PACC's 2023 Virtual Conference

2023

paccusa.org

PACC’s 4th Annual Virtual Conference

Centering Palestinian Narratives, People, and Visions

#PACCcon23

Palestinian American Community Center

#PACCcon23 @paccusa

PACC Virtual Conference 2023

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#PACCcon23

Centering Palestinian Narratives, People, and Visions In the last two years, we have seen a beautiful and motivating surge of Palestine education and information circulating social media platforms and media news outlets. As more awareness about the Palestinian struggle and resistance spreads, PACC wants to simultaneously make sure that these narratives are centering Palestinian voices. For us to properly advocate for a free Palestine, the lived realities and dignity of Palestinians on the ground must foreground our activism. Given PACC’s connections with people on the ground in Palestine, this year’s conference will focus on listening to Palestinian society in an attempt to provide a critical understanding of Palestinian needs, resistance, and life that guides the work we do in our own localities- until freedom.

Palestinian American Community Center paccusa.org | @paccusa

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Day 1: Friday, March 17 (all times are EST)

Zoom link: Meeting ID: 894 3593 7398 Passcode: 514110

6:30 - 7:00 PM: Opening Remarks

Nadya Tannous

7:00 - 8:30 PM: Honoring the 75th Anniversary of the Nakba Farha Movie Discussion

Nada Elia

6:30 - 7:00 PM Session Description: Our opening remarks portion will explain the importance of and need for the theme of this year’s conference. We will highlight the main lessons that will be drawn from each session topic and speaker(s).

7:00 - 8:30 PM Session Description: This session highlights and honors the 75th anniversary of the Nakba by discussing the latest film that documents some of its events, Farha. Join us to unpack the film and draw from it the important historical lessons that we can learn from as we continue to fight the ongoing Nakba. Please make sure you have already viewed the film before the session.

Palestinian American Community Center paccusa.org | @paccusa

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Day 2: Saturday, March 18 (all times are EST)

Zoom link: Meeting ID: 831 5864 8054 Passcode: 082593

11:00 AM - 12:15 PM: Experiences of Palestinian Youth and Prisoners

Ahed Tamimi

12:30 - 2:00 PM: Birzeit University Student’s Right to Education Campaign

Sundos Hammad, Rasmeya Ajjaj, Majd Jarrar, Fairouz Salameh

11:00 AM - 12:15 PM Session Description: *This session will be in Arabic and we will be providing English translation.* How are Palestinian youth affected, influenced, and shaped by the Israeli apartheid regime and military occupation of their homeland?

By highlighting the stories and lived experiences of Palestinian youth themselves, this session aims to unpack the various strategies and tools of resistance and resilience that youth in Palestine embody in their everyday life, as well as how this reality affects their childhood.

12:30 - 2:00 PM Session Description: This session provides an overview of the experiences of students in Birzeit University and how Israel’s military apartheid regime adds to, hinders, and influences their experience. Students will present their Right to Education campaign, specifically the overall goals of it, how it came together, and why it is needed.

Palestinian American Community Center paccusa.org | @paccusa

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Day 3: Sunday, March 19 (all times are EST)

Zoom link: Meeting ID: 818 2224 3689 Passcode: 490499

Omar Barghouti 11:00 AM - 12:15 PM: Challenging Israeli Apartheid against Palestinians: Solidarity Starts with Ending ComplicityUnity Intifada Anniversary of the Nakba Muna ElKurd 12:30 - 2:00 PM: The Significance of the Unity Intifada Complicity Unity Intifada 11:00 AM - 12:15 PM Session Description: How can we better understand and support the need for resistance, by any means necessary? This session will focus on the BDS movement, led by the largest coalition in Palestinian society. It will unpack how members of the movement view mobilizing pressure to end US complicity (by government/ Congress, corporations, institutions) in Israel’s regime of settler-colonialism, apartheid and military occupation as the highest priority for Palestinians and our supporters in the US.

