Since its inception in 2004, IAW has been featured in more than 250
cities, communities and campuses around the world. PHOTO | COURTESY
The 14th Israeli Apartheid Week has been underway all over
Nairobi since March 12th, featuring films, fascinating discussions and
cultural performances.
Since its inception in 2004, IAW
has been featured in more than 250 cities, communities and campuses
around the world. In Nairobi, documentary and biopic films have been
screened at Parkfield Place in Westlands and at the Mathare Social
Justice Centre in Eastlands.
IAW will culminate this
weekend with two powerful and informative films. On Saturday from 2pm
‘The Empire Files: Anti-Black Racism Reveals Israel’s White Supremacy’
will be shown at Parkfield Place. It will feature investigative
journalist Abby Martin interviewing two African refugees who have been
grossly mistreated by the Israeli government. The Empire Files are aired
weekly on the satellite station TeleSUR.
Then on
Sunday, 2pm at the Eastleigh Mall, IAW will culminate with ‘Occupation
101: Voices of the Silent Majority’, the award-winning documentary film
by Abdallah and Sufyan Omeish that traces the historical roots of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Narrated by Allison Weir, founder of ‘If Americans Knew’, the
film presents a poignant analysis of both past and present events in the
region by featuring multiple insights shared by Middle East scholars,
peace activists, journalists, religious leaders and humanitarian workers
who’ve worked for years on the ground but whose views have largely been
ignored by Western media outlets.
Running all the way
from the rise of the Zionist movement in the late 19th century through
to the Second Intifada in 2000, the 90 minute film covers a wide range
of topics. Starting with the first wave of Jewish immigration from
Europe in the 1880s to the tensions of the 1920, the wars of 1948 and
1967 as well as the first Intifada in 1987, the Oslo Peace Process,
Israeli settlement expansion leading to the second intifada. The role of
the US government in the conflict is graphically underscored. And most
poignant are the heart-wrenching testimonies of those who’ve survived
and also resisted Israeli occupation.
The theme of this
year’s IAW has been ‘Afro-Palestinian Solidarity’. As such it has
focused on both Israel’s apartheid policies towards the Palestinians. It
has also highlighted the Israeli government’s discriminatory policies
and practices towards African migrants.
IAW has been
organized by the Kenya Palestine Solidarity Movement in partnership with
the Kenya Human Rights Commission, Mathare Social Justice Center, Mau
Mau Research Center, Fahamu, Awaaz and the Right Protection and
Promotion Center among others.
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