Displacement Without Moving a Thing: Palestinian Families Under Occupation

Kali Rubaii was the first English teacher in Al Aqaba, a Palestinian village in the West Bank. Her presentation will focus on how Palestinian families raise their children while struggling to keep their homes and village intact in the face of demolitions, live fire, and destruction of their farms, schools and infrastructure. Kali will discuss Al Aqaba's strategies and partnership with the non-profit organization Rebuilding Alliance, as the village takes a novel approach to rebuilding homes and a school in a village where the population is under orders to move from their traditional lands. Al Aqaba's strategies are a model for different areas of Palestine, as well as other communities facing displacement.

Kali Rubaii and her mother, Debra Ellis, have lived and worked with refugees and displaced communities in Syria, Jordan, Palestine, and other parts of the Middle East. A Ph.D. candidate in Anthropology at UCSC, Kali studies non-migratory displacement for people living under military occupation in Iraq and Palestine. She works with Rebuilding Alliance and FOSNA (Friends of Sabeel North America) to promote peaceful justice in Palestine. Kali is the co-founder of ISLAH, an organization that gives Americans the opportunity to pay reparations to the Iraqi people through medical and advocacy support.