Resource Center for Nonviolence

SCROLL DOWN FOR MORE DETAILS OF THESE EVENTS.                                                      If you don’t see details for an event, click on “previous entries” at the bottom of this page.

* Friday, Saturday, Sunday, February 26, 27, 28: “The 800 Mile Wall,” a Film About Deadly, Failed U.S. Border Policies screens In Santa Cruz followed by discussion with the Director and Human Rights Panelists.

*Thursday, March 4, 12:00 Noon (brown bag lunch), Mill Gallery, 131 Front St.: Jeff Halper, “Israel and Palestine hurtling Towards Apartheid”

*Friday, March 5: Reception with the artist: Art Exhibit by Anita Heckman, Fifth Floor of the County Building -  “Entwined:” an exhibit of monotypes and paintings featuring birds and nature imagery combined into rich tapestries of colorful patterns.

*Sunday March 7th at 7:30 p.m., at RCNV: Mohammed Khatib, resident and community activist from Bil’in, West Bank, Palestine, will speak.

*Tuesday March 9, 7:30 p.m., NEW LOCATION: Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church, 2402 Cabrillo College Drive (Park Avenue off ramp), Soquel:Mark Braverman, author of the book Fateful Embrace: Christians, Jews and the Search for Peace in the Holy Land, and panel of respondents

*Thursday March 11 7:30 p.m., at RCNV:  “Israel & Apartheid” a presentation by George Houser

*Tuesday, March 16, FELTON: Listening to Palestinians and Israelis- presentation by 5 SC residents who were part of the Olive Harvest Delegation of the Interfaith Peace Builders.

*Robert Fisk event Rescheduled for  September 26, 2010.

ONGOING……

Haiti: organizations to contact for earthquake relief- see info below.

GI Rights Hotline: 877-447-4487 or 831-359-0202 for direct line to counseling

*Protest the Escalation of the War in Afghanistan: see letter you can sign on to below.

*”TUESDAYS - Youth Coalition Santa Cruz (YCSC) meets, 5-6:30p.m. at RCNV. For young people from 14 to 23 who are interested in social change and environmental activism.

*BOOKSTORE – Extra virgin Organic Olive Oil: Special purchase from Palestinian Fair Trade organizations getting ready for their Spring products. $15 per bottle.
The best of political/peace calendars for 2010 are available now in our bookstore. Fair Trade items available from Palestine include  pottery, keffiyehs and spices. Hours: M-TH 12-4:30; occasional Saturdays 12-4. Call 423-1626 for more information.

“The 800 Mile Wall,”
A film About Deadly, Failed  U.S. Border Policies  

Three screenings followed by discussion with the film’s producer, Jack Lorenz, and it’s director, John Carlos Frey:

Friday February 26  7:00 p.m.
First Congregational Church, 900 High Street, Santa Cruz

Saturday February 27, 7:00 p.m.
Lutheran Community Church, 95 Alta Vista, Watsonville

Sunday February 28, 2:00 p.m. 
Peace Resource Center, 1364 Fremont Blvd., Seaside

Hosted by the Resource Center for Nonviolence, la Liga de la Comunidad, the ACLU of Santa Cruz County, Santa Cruz Pax Christi, Community Information Center for Migrant Assistance, and the Lutheran Community Church in Watsonville.

The film highlights the construction of the new border walls along the U.S.-Mexico border and the lethal effects on migrants trying to cross into the United States. Migrant deaths have soared since enforcement and security measures were implemented by the United States beginning with Operation Gatekeeper in 1994.

“The 800 Mile Wall” takes an unflinching look at the failed U.S. border enforcement strategy that many believe has caused the death of thousands of migrants and violates fundamental human rights.  Migrants perishing in the deserts of the U.S. southwest and drowning in the All American Canal, as well as seemingly unaffected members of the San Diego County Water Authority, are featured in this eye-opening film.  The documentary’s released coincided with the distribution of the San Diego ACLU’s recent border death report, Humanitarian Crisis: Migrant Deaths at the U.S.-Mexico Border.

There is a $5.00-$10.00 suggested donation to support the film screenings and the work of “la Liga de la Comunidad.” No one will be turned away for lack of funds.

For more information about these screenings, call 831.423.1626.  For information about the film:, visit http://www.800milewall.org/

Title: Mohammed Khatib, resident and community activist from Bil’in, West Bank, Palestine
Location: RCNV 515 Broadway, Santa Cruz, CA
Description: Sunday March 7th at 7:30 p.m., at RCNV

Mohammed Khatib, resident and community activist from Bil’in, West Bank, Palestine, will be speaking at the Resource Center for Nonviolence on
Mohammed Khatib represents the Popular Committee of Bi’ilin that has organized weekly nonviolent demonstrations against “separation barrier” or “the Apartheid Wall” constructed by Israel that encroaches on his village’s and annexes nearly 60% of the orchards and fields to Israeli settlements nearby. Mohammed has been beaten and imprisoned as a result of his resistance.

