Middle East

We are now in the midst of an epoch of death and mass extinction. Conventional approaches are failing. Social and ecological regeneration must be rooted in communities of liberation and solidarity. The new book, Between Earth and Empire: From the Necrocene to the Beloved Community, by celebrated philosopher and educator John P. Clark explores significant recent progress in this direction, including indigenous movements of the Zapatistas in Chiapas, Democratic Autonomy Movement in Rojava, in West Papua, and many more. Longtime human rights activist, educator, organizer Matt Meyer joins this conversation with his own work on international and intersectional organizing. This is a call to arms for the rebirth of a libertarian and communitarian social imaginary, and the flourishing of a free cooperative community globally. Join us!

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is regarded as the most prominent civil rights organization in the United States. Yet its actions—both throughout history and in the present—belie a commitment to civil rights and human rights. Instead the ADL has collaborated with police and the FBI in attacks against suspected communists, civil rights activists, human rights activists, environmentalists, animal-rights activists, antifa, and those it denounces as "Jewish radicals." The ADL has also sided with the US establishment against revolutionary forces in Latin America and apartheid-era South Africa. More recently it has supported the Trump administration's actions against Iran and against Palestinians. From its attacks against the Black Panthers to its support for the PATRIOT Act, from spying on anti-apartheid activists to helping the FBI spy on Arab Americans, to its denunciation of the Movement for Black Lives, the ADL has engaged in a concerted effort to divide communities of color. Now a movement is growing to resist the ADL's tactics and to reclaim the true pursuit for civil rights from the organization that seeks to co-op it.

Accusations of anti-Semitism against notable figures and progressive movements both in the US and abroad have gained huge currency in the Trump regime. Recent attempts to destabilize the Left and ramp up Islamophobia - targetting the BDS movement, UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, and more recently, Muslim Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib - have escalated against a background of anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim murders perpetrated by the Far Right. Speakers will analyze why this is happening now and how the Left can counter this weaponization.

This panel will focus on the various aspects of BDS (what it is and how to get involved in this movement) and the Palestinian Right of Return as a human right that is practical and feasible. Palestinian refugees number more than six million; this comprises nearly one-third of the global refugee poplulation. According to Salman Abu-Sitta, 80% of Israeli Jews live in 15% of present-day Israel, and 90% of the Palestinian village sites are still vacant today. There is ample space in present-day Israel to accommodate all Palestinian refugees.

Most close observers of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict acknowledge the death of the ѓ??two state solutionѓ?ќ and rebirth of the ѓ??one state solutionѓ?ќ whereby Israelis and Palestinians would live together as equal citizens before the law in the land between the Mediterranean and River Jordan. In the past few years, consideration and support for the one democratic state have been expressed via several conferences in Madrid, Boston, London, Haifa, and Dallas. Panelists will briefly discuss the unfeasibility of the two-state solution, and the conditions including apartheid practices in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and adherence to international law that make the case for one democratic state--the homeland for both peoples. The goals of this panel are to educate forum participants about the one state idea and stimulate discussion for action.

The consequences of Obama administration's undeclared remote control war has yet to be fully understood. Two renown experts of drones and insurgency in South Asia will describe their experiences reporting on this war from the ground. With Anand Gopal, journalist and fellow at the New American Foundation, and Madiha Tahir, journalist and editor of Tanqeed magazine

James Russell, Chair, Eastern Connecticut State University,
Levon Chorbajian, Panelist, University of Massachusetts Lowell,
Anoush TerTaulian, Panelist, Independent Scholar.

After a series of anti-Armenian pogroms beginning in the late 19th century, the Ottoman Turkish state orchestrated a genocide against its Armenian minority beginning in April 1915. In all between 1 and 1.5 million Armenians perished. Within the first month of the mass killings the Entente powers sent a letter to the Sublime Porte protesting what they called 'crimes against humanity and civilization.' The Porte responded that there were no killings, only deportations of Armenians from the Caucasian front. The Porte also claimed that Armenians were in rebellion, deserting the military, joining Russian forces, cutting supply lines, and engaging in guerrilla combat behind the front lines. In such a troubled context, argued the Porte, it was only exercising its right as a sovereign state to protect its interests. Thus begins nearly a century of continuous Turkish genocide denial that has been played out in Congress, the European Union, and even Hollywood and seen lawsuits, bullying of the Southern Poverty Law Center, and even the creation of a denialist press at the University of Utah. The paper addresses both Armenian Genocide denial and the broad consequences for social justice in the aftermath of other genocides post-1950.