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CREATED:20110523T051400Z
DESCRIPTION:Silencing Palestine:\nA panel on American Middle-East discourse, 
 Islamophobia, and Academic Freedom\n\nFeaturing Dr. Hatem Bazian, Richard 
 Becker, UCSC Students, and more..\n7:00pm Merrill Classroom 102\n\nThe 
 Israel-Palestine conflict is one of the most controversial and pressing 
 issues in international politics today. As a world superpower, the 
 organizer of peace talks, and funder of the Israeli military, the United 
 States has considerable influence over the issue, yet national discourse on 
 the topic is often non existent or stunted by a lack of context and 
 perspective.\n\nAmerican college campuses and academic circles are some of 
 the few places where open and vigorous discussion of conflict takes place. 
 But a pervasive trend of ignoring, disparaging, and censoring discussion 
 that challenges Israeli policy towards the Palestinian people, leads to 
 frequent denial of their experience and a lack of understanding of the 
 conflict.\n\nThis has become an increasingly important issue in national 
 news as a variety of academics, journalists, artists, activists, and 
 students speaking out on this topic face attempts at censorship, often in 
 the form of institutional or personal attacks.\n\nThe panel will discuss 
 the silencing of open Israel-Palestine discourse, the ways in which 
 Islamophobia and misconceptions about the Middle-East inform and contribute 
 to it, and the larger impact it has on campus climate, academic freedom, 
 and US foreign policy.\n\nSpeakers:\n\nSeveral UCSC students will speak 
 about their experiences trying to organize and promote open Middle-East 
 discourse on campus.\n\nRichard Becker is a noted writer and commentator on 
 Middle East affairs. He has been a featured speaker at political forums and 
 conferences in the United States and across the world.He led fact-finding 
 delegations to Palestine in 2000 and 2002, delivering medicine to 
 Palestinian hospitals. Becker helped produce the video Palestine Fights for 
 Freedom (2002) based on his experiences. In January 2000, Becker was 
 co-leader of the Iraq Sanctions Challenge, which delivered $2 million of 
 medicine to Iraq. He first traveled to Iraq in 1994 with a fact-finding 
 delegation headed by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark.\n\nBecker 
 is the Western Regional Coordinator of the ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to 
 Stop War and End Racism). ANSWER has organized mass protests of hundreds of 
 thousands of people against the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon and 
 Palestine from mid-2002 to the present\n\nIn late 2009 Becker published the 
 book "Palestine, Israel and the U.S. Empire" and spoke at more than 100 
 campuses and communities from 2009 to 2010.\n\n\nDr. Hatem Bazian, received 
 his Ph.D. in Philosophy and Islamic Studies from the University of 
 California, Berkeley. Currently, Bazian is a senior lecturer in the 
 Departments of Near Eastern and Ethnic Studies. Dr. Bazian between 
 2002-2007, also served as an adjunct professor of law at Boalt Hall School 
 of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. He teaches courses on 
 Islamic Law and Society, Islam in America: Communities and Institutions, 
 De-Constructing Islamophobia and Othering of Islam, Religious Studies, and 
 Middle Eastern Studies.\n\nAs an activist, Dr. Bazian has played a 
 significant role almost in every human and civil rights movement in the Bay 
 Area, nationally and internationally including the defense of Affirmative 
 Action in California, American With Disabilities Act, Anti-Apartheid, 
 Anti-Globalization Movement, and Central American Solidarity 
 struggles.\n\nhttp://www.hatembazian.com/\n\nWe want to make this event 
 accessible to people with disabilities.\nIf you need accommodation please 
 call SOAR at (831) 459-2934\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/05/22/18680296.php
SUMMARY:Silencing Palestine: a Panel with Richard Becker and Dr. Hatem Bazian
LOCATION:Merrill Classroom 102, UCSC
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/05/22/18680296.php
DTSTART:20110524T020000Z
DTEND:20110524T050000Z
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