🍉 VanGran4Pal Community Newsletter (January 9, 2026)
Neighbours and friends,
We at VanGran4Pal want to wish you all a very happy new year, and hope that you were able to find some restful moments over the holidays. Thank you for continuing to read along with us in 2026 and working towards a day where this newsletter doesn't need to exist!
Top of mind this week are the extreme challenges that Palestinians are experiencing in ongoing frigid winter conditions, with israel still blocking aid - including sustainable shelters and tents - after many tents were damaged or destroyed in storms and catastrophic flooding in December. This aid blockage is yet another direct violation of the ceasefire agreement. You can track all the ceasefire violations here, and as you reach out to your MPs, use this data to explain why we still keep our eyes on Gaza and will not stop until israel is accountable and Palestine is free. Organisations like Connecting Gaza and the Gaza Soup kitchen thus continue to offer essential lifelines on the ground in Gaza. If you're able to, please consider supporting their efforts.
Below we have actions you can take, a lineup of great events coming up locally, along with our latest book recommendation.
Actions you can take
Shut Elbit Down!
We must hold Canadian institutions allowing and/or directly facilitating support for Elbit Systems accountable. Canada established 8 contracts with Elbit Systems and/or its subsidiaries in 2025 alone. At least 14 Canadian financial institutions hold investments in Elbit Systems. And GeoSpectrum Technologies is a Canadian-based Elbit subsidiary, incorporated in Nova Scotia.
We must SHUT ELBIT DOWN.
Take action:
1 | Send a letter to Canadian banks and pensions AND another to Public Services and Procurement Canada:
2 | Send the hunger strikers letter to demand the UK government respond to the prisoners’ demands:
3 | Follow and amplify @prisoners4palestine
Demand Canada take concrete action to let aid in!
If you haven't yet contacted your MP in 2026, there's plenty of reasons to - set your intention to continue solidarity and start here.
From Just Peace Advocates: On December 28, 2025, Israel announced it plan to bar 37 humanitarian organizations from operating in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). This includes Humanity & Inclusion, Doctors Without Borders, Norwegian Refugee Council, Defence for Children International Palestine, and Oxfam-Quebec. As Al-Haq noted: “The announcement follows Israel’s introduction, in March 2025, of additional registration requirements, whose aim is to consolidate its genocidal conduct in Gaza –– of which denial of access to humanitarian aid remains a central element –– to further fragment and isolate the Palestinian people from international support.” States, including Canada, have legal obligations to take concrete actions to hold Israel accountable and enforce international law.
Click here to write to the PM, Foreign Affairs Minister and your MP!
Upcoming Events
Family Friendly Rally in Coquitlam | January 11
Date and time
Sunday, January 11, 3-5pm
Location
Coquitlam City Hall (3000 Guildford Way, Coquitlam)
About
Every Sunday outside Coquitlam City Hall, come show your support for the people of Gaza, who are being bombed constantly and at this very minute! All eyes and hearts on Palestine!
One Year of Solidarity by SurDelRock4Palestine | January 11
Date and time
Sunday, January 11, 3-5pm
Location
Holland Park, Surrey (corner of 100 Ave & King George Blvd)
About
Celebrate with us a year of solidarity rallies and actions with SurDelRock4Palestine! 🍉 To honour all those who have been a part of this community, especially to all the Palestinians who have guided us through this year, we would like to mark this moment in the struggle by inviting you all to this Sunday's rally. Thank you to this community for a year of support and solidarity! 🇵🇸
Silk Screening Fundraiser for Sudan | January 17
Date and time
Saturday, January 17, 11am - 4pm
Location
1943 E Hastings st (enter through alley)
About
Incredible local Vancouver artists have created screenprint designs for this Sudan fundraiser, so come get a design printed on ur clothes. By donation. Minimum $25 (but no one turned away for lack of funds). Bring your own shirts, patches, totes, or hoodies to get a design of your choosing printed. Limited quantity totes available for purchase on site. Come meet folks, learn about what's happening in Sudan, and help local Sudanese organizers raise funds for evacuation efforts. Stand with the people of Sudan! Oppose imperialism! 🇸🇩
Narratives of Sudan: Film Screening and Panel| January 22
Date and time
Thursday, January 22, 5:30pm
Location
SFU Harbor Center, Room 7000, 515 West Hastings St, Vancouver, unceded xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh & səlilwətaɬ lands
About
Organized by Voices for Sudan and Sudan Solidarity Collective, supported by Weaving Our Worlds and SFU Labour Studies. Experience Timeea M Ahmed's powerful films:
🎬"Khartoum" (Feature Film)
🎬"is it war?" (Experimental Short)
Dive deeper in a post-screening panel with Timeea M. Ahmed and the brilliant Sudanese writer Dinan Alasad, both in-person! We’ll explore how visual and verbal storytelling can reclaim history, resist erasure, and rebuild collective memory. Moderated by Salome Ayuak. This free event is a space for community, learning, and amplifying vital voices from Sudan. 🇸🇩
Ana Falastini Screening | January 23
Date and time
Friday, January 23, 5:30 pm
Location
Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema (SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, 149 W. Hastings St., Vancouver).
