Fri December 6 @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm EST - Zoom, Livestream and in person at the Community Church of Boston, 565 Boylston St., Boston MA
“Where Can We Go From Here?” Resistance, Solidarity, and Building Community with Prof Mazin Qumsiyeh and Mark Braverman
EXPLORING THE HOLY LAND PROBLEM
Organizers GRALTA Foundation / Massachusetts Peace Action Education Fund / Jewish Voice for Peace Boston / Community Church of Boston
Palestinians and those of us who care about them have never faced challenges greater than today’s. The Gaza genocide that began over a year ago has morphed into Israel’s three-front strategy to expand its borders and replace non-Jews living in Gaza, Lebanon, and the West Bank with an army, citizens militia, and Jewish settlements. Based on past, aggressively pro-Zionist policies, an incoming Trump administration appears ready to confirm Israel as a Jewish supremacist/apartheid state, and to further subjugate or eliminate non-Jews living in a Greater Israel. In calling for an end to Israeli apartheid and for a shared homeland for all, we join the struggle against the rise of authoritarianism in Europe, the Global South, and the United States. Zionism today, as ideology, theology and political project, has emerged as an expression of neocolonialism, Christian nationalism, and fascism.
Prof. Qumsiyeh was born and raised in Beit Sahour on the outskirts of Bethlehem. His evolving world views have been shaped by living under Israeli occupation, the education he received at universities in the Middle East, the U.S., and years of extensive travel throughout the world. After obtaining a doctorate in Zoology and Genetics from Texas Tech, he trained at the St. Jude Children Research Hospital and taught at the University of Tennessee, Duke, and then at Yale. He is author of 190 scientific papers, hundreds of articles, and several books on topics ranging from cultural heritage to human rights to biodiversity conservation to cancer. After returning to Palestine in 2008, Mazin and his wife Jessie Chang founded and run (as volunteers) the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity & Sustainability and the Palestine Museum of Natural History—both situated on the Bethlehem University campus.
Dr. Mark Braverman is a retired clinical psychologist and trauma consultant. Raised in a traditional Jewish family, he was steeped in Jewish religious observance, Bible study, the Hebrew language, and the Zionist narrative. Confronted by the reality of ethnic cleansing and ongoing colonial settlement of Palestine, Mark has devoted himself since 2006 to working for a future of dignity and peace for all the people living between the river and the sea. Mark has been closely involved in the international church movement for Palestinian rights. He spoke at the launch of the Kairos Palestine document in Bethlehem in 2009 and served on the Palestine Ecumenical Forum of the World Council of Churches. He is the author of two books and numerous journal articles and book chapters on the Kairos movement, ecumenism, post-holocaust theology, Jewish and Christian Zionism, and Christian-Jewish relations.
Join us in person at CCB’s Lothrop Auditorium or join us on Zoom or on Community Church’s YouTube channel.