Direct Action & Under the Hammer proudly presents:
ISRAELI ACTIVISTS SPEAK OUT: SOLIDARITY, JUSTICE & THE MILITARY OCCUPATION OF PALESTINE
Sahar Vardi and Micha Kurz are among a growing number of young Israelis who are taking an active stand against their government’s occupation and policies of oppression against the Palestinian people.
Both Sahar and Micha have been actively engaged in Palestine solidarity activism in the Occupied West Bank and Occupied East Jerusalem and will speak about their experiences as Israeli anti-occupation activists and their involvement in the joint Palestinian-Israeli popular struggle for a Free Palestine.
7pm, Tuesday, 28th August
Under the Hammer Activist Art Hub
158 Sydney Road, Coburg
Entry by donation.
About the speakers:
Sahar Vardi is a 21 year old peace activist and “refusenik” from Jerusalem. In 2008, as a high school senior, Sahar refused her mandatory conscription into the Israeli military. She was the third conscientious objector, and the first woman, to be imprisoned among the 2008 group of high school seniors, who signed a collective declaration of refusal to serve in the Israeli army.
Sahar has been an active participant in the joint popular struggle in the Occupied West Bank, opposing Israel’s occupation. She also works with the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions and is involved in the Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity movement, which opposes the illegal seizure of Palestinian houses by Israeli settlers in Occupied East Jerusalem.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4f5xU5UGYpM&feature=relmfu
Micha Kurz is a co-founder and co-director of Grassroots Jerusalem, a project that maps social inequalities, justice issues and environmental problems, together with community projects that address them, in and around the Jerusalem area. Grassroots Jerusalem projects include 'I am Al Walajeh' which documents the struggle of the Palestinian village of Al Walajeh against growing settlement expansion and the building of Israel’s illegal wall which divides Palestinian communities and annexes Palestinian land.
Micha is also a co-founder of Breaking the Silence, a group of ex-Israeli soldiers that aims to expose the Israeli public the reality of everyday life for Palestinians living under Israeli occupation by collecting and publishing testimonies from soldiers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QtMMZEETOo&feature=player_embedded
http://www.grassrootsjerusalem.org/
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Direct Action is an independent socialist newspaper, which is an active supporter and campaigner for the Palestinian people’s struggle for self-determination and justice.
Under the Hammer is an artist’s collective across the various mediums such as music, theatre, comedy, spoken word, film and visual art dedicated to the creation and promotion of "political art." We believe that in a world full of war, racism, sexism, homophobia, environmental destruction corporate greed it is important to generate art that challenges the dominant paradigm.
http://www.facebook.com/UndertheHammer
“Art is not a mirror to hold up to society, but a hammer with which to shape it” – Bertolt Brecht