Cafe Palestine 30
Saturday 20th November
3.45pm (UK time) / 5.45pm (Pal time)
Rania Madi”The Law – weapon of oppression, or of liberation?”
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85100810557?pwd=MnVoeE9jb0w0VUtMVHcvRFIyYTVVdz09

1. Café Palestine with Rania Madi: The Law – weapon of oppression, or liberation? 2. COP26 and Palestine  1. Café Palestine 30 with Rania Madi: ‘The Law – weapon of oppression, or of liberation?’ The Israeli Government has designated six leading NGOs as “terrorist organisations”, putting their crucial work in jeopardy. Our speaker, Rania Madi, is currently representing some of these NGOs at the international level.While adapting its own legal system to further the settler colonial process of dispossession, the Israeli regime holds international law in contempt, dismissing the Geneva Conventions, progressing with de facto annexations, killing and maiming civilians and destroying vital infrastructure with impunity. Its humanitarian obligations – for example, it is a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child – are ignored where Palestinians are concerned. Within historic Palestine, discriminatory laws and ideologically-informed courts provide a thin veneer of legality to state crime. Apartheid itself is a crime under international law.How does Israel get away with it? We are delighted that Rania will share with us her thoughts about the potential use of the law as a contribution to the liberation of Palestine.  Rania Madi is a senior legal consultant with many years’ experience representing the Palestinian case in international institutions, including the European Union and the United Nations. She is the United Nations Legal Advocacy Representative of Badil, the Resource Centre for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights. In March 2016, Rania submitted Badil’s report on the 2014 attack on Gaza to the International Criminal Court, and defended the report. The Cafe will open with live music at 3.45pm (UK time) / 5.45pm (Pal time) The discussion will start at 4.00pm (UK) / 6.00pm (Palestine) The whole event is expected to finish at about 5.30pm (UK) / 7.30pm (Palestine)

 نوفر خدمة الترجمة إلى اللغة العربية في مقهى فلسطين لمن يحتاجون إلىها، سيكون هناك  ملخص حصري ومتداول باللغة العربية للعرض والأسئلة والإجابات
إذا كنت تحتاج إلى الترجمة إلى اللغة العربية، أرسل رسالة إلى الإيميل التالي
ukpalmhn@gmail.com
ستتوفر الترجمة من خلال الانضمام إلى مجموعة في تطبيق الواتساب 

ARABIC TRANSLATION AT CAFE PALESTINE: Throughout Cafe Palestine there will be a rolling Arabic text summary of the presentation, questions and answers available via Whatsapp. Please contact ukpalmhn@gmail.com if you would like to be added to the Whatsapp Arabic translation group.

2. COP26 and Palestine

The UKPMHN would like to address the failing of last weeks COP 26 to agree adequate measures to address the climate crisis. We acknowledge the impact that the crisis is having on Palestinian people and their land and the responsibility settler colonialism has in intensifying the effects of the crisis. The refusal to grant visas to the Palestine Civil Society Delegation is a clear example of the way members of marginalised communities across the globe are being excluded from – inadequate –  attempts by world leaders to try and slow the process of global heating – despite often being the peoples most immediately affected by the changing climate.

We would also like to highlight the work of the The Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability of Bethlehem University (https://www.palestinenature.org/about-us/), founded by Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh, who has been a speaker at Cafe Palestine. The Institute recently completed a thorough report looking into the main threats to biodiversity across protected areas in Palestinian including the West Bank. The report “Academic Cooperation with the Environment Quality Authority to Refine Strategies for Biodiversity Conservation in Protected Areas in Palestine” highlights the unique geography and geology of Palestine that gives it its rich biodiversity, and the work needed to maintain this biodiversity against the violent backdrop of settler colonialism.

A  link to the report can be found at:  https://www.palestinenature.org/projects/MRV-Final-report.docx.pdf

For more of Professor Nazim Qumsiyeh’s brilliant work please visit:  http://qumsiyeh.org/home/ where you can find an extensive catalogue of his important work as an environmental activist in Palestine, an activist manual and links to many other organisations with a similar mission.

For anyone who missed artist Rana Nazal Hamadeh’s talk with the Myerson Image Centre it is now available on Youtube and speaks directly to the extractive nature of colonisation and its impact on the land and environment in Palestine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcZWBPOrQ3c

We also recommend the podcast It’s Not Just All in Your Head – episode 25, where you will find mental health professionals in the USA discussing climate anxiety through an anti-capitalist/decolonising lens.