The Israeli Apartheid Week 2014

Cambridge University Palestine Society has organized a full week of events as part of the 10th annual Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW). IAW is an international series of events that seeks to raise awareness about Israel’s apartheid policies towards the Palestinians and aims to build support for the growing Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign. It is taking place at over 15 UK universities this year.

IAW began in Toronto in 2005 and called for full equality for Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel, an end to the occupation and colonization of all Arab lands – including the Golan Heights, the Occupied West Bank with East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip – dismantling the Wall, and the protection of Palestinian refugees’ right of return.

To follow suit, we have organized five events for this week in order to educate people about both the situation on the ground and about how to get involved. The IAW had the following activities:

A Panel Discussion: “Apartheid in Palestine/Israel: Reality, Legality and Resistance” with Ben White, Mujahid Dattani and Selma Dabbagh. Ben White talked about the institutionalized and systematic racial segregation and ethnic cleansing to which the Palestinian people are subject. An examination of Apartheid from a legal point of view was made by Mujahid Dattani, after which we concluded with Selma Dabbagh who talked about the power of literature as a form of resistance. Film screening: “Roadmap to Apartheid” which gave a detailed and powerful insight into the apartheid analogy commonly used to describe the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The film is a historical document of the rise and fall of apartheid in South Africa, and shows how Palestinians feel they are living in a parallel apartheid system today.

After the film, we surveyed the audience to see how many of them were aware of just how strong the similarities are between South Africa and Israel. A near consensus showed that most people had no idea and had been shocked by the comparison.

A panel discussion: “Separate But Not Equal: Palestinian Refugees’ Right of Return.” This event is important because the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland is commonly ignored. Starting in 1948, over five million Arab Palestinian refugees and their descendants lost their citizenship, land and property to the state of Israel. Their ethical Right of Return to their homes finds legal expression in UN Resolution 194 of 1948 which has been many times reaffirmed. During this event we will also discuss the One Democratic State solution which would fully uphold this right. A talk: This day shed light on the crisis faced by Palestinian refugees in the Yarmouk Refugee camp where dehydration, devastation and disease are becoming a daily reality. Mr. Wasim Ahmad, the head of research at the Palestinian Return Centre, delivered the talk and drew attention to the broader suffering of Palestinians due to the lack of right of return. A student panel discussion: this session focused on the personal experiences of Palestinian students currently at Cambridge and explores how everyone can be more involved in resisting apartheid. We discussed the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign and other forms of mainstream resistance.

Israeli Apartheid Week is to be organized for the first time at Cambridge University by the support of the Palestine Forum in Britain (PFB)