When: Jan 31, 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Where: Traditions Cafe, 5th and Water, Olympia
Islamophobia is on the rise, and the movement for Palestinian rights is coming under increasingly aggressive attacks from its pro-Israel opponents. This coming Tuesday, UC Irvine graduate and member of the “Irvine 11″ Osama Shabaik and local organizer Andrew Meyer will make connections between what at first appear as two unrelated developments – the unjust arrest and conviction of 11 UC Irvine students who were protesting at a campus speech by Israeli ambassador Michael Oren, and the filing of an unjust lawsuit against past and present board members of the Olympia Food Co-op over its boycott of Israeli goods.
Osama will speak about the ways in which the experiences of the Irvine 11 are tied to Islamophobia, infringements upon free speech, and the criminalization of dissent. Andrew will then link the experiences of the Irvine 11 to Olympia’s own experience of legal intimidation, showing how both the crackdown on the Irvine 11 and the lawsuit against the Co-op are part of an increasingly belligerent campaign against the growing movement for Palestinian liberation.
