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10 years after modest launch, Israeli Apartheid Week spans the globe
In March 2005, the Arab Students’ Collective, a campus organisation at the University of Toronto, held a series of local events to support Palestinians and protest Israeli policies. Hoping to broaden debate at the end of the second Intifada and on the eve of Israel’s redeployment of ground forces and settlers from the Gaza Strip, originally called “the separation plan,” they called their proceedings Israeli Apartheid Week.
A decade on, their creation has become an annual and globally-recognised event. This year, it will feature cultural and educational events, as well as public protests in more than 200 cities on six continents.
Activists say the campaign’s growth indicates the rising appeal of its message.
“In the wake of Israel’s massacre of Palestinians in Gaza, this year’s IAW takes on even greater significance,” Michael Deas, a London-based member of the IAW international coordination committee, told Middle East Eye.
“More and more people are participating in IAW events for the first time, to find out more about Israel’s oppression of Palestinians and how they can take effective action in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle,” he said.
While IAW schedules typically last a week, their dates vary by location to account for different national calendars. Local groups are currently holding events across Canada, Ireland, the US, and South America. Others recently ended in Europe, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, South Africa and the UK, according to the IAW Web site.
‘A wider discussion’
IAW’s expansion dovetailed with that of the global movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel, which started independently four months later in July 2005. Many IAW events highlight specific BDS campaigns, while others have sparked new ones.
Yasmeen Abu-Laban, a professor of political science at the University of Alberta and co-author of Israel, Palestine and the Politics of Race: Exploring Identity and Power in a Global Context, said the breadth of IAW shows Palestine’s emergence as a global issue.
“The ten-year anniversary reflects on its longevity,” she told MEE. “But more than that, the fact that IAW went not only national in the context of Canada, but international, appearing in cities across the globe, reflects on the tremendous importance of Palestine solidarity as a movement for human rights and justice in the 21st century.”
“IAW activities have also enabled a wider discussion of BDS as a global civil society response to the 2005 call of Palestinian civil society to respond to Israel’s policies and continued occupation,” she added. “The BDS movement, like IAW activities, are part of how Palestine solidarity is being expressed today.”
Source: www.middleeasteye.net