By Emily Weisberg / Palestine Monitor

Abedalhadi Basheer, a student from Gaza, at Peace Works 2011. Photo: Emily Weisberg

Dozens of writers, activists, students, filmmakers and human rights organizers came to Olympia, Washington USA over the weekend of April 8-9 for the 5th annual Peace Works conference, organized by the Rachel Corrie Foundation.

The Rachel Corrie Foundation, began in 2003 following the killing of 23-year-old Rachel by an Israeli bulldozer in Rafah, seeks to continue her legacy through community building and the promotion of human rights activism. Created by Rachel’s parents Cindy and Craig, the foundation began the Peace Works conference in 2006 to “bring people together to address issues of war, racism, economic inequality, environmental degradation, and oppression of individuals, groups, and peoples.”

The conference was held at the Evergreen State College, which Corrie attended before her death. Workshops and lectures were offered on a variety of current Palestine-Israel issues including water rights, diminishing borders, displaced villages, the recent onslaught of racist laws, home demolitions, ethnic cleansing, class struggles, colonization, trivialization of memory, and the success and challenges in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

The conference featured writer and poet Alice Walker on Friday evening, a sold-out event during which Walker discussed her own trip to Gaza with the Corries in 2009.

Register now for Peace Works 2011: Solidarity In Action

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Olympia, Wash. – The Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace & Justice will host its 2011 Peace Works event April 8-9. Solidarity in Action is a weekend conference featuring acclaimed author and activist Alice Walker as keynote presenter. Walker’s talk, entitled The Poet/Writer as Activist, will be at the Washington Center for the Performing Arts, Friday, April 8, at 7:30 p.m.

Best known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Color Purple (1982), Walker is also the recipient of the National Book Award, and author of more than 30 books. In March 2009, in the wake of Israel’s 22-day attack on Gaza, Walker traveled to Gaza with Cindy and Craig Corrie as part of a delegation led by Code Pink. Upon her return, Walker published a book of essays entitled Overcoming Speechlessness, which links the struggles for justice in Gaza, Eastern Congo and Rwanda with the U.S. Civil Rights movement and the South Africa anti-Apartheid struggle.

The Peace Works 2011 conference, Solidarity in Action, includes two days of networking, panels and workshops at The Evergreen State College in Olympia. Panelists will address the current situation in Israel/Palestine, strategies for justice and peace, the growing international campaigns for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) and cross-movement building. Local and national organizers will facilitate workshops to educate, motivate and provide tools for community organizing. Workshop themes will include human rights and legal campaigns; consumer, campus, cultural and interfaith BDS efforts; the civil trial in Israel concerning Rachel Corrie’s case; and strategies for using media, art and social networking to strengthen regional efforts for human rights and justice. The Olympia-Rafah Solidarity Mural Project will present the next phase of its downtown Olympia mural, one of the city’s most beautiful and successful collaborative projects.

The Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace & Justice presents
Peace Works 2011: Solidarity in Action

Alice Walker

Rachel Corrie’s legacy inspires people around the world to create positive, nonviolent change in their communities. The Peace Works series of events and conferences honor that legacy by linking action to critical thought, community organizing, and personal reflection.

This year’s Peace Works Conference theme is Solidarity In Action. Scheduled workshops and events include:

• Human Rights and Strategies for Justice in Palestine/Israel
• Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Campaigns & Grassroots Organizing
• Organizing with the Olympia Rafah Solidarity Mural Project
• Cross Movement Building,
• Social Networking as an organizing tool
• Report Back on Trial in Israel by the Corries
• Celebration with music and dancing Sat. evening in Downtown Olympia

The keynote speaker is Alice Walker, poet, author, and social justice activist.

Pre-registration information will be released shortly. Until then, put April 8-9, 2011 on your calendar and join the Rachel Corrie Foundation family for an amazing two days of learning, organizing, and celebration!

The Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace & Justice
presents a staged reading of Jen Marlowe’s play

There is a Field

There Is A Field

When: Monday, Oct. 25, 2010, 8 pm
Where: The Evergreen State College, Recital Hall, Communications Bldg.
Cost: FREE

This year marks the tenth anniversary of “Black October,” when Israeli police killed twelve Palestinian citizens of Israel, as demonstrations spread across the West Bank, Gaza, and Arab towns inside Israel.

One of those killed was seventeen-year old Aseel Asleh, shot point blank in the neck by Israeli police at a non-violent demonstration outside his village. Aseel had been a leading participant in a program called Seeds of Peace, which brings together Israeli and Palestinian youth. Aseel was wearing his Seeds of Peace T-shirt at the time of his killing and was buried in it.

Playwright Jen Marlowe knew Aseel personally and worked closely with the Asleh family over the seven years she spent writing the play. The script is based on interviews with family members, email exchanges, and official transcripts of an Israeli commission of inquiry.

More broadly, There is a Field addresses the problems faced by the Palestinian minority inside Israel, distinct from those of the Occupied Territories. The release of There is a Field on the tenth anniversary of Black October offers an important opportunity to inject these issues into the wider Israel/Palestine discussion.

Peace Works is an annual project of the Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice in the form of a lecture, conference, or other event that provides a forum for exploring the meaning and practice of justice and peace as they affect the social, economic, political, environmental, and spiritual aspects of people’s lives.

There is a Field

This October marks the ten-year anniversary of “Black October.” As the second Intifada erupted in the West Bank and Gaza, demon- strations also began in Arab villages and towns inside Israel. In October 2000, twelve Palestinian citizens of Israel were killed in these demonstrations by Israeli security forces.

One of those killed was a seventeen-year old boy named Aseel Asleh. Aseel was shot point blank in the neck by Israeli police at a demonstration outside his village. No eyewitnesses, including the Israeli policemen at the scene, claimed that Aseel had been violent in anyway. He was dead before reaching the hospital. Aseel had been a leading participant in a peace program called Seeds of Peace. He was wearing his Seeds of Peace t-shirt at the time of his killing and was buried in it.