This multi-generational conference will connect communities working to end occupation and war in the Middle East and assist those who work in this movement in sharing skills and fresh ideas to become more effective in organizing. Participants will educate each other and build skills to challenge injustice through political, media, and gender analysis, with new knowledge of our roles in the dynamics of the Middle East and US foreign policy. Through bridging communities and acknowledging differences, we intend to find new strategies to build a broader and more effective movement. (more…)

This is a gallery of images taken during the Rachel corrie Foundation’s PeaceWorks 2006 conference, the first of the annual series put on by the foundation.

In April of 2006 hundreds of people came to Olympia, WA, from around the world for The Rachel Corrie Foundation’s inaugural Peace Works event. The two-day conference in April followed pre-conference activities and events and focused on the struggle in Palestine and Israel. The two-day conference in April followed pre-conference activities and events and focused on the struggle in Palestine and Israel.

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“This has to stop. I think it is a good idea for us all to drop everything and devote our lives to making this stop. I don’t think it’s an extremist thing to do anymore. I still want to dance around to Pat Benetar and have boyfriends and make comics for my coworkers. But I also want this to stop.”

In April of 2006 hundreds of people came to Olympia, WA, from around the world for The Rachel Corrie Foundation’s inaugural Peace Works event. The two-day conference in April followed pre-conference activities and events and focused on the struggle in Palestine and Israel.

The foundation plans to conduct annual events to analyze war, racism, global economic inequality, oppression of women, and other forms of injustice, and to formulate a hopeful vision of a world community that responds constructively to its inhabitants’ rights, needs and aspirations.

Video

The following films were produced from the first annual Rachel Corrie Foundation Peace Works - April 2006, courtesy pdxjustice.org.

PART 1
Diana Buttu - “From Occupation to Enclosure: Fragmenting the Palestinian State”
Diana Buttu is a Palestinian-Canadian lawyer. In 2000, she left North America to move to Palestine in order to assist with the then “peace” negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel as one of the PLO’s legal advisors. With the outbreak of the second Palestinian uprising against Israel’s occupation (and the breakdown of negotiations) Diana decided to remain in Palestine.

PART 2
Amira Hass - “From Occupation to Enclosure: Fragmenting the Palestinian State”
Amira Hass lives and works in the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza. In 1993 she became the first Israeli reporter to live in Gaza, reporting on the Israeli occupation for Ha’aretz, an Israeli daily newspaper, which is available in English translation through their website. Amira Hass received the International World Press Freedom award for her work in the Gaza Strip. Her time there also resulted in her first book, Drinking the Sea at Gaza: Days and Nights in a Land under Siege. She is also author of Reporting from Ramallah : An Israeli Journalist in an Occupied Land. She spoke, along with Palestinian-Canadian lawyer, Diana Buttu, on the topic “From Occupation to Enclosure: Fragmenting the Palestinian State.”

Photo Album

These are a selection of photos from the Peace Works conference, held at South Puget Sound Community College, in Olympia, WA: See photos here.

Conference in the Press

• “Palestinian activists gather in Corrie’s hometown” by Simone Sagovac for the The Arab American News
• “Journalist describes daily life for Palestinians” by Diane Huber for The Olympian

This is one of the speakers at The Rachel Corrie Foundation’s 2006 Peace Works Conference.

Dr. Mustafa Kamel Barghouthi is a member of the Palestinian parliament; 2005 presidential candidate; physician; social, political, human rights and peace activist; one of the most active grassroots leader in Palestine; campaigner for the development of Palestinian civil society and grassroots democracy; outspoken advocate of internal reform; international spokesperson for the Palestinian cause; leading figure in the non-violent, peaceful struggle against the Occupation; and organizer of international solidarity presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Mustafa Barghouthi has made an extraordinary contribution to initiatives to peacefully challenge the ongoing Israeli Occupation of Palestine and bring it to end, as well as efforts to build the institutional framework of Palestinian civil society and promote the principles of internal democracy and good governance. He writes extensively for local and international audiences on civil society, democracy issues and the political situation in Palestine, as well as on health development policy in Palestine. (more…)

This is one of speakers at The Rachel Corrie Foundation’s 2006 Peace Works Conference. Go Here To see the main Peace Works Conference page.

Arun Gandhi is the fifth grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, a social-political activist, and founder of the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Non-Violence in Memphis, Tennessee.Born in 1934 in Durban, South Africa, Arun is the fifth grandson of India’s legendary leader, Mohandas K. “Mahatma” Gandhi. Growing up under the discriminatory apartheid laws of South Africa, he was beaten by “white” South Africans for being too black and “black” South Africans for being too white; so, Arun sought eye-for-an-eye justice. However, he learned from his parents and grandparents that justice does not mean revenge, it means transforming the opponent through love and suffering.

Grandfather taught Arun to understand nonviolence through understanding violence. “If we know how much passive violence we perpetrate against one another we will understand why there is so much physical violence plaguing societies and the world,” Gandhi said. Through daily lessons, Arun says, he learned about violence and about anger. (more…)

This is one of the speakers at The Rachel Corrie Foundation’s 2006 Peace Works Conference. Go Here To see the main Peace Works Conference page.

Amira Hass is an Israeli author and journalist for the Israeli daily newspaper Ha’aretz who has lived in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. She was born in Jerusalem in 1956, the daughter of Yugoslavian-Jewish refugees. A journalist for the Hebrew daily Ha’aretz, she covers Gaza and the West Bank. She received the UPI’s International Award and the Sokolow Prize, Israel’s highest honor for journalists. For her work in Gaza, Hass was been nominated for the Robert F. Kennedy Award.

From 1993 to 1997, Amira Hass lived in Gaza and was the first Israeli journalist to stay the enclave so feared and despised by most Israelis that, in the Israeli idiom, “Go to Gaza” is another way to say “Go to hell.” (more…)

This is one of the speakers at The Rachel Corrie Foundation’s 2006 Peace Works Conference.

Diana Buttu is a Palestinian-Canadian lawyer. In 2000, she left North America to move to Palestine in order to assist with the then “peace” negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel as one of the PLO’s legal advisors. With the outbreak of the second Palestinian uprising against Israel’s occupation (and the breakdown of negotiations) Diana decided to remain in Palestine.

She gained prominence during Israel’s invasion of the West Bank, serving as spokesperson for the PLO. Ms Buttu assisted in the litigation of Israel’s wall before the Hague in 2004 - a resounding victory for the Palestinians, and indictment of Israel’s wall. In 2005 she was appointed President Abbas’s communications director. She has since left her official posts. She now resides in Gaza where she is writing a book on the Israeli occupation. (more…)