Study & Action for Palestine
from ceasefire to liberation ... what would it take?
Online Course & Learning Community
held and hosted by White Awake
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FACILITATORS: Eleanor Hancock and Chris Crass | WITH GUEST TEACHERS: Huwaida Arraf, Rabbi Alissa Wise, Sumaya Awad, Kohenet Jen Kiok and Andrew Kadi
“Decolonization is not only a moral imperative, it is a necessity for life on this planet.” - Nick Estes
“There are racist arguments that the Palestinians are incapable of living in peace with Jews, but history belies this. Palestinians want peace, and that means ending the occupation, ending racist discrimination against Palestinians inside the 1949 ceasefire lines, and ending the forced exile of refugees who want to return and live in peace with their neighbors. That is the key to peace.” - Ali Abunimah
“I am you. I am your past. And by killing me, you kill you.” - Refaat Alareer
Study & Action for Palestine is an online course and a learning community for anyone who is committed to a Free Palestine and the well-being of all people, everywhere. The program consists of extensive study materials, six live sessions (recorded and open/available to anyone who registers) and an ongoing focus on action - both what participants are doing or can be doing right now, as well as how we can deepen our engagement in specific, strategic struggles and commit ourselves to the long haul. We are honored to be joined by an amazing roster of guest teachers, and we encourage participants to join the program with others they know.
Designed to be a community of support for study and taking meaningful action, this course will focus on the following themes:
- Historic and international context for the current wave of genocidal violence against Palestinians under Israeli occupation
- Historic Palestine, Palestinian struggles for self-determination, and Palestinian leadership in liberatory movements
- Antisemitism, the weaponization of Jewish trauma, and Jewish leadership in liberatory movements
- Settler colonialism, Zionism, capitalism, imperialism, and the strong ties between the United States & Israel
- Avenues for engagement, including Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions, Palestinian & Jewish led organizing, and international solidarity
White Awake is an organization that specializes in working with white people. We are based in the United States, and our work is anti-racist, anti-capitalist, anti-imperial, and anti-colonial. We focus on developing class consciousness, understanding racism as a divide and control strategy, and breaking the alignment between everyday white people and the capitalist, ruling class.
The question “What would it take?” is central to our work. What would to take … to dismantle white supremacy, to eliminate racism, to co-create a world where everyone thrives? Applying this question to the current escalation in the ongoing crisis of settler-colonialism in Gaza is the starting point for the work we will be doing together in this program.
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March 4 - May 13 / every other Monday (six sessions)
8-9:30pm ET (5-6:30pm PT)
Click here to register
Suggested registration fee: $175-325*
NO ONE WILL BE TURNED AWAY FOR LACK OF FUNDS
Sessions will be recorded. Live attendance is not mandatory.
Guest Teachers:
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HUWAIDA ARRAF is a Palestinian-American human rights attorney, activist and organizer. She has been involved in legal and grassroots initiatives for Palestinian rights for the last two decades, including co-founding the Nobel Peace Prize-nominated International Solidarity Movement (ISM), and leading the Free Gaza Movement, which organized sea voyages to Gaza to confront and challenge Israel's illegal blockade of the strip. Huwaida was a 2022 House of Representatives candidate for Michigan's 10th Congressional District.
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SUMAYA AWAD is a Palestinian writer and organizer focusing on Palestine, anti-imperialism, Islamophobia, immigration, and labor. She is the Director of Strategy and Communications with the Adalah Justice Project, a Palestinian-led advocacy organization based in the U.S. that builds cross-movement coalitions to achieve collective liberation. Sumaya is also a cofounder of the Against Canary Mission Project and the co-editor of Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, released by Haymarket Books in December, 2020.
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KOHENET JEN KIOK is a queer white Ashkenazi Jew of Polish and Lithuanian descent, co-conspiring with her ancestors on the path to collective liberation. Jen is a mother, a daughter/caretaker, an ancestor in training, an educator, a community leader, a dancer and an ordained Kohenet. For over 20 years Jen has served in leadership roles building intergenerational communities, rooted in arts and culture with an explicit commitment to racial justice. Jen served as ED of Boston Workers Circle, Center for Jewish Culture & Social Justice from 2015-2021.
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ANDREW KADI is an organizer active for the past 22 years in support of Palestinian rights and working on civil society initiatives among Palestinians. He is a member of Al-Shabaka: the Palestinian Policy Network, spent 9 years with Adalah-NY and 9 years on the Steering Committee of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights. Kadi has written for or appeared in The Guardian, USA Today, NBC News, The Forward, TRT, CityLab, the BBC, Electronic Intifada, and Mondoweiss.
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ELEANOR HANCOCK has built White Awake from a small website to an organization of national significance. As founder and director of the organization, Eleanor holds a strong vision for White Awake's work, and has built a supportive team of leadership to guide it. Her leadership grows out of years of experience as an activist, academic, artist, educator, and mother of a biracial child. For more on how Eleanor frames her work, you can listen to this interview on Upstream Podcast.
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~ a note on antisemitism & Palestinian liberation ~
White Awake rejects the idea that criticizing Zionism or the Israeli state is inherently antisemitic, and we reject the lie that liberation for Palestinians is synonymous with genocide or oppression of Israeli's or Jews at large. We purport as a concept and a reality that occupation, ethnic cleansing, genocide and apartheid do not lead to the safety or wellbeing of anyone. White Awake promotes a vision of multiracial, multiethnic, multicultural solidarity, peace, and justice that ensures everyone can lead a well resourced & dignified life.
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