NEW – 7 March 2015 – 7:00 p.m. Eugene, OR – presentation at The Wesley Center, 1236 Kincaid, across from the Univ. of Oregon. Sponsored by CALC – the Community Alliance of Lane County and Women in Black.
6 Nov 2014 – 7:00 p.m. Presentation as part of the Mid-East Focus series of St. Mark’s Cathedral, Bloedel Hall of the cathedral, 1220 Tenth Ave. E, Seattle, WA
Additional visits to US Pacific Northwest pending
1 Oct 2014 – 7:00 p.m. Presentation sponsored by Jewish Voice for Peace in Detroit, MI (by invitation)
6 – 19 Sept Travel in Palestine and Israel
22 Aug 2014 – 10:45 a.m. Workshop at the People’s Social Forum in Ottawa, ON (http://peoplessocialforum.org)
6 Aug 2014 – 7:15 p.m., Lions Hall, Saltspring Island, BC sponsored by Canadian Voice of Women for Peace (VOW) and Canadian Friends Service Committee (CFSC). Contact: Janslakov@shaw.ca
Invitation to host / co-sponsor a book-related presentation on Refusing to be Enemies: Palestinian and Israeli Nonviolent Resistance to the Israeli Occupation
Dear Friends,
Those of you who know me are probably aware that I’m a Quaker Jew and a dual citizen of Canada and Israel, though born in the US (long story). I’m also a “semi-retired” activist and occasional journalist who lived in Jerusalem for seven years (December ’88 – mid-October ’95), during which time I was very involved in activism of the sort described in my book; i.e., nonviolent actions by Israelis and Palestinians, separately and together, challenging the Israeli occupation. I’ve subsequently made eleven trips back to the region, many in connection with research for the book or updating the information for my presentations—most recently between September 6 and 19, 2014.
Since the hardcover edition of Refusing to be Enemies: Palestinian and Israeli Nonviolent Resistance to the Israeli Occupation (my interview-based book with an introduction by Ursula Franklin and contributed chapters by Ghassan Andoni, Jeff Halper, Jonathan Kuttab, and Starhawk) first came out in early 2010, I have done quite a bit of touring in both Canada and the US. I also gave two presentations in the occupied territories (Ramallah and East Jerusalem) in 2011, and in the spring of 2012 (the second year of the paperback edition) was hosted by some twenty groups in the UK and Ireland, including Britain Yearly Meeting (Quakers). In the fall of 2012, I visited the BC Okanagan, Calgary and Edmonton, AB, and Bellingham, WA, and in 2013 /2014, spoke in Kamloops and Langley, BC, Rochester and Buffalo, NY, Niagara Falls, ON, a number of towns in Colorado, California, Oregon and Washington, as well as (2014/15) at the Peoples Social Forum in Ottawa, on Saltspring Island BC, and in Detroit, Seattle WA, and Eugene, OR (these last three following my most recent visit back to Palestine/Israel).
If hosting or co-sponsoring a visit to your area is of interest to your faith group or peace/justice organization–here are the details: Visiting Friends’ Meetings is a big part of what I do, but I also very much want to do presentations for the wider nonviolence and Palestine-solidarity communities (and beyond, where feasible). I’m sometimes hosted by individual organizations or Quaker meetings, but what has seemed to work best is having a committee, preferably made up of folks from two or more groups working together.
Some of the organizations that have hosted or co-sponsored my public presentations up to now include: several book stores and a variety of Quaker meetings, local branches of the American Friends Service Committee, Amnesty International (including in Galway, Ireland), Project Ploughshares, the Council of Canadians, and Kairos—Canada; Building Bridges-Vancouver, churches in the US and Canada (United Church of Canada, Mennonite, Unitarian, Presbyterian, Episcopal, and United Methodist), Ahavat Olam progressive synagugue (Vancouver), the Islamic Centre of Niagara (Niagara Falls ON), Independent Jewish Voices-Canada, Jewish Voice for Peace (Detroit), Canadian Friends of Sabeel and Canadians, Arabs, and Jews for a Just Peace (Halifax), the Peace Studies Program at St. Thomas University (Fredericton, NB), Fredericton Jews for a Just Peace, Canadian Friends of Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salaam (Calgary), Scottish Jews for a Just Peace, the Scottish Palestinian Forum, the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Jews for Justice for Palestinians (UK), Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign (BIAC), Gaza’s Ark, International Solidarity Movement – Vancouver (ISM – Vancouver), Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights – UBC (SPHR – UBC), the Southern Interior Peace Coalition (BC), the Human Rights Committee of the Thompson Rivers University (TRU) Faculty Association, TRU Faculty of Arts and Faculty of Law, the Friends International Center in Ramallah, the Rachel Corrie Foundation, Canadian Voice of Women for Peace (Saltspring Island, BC), Church Women United and Women in Black (Eugene, OR), and various local peace and justice groups. I have also been invited to speak to university classes in Canada (Waterloo, ON and Edmonton, AB, and Kamloops and Langley, BC), Ireland (Dublin and Limerick), and the US (Bellingham, WA), and have given presentations related to the book and/or related research at conferences of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA – 2007), Peace and Justice Studies Association (PJSA – 2010), and at the People’s Social Forum in Ottawa (Aug 2014). The Canadian Friends Service Committee (CFSC, on which I served for 12 years and am currently an associate member for Middle East projects, and which gave me much support during my researching of this book) has given permission to be named as a cosponsor or endorser of any of my book-related events.
