JEFF HALPER, ISRAELI PEACE ACTIVIST TO TOUR CANADA IN JANUARY: WILL THE NEW YEAR USHER IN PEACE OR APARTHEID?

Israeli Jew. Humanitarian. Journalist. Author. Academic. Human Rights Activist. Nobel Peace Prize nominee Jeff Halper has been on the front lines of organizing for peace in Israel for almost 30 years. He was the only Israeli aboard the Free Gaza flotilla that broke the Gaza siege, Aug. 23, 2008. His first hand account of whether Israel is moving to peace or apartheid will be the subject of a seven city cross-Canada tour that kicks off in Halifax on January 12, 2009.

Halper is known internationally for his work as a co-founder of the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions and for his passionate commitment to non-violent, political strategies to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Halper will visit Halifax (January 12-13), Montreal (January 14-17), Ottawa (January 18-19), Toronto and Hamilton (January 20-23), Winnipeg (January 24-26) and Vancouver (January 27-29) during his tour, and will speak with student groups, churches, trade unions, grassroots community organizers and Aboriginal activists.

“I can no more passively witness my government’s destruction of another people than I can watch the Occupation destroy the moral fabric of my own country,” Halper wrote in an August 5, 2008 article, as he prepared to sail as part of a delegation aimed at ending the siege of Gaza. “To do so would violate my commitment to human rights, the very essence of prophetic Jewish religion, culture and morals, without which Israel is no longer Jewish but an empty, if powerful, Sparta.”

His tour is sponsored by Independent Jewish Voices (Canada), a network of 18 Jewish groups as well as individuals Jews from across Canada who are opposed to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.

OTTAWA EVENTS

Sun, Jan 18, 7pm, "Israel/Palestine: Towards Peace or Apartheid?"

Marion Hall Auditorium, University of Ottawa, Main Campus,

Mon., Jan. 19, 2pm, "Reframing the Israel/Palestine Conflict" 

Room 256 S. of the Senate in Centre Block of Parliament. $10 fee,

Mon., Jan. 19, 8pm "Palestine: From Apartheid to Warehousing" 

Kailash Mital Theatre (formerly Alumni Theatre), Southam Hall, Carleton University.

Ottawa Contact: Diana Ralph, ijv@magma.ca

For information on the pan-Canadian tour, visit Independent Jewish Voices (Canada).