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MEET & HEAR: Palestinian Peace Activist Badee Dwaik
Join Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture for an evening with Palestinian peace activist Badee Dwaik. Badee will be sharing lessons from his work based in his home of Al-Khalil (Hebron). Badee is the co-founder of Human Rights Defenders; a grassroots, anti-colonial organization on the front line of media justice in a context of militarized occupation. The Human Rights Defenders use their own video equipment to document IDF raids, attacks, and human rights abuses by soldiers and settlers so they can release these reports online for a global audience. Palestinian people in Al-Khalil live in an extremely high-tension urban context of apartheid with normalized military presence, checkpoints and close proximity to Israeli settlements. Badee is a media justice organizer and Palestinian father who is dedicated to the Palestinian people and an end to occupation of his traditional territories.
DATE: Saturday, April 2nd
TIME: 6-7:30PM
LOCATION: Brooklyn Ethical Culture Society – 53 Prospect Park West, Brooklyn NYC
CO-SPONSORS: (1) BSEC – Ethical Action Committee, (2) Reclaim Turtle Island
FOOD: Homemade Palestinian snacks will be provided
RSVP on our Facebook event page
COST: FREE. Cash donations are welcome. Credit card or bank donations can be made via paypal to ReclaimTurtleIsland@gmail.com.
About Badee:
Badee Dwaik is a proud Palestinian organizer, documentarian, poet and father working out of his hometown of Al-Khalil (Hebron). In the past, Badee has been a writer for Mondoweiss and today, mainly uses film as his medium of resistance. Badee co-founded Human Rights Defenders and Youth Against Settlements. Human Rights Defenders is a non-violent grassroots, anti-colonial organization on the front lines of documenting Israeli police/military violence in their communities so that the world can witness the daily reality Palestinians endure under Israeli occupation. Human Rights Defenders fosters conversation both locally and internationally, to build solidarity networks amongst other marginalized communities and social justice organizations. Youth Against Settlements organizes and supports Palestinian youth and provides tools for non-violent resistance.
At the age of 20, Badee spent three years in jail for participating in an action. Badee’s time incarcerated taught him the necessity of studying anti-colonialism and teaching youth, both Palestinian and Israeli, about it’s inner-workings. “After my release from jail, I began to think differently about the real enemy for me and my people. I heard about Israelis struggling against the occupation. That encouraged me to try to connect with Jewish people who had solidarity with our issue. I came to believe that if we want to get our rights as Palestinians, we have to get it by nonviolent resistance.”
Badee’s trip is incredibly important because it is a way for him to connect with supporters who wish to learn and share methodologies and tactics about media justice. He hopes to not only bring attention to his community’s struggle, but also build solidarity with other groups resisting and fighting for liberation.