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Online Event: Contain the Pandemic, Free Palestine

16 April 2020 @ 10:00 am - 11:00 am

Thursday, 16 April
10 am Pacific/1 pm Eastern/7 pm Europe/8 pm Palestine
Register for the event: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/contain-the-pandemic-free-palestine-tickets-101936476746

#PalestinianPrisonersDay #FreeThemAll #UnitedAgainstRacism

Contain the Pandemic, Free Palestine
Thursday, April 16, 2020 @ 1pm Toronto EST | 8pm Palestine GMT+3
RSVP here for zoom link | fb | uoftdivest.com | saia.opirg.uoft@gmail.com
Webinar fundraiser for Glia Project for Gaza medical relief with:

Yafa Jarrar (human rights lawyer)
Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sitta (American University of Beirut’s Medical Centre)
The BDS movement at the University of Toronto invites you to the webinar fundraiser, Contain the Pandemic, Free Palestine on Thursday, April 16 at 1pm Toronto EST / 8pm Palestine GMT+3 with human rights lawyer Yafa Jarrar and Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sitta of the American University of Beirut’s Medical Centre.

This webinar is part of a series of events leading up to Palestinian Prisoner Day (April 17) that raise awareness about the unprecedented threat posed by the coronavirus to Palestinian prisoners. Sign the petition to free the 5,000 Palestinian men, women and children held in Israeli prisons for resisting apartheid and colonialism!

We are also raising funds for the life-saving Glia Project that provides vital medical supplies and services to the besieged Gaza Strip in Palestine. See below for more details on how to donate!

About the webinar fundraiser
The Palestinian people have been living under Israeli military rule, apartheid and settler colonialism for over seven decades. This has systematically devastated Palestinian medical infrastructures, and severely compromised the capacity of Palestinian society to cope with a pandemic. As the Palestinian people brace for the impact of COVID-19, it is more urgent than ever to free all Palestinian prisoners, end the blockade on Gaza, and affirm the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes. These measures of freedom and justice for Palestinians are a necessary precondition for containing the virus in Palestine and globally.

Join us in responding to the appeal of Palestinian prisoners, human rights organizations and solidarity groups for material support and advocacy. These include the letter issued on March 25th from within Israeli prisons by The Palestinian Prison Committee for the Defence of Human Rights stating: “Save us from the coronavirus so that the Prisons don’t turn into Cemeteries!” […] We appeal to all free people: do not let us die in our cells, without any protective measure with the contagion that is spreading.” On April 7th, nineteen human rights organizations urged an end to the blockade of Gaza, appealing to “international organizations to call on Israel to fulfill its duties and responsibilities to assist the Palestinian health system and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.”

Now is the time to free all people incarcerated or detained around the world, and to lift all sanctions and blockades! Our collective safety and well-being depends on it.

Donate to Glia Project for medical relief in Gaza
Glia is a project with the goal of releasing high quality free/open medical hardware to increase availability to those who need it. The Glia Project provides vital medical supplies to the Palestinians in Gaza that they cannot import due to the illegal Israeli siege of the territory. To donate to the Glia project, follow these easy steps:

Single donations can be made here or via e-transfer to info@glia.org
Monthly donations can be made through the Glia page at Patreon
>$500 donations requiring tax receipts can be arranged by contacting info@glia.org
About our panelists
Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sitta is the Head of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and the co-director of the Conflict Medicine Program at the Global Health Institute at the American University of Beirut. He is the editor of a medical textbook, “Reconstructing the War Injured Patient”. He has worked as a war surgeon during the 3 wars in the Gaza Strip and the First and Second Intifadas, as well as Iraq and South Lebanon. His work was featured by numerous newspapers and media outlets notably La Monde, The Independent, Telegraph, BBC and CNN. You can read his interview, “There is no international community,” with Perla Issa where he discusses his experiences in Gaza in the Journal of Palestine Studies here.

Yafa Jarrar is a labour and human rights lawyer. She was born in Jerusalem and raised in Ramallah, Palestine. She moved to Canada in 2003, and completed a law degree at the Common Law program at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law. Yafa has been involved in prisoner solidarity in Palestine her entire life. She has also been active with the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement in Palestine and internationally since the 2005 BDS Call from Palestinian civil society.

Hosted by UofT Divest, a coalition of student and union groups:
The University of Toronto’s Students Against Israeli Apartheid
UofT’s Independent Jewish Voices
UofT’s Graduate Student Union Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) Caucus
Canadian Union of Public Employee’s 3902 BDS Committee

Details

Date:
16 April 2020
Time:
10:00 am - 11:00 am
Event Categories:
,
Website:
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/contain-the-pandemic-free-palestine-tickets-101936476746

Organizer

UofT Divest