International Solidarity Movement Nonviolence. Justice. Freedom.
23 May 2009
Apartheid Wall
Bil’in speaking tour featuring:
Mohammed Khatib.
Popular Committee Against the Wall, Bil’in, Occupied Palestine
Emily Schaeffer.
Israeli lawyer representing the village of Bil’in
Bil’in, a Palestinian village in the West Bank, has become an internationally celebrated symbol of Palestinian popular resistance to the ongoing construction of the Israeli apartheid wall and settlements on their land. Since 2005, villagers have led weekly protests, with the active participation from both Israeli and international solidarity activists, in opposition to illegal Israeli colonization and annexation of Palestinian land.
In June 2009, Mohamed Khatib of Bil’in’s Popular Committee Against the Wall and Emily Schaeffer, an Israeli lawyer representing the village of Bil’in, will be embarking on a tour of 11 Canadian cities to speak on Bil’in and the historic court case scheduled to be heard in Montreal in late June 2009.
The village has filed a lawsuit in Quebec Superior Court against Green Park International and Green Mount International, two companies registered in Quebec. The companies are accused of illegally constructing residential and other buildings on the village’s lands. According to the lawsuit, the lands of Bil’in are subject to the rules and obligations of international law because the West Bank is currently under Israeli military occupation.
Bil’in’s case against the construction of settlements on their land is based on the provisions of the Geneva Convention, which prohibit an occupying power from transferring its civilian population into territory that it has occupied as a result of war. The case against Green Park and Green Mount seeks an immediate order from the Canadian court that it end its illegal activities.
check out the itinerary to see when the tour will be visiting your city!
Montreal conference:
FRIDAY JUNE 19 19hoo
De Seve Cinema, Concordia University
1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd.
tour itinerary
June 4 – Montreal Press Conference to launch tour!
June 5 – Halifax
June 6 – Fredericton
June 8 – Vancouver
June 9 – Victoria
June 10 – Edmonton
June 11 – Moncton
June 12 – Toronto
June 15 – Ottawa
June 17 – Quebec
June 18 – Sherbrooke
June 19 – Montreal
June 22 – Demonstration in Montreal at the first day of the Bil’in hearings
The Bil’in Tour is organized by Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR), Tadamon!, and Young Jews for Social Justice.
