This April, National Students for Justice in Palestine is organizing its second national speaking tour of Palestinian students with the Right to Education Campaign (R2E) at Birzeit University in the West Bank. For two weeks, students from across Palestine will meet and speak with college students and youth organizers about their experiences as students living under Israeli occupation and the broader context of education and academic freedom in Palestine.
This year”s tour theme is “The Impact of Colonialism on Education in Palestine,” and the goals of the tour are threefold:
- to create linkages between the student movement in the US and Palestine;
- to build long-term, institutional relationships between our universities;
- to exchange information between Palestinians and US social movements (e.g. indigenous, migrant and Black struggles).
14 students from 5 universities across the West Bank and Gaza Strip have been accepted to the tour. The last R2E tour “Building Unity, Wrecking Walls,” was a huge success, with 10 students visiting 42 colleges in November 2014. R2E events generated some of the largest turnouts individual chapters had seen, and many students appreciated being able to connect with the Palestinian issue on a student-to-student level.
The 2014 tour began with an orientation in St. Louis, where the students were able to meet and connect with community members and organizers from St. Louis and Ferguson. This year”s tour hopes to continue to connect Palestinians with grassroots movements representing Black, indigenous, and migrant issues and will visit with activists in Chicago, Pine Ridge Reservation, and Hawai’i.
The schedule of events has been released by National SJP: http://www.nationalsjp.org/right-2-education.html The tour dates are below – please check in with the SJP website for updates on specific locations:
California
University of Southern California – Monday, April 4
UC Santa Cruz – Wednesday, April 6
Stanford University – Monday, April 11
UC Hastings College of Law – Monday, April 11
UC Berkeley (undergrad & school of law) – Tuesday, April 12
San Francisco State University – Tuesday, April 12
Florida
USF – Friday, April 8
UCF – Monday, April 11
FIU – Tuesday, April 12
Georgia
UGA – Tuesday, April 5
Georgia State – Wednesday, April 6
Spelman College – Thursday, April 7
Hawaii
University of Hawaii – Manoa – Thursday & Friday, April 7-8
Illinois
Illinois Institute of Technology – Monday, April 4
UIC – Tuesday, April 12
University of Chicago – TBD (later April)
DePaul University – TBD (later April)
Indiana
Purdue University – Monday, April 4
Louisiana
BYP100 New Orleans – TBD (later April)
Massachusetts
University of Massachusetts – Boston – Monday, April 4
Wellesley College – Wednesday, April 6
University of Massachusetts – Amherst – Thursday, April 7
Brandeis University – Friday, April 8
Harvard Law School – Monday, April 11
Boston University – Tuesday, April 12
Michigan
Detroit – Friday – Sunday, April 8-10
Wayne State – Monday, April 11
UM Ann Arbor – Tuesday, April 12
Missouri
St. Louis – Hands Up United – TBD (later April)
Nebraska
UN Omaha – Thursday, April 7
New York
NYC SJP – Friday – Sunday, April 8-10
Hunter College – Monday, April 11
Columbia University – TBD (later April)
St. Joseph”s College – TBD (later April)
Pace University – TBD (later April)
Ohio
Earlham College – Tuesday, April 5
Ohio State – Wednesday, April 6
Kent State – Thursday, April 7
Cleveland State – Friday, April 8
Pennsylvania
Penn State University – Thursday, April 7
South Dakota
Pine Ridge Reservation – Friday – Sunday, April 8-10
Tennessee
UT Knoxville – Monday, April 4
Washington, DC
Georgetown University – Monday, April 4
George Washington University – Tuesday, April 5
American University – Wednesday, April 6
Wisconsin
UW Madison – Wednesday, April 6
