Press Releases

Badil’s 2010 Europe Speaking Tour Comes to a Close: Over 45 Meetings and Events held in Eight Countries over Three Months
Badil’s 2010 Europe Speaking Tour Comes to a Close: Over 45 Meetings and Events held in Eight Countries over Three Months

With the logistical support of European partners, Badil's Communications Officer went on a three month speaking tour in several European countries. The tour involved participation in over 45 meetings and public events in 31 locations in 8 countries (see below). The total number of participants in the meetings and public events was well over 2,000 people.

The events organized as part of the speaking tour were quite diverse, including: lectures at universities and other public venues; meetings with civil society organizations; meetings with Palestinian refugee community activists; participation in conferences and seminars; as well as interviews with broadcast and print media. Notable interviews included those with Netherlands Radio Worldwide (both Arabic and English); a feature interview in Swiss newspaper Solidarite; and a feature interview in the French Language on-line magazine voltairenet. The tour also included various meetings with Palestine solidarity groups working to develop their campaigns for boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it complies with international law.

Some of the tour highlights included: delivering the keynote address at the Nakba-62 commemoration event held in Amsterdam's Resistance Museum; the “Rights in Exile” conference organized at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) for World Refugee Day (The Hague); the keynote address at the annual Sjovik Seminar for Palestine (Sweden); Keynote address at the annual Appelscha activist weekend (Netherlands); and presentation to the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum at the World Council of Churches in Geneva to open the 2010 World Week for Peace.

Topics covered in the various meetings and lectures included a history of ongoing forced displacement of Palestinians, Palestinian refugee rights, and the international civil society campaign for boycotts divestment and sanctions against Israel until it complies with international law.

Audiences overwhelmingly saw Badil’s analysis of history of Palestinian struggle through the framework of the ongoing Nakba and ongoing displacement on both sides of the ‘green line’ as a new and effective way to advance their individual and collective understanding of the issue. Badil’s framing of the struggle within a referenced historical narrative, informed by an anti-racist/anti-apartheid framework left little to no space for Zionist interference with the audiences’ experience. Badil’s presentations situated international complicity and direct support for the state of Israel as a root cause of the ongoing forced displacement and oppression of Palestinians, which enabled audiences to see clearly the implications on their own lives and possibilities for action a local, national and regional levels.

Badil wishes to thank all the volunteers and activists who made this tour possible.

 


Locations of Meetings and Events
UK (Edinburgh, Glasgow, Bradford, Nottingham, and London); Switzerland (Basel, Zurich, Geneva, Lausanne, Bern, and Neuchatel); Germany (Bonn); Sweden (Stockholm, Sjovik Annual Seminar on Palestine); Norway (Oslo, Bergen, and Stavenger); Iberian Peninsula (Malaga, Jaen, Seville, Barcelona, and Donostia/San Sebastian); Belgium (Brussels); and the Netherlands (Amsterdam, Utrecht, Nijmegen, Tilburg, Leiden, Vlaardingen, Groningen, Appelscha, Rotterdam, and the Hague).