Students Confronting Apartheid by Israel (SCAI) would like to ask for
your support for a documentary photography exhibit on the Stanford
University campus exposing life and resistance under Israeli
occupation in Palestine. This photo exhibit was part of SCAI's Women
Under Fire Series that highlighted Jewish resistance to Israeli
apartheid.
Due to anonymous complaints withheld from the SCAI students after the
exhibit had been up for only two days, the administration of
Stanford's Old Union building removed the photographs on Wednesday,
April 9th, without successfully reaching any SCAI student to notify
them of the decision to remove the photos.
Before the exhibit was displayed, the exhibit was presented to the
Old Union Administration and approved to be exhibited April 7-April
21. Despite this approval, the exhibit was removed as mentioned earlier.
Because there is no action being taken to restore the photos more
than one full week after the removal of the exhibit, we are urging
you to view the images yourself
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25736662@N07/ and
send a letter to the Old Union Administration, based off the template below, urging them to put an end to this censorship and expressing your concern on this extremely important issue.
Please send your letters to the Old Union Administration, by emailing
jsmith-laws@stanford.edu and CCing your comments to ahianan@gmail.com.
Thank you for your support.
TEXT FOR YOUR LETTER
Dear Old Union Administration,
I am writing to you with deep regret and frustration about the
removal of Students Confronting Apartheid by Israel (SCAI)'s Old
Union photo exhibit featuring a collection of photos taken by Bay
Area artist Lisa Nessan as part of SCAI's Women Under Fire Series
highlighting Jewish resistance to Israeli apartheid. SCAI students
have been working on this exhibit since fall quarter, and received
explicit permission from Jeanette Smith-Laws and the OSA to display
the exhibit from April 7 to April 21. The exhibit was presented to
Ms. Smith-Laws, and was screened and approved over one month before
the exhibit dates. Despite this clear approval, the photos were
removed, shortly after they were displayed, without the successful
notification to the SCAI officers.
The collection of photos provide a poignant and intimate journey into
the lives of Palestinians residing in the West Bank. The images in
the exhibit humanize the daily Palestinian struggle for existence in
the face of Israeli oppression and not only challenge the paradigm
that frames mainstream perceptions of the situation in Israel and
Palestine as a conflict rather than an occupation, but also
beautifully contradict the largely negative and inaccurate portrayal
of the Arab people in the history of Western culture, especially in
the current political climate when the targeting and silencing of
dissent on Israel and censorship of public representations of
Palestine is rampant. The removal of this exhibit joins the countless
other attempts to make invisible the reality of apartheid and
occupation in Palestine.
Stanford University is a university of amazing student and faculty
diversity with a wide array of opinions and points of view. When
honest dialogue surrounding global, national or local issues, is
quietly taken away from the community, the nurturing environment for
future leaders within the community no longer exists. This act of
censorship and refusal to allow space for alternative perspectives on
a critical political issue detracts from the beauty of the Stanford
experience and curtails legitimate right to free speech by students
and respective student organizations.
In conclusion, I ask that immediate action be taken to restore the
photos to Old Union. The removal of the exhibit is an affront to our
freedom of speech, and an affront to the values that Stanford
University holds dear to its heart.
Sincerely,
World Centric Fair Trade & Eco Store
http://www.worldcentric.org/store/
We have created and live in a world of gross social and economic
inequalities[1] and are at the same time severely impacting[2] the
natural eco-systems and regenerating bio-capacity of the planet.
Our every action has an impact on the well-being of our planet and
our everyday decisions[3] can help create a better world for all.
In keeping with this fact and our vision, the World Centric Fair
Trade/Eco Online Store provides everyday consumption choices, which
can help minimize social & economic inequalities, reduce the impact
of our consumption on the environment and help create a better and
sustainable world.
1. http://www.worldcentric.org/stateworld/socialjustice.htm
2. http://www.worldcentric.org/stateworld/environment.htm
3. http://www.worldcentric.org/sustain/index.htm
Pagesincolor.com
Fair Trade Crafts, Alternative Media
John F. Thielking
http://www.pagesincolor.com
---> Free Mumia Abu-Jamal <---
http://www.mumia.org http://www.freemumia.org
+++> Bring Leonard Peltier Home Now! <+++
http://www.leonardpeltier.net
http://www.freepeltier.org/
http://www.myspace.com/freepeltier
===> Hands Off Assata Shakur! <===
http://www.assatashakur.org
***> Free the MOVE 9 <***
http://www.onamove.com
---> Free Rocky Boice Jr. <---
http://www.ibiblio.org/twf/carsonten.html
+++> Free Lori Berenson <+++
http://www.freelori.org
===> Release Hugo Pinell from Prison NOW <===
http://www.hugopinell.org
***> Free Tre Arrow <***
http://www.trearrow.org/
---> Free all Political Prisoners & Prisoners of War! <---
http://prisonactivist.org/pps+pows/pplist-alpha.shtml
+++> Abolish the racist & classist death penalty! <+++
===> Palestinian Statehood Not Israeli Occupation <===
***> Support Palestinian Right to Return <***
http://www.badil.org http://www.al-awda.org
---> Divest from Israel! Boycott products made in Israel! <---
http://www.boycottisraeligoods.org
+++> Tear down the Israeli Apartheid Wall <+++
http://www.stopthewall.org
===> End the U.S. Occupation of Afghanistan NOW! <===
***> End U.S./British Occupation of Iraq NOW! <***
http://www.iraqintifada.net
---> Free Haiti <---
ALL Foreign Troops Out of Haiti NOW!
Let President Jean Bertrand Aristide Return to Haiti!
http://www.haitiaction.net
Don't Attack Iran!
http://www.stopwar.org.uk/StoptheWar-Iran.htm
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/iran
+++> Save Coyote Valley <+++
Amah Mutsun & Muwekma Ohlone Land
coyotevalley@inbox.com
__,_._,___
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