Format of my presentations: What I do most often is a public meeting with a PowerPoint presentation (this requires an appropriate projector or large-screen monitor with VGA cord) of approximately an hour (or shorter, if necessary, with prior notice) followed by QA, with books available for sale by one or more of my hosting organizations or by a local bookstore. In addition, I’d be glad to meet informally with meeting or church groups, or groups of activists or students in relevant fields in or near the same towns (projector or large-screen monitor is not absolutely necessary for small groups around a table, although visibility is always improved by having one or the other).
Re books and reviews: The main objective of my presentations is to share information about nonviolent activism by Palestinians and Israelis, separately and together, in challenging the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land–as this is a much under-publicized aspect of the Palestinian struggle. My other objective is to promote the book in a more personal way than just sending out emails and finding reviewers.
So it’s important to me that, as far as possible, at least one event in each location is one where copies of Refusing to be Enemies are available for sale.
Reviews have appeared in a number of print and on-line publications and include review essays by Simona Sharoni in the Journal of Palestine Studies and by US Quaker scholars Steve Chase and Stephen Zunes in the online journal Nonviolent Change Journal and in Middle East Policy, respectively. There is also a write-up by Andrew Stimson in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs and reviews in Canadian and US Quaker publications and in Outlook–Canada’s Progressive Jewish Magazine. A review by Quaker academic and Middle East activist Anthony (Tony) Bing appeared in the January 2013 issue of Peace and Change: A Journal of Peace Research.
Outside of North America, Refusing to be Enemies has so far been reviewed in Palestine Chronicle (online), De Brug, a progressive Dutch-Jewish magazine, and in a Norwegian publication. Most recently, an a review by Rene Wadlow of Fellowship of Reconciliation appeared on the organization’s website (19 July 2013). You can also access an interview done by Mark Helpsmeet of Northern Spirit Radio in November of 2013 by going to the top of the home page of https://refusingtobeenemiesthebook.wordpress.com or to http://www.northernspiritradio.org/index.asp?command=showinfo&showid=660335846945. You can find out more about the book and access most of the reviews at the Refusing to be Enemies website sited above.
Ordering info for US (CANADIAN HOSTS/ SPONSORS, PLEASE CONTACT ME BEFORE CALLING ISBS – I can help you avoid considerable additional charges from UPS for “customs brokerage”):
Bulk orders for events: A retail trade discount is available from ISBS, the North American distributor of Refusing to be Enemies, when 5 or more copies are ordered for resale. Purchaser gets a 40% discount on the US purchase price of $24.95 (Academics please note: books that appear on course reading lists only receive a 20% discount). Purchaser pays shipping from Portland, Oregon, but only needs to pay 50% of the order cost up front and has a month to get them the rest, and the distributor does accept returns. (This arrangement means, in effect, that one usually has recovered their original outlay before needing to pay the credit card statement).
Contact info to discuss ordering and discount terms with ISBS is:
Eddie Charlton, ISBS Marketing & Sales
1-800-944-6190
or by email at eddie@ISBS.com
Other costs: Minimal. I’m not looking to make a profit, but I also have no funding to cover expenses. So what I generally do is request billeting with local activists plus some help with local food and travel costs, averaged among the cities I visit. Up to now this has come to between $25 and $50 per city, usually towards the lower end of that range. Certainly an amount that is easily recoverable by requesting a small donation at the door (with excess retained by the hosting group or donated to a worthy cause in Palestine or Israel).
With thanks, Maxine Kaufman-Lacusta
refusingtobeenemiesthebook 