🍉 VanGran4Pal Community Newsletter
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**Neighbours and Friends, **
We took a week off from the newsletter schedule over this winter break and spent that time resting and recuperating. It is important to honour the blessings we have in our lives as well as stand up for those who don’t have the same. We hope many of you were able to rest as well, and if the holidays were tough for you, we see you.
Throughout 2024 we witnessed countless atrocities at the hands of western colonial powers, with grotesquely hypocritical responses from these countries’ governments and sorrowfully biased mainstream media coverage of the genocide. We have simultaneously been encouraged by Canadian media sources such as The Maple, who have consistently worked to bring important stories to light and bolster the fight against national complicity.
We should never, as a community, allow ourselves to be complicit in a genocide and total silence and inaction is complicity. It is our moral and civic duty to continue educating ourselves; to listen to voices on the ground in Gaza; to amplify those voices by applying direct pressure on our politicians; to apply economic pressure through boycotts and continued protest. Small things you do every day matter, from where you shop to wearing a Palestine pin - let people know what you believe in and do not let western media lull you into anything less. We are looking to 2025 with hope and courage, holding Palestine in our hearts.
In this week’s edition we cover petitions that are currently circulating in our Action Updates (start your 2025 advocacy now!) and highlight a host of upcoming local events. Please forward our newsletter to any friends or allies you’d like to bring along for this community journey and reach out if you’d like to get involved with our team.
Action Updates
Make your voice heard in 2025
Make one of your New Year’s resolutions (or intentions!) to keep up with amplifying petitions and pressuring your government representatives to stand up for Palestine. Below are a few petitions to sign to kick off 2025:
- Email the new BC government to demand they add the Nakba to the BC Curriculum!
- Please email Canada's defence minister to end the Operation Proteus in occupied Palestine
- Stop killing Palestinian Children! Send a letter (en français) to Canadian elected officials and have your organization join in endorsing.
Upcoming Events
Theatre for Palestine - Sat Jan 18
Saturday Jan 18th
UBC’s Normand Bouchard Memorial Theatre, Vancouver 🕑 6PM
Join us on January 18th, 2025, for Beyond the Wall”, a fundraising theatre at UBC’s Normand Bouchard Memorial Theatre at 6pm! In support of Palestinian families impacted by the ongoing Genocide.
This powerful production, led by Palestinian artists blends dance, music, acting, poetry, and storytelling to shed light on the reality of the Palestinian struggle.
Plot Summary:
Follow the journey of a journalist navigating the truths of life by visiting an Israeli home and a Palestinian home, uncovering the human stories often hidden from the world.
Why This Matters:
UBC has allocated over $100 million to institutions complicit in the oppression of Palestinians.
Let’s stand together and take action!
Proceeds directly support Palestinian families in Gaza this winter.
🔗 https://www.eventbrite.com/e/beyond-the-wall-tickets-1108591991489
📢 Help amplify this message by sharing the poster across your social media!
Let’s stand in solidarity. 🌿🍉
Bike Rally - Sat Jan 11
Saturday, Jan 11 @ 11:30am
Main Street Science WorldFrom @vanbike4palestine:
This week’s ride will end at Saturday’s rally, which aims to draw particular attention to Israeli targeting of medical facilities and personnel in Gaza. Our government’s rhetoric on “human rights” and “international law” has rung painfully hollow to the ears of so many of us who bear witness to the horrors it has continually supported by its policy on Palestine and Israel - and especially so to the thousands of Palestinian Canadians who are left asking: does my chosen country hate me?Come ride (and march) with us as we demand our government honour their words, and openly condemn and take action against Israeli targeting of Palestinian medical facilities, and their genocide at large.🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸✊✊✊🍉✊✊✊🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸Meet: 11:30 Science WorldLeave: 12:00End: 2:00 Art Gallery
Bracelets for Gaza - Sat Jan 11
🗓 Date: Saturday, January 11, 2025
⏰ Time: 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM PST
📍 Location: Surrey Libraries - Fleetwood Branch (Meeting Room)
Address: 15996 84 Avenue, Surrey, BC V4N 0W1
Tickets Here🌟 Bracelets for Gaza: Parent & Child Workshop 🌟From @clovlangforpalestine: Bring your little ones (ages 5+) and join us for a fun and meaningful crafting event to create beautiful bracelets while supporting a vital cause—providing clean water for families in North Gaza! 💧🎨 Activities include:✨ Bracelet making guided by Maryam & Farah🎨 Face painting & craft table❤️ Card making to share hope with a child in Gaza📚 Storytime about Palestine☕ Refreshments & snacksTickets:🎟 Each ticket includes one parent and one child. Want to bring more kids? Purchase an Add-a-Child ticket to include them in the fun!Let’s create, bond, and make a difference together! Reserve your spot now—seats are limited.🔗 Link in @gaza.waterproject bio to register.
