International Jewish Solidarity Network

The International Jewish Solidarity Network presents a FREE screening of… Arna's Children Screening and Discussion with Director Tuesday, June 24 at 7pm Humanist Hall, 390 27th Street, Oakland, CA 94612

$5 to $10 donation requested at door

Presented by JULIANO MER KHAMIS and DR. MERVAT AIASH of THE FREEDOM THEATRE:

The Jenin Refugee Camp, West Bank, Palestine During the first Intifada (Palestinian uprising) in 1988 an Israeli Jewish woman named Arna Mer Khamis set up the Stone Theatre in the Jenin Refugee Camp of the West Bank as a safe place for children to express themselves through the theatrical arts. In 1993, Arna was awarded the Alternative Nobel Prize in Sweden.

During the second Intifada (2000-2006) the Stone Theatre was destroyed by the Israeli army's invasion in 2002. Building on the goals and legacy of the Stone Theatre, Arna's son, Juliano and residents of Jenin opened the Freedom Theatre to serve both the children and the adults of the Jenin Refugee Camp.

In just two years, the Freedom Theatre has become recognized as a leader in Palestinian theatre and the international progressive theatre community. There are partnerships with groups and theatre companies in: New York, Seattle, Berlin, London, Amsterdam, Athens, Baghdad, Beirut, Sydney, Buenos Aries, Cairo, Paris, Brussels, Milan, Calgary and Sweden. Members of the Freedom Theatre's Board of Directors include Noam Chomsky, Mahmoud Darwish, Judith Butler, Howard Brenton, among others. US advisors include Maya Angelou, Yoav Elinevsky, Danny Glover and Mariam Said.

Join the International Jewish Solidarity Network (IJSN) for a post-screening discussion about anti-Zionist Jewish activism as part of the Palestinian solidarity movement. IJSN is a growing international network of Jews whose Jewish identities are not based on Zionism but on a plurality of histories and experiences. We share a commitment to participation in the legacy of struggles against colonization and imperialism. As such, we struggle against Zionism and its manifestation in the State of Israel's historic and ongoing ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people and the confiscation of their land.

This colonial project also dishonors the persecution, displacement and genocide of European Jews by using their memory to justify and perpetuate European authoritarianism and colonialism. It is responsible for the extensive displacement and alienation of Mizrahi Jews (Jews of Sephardi, Asian and African descent) from indigenous identities, languages, histories, cultures and homelands and attempts to reduce all of our diverse cultural, religious, ethnic and racial identities to one of national identity. As such, it implicates us in the oppression of the Palestinian people and in the debasement of our own heritages, struggles for justice and alliances with our fellow human beings. www.thefreedomtheatre.org www.ijsn.net

For more information or to help out Call Jonah Aline Daniel 847/ 962-2604