%2Feng%2FViewDetails.aspx%3FID%3D748239"
allowtransparency="true" scrolling="no" id="twitter-widget-0"
frameborder="0"></iframe>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left; margin-top: 10px"><b>By <a
href="http://www.maannews.net/eng/Search.aspx?AUTHOR=Alex%20Shams">Alex
Shams</a></b></div>
<br>
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Nearly 100 students at Birzeit University in
the central West Bank on Wednesday took part in a solidarity event
with the African-American community in the United States in the wake
of spiraling rates of deadly police violence there.<br>
<br>
Entitled, "Similar Struggles: Racism in Palestine and Abroad," the
event was organized by the Right to Education Campaign at the
university and featured lectures from professors as well as a number
of students who recently returned from a tour of the United States
where they visited Ferguson, Missouri -- the site of months of
protest against police violence -- and met with community organizers
across the nation.<br>
<br>
Organizers said the activity was one of the"most successful" events
organized by the campaign, highlighting how the topic spoke directly
to the experiences of Palestinian students.<br>
<br>
"Following the uprisings of Black communities across the US, a lot
of us here in Palestine began to see the similarities between these
communities’ oppression by the militarized state and our own
oppression as Palestinians under Israeli colonialism," organizer
Deema al-Saafin told Ma'an in an emailed statement.<br>
<br>
She said that the event was part of an effort to "create and sustain
solidarity with other struggles," adding: "We aimed to emphasize
that change begins with liberating the mind first, and to build
solidarity we need to actively resist derogatory terminology and
stereotypes between each other and the way we address other people
of color."<br>
<br>
She said the event featured three professors, Ahmad Abu Awad, Rana
Barakat, and Hanada Kharama, who addressed racism as an ideology,
the institutionalization of racism, and how racism becomes embedded
in linguistics, respectively. <br>
<br>
In addition, students who took part in the recent Right to Education
tour shared their experiences meeting with activists from
communities of color in the United States and "how deeply connected
our struggles are against the same systems of oppression," al-Saafin
said.<br>
<br>
Another organizer, Reema Asia, stressed that the event was important
for educating students about struggles faced by their peers abroad:
"Through the discussion that took place, the students at the
university will have a better understanding of the situation of
Black communities not just in America, but around the world. You
simply cannot be an ally to a people without having an idea of what
it is they are fighting against."<br>
<br>
Al-Saafin told Ma'an that the event was part of the larger effort of
building solidarity through knowledge, and that the Right to
Education campaign hoped it would help bolster their work to create
linkages between the struggles faced by Palestinians and other
marginalized communities around the world. <br>
<br>
"We hope that this event and those in the future will emphasize the
fact that as Palestinians and as students, we have to actively fight
injustice everywhere ... Our liberation is simply incomplete without
the liberation of all oppressed peoples," she said.-- <br>
<div class="moz-signature">Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.freedomarchives.org">www.freedomarchives.org</a>
</div>
</body>
</html>