A conversation with Sahar Francis and Ubai Aboudi, directors of two of the Palestinian NGO’s that the Israeli government outlawed
In late October, 2021, the Israeli minister of Defense falsely declared that six eminent and world respected Palestinian human rights and civil society organizations are terrorist groups. In this webinar the directors of two of those organizations will describe the work their organizations do and this attack on them.
In these perilous times, we desperately need to be seeking and supporting the truth. Please listen to these courageous people and discern for yourself if reporting human rights and defending civil liberties should be outlawed and consider our suggestions for doing something about it.
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Sahar Francis:
Since 2006, Sahar Francis has been the General Director of Ramallah-based Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, a Palestinian NGO providing legal and advocacy support to Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli and Palestinian prisons. An attorney by training, she joined the association in 1998, first as a human rights lawyer, then as head of the Legal Unit. With over twenty years of human rights experience, including human rights counseling and representation, Ms. Francis also was on the Board of Defence for Children International – Palestine Section for 4 years.
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Ubai Aboudi:
Father of three, Husband to Journalist Hind Shraydeh, Msc Economics focusing on Development and Social protection, Executive Director of Bisan Center for Research and Development, Editor in Chief of Altaqadomi (The Progressive) a peer reviewed journal on Development in Arabic. Human Rights Defender and former Political Prisoner by Israel and the P.A. Ubai is one of Scientists for Palestine’s (S4P) closest partners and worked tirelessly to make the Third International Meeting on Science in Palestine, which took place on January 10-12, 2020, at MIT, happen, though his detention prevented him from attending and presenting his own research.
You can also sign the petition here.
AAPF’s Under the Blacklight series continues with a discussion about the legacies of the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol.
“The Never-Ending Insurrection” will examine not merely the details of the shocking effort to subvert democracy by the Trump administration, but also the key undercurrents of racial resentment and right-wing authoritarianism that fed into the attempted coup—along with the longstanding dogmas of permanent minority rule that supplied its strategy and tactics. Participants include AAPF Co-Founder and Executive Director Kimberle Crenshaw, New Republic Contributing Editor Osita Nwanevu, Los Angeles Times columnist Jean Guerrero, Atlantic Council Fellow Jared Holt and Real News Network Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez. AAPF’s Editor-in-Chief Chris Lehmann will moderate.
The keepers of consensus discourse have gone out of their way to normalize the January 6 insurrection and its aftermath, slow-walking legal proceedings and congressional investigations concerning the post-election putsch, while also seeking to dismiss it as the desperate last gasp of antidemocratic defiance by a lame-duck Trump White House. In truth, January 6 was not the end of something, but the beginning. It marks the initial and ominous installment of an extended and coordinated effort on the right to bypass and crush the bulwarks of representative democracy—beginning with the legitimacy of the electoral process itself. Weaponizing baseless claims of rampant election fraud and subversion, lawmakers and activists on the right have moved swiftly to enact voter suppression laws in state legislatures throughout the country, while also gerrymandering many competitive Democratic congressional districts out of existence. State legislatures also passed a bevy of new bills outlawing many of the organized protests that surged through the country in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, further extending the structural foundations of white herrenvolk rule.
Meanwhile, the kindred culture-war assault on critical race theory has kept the white nationalist base of the GOP eagerly mobilized for the marquee political conflicts to come. This coordinated racial backlash has merged with the mounting anti-vax appeals on the right to create an all-purpose and across-the-board repudiation of anything that could be read as a claim of legitimacy within the public sphere: Hence threats to assassinate Anthony Fauci, calls to level the public school system and banish instruction in our country’s racial past, efforts to stonewall Congress and the courts all form an indistinguishable and toxic mood of secession and violent reprisal, steeped in the bitter and all-too familiar organizing tropes of racial reaction.
Join us as we discuss these urgent challenges to our multiracial democracy—and look ahead to better prepare the beleaguered institutions of our public life to face down this rapidly spreading existential threat.
*Registration for this conversation is through Eventbrite. All registered attendees will receive a link to watch the day of the event.
With Basir Bita, Afghan refugee relocated to Vancouver, CA; Doug Mackey, Fellowship Of Reconciliation; Ladaisha Williams, Community Outreach for Urban League’s Young Professionals Program (focus includes Afghan refugees resettling in Buffalo); Deidra EmEl, Executive Director of the WNY Peace Center; and Vicki Ross, WNYPC Community Coordinator, and Consultant for the Interfaith Peace Network.
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- values we bring
- the fall of Kabul – eyewitness account from Basir
- international efforts for peace and human rights
- local efforts to help with resettlement in Buffalo
- ways to help and get more involved
The show is taped for just under an hour by Think Twice Radio: Home of the Future (thanks to Richard Wicka, our wonderful producer. The Zoom recording, livestreamed on Facebook during the taping, will air on WBNY 91.3FM on the following Monday (1/10) at 2pm EST. After airing, you can also find the video archived on the WNY Peace Center YouTube channel.
