Phyllis Bennis Friday, October 17

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Phyllis Bennis (writer, analyst, and activist on Middle East and United Nations issues) will speak at this Rachel Corrie Foundation Peace Works community and conference event, followed by a roundtable discussion with Palestinian Mayor Haj Sami Sadiq Subaih and Iraqi-American physician-activist Dahlia Wasfi.  The panel will be moderated by Dr. Steve Niva, Professor of Middle East Studies and Politics at The Evergreen State College.  A slide-presentation of photos from Zoriah Miller, award-winning photojournalist in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, and the Gaza Strip, will precede the discussion.Phyllis Bennis has a long history addressing issues of U.S. domination of the United Nations, disarmament, economic sanctions against Iraq, and the current Iraq War and occupation.  She is a Fellow of both the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington DC and the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam and a co-founder and current co-chair of the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation. Since 2002, she has played an active role in the growing global peace movement.  Bennis has authored and co-authored numerous books and articles including Before & After: US Foreign Policy and the War on Terrorism and Ending the Iraq War.Mayor Sami Sadiq, head of the Al Aqabah Village Council, coordinates with NGOs, human rights organizations, and peace groups to ensure that his West Bank Palestinian village endures and thrives.  The Mayor is traveling in the US with an urgent appeal to citizens and officials to save his village kindergarten from demolition.Dr. Dahlia Wasfi spent her early childhood in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq before returning to the US in 1977.  She reunited with her extended family in Basra and Baghdad in 2004 and, again, in 2006 and continues to speak about the impact of the U.S. invasion on the Iraqi people and the need to end the U.S. occupation.Tickets are available at The Washington Center for the Performing Arts website www.washingtoncenter.org or at the box office (360) 753-8586.  The price, $10 general admission and $5 for students, veterans, military families, and low income attendees, includes a $2.50 Washington Center Service Fee.Peace Works is an annual Rachel Corrie Foundation forum for exploring the meaning and practice of justice and peace.  This Friday evening event serves as a keynote for the conference Dual Occupations: Sovereignty and Freedom from Iraq to Palestine, October 17-19, at The Evergreen State College.  The multi-generational conference will bring together journalists, scholars, peace organizers, Iraq veterans, and community leaders to deepen understanding of foreign military occupation in the Middle East and to connect those who work for justice and an end to occupation and war.  Those attending the conference on Friday, October 17th will be admitted to the Friday night event as part of their conference fee.  See further conference information here at www.rachelcorriefoundation.org or contact the Rachel Corrie Foundation office at (360) 754-3998.Peace Works 2008 is co-sponsored by (Re) Imagining the Middle East, a program at The Evergreen State College.  Supporters include the Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation, Veterans for Peace, Chapter 109, and Compass Rose.