[act-ma] This Thurs @ 7 PM Commemorating the Nakba with Ghassan Kanafani

[Nesreen]

Commemorating the 62nd Anniversary of the Nakba in Palestine, 
please join us for an evening of readings from the work of Palestinian writer 
Ghassan Kanafani

Thursday May 20th, 2010
7:00 PM
Lewis Room
Cambridge Public Library, Central Square
45 Pearl St, Cambridge
accessible 
by bus and red line, Central Sq stop, wheelchair accessible
This 
event is free.

Featuring: 
Sameer Abu-Alsaoud
Laila Murad
Nada Samih
Dara Bayer
Lana Habash
Spiritchild
Viviane 
Saleh-Hanna
Gina Rodriguez-Drix
Marta Rodriguez
and 
Ashanti Alston, former political prisoner

There will be readings of 
Kanafani's work, musical performances, and  
Palestinian food.


>From Ghassan Kanafani's "Returning to Haifa", 1969: 

"What happened 
to you, Said?"
"Nothing. Nothing at all. I was just asking. I'm 
looking for the true Palestine, 
the Palestine that's more than 
memories, more than peacock feathers, more than a son, 
more than 
scars written by bullets on the stairs. I was just saying to myself: 
What's Palestine with respect to Khalid? He doesn't know the vase or the 
picture 
or the stairs or Halisa or Khaldun. And yet for him, 
Palestine is something worthy 
of a man bearing arms for, dying 
for.... Tens of thousands like Khalid won't be stopped 
by the tears 
of men searching in the depths of their defeat for scraps of armor and 
broken flowers. 
Men like Khalid are looking toward the future, so 
they can put right our mistakes and the 
mistakes of the whole 
world..." 

                                                        
History: 
This May marks the 62nd anniversary of the Nakba 
(Arabic for "catastrophe") in Palestine in 1948 when over 
935,000 
Palestinians (85% of the indigenous population of Palestine at that 
time) were forced off their 
land, in some cases at gunpoint, in 
other cases through massacres or threats of massacres like the massacre 
at Deir Yassin. As a result, 530 of an estimated 550 total villages were 
completely destroyed or depopulated. 
"Israel" was founded on the 
racist ideology of zionism. It has followed the expansionist and 
genocidal 
logic of white supremacy and colonialism for over sixty 
years. Today, the genocide in Palestine continues: 
from the planned 
expulsion of thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank, to the 
demolition of Palestinian 
homes in occupied Al Quds (Jerusalem), to 
the continued siege of the people of Gaza-- deprived of food, 
water, electricity, and medicine-- to the mass detention of over 11,000 
Palestinian political prisoners. 

Ghassan Kanafani, beloved 
Palestinian writer, was murdered by Zionist forces in 1972. His work 
reminds 
us of the spirit of resistance that has sustained the 
Palestinian people for generations. 

Please join us.

**The Cambridge Public Library is not a sponsor of this event.


      
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