Arts

Israeli Apartheid Week underway in Kenya

palestine

Since its inception in 2004, IAW has been featured in more than 250 cities, communities and campuses around the world. PHOTO | COURTESY

The 14th Israeli Apartheid Week has been underway all over Nairobi since March 12th, featuring films, fascinating discussions and cultural performances.

Since its inception in 2004, IAW has been featured in more than 250 cities, communities and campuses around the world. In Nairobi, documentary and biopic films have been screened at Parkfield Place in Westlands and at the Mathare Social Justice Centre in Eastlands.

IAW will culminate this weekend with two powerful and informative films. On Saturday from 2pm ‘The Empire Files: Anti-Black Racism Reveals Israel’s White Supremacy’ will be shown at Parkfield Place. It will feature investigative journalist Abby Martin interviewing two African refugees who have been grossly mistreated by the Israeli government. The Empire Files are aired weekly on the satellite station TeleSUR.

Then on Sunday, 2pm at the Eastleigh Mall, IAW will culminate with ‘Occupation 101: Voices of the Silent Majority’, the award-winning documentary film by Abdallah and Sufyan Omeish that traces the historical roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Narrated by Allison Weir, founder of ‘If Americans Knew’, the film presents a poignant analysis of both past and present events in the region by featuring multiple insights shared by Middle East scholars, peace activists, journalists, religious leaders and humanitarian workers who’ve worked for years on the ground but whose views have largely been ignored by Western media outlets.

Running all the way from the rise of the Zionist movement in the late 19th century through to the Second Intifada in 2000, the 90 minute film covers a wide range of topics. Starting with the first wave of Jewish immigration from Europe in the 1880s to the tensions of the 1920, the wars of 1948 and 1967 as well as the first Intifada in 1987, the Oslo Peace Process, Israeli settlement expansion leading to the second intifada. The role of the US government in the conflict is graphically underscored. And most poignant are the heart-wrenching testimonies of those who’ve survived and also resisted Israeli occupation.

The theme of this year’s IAW has been ‘Afro-Palestinian Solidarity’. As such it has focused on both Israel’s apartheid policies towards the Palestinians. It has also highlighted the Israeli government’s discriminatory policies and practices towards African migrants.

IAW has been organized by the Kenya Palestine Solidarity Movement in partnership with the Kenya Human Rights Commission, Mathare Social Justice Center, Mau Mau Research Center, Fahamu, Awaaz and the Right Protection and Promotion Center among others.