Manakeesh Cooking Class - Sun Jan 19
** Sunday, Jan 19, 3-6 PM **
📍 Tayybeh RestaurantTickets Here
From @parentsforpalestineyvr: Join us for a fun, family-friendly event in collaboration with ''Tayybeh Restaurant in Vancouver where parents and children can come together to learn the art of making Palestinian zaatar manakeesh on fresh dough. After making & then baking our creations, we'll get to enjoy a delicious meal together.
Tayybeh Restaurant is a multiple award-winning social enterprise, full service caterer and beautiful restaurant with a mission to employ, uplift and empower newcomer and refugee women chefs from Syria and the Middle East. Tayybeh offers delicious, healthy and unique Middle Eastern food inspired by the local and family recipes of our team of women chefs.
Please note: Each ticket is for one adult + one child.
Recommended for children aged 3 and up, this hands-on workshop offers a delightful way to bond while exploring the rich flavours and traditions of Palestinian cuisine. Don’t miss out on this deliciously educational experience!
Vigil and Rally - Every Saturday!
📅 Date: Saturday Jan 11 & Jan 18
🕐 Time: 5pm
📍 Location: Vancouver Art Gallery
A group of volunteers and independent activists holds a vigil and rally every Saturday outside the Vancouver Art Gallery. It’s easy to drop by, meet your community and stand in solidarity with Palestine.
Community Spotlight
On Recognising Genocide
On a recent walk with a friend, we came across this monument at Mountainview Cemetery which is an archival fingerprint of a victim of the Armenian Genocide. The inscription is now faded, but here’s what it says:
“This Monument honours the 1.5 million innocent souls who lost their lives in the Armenian Genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Turkish government in 1915.
An ancient race was almost extinguished on its historic homeland in the first genocide of the twentieth century.
In 2004, the Canadian Parliament recognized the Armenian Genocide, bringing us all one step closer to eradicating crimes against humanity.”
The mixture of feelings we felt were hard to describe. Deep sorrow for the staggering number of victims of the Armenian Genocide. A bitter taste of irony in the faded lettering proclaiming that recognition of that genocide supposedly brought us ‘one step closer to eradicating crimes against humanity’. Incredulity that the Canadian Parliament took 89 years just to recognise that horrific genocide (though that abeyant approach is not surprising when you consider that this country itself is built on the genocide of Indigenous peoples, a fact that was first whispered by Trudeau only in 2021).
So, how long will it be until Canada recognises the genocide against Palestinians? Will it then stop supporting it? UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese expressed eloquently why it is so important to call a genocide a genocide. Jewish allies, families of the survivors of the holocaust have been staging bold sit-ins repeating the refrain ‘never again, for anyone’ throughout 2024. We must continue to fight, any way that we can, for our government to end its support of another genocide.
“The days have never been darker, but the prospects for justice have never been greater.” Do not forsake the Palestinian people, do not take their resilience for granted, “do not normalize genocide, do not become numb” - I am taking Francesa’s words to heart and will be carrying all victims of genocide with me and speaking up for them wherever I can, as they cannot. I will not normalize genocide and I will not become numb.
- C
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With gratitude and in solidarity,
Your Neighbours
Van Gran 4 Palestine
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