palestine

“Do not forget Gaza”: Londoners hold emergency protest for journalists murdered by Israel

More than 220 Londoners gathered in front of city hall on Monday in an emergency protest for journalists in Gaza assassinated by Israeli forces.  This protest was organized by the Canadian Palestinian Social Association (CPSA) in response to the Israeli Defense Forces’ targeted assassination of an Al Jazeera crew in a media tent outside of al-Shifa hospital. Among the deceased were journalists Anas al-Sharif, Mohammed al-Khaldi and Mohammed Qreiqeh, as well as camera operators Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa. “We are joining a coalition of millions upon millions of people who are saying with a very loud and…

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Keffiyehs, banners, cheers, and suppression: Four days of Western University’s graduation convocations

From June 10th to June 13th, Western University convocations were held at Canada Life Place. They were invigorated by protests for Palestine.  Numerous graduating students across disciplines and faculties faced the celebratory stage with Palestine flags, banners calling for justice, and regalia draped with keffiyehs. Outside, more protesters held banners and chanted human rights declarations to the downtown rush. They stationed themselves in areas where students arrived to pick up regalia and families waited before convocations began.   University administration, London police, and Canada Life Place staff attempted to quell the protests.  *** On the morning of June 10th —  the…

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“We won’t forget, and we won’t stay silent”: London’s Bosnian community marks 30th anniversary of Srebrenica genocide

On Saturday, July 12, the Bosnian Canadian Islamic Centre (BCIC) held a memorial in the Rayner Gardens area of Springbank Park to mark 30 years since the devastating events of the Srebrenica genocide. As the hot midday sun bore down on the attendees, members of the BCIC, local MPs, City officials, and Muslim community leaders spoke on the importance of remembrance and recognition in preserving the memory of the victims and ensuring the atrocities of that day are never repeated again. In April of 1993, a year into the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the UN declared the town of…

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“Letters in a Shell” and “The Alarm”

A lyric in free verse, I wrote Letters in a Shell in June 2025 as an emotional response to the ongoing and escalating suppression of Palestine activism observed on Western University’s campus, in London, and on social media. Letters in a Shell The body is a shell It speaks, sometimes it moves, Across imaginary lines. It arrives and it departs.  The body is a shell Sometimes it’s recognized, Sometimes handled.  There are times this is unwanted. At such times this is unjust.  The body is a shell, but a hand can write a letter,  on paper or on glass. The…

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Inside the London Premiere of Vancouver-based documentary series Ana Falastini

On May 25, Palestinian-Canadian filmmakers Dalia Al Ahmad and Rawan Ramini came to Western University’s Conron Hall to premiere their Vancouver-based documentary series “Ana Falastini.”  The event brought upwards of 100 community members together and featured surprise performances from the Asala Dabke group and the debut of the Palestinian Threads of Diaspora project in London. The filmmaker duo showed three episodes of their five-episode documentary series, each discussing a specific part of Palestinian identity through interviews in both Arabic and English. Part 1 — History “To be a Palestinian is politicized.”  The first portion of the documentary opened with members…

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“We can’t be in Gaza – but we can be here”: London rally echoes global march to rafah

LONDON, ONTARIO — “We can’t be in Gaza – but we can be here,” shouted members of the Canadian Palestinian Social Association (CPSA), a local community organization dedicated to celebrating Palestinian culture and raising awareness about the ongoing genocide committed by the Israeli occupation. The rally, held outside MP Peter Fragiskatos’ office, was one of many acts of international solidarity as thousands of activists across the globe mobilized for the Global March to Gaza. On June 12, around 60 people gathered at the rally, holding signs, keffiyehs, and Palestinian flags under the cloudy London sky. The event was co-organized by…

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Open Letter: This Emerita prof Supports Divestment

Dear President Shepard, I would like to thank you for the generous offer to attend a dinner with retired faculty from Western: it is an important gesture to remember former professors and our contributions. Normally, I would be looking forward to seeing familiar faces and reminiscing with colleagues about our days on campus. However, under the circumstances, I must decline your invitation.  It is impossible for me to enjoy a celebratory meal with Western colleagues when our Palestinian colleagues in Gaza are enduring a brutal famine deliberately imposed by an occupying power which is actively supported by your Administration. How…

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“We carry your memory like fire in our veins”: 77th Nakba Day 

Whenever someone asked me my name, it was always followed by: “Are you a refugee or a citizen?” As a child, I would ask: “What is a refugee?” On this year’s Nakba Day — May 15, 2025 — an Al Jazeera article by Ruwaida Amer in Gaza describes the 1948 displacement of her grandparents from their razed village of Beir Daras to Khan Younis, where she was born in a refugee camp. Her grandfather was fifteen years old during the Nakba, married and with a baby son. The baby — Amer’s uncle — died as they fled. He was just…

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“Ongoing return”: A living archive of Palestine

To cast my net I found the waves Some laughing, some crying The wave asked me ‘what’s the matter?’ I said ‘I’ve lost my beloved’ Truly, I’ve lost my beloved Partition, a film directed by McGill anthropology professor Diana Allan, begins with an Arabic song confessing to the sea. The lyrics ring against granulated black and white footage of the sloping hills and winding roads of Gaza, 1917. The scenes shift to British soldiers marching in synchrony and to explosions – grainy, soundless, and distorted.  Sleep, my son, sleep The slumber of gazelles in the wilderness  Oh Lord, may my…

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A protestor with a Palestinian flag. Photo taken by Moses Odida.

“Western racism is its DNA”: Talk by Palestinian scholar Saree Makdisi on genocide in Gaza

Originally published at The Socialist on April 16th, 2025 On Wednesday, March 19, Dr. Saree Makdisi presented at Western University for a public lecture titled, “Gaza and the Question of Palestine.”  Dr. Makdisi is the Chair of the Department of English at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), a prominent scholar of romantic literature, and public intellectual who authored Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation (2008) and Tolerance is a Wasteland: Palestine and the Culture of Denial (2022).  He is also the nephew of the late scholar Edward Saïd, who is responsible for foundational work in postcolonial theory. Saïd’s seminal work, Orientalism (1979) describes the West’s…

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