Independent Jewish Voices’ BDS Committee invites you to join us for BDS: A Toolkit for Community Organizing! This workshop is part of the global Israeli Apartheid Week series of events.
Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) is a Palestinian-led movement for freedom, justice, and equality, and a key organizing strategy against Israeli apartheid. How can each of us participate in upholding the simple principle that Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as the rest of humanity? Join us for this informative and inspiring workshop to find out. Following an orientation to BDS, we’ll move to breakout rooms organized around four sectors: labour, faith groups, campus organizing, and political parties. Speakers in each room will share best practices and how-to information to assist participants in launching their own campaigns, passing resolutions, and supporting this vibrant global movement where they live and work.
Breakout room speakers will include:
Labour
✩ Moe Alqasem a Palestinian community organizer, trade unionist, and writer based in Toronto. Originally from Nablus, Moe is active in the BDS movement, prisoner solidarity, and student and labour activism.
✩ Hassan Husseini is a longtime labour and solidarity activist, and an organizer with Labour for Palestine. He is a national negotiator at Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) and a member of Unifor Local 2025.
Faith Groups
✩ Byron Rempel-Burkholder is chair of the Mennonite Church Canada Palestine-Israel Network, which comprises four volunteer working groups across the country devoted to implementing the denomination’s 2016 resolution on Palestine and Israel.
✩ Rabbi David Mivasair served as the spiritual leader of three synagogues in Vancouver and in Pennsylvania over a period of close to 25 years. He lived in Israel for four years and has returned a number of times to support peace and justice work there. David is an active member of IJV and lives in Hamilton, Ontario.
✩ Debbie Hubbard is a member of the United Church of Canada. She has visited Palestine-Israel three times and served as an Ecumenical Accompanier with the World Council of Churches in East Jerusalem in 2014. She is a part of the leadership team for CJPME – Okanagan, Amnesty Okanagan and the PalNet Pacific network.
✩ Moderated by Harold Shuster, a member of IJV-Winnipeg and the IJV BDS Committee. Harold had served for many years on our Steering Committee and is currently helping stir us along in his role on the IJV-Chapter Council.
Campus
✩ Erika Campbell is a member of IJV and current PhD candidate at McMaster University. She worked as a community organizer throughout her time at Queen’s University when completing her Master’s degree to campaign against the adoption of IHRA’s definition of anti-Semitism in Ontario.
✩ Aidan Macdonald is a labour and community organizer living in Toronto. He is a member of Labour4Palestine, which aims to support and strengthen Palestine solidarity in the labour movement in Canada, and was an organizer with Students Against Israeli Apartheid while pursuing his Masters degree at Carleton University.
Political Parties
✩ Amy Kishek is a Palestinian-Canadian labour lawyer and activist. She resides in Ottawa on the unceded, unsurrendered territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe people. Amy helped organize the successful 2021 Palestine Resolution campaign at the National NDP campaign, and continues to organize for Palestinian liberation.
✩ The event will be moderated by Rachel Gurofsky, a member of IJV who works as an English instructor in Muscat, Oman. She helped to organize Students Against Israeli Apartheid’s pension fund divestment campaign at Carleton University in 2010.