Wed November 20 @ 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm EST - in person at First Unitarian Church in New Bedford, 71 8th St., New Bedford, MA
The Role of Resistance in Palestinian Liberation with Helena Cobban
by Southeast MA Coalition for a Free Palestine (no registration required)
Across Western mainstream discourse, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has been subjected to intense vilification. Branding it as “terrorist” or worse, this demonization intensified after the attack of October 7, 2023. This program aims to deepen understanding of a movement that is a key player in the current crisis and in Palestinian politics. It looks at, among other things, Hamas’s critical shift from social and religious activism to national political engagement; the delicate balance between Hamas’s political and military wings; and its transformation from early anti-Jewish tendencies to a stance that differentiates between Judaism and Zionism.
The event will be based on a series of rich and probing online conversations with leading experts on Hamas, held in May 2024 by Helena Cobban, British journalist and the founder of Just World Educational, and Rami Khouri, distinguished Palestinian-American academic and journalist. The series resulted in the book Understanding Hamas and Why That Matters, published in September by OR Books. Books will be available for signing by pre-order and at the event.
Our speaker, Helena Cobban, lived in Lebanon for seven years during the civil war, and this experience shaped her worldview and showed her first-hand the human rights abuses that people living in a war zone face on a daily basis. During this time, she worked as a Beirut-based correspondent for news outlets including The Christian Science Monitor, The Sunday Times, ABC News, and the BBC. Later, she was a regular contributor to The Christian Science Monitor and the Arabic-language daily newspaper Al-Hayat, and she has continued to contribute to these and to other news sources. She has published seven books of her own on international issues and conflict resolution, as well as contributing to many others.
Books will be available for signing at the event.
About Understanding Hamas and Why That Matters
Featuring contributions from Paola Caridi, Jeroen Gunning, Khaled Hroub, Mouin Rabbani, and Azzam Tamimi, this book provides much-needed insight into a widely misunderstood movement whose involvement in a just resolution of the Israel/Palestine conflict will be critical.
“An accessible and thorough primer grounded in genuine expertise on the history of Palestinian resistance.” — Max Blumenthal
“Truly important … should be read by everyone seriously interested in understanding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” —John J. Mearsheimer
“I couldn’t put it down and highly recommend it to anyone concerned about the plight of the Palestinian people.” —Medea Benjamin
“In a world of information warfare, in which little is true and every slur is plausible, reliable access to facts is invaluable … Understanding Hamas tells it like it is.” —Amb. Chas W. Freeman, Jr.
“Vital and timely … No one can deal with the Palestinian Question, or with Gaza, without understanding, and coming to terms with Hamas.” —Jonathan Kuttab
note: this book is based on 5 webinars facilitated by Just World Educational this past year. You can view them all here Understanding Hamas - Just World Educational
Source: The Role of Resistance in Palestinian Liberation – Massachusetts Peace Action
note: if you can’t make her talk on Wednesday, she will also be speaking in Cambridge on Thursday. Learn more here Palestinian Resistance: From the PLO to Today – Massachusetts Peace Action