Khaled Nabhan Atrium

Hussam Abu Safiya Hall

For the past two years, Israel has pursued a strategy of making Gaza a “hell on earth.” Through the systematic destruction of the infrastructure required for society to function and the deliberate use of starvation as a weapon, the occupation has sought to make life unlivable. This panel brings together Palestinian speakers to discuss life in Gaza amid genocidal attempts to erase it.  They will speak to how Gaza’s doctors, nurses, aid workers, journalists, engineers, writers, and civil defense teams continue to work under fire, protect life, and uphold dignity in the midst of a U.S.-backed, Israeli-led campaign of genocide.

CHILDREN’S PROGRAM: WELCOME AND STORY TIME

Hassan Alaa Ayad Room

Hussam Abu Safiya Hall

In the past two years, Gaza has divided the world in two. It has forever divided the world between the forces who support genocide and fascism and the forces who oppose it: those who organize to fight and win against genocide. The slogan of this conference is “Gaza is the compass" because Gaza has become a litmus test for humanity itself. Speakers will discuss the significance of this slogan in relation to their own work.

Grab on your own.

Hussam Abu Safiya Hall

In response to the last two years of Zionist genocide in Gaza, a powerful mass movement has erupted. From the streets to the workplace, from university campuses to the classrooms, millions of people across North America and the world have been exposed to injustice in Palestine and in their own lives. In this panel, leaders in the movement for Palestinian liberation in North America will reflect on the last two years of struggle and examine the movement’s current state, its key challenges, and its future direction.

CHILDREN’S PROGRAMMING: PALESTINE ON A MAP

Hassan Alaa Ayad Room 

Session 1: Seeds of Resistance: The Struggle for Food Sovereignty 

Fatima Hassouna Room 

The occupation’s current genocidal campaign against Gaza has targeted every single aspect of life including agriculture, food, and water. The targeting of soil, farmland, and food systems has historically been used as a weapon of war by Israel in order to attack Palestinian sovereignty itself. This session will provide an overview of how starvation and ecological destruction are being used as a tactic across Palestine—most intensively in the genocide on Gaza—and the strategies people have used to resist this campaign. 

Session 2: Unmasking Genocide Enablers in the United States 

Hossam Shabat Room

A key task of the Palestine movement in North America is to clarify the relationship between the United States and Zionism by exposing all the US institutions and actors that make the genocidal Zionist project possible. This session will highlight the work of organizations and leaders engaged in the work of unmasking genocide enablers and holding them to account. It will also address the Zionist strategy of image rehabilitation, identifying key leaders and budgetary allocations for these efforts in genocide denial and offer actionable ways to ensure that Zionism is never able to rehabilitate its genocidal image. 

Session 3: One Year Later: The Student Movement in the Wake of the Encampments

Rifaat Radwan Room 

In the spring of 2024, student organizers across North America and the globe galvanized the world through setting up Gaza Solidarity Encampments, thus building on a long tradition of student leadership in the Palestine movement. Since then, student leaders have been on the frontlines of intensified repression of those who fight against genocide: they have been suspended, defamed, and seen their campuses denied funding and targeted as part of a witchhunt against pro Palestine students. In this session, university and high school student organizers will speak to the state of student organizing and its importance in the  context of heightened repression and intensity of struggle in educational institutions. 

Session 4: Toward Practical Action: Popular Strategies in Isolating Zionism

Yousef Al-Zaq Room

This session will include speakers from different geographies in North America who are leading campaigns that work to Zionism on a concrete level. We will hear from speakers involved in organzing around genocide documentation, arms embargo campaigns, divestment efforts, and leveraging elections and the electoral arena to isolate Zionism. Speakers will not only highlight their work, but will also offer concrete avenues for panel attendees to join their campaigns. 

Hussam Abu Safiya Hall

Cultural Night with Wishah Popular Dance Troupe and Baladi Dance Group

The Wishah Popular Dance Troupe and the Baladi Dance Group are two Palestinian dabke troupes from Al-Bireh, Ramallah, and Beit Jala, Palestine. Wishah and Baladi’s performances are a living archive of Palestinian resistance. Dabke carries, across generations, the stories of the Palestinian people: of land, exile, return, and steadfastness. In the face of genocide and erasure, Wishah and Baladi preserve and celebrate Palestinian culture and heritage in the face of efforts to erase it.