12:30 - 2:00 PM Session Description: *This session will be in Arabic and we will be providing English translation.* This session highlights the main conversations happening on the ground in Palestine amongst various members of civil society today, especially focusing on the strength and lessons of the Unity Intifada. By exploring the similarities and differences from the Intifadas that have taken place, we can draw lessons from them as we continue to fight for Palestinian liberation, self determination, and right of return.

Note: Muna will be joining us only for the last 30 minutes of the session, we will have another speaker present for the first part of the session Palestinian American Community Center paccusa.org | @paccusa

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Speakers:

Ahed Tamimi

Fairouz Salameh

Ahed is a Palestinian activist from Nabi Saleh in the occupied West Bank. As a child, she rose to global prominence for confronting Israeli soldiers during weekly demonstrations, which led to her imprisonment at the age of sixteen. She is currently studying international law at Birzeit University and plans to use her degree to advance the struggle for a free Palestine.

Fairouz is a master’s student in Birzeit University’s Israeli studies program. She is a student activist, a volunteer in the Right to Education Campaign and a fellow in the New Generation of Social Scientists in the Arab Region fellowship program. She holds a bachelor’s degree in geography and a minor in political science from Birzeit University.

Majd is a student activist in his fifth year in the Faculty of Business and Economics at Birzeit University. Jarrar was previously detained for 7 months in Israeli prisons and is currently a volunteer in the Right to Education Campaign.

Majd Jarrar Muna is a Palestinian activist based in the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in Jerusalem. Along with her twin brother, Mohammed El Kurd, she helped bring international attention to the illegal annexation of Palestinian homes in Sheikh Jarrah by settlers.

Muna ElKurd Palestinian American Community Center paccusa.org | @paccusa

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PACC Virtual Conference 2023

Nadya Tannous

Nada Elia

Omar Barghouti

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Nadya is a passionate community organizer, born and raised in the Bay Area (Ohlone Territory), with a focus on political education, movement relationship building, and returning land to the people and people returning to the land. Nadya is a member of the Palestinian Youth Movement. She currently serves as Director of Operations for Honor The Earth. Nadya holds an MSc in Forced Migration and Refugee Studies from the University of Oxford and a BA in Anthropology and Sociology from UC Santa Cruz.

Nada Elia is a diaspora Palestinian writer, grassroots organizer, and university professor. She is the author of Trances, Dances, and Vociferations: Agency and Resistance in Africana Women’s Narratives, and has contributed chapters to Palestine: A Socialist Introduction and The Case for Sanctions on Israel.

She is a core member of the Palestinian Feminist Collective and has been the plenary presenter at major conferences such as the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights. Her articles have been published in Mondoweiss, Middle East Eye and Electronic Intifada amongst many other places.

Omar Barghouti is a Palestinian human rights defender and co-founder of the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestinian rights. He is a co-recipient of the 2017 Gandhi Peace Award. He holds a B.Sc. and an M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University, NY, and is pursuing a PhD in Philosophy (ethics) at the University of Amsterdam. He is the author of, BDS: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights (Haymarket: 2011). His commentaries and views have appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian, the Washington Post, and on MSNBC, CNN, among others.

Palestinian American Community Center paccusa.org | @paccusa

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Rasmeya is a fourth-year speech therapy and audiology student at Birzeit University and a volunteer in the Right to Education Campaign.

Rasmeya Ajjaj

Sundos is the Coordinator of the Right to Education Campaign- Birzeit University. She holds a Master degree in International Relations.

Sundos Hammad

Palestinian American Community Center paccusa.org | @paccusa

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THANK YOU! Tech Moderator: Sana Shaikh

Designs and Marketing: Fadia Alagha Munna Aldakhlallah Wasayef Bsharat Panel Moderators: Amineh Al-Aydi Barry Mahmoud Fadia Alagha Juhayna Alkurdi Rozan Jubran

THANK YOU to Our Sponsor

Rateb Rabie from Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation, Inc and to all who supported us!

Palestinian American Community Center paccusa.org | @paccusa

#PACCcon23

PACC Virtual Conference 2023

#PACCcon23