You can find out more about Bil’in village here: http://www.bilin-village.org/english/discover-bilin/ and the campaign against the Apartheid Wall at www.bilin-ffj.org.

Mohammed’s visit to the area is sponsored by the Bay Area Chapter of Friends of Sabeel North America that is hosting a conference on Israel-Palestine to take place at the First Presbtyerian Church of San Anselmo (Marin County) on March 5 and 6.

Mohammed will be speaking in Santa Cruz, as part of the Center’s “Israel Apartheid Week” events.

Mark Braverman, author of “Fateful Embrace: Christians, Jews and the Search for Peace in the Holy Land”
NEW Location: MT. CALVARY LUTHERAN CHURCH, 2402 Cabrillo College Dr. (Park Avenue off ramp), Soquel
Description: Tuesday March 9, 7:30 p.m.

Presentation by Mark Braverman, author of the book Fateful Embrace: Christians, Jews and the Search for Peace in the Holy Land

Panel of Respondents:
Marouen Ben Jebara, Graduate Student at Monterey Institute of International Studies (Moslem)
Richard Moss, board member of Interfaith Peace Builders (Jewish)

Mark Braverman’s roots are in the Holy Land – his grandfather, a fifth generation Palestinian Jew, was born in Jerusalem, emigrating the U.S. as a young man. Growing up in the United States, Braverman was reared in the Jewish tradition, studying Bible, Hebrew literature, and Jewish history. Trained in clinical psychology and crisis management, Braverman devoted his professional career to working with groups and individuals undergoing traumatic stress. Returning to the Holy Land in 2006, he was transformed by witnessing the occupation of Palestine and by encounters with peace activists and civil society leaders from the Muslim, Christian and Jewish communities.
Since then, Braverman has devoted himself full-time to the Israel/Palestine conflict. He is the executive director of the Holy Land Peace Project, an interfaith and ecumenical organization that promotes education about and action for Middle East peace in the U.S. faith communities. Braverman is a cofounder of Friends of Tent of Nations North America, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting Palestinian land rights and peaceful coexistence in historic Palestine. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions-USA, the advisory committee of Friends of Sabeel North America, and the advisory council of the Washington Interfaith Alliance for Middle East Peace. He is a charter member of American Jews for a Just Peace.

“Israel & Apartheid” a presentation by George Houser
Location: RCNV 515 Broadway, Santa Cruz, CA
“Israel & Apartheid”
a presentation by
George Houser
Thursday March 11 7:30 p.m.
at the Resource Center for Nonviolence
515 Broadway, Santa Cruz

George Houser is founder of the CORE (the Congress of Racial Equality in ) and
the American Committee on Africa and traveled to Israel & Palestine in December 2009.

$5-$20 suggested (sliding-scale donation). For more information 831.423.1626. www.rcnv.org

George Houser, the son of a Methodist minister who spent much of his early life in the Far East, became a pacifist while studying at the Theological Seminary in Chicago. Houser joined the Fellowship of Reconciliation, and the War Resisters League and in 1940, he was arrested for resisting the draft and sentenced to a year imprisonment. He served on the staff of the Fellowship of Reconciliation in the 1940s and ’50s. On release from prison Houser helped organize the March on Washington in 1941 against racial discrimination in the armed forces that was called off when President Roosevelt barred discrimination issuing the Fair Employment Act). In 1942 Houser, James Farme, Bayard Rustin and others established the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE). Members of CORE had been deeply influenced by the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi and the nonviolent civil disobedience campaign against British rule in India. In early 1947, CORE organized and Houser co-led \”the Journey of Reconciliation,” the first interracial interracial Freedom Ride that sent eight white and eight black men into the Deep South to test the Supreme Court ruling that declared segregation in interstate travel unconstitutional in “Irene Morgan vs. Virginia” the previous Year. In the 1950s Houser turned his attention to African liberation struggles when he helped found Americans for South African Resistance (AFSAR) to organize support in the U.S. for the ANC-led Defiance Campaign against apartheid in South Africa. Houser was a founder in 1953 of the American Committee on Africa (ACOA). In 1954 he took his first trip to Africa, visiting West Africa and South Africa, the only time he got into that country until 1991. He served as Executive Director of the ACOA from 1955-1981 and of The Africa Fund from 1966-1981. At ACOA he spearheaded numerous campaigns supporting African struggles for liberation and independence from Algeria to Zimbabwe. Since 1954 he has made over 30 trips to Africa and his support of liberation movements led him to develop close ties with many African leaders including Amilcar Cabrall, Julius Nyere, Eduardo Mondiane, Kwame Nkrumah, Kennth Kaunda and Oliver Tambo. He is the author of many articles and No One Can Stop the Rain: Glimpses of Africa’s Liberation Struggle (1989) and, with Herbert Shore, I Will Go Singing: Walter Sisulu Speaks of his Life and the Struggle for Freedom in South Africa (2000). Houser traveled to Israel and Palestine on a delegation organized by the Resource Center for Nonviolence and Peaceworkers in December of 2009.