Press Releases

Human Rights Group Takes Out Full Page Ad in The Oregonian to Publicize Event Commemorating the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine

For Immediate Release

No. (E/023/08)

23 May 2008


 

Portland, Ore., May 23, 2008. Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights  (AUPHR) has taken out a full page ad on page A-8 of The Oregonian today to commemorate the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their homeland that began in 1947-1948 with the founding of the state of Israel 60 years ago. The ad will also publicize a May 31, 2008 program of events that will take place at Portland State University's Hoffman Hall, 1833 SW 11th Avenue, between 1 and 5pm aimed at raising awareness about the Palestinian expulsion and dispossession. The program includes an opening ceremony with Native American sovereignty drumming in solidarity with the Palestinian People, two documentary films on the Palestinian refugee crisis, and a lecture by Dr. George Bisharat, UC San Francisco Hastings College of Law Professor entitled, "Ending the Palestinian Nakba".

 

The full page ad shows an image of a Palestinian woman refugee carrying a pail of water through a muddy refugee camp against a backdrop of an endless sea of tents. The photo was taken by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees after 1948. The ad was created by Ildy Toth of Portland, Oregon, recent winner of an international poster competition on the Palestinian dispossession that is currently being displayed in Manhattan subway terminals.

 

Dr. Bisharat has been an outspoken critic of Israel and has compared the goals of Zionism, the ideological framework for the creation of the Jewish state, to those of Hamas, the Islamic movement in Palestine.  "Where Hamas seeks an Islamic state, Zionism seeks a Jewish state.  Each promotes a vision that privileges one group over another.  Both impulses are illegitimate," says Bisharat.  "There is no room in the 21st century for ethno-religious exclusionism as espoused by Hamas or Israel."

 

About Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights: AUPHR is a Portland-based grassroots organization that advocates for a US foreign policy that promotes adherence to and compliance with international human rights norms by all countries including Israel.

 

The event is co-sponsored by Friends of Sabeel North America, a Christian organization that works in solidarity with Palestinian Christian communities living in historic Palestine, the National Lawyers Guild of Portland, and the Muslim Student Association at Portland State University.

 


for more information, contact: Peter Miller & Zaha Hassan, AUPHR

Phone: +1-503-358-7475

Email: [email protected]