Palestinian Human Rights Leaders Blocked from Traveling to U.S. for Major Conference

Al-Awda Press Release

Palestinian human rights leader Ubai Aboudi, featured speaker at AL-AWDA NY “Rising to Return” conference, blocked from traveling to US along with colleague Sahar Francis

Registration and information: alawdaconference.org Twitter: @alawda Instagram: @alawdany Facebook: AlAwdaNY

Two leading Palestinian NGO directors scheduled to speak at the World Social Forum and Al-Awda National Conference to support Palestinian right to return have been blocked from traveling, in an escalation of Israeli repression against Palestinian civil society.

New York, NY – A keynote speaker at the Al-Awda “Rising To Return” National Conference, along with a colleague scheduled to speak at the World Social Forum, have been blocked from traveling to the U.S. On April 29, Ubai Aboudi, Executive Director of the Ramallah-based Bisan Center for Research and Development, was detained and denied permission to travel as he tried to depart occupied Palestine for a North American speaking tour. On April 30, Sahar Francis, director of Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, was prevented from boarding her plane to the U.S. from Tel Aviv.

• This is the second time Aboudi has faced Israeli repression for taking part in intellectual exchanges in the U.S. In late 2019, Aboudi was abducted by occupation forces at his home, in front of his wife and children, as he prepared to travel to MIT in Cambridge, MA for the January 2020 International Meeting for Science in Palestine. Israeli military then held Aboudi for 11 months in administrative detention, without charges.
• This troubling, aggressive travel ban comes against an intensifying backdrop of Israeli government-backed right-wing settler violence in occupied Jerusalem and throughout Palestine.
• On Twitter, Addameer posted: “Preventing the directors of leading Palestinian civil society organizations from traveling & speaking abroad is a dangerous escalation in the Israeli-led harassment & isolation campaign.” It called the ban on travel by Francis and Aboudi “a blatant attempt at silencing criticism of Israeli apartheid & settler-colonialism.”
• Addameer, which supports political prisoners, and the Bisan Center, which supports education rights, are 2 of 6 Palestinian human rights groups baselessly designated last year by Israel as “terrorist organizations.” According to the United Nations human rights commission in an April 25, 2022 release, Israel’s accusation “has not been accompanied by any public concrete and credible evidence.” The UN statement called upon governments to resume funding to the 6 NGOs, including Addameer and Bisan Center.
• Israel has Aboudi banned from travel to the U.S. even though he is a U.S. citizen, at a time when Israel is demanding visa waivers for its own citizens who travel to the U.S. In recent weeks, Israel has rolled out intrusive questions that must be answered by U.S. Palestinians wishing to travel to Palestine, requiring them to disclose family and other contacts, social media handles, and any property they may be due to inherit in Palestine. “In this way,” said Al-Awda NY co-founder Lamis Deek, the colonizing entity tries to intimidate Palestinians here in the U.S., threatening that our families in Palestine will be harmed if we speak out.”
• “Al-Awda is outraged that Palestinian civil society leaders such as Sahar Francis and Ubai Aboudi are blocked from traveling to the ‘Rising To Return’ conference,” said Al-Awda spokesperson Anas Amireh. “But to quote Ubai, ‘This denial will not scare me, we will continue the work.’”
• Aboudi will now speak remotely in his scheduled May 7 conference plenary panel on “Defeating Criminalization and Increasing Direct Support and Aid to Palestine” and will lead several workshops also remotely.
• Petition campaigns against the travel bans on Aboudi and Francis will launch soon.

Al-Awda’s “Rising To Return” conference will bring together some of the world’s leading activists, writers, artists and scholars for three days of intensive planning and dialogue dedicated to mapping effective strategies to allow Palestinian refugees to return – and dismantle Israeli occupation and Zionist apartheid. The gathering begins on Friday, May 6 at 5:30 p.m. at The People’s Forum in Manhattan, 320 W. 37 St. and runs through Sunday, May 8, with plenary sessions, intensive workshops and panels, as well as film screenings, a book launch, and cultural performances, concluding with a press conference Sunday, May 8 at 3:00 p.m.

“The right to return for all Palestinians displaced by Zionist ethnic cleansing is an absolute necessity before there can be peace and justice in Palestine and in the region,” said Lamis Deek, co-founder of Al-Awda NY. “This right applies throughout the global Palestinian diaspora, and to Palestinians internally displaced who cannot travel to see their own families or visit the place they were born.”

“In one space, in one weekend, this conference will be a major step toward moving the right to return from a theoretical concept to a practical reality.” Deek said.

Reporters should reach out to Al-Awda press contacts or register at alawdaconference.org. Some sessions will be livestreamed, please reach out for details.

Conference highlights include:

• Ramzy Baroud and Ilan Pappe at the paperback launch and book signing of their new publication Our Vision For Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders & Intellectuals Speak Out, in conversation with Prof. Salim Vally, Director for the Centre for Education Rights and Transformation at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa
• Journalist and filmmaker David Sheen, who reports from the ground in Palestine, will share his explosive investigation into the U.S. sponsors of Zionist terrorist groups in Palestine
• Screenings of Dr. Ahlam Muhtaseb’s documentary 1948: Creation & Catastrophe and Gaza’s Angel by Ahmed Mansour
• Performances by Freedom Debka Troupe, Turath Band, led by Palestinian vocalist and oudist George Ziadeh, an authority in Maqam and Arab traditional music, and Palestinian Hip Hop Artist Waheeb Nassan
• A ceremony honoring Hon. Charles Barron, New York City Councilmember and longtime Palestine solidarity activist
• Mother’s Day Breakfast With and In Honor of Palestinian Women On the Front Lines

Speakers include:

• Clarence Thomas, retired ILWU labor activist, Block The Boat port shut-down solidarity action for Palestine, author, Mobilizing in Our Own Name: Million Worker March
• Raja Abdulhaq, founder of Quds News Network and Executive Director of Majlis Ash-Shura: Islamic Leadership Council of New York
• Ayah Ziyadeh, advocacy director for American Muslims for Palestine
• Miko Peled, author of The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine and Injustice: The Story of The Holy Land Foundation Five
• Members of the DSA BDS and Palestine Solidarity Working Group, recently dissolved by DSA leadership
• Luna Martinez, Bertha Justice Fellow at the Center for Constitutional Rights
• Rabbi Yisrol Dovid Weiss, Neturei Karta International and Jews United Against Zionism
• Andom Ghebreghiorgis, teacher who ran a progressive campaign for U.S. Congress in New York’s 16th Congressional District in 2020
• Lowkey, a.k.a. Kareem Dennis (via remote), London-based Iraqi British rapper, organizer, playwright and poet, banned from U.S. entry
• Ayman Nijim, Gaza-born trauma expert and Solidarity Program Officer for the Middle East at Grassroots International
• Jared Ware of the “Millenials Are Killing Capitalism” Podcast

Key plenary sessions, panel discussions, and workshops will include:

• Palestine In Context: U.S. Imperialism and U.S.-Israeli Relations
• Assessing & Advancing Campus Work and Strategies
• Implementing Return and Empowering Refugees
• Liberation Theology For Palestine
• Prisoners of Zionist and U.S. Imperialism: Reviving and revisiting coordination and strategies for prisoner liberation
• Electoral Action: Toward Advancing Return or Damaging Detour?
• Strategies to Defeat Zionist Narratives and Talking Points in Communities and Media
• Entrepreneurs, Innovators and Techies for Palestinian Sovereignty
• Anti-Zionist Jews in conversation and community: intergenerational support and coordination