Wednesday 28 January, 2009
Mike Cushman has been active in campaigning for Palestinian rights for a number of years. Recently he returned from his first visits to the Occupied Palestinian Territories, The West Bank, East Jerusalem and then Gaza; nothing he had read or heard had prepared him for what he saw there.
This talk will attempt to share what made his visit so disturbing and what he realised about the intrusive nature of the interference with everyday life. Mike will talk about his encounters with the Israeli Army; with Bedouins whose homes had just been wrecked; with Palestinian civil society groups, trade unions and more.
Mike will also talk about sailing to Gaza on the FreeGaza boat Dignity to break the Israeli blockade and help bring out eleven students who were trapped in Gaza and unable to take up their places to study abroad. He will describe what he learned about life under siege living with the destruction caused by Israeli invasion, shelling and bombing.
He will also talk about how Palestinian Civil Society Groups present an alternative
politics to what is presented in the West as a simple contest between Fatah
and Hamas.
Page last updated 22 February 2010