About
Ana Falastini is coming back to Vancouver! Join us for this screening of the documentary that tells the Palestinian story like it was never told before. You’ll be walking into a glamorous, red-carpet Palestinian evening filled with performances, Palestinian cuisine, art displays, and thought-provoking discussions. Ana Falastini is more than just a documentary; it is a celebration of cultural endurance and a platform for dialogue and understanding. Brought to you by Falasteen Lens Society & Inspirit Foundation, in partnership with the Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies at SFU and Al-Awda Vancouver.
Countering FIFA 2026: Reflecting and learning from the 2010 Olympics Resistance | January 26
Date and time
Monday, January 26, 2026
Location
1803 East 1st Ave. xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh & səlilwətaɬ lands
About
Join Weaving Our Worlds for an evening reflecting on the resistance to the 2010 Winter Olympics and how we counter the 2026 FIFA World Cup. We will hear from speakers about resistance efforts before and during the 2010 Winter Olympics, and the impact of the Olympics on ‘Vancouver’, from housing to Indigenous land struggles to austerity to criminalization. Years before the Olympics came to town, coalitions and networks of resistance formed to push back. Vancouver will host seven matches during the 2026 FIFA World Cup, from Jun 11 to July 19, 2026, alongside 15 other cities across Canada, Mexico, and the U.S., with the FIFA Fan Festival held at the PNE. The City of Vancouver and the BC government are using this event to further militarize, increase surveillance, conduct inhumane street sweeps, and push neoliberal privatization measures.
It Didn't Begin on October 7: Zionism and its Victims | January 13 - March 10, 2026
Date, time & Location
Sessions take place over Zoom on Tuesdays from 7pm to 8:30pm Pacific, January 13 to March 10, 2026.
About
A series of illustrated talks that traces Zionist Israeli efforts to occupy historic Palestine, from the late 1800s to the present. How has Zionism dispossessed Palestinians and denied them human rights and self-determination? And how have Palestinians resisted? This free online series is introductory and non-academic, and no prior knowledge of the history of Palestine or Israel is necessary. Each of the 9 sessions includes a 60 minute presentation followed by 30 minutes for questions.
Community Spotlights
We have a few local business recommendations for you in this edition's community spotlight...
1) New year, new haircut? Try Big Bro's barbershop, who have signed the Apartheid Free Communities pledge.
2) Cellphone broken? Don't upgrade - repair with Palestinian-owned Mr Cell Fixer.
3) Got a sweet tooth after all the holiday candy? Go to Earnest Ice Cream guilt-free!
As always, keep up with BDS - if it's been a while since you checked your spending habits, why not do that now and pledge to up your game this year and align your spending with your values? 😊
Book Club
You will not kill our imagination - Saeed Teebi
A vital, fearless memoir explores what it means to be a Palestinian in this moment, the effects of the genocide on Palestinian art and imagination, and that to even claim a belonging to the land from a country thousands of miles away is an act of subversion—a book that Omar El Akkad says “so perfectly contextualizes and humanizes so much of what has led us to this awful moment, and one that will be remembered long after.”
Late last year, author Saeed Teebi honoured us here in Vancouver with his time, thoughts and insights at a Q&A for his book 'You Will Not Kill Our Imagination'. It was a moving, powerful and intimate evening that captivated our hearts and minds. We heard firsthand his accounts of missing out on opportunities because of his identity, his struggles to express himself creatively amongst the horrors of genocide, and facets of his life that are laid out in this captivating memoir. If you, like us, are intending to read more in 2026 - let this book kick off your year.