Announcing The 2017 North America Nakba Tour!

The Free Palestine Movement, International Solidarity Movement-Northern California and al-Awda Palestine Right to Return Coalition, supported by members of Black4Palestine, announce the

2017 North America Nakba Tour

69 Years without a Country

Stateless Palestinians from Lebanon

Khawla Hammad has been a stateless refugee in Lebanon for 69 years. At the age of sixteen, she was expelled from her village of Kabri, in Palestine. Now she is 85 years old, and and still a refugee in Lebanon, with no citizenship in any country at all. Israel expelled most of the population in 1948, and has prevented them from returning to their homes. Kabri and hundreds of other towns and villages were leveled to the ground, a crime that Palestinians call al-Nakba (the Catastrophe).

But Israel did not stop there. It repeatedly attacked Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, killing three of Khawla’s children among many others. Before the Nakba, Khawla’s father also lost his life as a Palestinian freedom fighter. Khawla has a message that she wants to bring to North America. So does 23-year-old Palestinian refugee, journalist and translator Amena Elashkar, whom many of you know from the 2016 Nakba Tour. She and her parents were born as stateless refugees in Lebanon and have never lived in their own country.

Khawla and Amena have a different message from other Palestinians. They are not living under Israeli occupation. Israel does not allow them to visit their homes, much less live there. As exiles, they have a different perspective from Palestinians in Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza and the part of Palestine that became Israel.

Invite Khawla and Amena to speak in your community.

The Free Palestine Movement, ISM – Northern California, Black4Palestine and the al-Awda Palestine Right to Return Coalition are bringing these women to the east coast of North America for two months starting in the Fall of 2017*.

We need your help to tell their story.

– Book a spot along the Nakba Tour route (included below).
The local sponsors of the event will be the primary organizers, but we will help and advise you with protocol, advice, logistics and outreach, including advertising. We will make sure the speakers and field coordinator / tour driver / videographer Samir Salem are able to travel to your venue. We will need $200 in advance to reserve your event and another $300 or more at the event itself to support our costs. We also ask you to provide lodging and meals (homestays and shared rooms are very acceptable). Universities are asked to provide a $500 honorarium and make similar housing and meal arrangements. We will also make informational materials available.

– If you do not live along the route, contact us about hosting a live-streaming event.

– Contact us to help organize! We are always in need of volunteers.

– Donate!

– And, most importantly: forward this announcement to all of your lists and follow us on Facebook!

Last year, the Nakba Tour brought Amena El-Ashkar and Nakba survivor Mariam Fathalla to speak at 26 venues across the United States. Footage of one of their talks can be found here.