We hope that you are about to have a chance to relax and recuperate from an immensely challenging school year.
The past couple of months have been intense. We’ve seen the escalation in both resistance and repression in Palestine, and an explosion of solidarity across the United States and the rest of the world.
The current round of demonstrations throughout Palestine was spurred by mounting Israeli efforts to expel long-time Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan in Jerusalem. There’s never been a more important time to understand and teach about what’s happening in East Jerusalem. Determined to Stay: Palestinian Youth Fight for Their Village is the story of Silwan, and it’s written with middle and high school students in mind.
If you missed the book launch for Determined to Stay, check out the recording here. In addition to Jody talking about the book and reading a few excerpts, you’ll hear from Sahar Abbasi, deputy director of Madaa Creative Center in Silwan, talk about the current situation.
If you’ve already read Determined to Stay, please take a minute to review it on Good Reads, Bookshop.org, and the MECA Shop Palestine site.
Do you know Free Minds, Free People? It’s an amazing bi-annual conference of radical educators, organizers and youth. This year it will be online throughout the month of July. The last weekend, July 31 and August 1 focus on Ethnic Studies/Transnational Solidarity, with a special concentration on including Palestine in ethnic studies curriculum. On Sunday, we’ll hold a People’s Assembly aimed at building a national organization of educators committed to authentic ethnic studies, with Palestine as a critical component. Sign up here for updates and to register for the conference. We hope to see you there!
