The campaign is growing: We Will Not Be Silenced – October 23 Day of Action

Samidoun is one of many organizations that has endorsed this call from the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. Get the latest updates at USACBI: https://usacbi.org/2020/10/join-the-growing-list-of-events-we-will-not-be-silenced-october-23-national-day-of-action/

Campuses across North America are joining in the campaign to resist corporate and university silencing of Palestinian narratives and Palestinian voices. On October 23, join us to host a webinar via your campus’ Zoom account, including a video of Leila Khaled, to make it clear that we will not be silenced. It’s not too late for you to join us – add your event and raise your voice for Palestinian rights. 

This national day of action against the criminalization and censorship of campus political speech comes in response to the events of September 23, when corporate tech giants Zoom, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube acted in lockstep with San Francisco State University (SFSU) to shut down an open classroom webinar entitled “Whose Narratives? Gender, Justice, & Resistance: A Conversation with Leila Khaled,” co-sponsored by the Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies Program and the Department of Women and Gender Studies at San Francisco State University. Before, during, and since this massive, coordinated, electronic de-platforming by these tech giants, SFSU has refused to support the webinar’s organizers, Profs. Rabab Abdulhadi (AMED) and Tomomi Kinukawa (WGS), defend their academic freedom, or provide them with an alternative platform. Read the full call to action. 

We think it is important that this day of action take place on Zoom itself, if possible with livestreaming on YouTube, along with announcements on Facebook and Instagram, so as to challenge these corporations and force our universities to stand in support of students and faculty, our right to academic freedom, and struggles for justice and liberation, from the US to Palestine.

We therefore call on anyone with access to a university Zoom account
to hold a webinar of your own including a message from Leila Khaled – which we will provide –
on October 23, 2020,
a National Day of Action Against the Criminalization
and Censorship of Campus Speech.  

To sign onto this effort, please write to this email address: [email protected] or use the form at USACBI’s website.

Your webinar or Zoom event can be any type of gathering: a group meeting, open classroom, full webinar or a discussion session. USACBI will provide you with access to the message from Leila Khaled to include in your session along with a program of your choice. We will also provide a curriculum guide to help you plan your event. It doesn’t matter whether you can reach a small group or hundreds or thousands of attendees – your participation will build an important campus resistance to corporatization, silencing and repression. 

List of Events

  • San Francisco State University
    Friday, October 23
    3 pm – 4 pm Pacific time
    Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/979652069221842/
    Zoom details: Meeting ID: 821 8607 8651
    Passcode: 692558
    Speakers:

    • Hatem Bazian: Lecturer, Departments of Near Eastern and Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies, University of California, Berkeley.
    • Jennifer Beach: Lecturer, English Department, SFSU; Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) SF
    • Student Activist with Jewish Voice For Peace (JVP) Bay Area
  • University of Massachusetts – Boston
    Friday, October 23
    11 am – 12 pm Eastern time
    Register online: https://bit.ly/UMB4AF
    Speakers:

    • Leila Farsakh, FSJP & Political Science, UMass Boston
    • Issac Kamola, Political Science, Trinity College
    • Andrew Leong, Philosophy, UMass Boston
    • Facilitated by Heike Schotten, FSJP & Political Science
  • New York University
    Friday, October 23
    4:00 pm Eastern time
    To join, enter the following meeting ID into Zoom:
    950 4559 5136
    Speakers:

    • Katherine Franke (Columbia)
    • Nerdeen Kiswani (CUNY/Within our Lifetime)
    • Fred Moten (NYU)
    • Radhika Sainath (Palestine Legal)
    • moderated by Andrew Ross (NYU/USACBI)
    • (with a message from Leila Khaled)
    • Panelists: Kaleikoa Ka’eo (UH Maui) and Ma’an Odah (UHM)
    • Moderator: Joy Enomoto (UHM)
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