2011 Jan 20: CONFERENCE PUTS PALESTINE IN CONTEXT
Thursday 20th January 2011
Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign: Media Release
SCOTS PALESTINE GROUP TO HOST ANTI-WAR CONFERENCE
A campaign group is set to bring a range of international speakers to the Scottish capital next weekend to discuss "Palestine in the Context of the Drive to Permanent War".
As well as Gazan Professor Haidar Eid, the conference will hear from Iraqi author, Haifa Zangana, Glasgow-based Mohammed Asif of the Scottish Afghan Society, and US Iraq war veteran, Mike Prysner.
Prysner gained prominence when he wrote to film Director Michael Moore expressing his doubts about the war while still based in Iraq, describing President Bush as a "smirking commander-in-chief, thinking he was fooling a nation?" He later told of how he "threw families onto the street in Iraq, only to come home and find families thrown onto the street in this country [USA] in this tragic, tragic, unnecessary foreclosure crisis."
Conference organiser Mick Napier of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign said that the conference will locate Israel as "a key US asset in the drive to dominate the resources of the Middle East and beyond.
"While the devastation of Iraq by foreign armies continues, while the Afghan adventure produces a rising death toll and intensified resistance from Afghans, Israel openly threatens yet another invasion of neighbouring Lebanon, and has already begun covert attacks with the US on Iran to maintain its regional monopoly of nuclear WMDs."
The conference takes place on 29th and 30th January at St George's West Church, Shandwick Place, Edinburgh. Registration details are available at www.scottishpsc.org.uk
ENDS
Notes for editors:
1. The Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign started in autumn 2000 in response to the Palestinian second uprising against Israeli occupation (Intifada). The SPSC has branches and groups of supporters in several Scottish towns, cities, and universities, as well as individual members across Scotland and elsewhere.
For further information, contact:
SPSC Chair, Mick Napier: 0131 620 0052; 07958002591
Email: media@scottishpsc.org.uk (default reply to this email)
Website: www.scottishpsc.org.uk
2. INTERVIEWS WITH SPEAKERS CAN BE ARRANGED ON REQUEST.
3. The Conference takes place on Sat/Sun 29th/30th Jan 2011 at:
St George's West Church,
58 Shandwick Place
Edinburgh
EH2 4RT
4. Full programme, including information on speakers, here:
CONFERENCE PROGRAMME
Saturday 29 Jan
9.15-10.00am
Registration
10.00am
Welcome
10-15-11.45am
Haidar Eid: Palestine in the context of the drive to war
12.00-1.30pm
Haifa Zangana: Imperial strategy in Iraq
2.30-4.00pm
Mohammed Asif: Invasion, occupation & resistance in Afghanistan
4.15pm
Plenary: Mohammed Asif, Haidar Eid, Mike Prysner, Haifa Zangana
Sunday 30 Jan
10.30- 11.00am
Coffee
11.00am-12.30pm
Speaker t.b.c Lebanon: Israeli war crimes and Lebanese resistance
12.45-2.15pm
Mike Prysner: Racism, imperialism, & permanent war
3.00-4.30pm
Plenary: Mohamed Asif, Haidar Eid, Mike Prysner, Haifa Zangana