Saturday, June 20
11 am Pacific/2 pm Eastern
Register online: http://bit.ly/fight4liberation
Al-Awda PRRC is a co-sponsor of the following program. We invite you to join us for this important conversation:
Our Fight for Liberation: A Conversation with the Families of Oscar Grant and Eyad Hallaq
At this moment we are witnessing global uprisings and calls for change and justice ignited by the recent murder of George Floyd, and countless other Black people, at the hands of United States police forces. The murder of Floyd is consistent with the longevity of systemic anti-Black state violence in the U.S.
Palestinians are all too familiar with the loss of loved ones at the hands of an enduring system of oppression and colonial violence in our homeland. Just five days following the police killing of Floyd, 32-year-old Eyad Hallaq was murdered, extra-judicial style, by Israeli soldiers in Jerusalem. As Palestinian youth in North America, we recognize the links between the local movement for Black lives and the Palestinian struggle for liberation.
As part of our collective commitment to both struggles, we welcome you to join us for a conversation with two families who have lost loved ones to racist police/colonial violence and a greater system of oppression in their home countries. We are honored to be joined by Uncle Bobby X, the uncle of Oscar Grant, and Diana Hallaq, the sister of Eyad Hallaq, as they share their stories and as we come together to uplift their calls for justice and liberation.
Speaker Backgrounds:
Uncle Bobby X is the uncle of the late Oscar Grant and the co-founder of the Love Not Blood Campaign and the Oscar Grant Foundation. Oscar Grant was a 22-year-old Black man who was shot and killed in Oakland by a Bay Area Rapid Transit Police officer on New Year’s Day in 2009. After being unlawfully detained on the BART, along with several other passengers, Grant was kneed in the head by an officer and forced to lie face down on the platform. While restrained in that position, he was fatally shot in the back by a second officer. Local communities responded in mass protest and civil actions but proper justice has not yet been served. As Wanda Johnson, the mother of Oscar Grant, stated in response to the murder of George Floyd, over a decade later, “it’s heartbreaking to see that we are still nowhere.”
Diana Hallaq is the sister of the late Eyad Hallaq, a 32-year-old autistic man who was executed by Israeli soldiers in East Jerusalem on Saturday, May 30th, 2020. Hallaq was walking from his home to the Elwyn El Quds Center, a school dedicated to people with special needs that he attended daily for the past six years when he was called on by an Israeli soldier to stop. Hallaq, fearful and unable to comply, attempted to flee but was shot by the officer who followed him behind a dumpster where he sought shelter. Despite the pleas of Hallaq’s caregiver, a witness to the crime, Hallaq was shot three more times at close range.
The event will take place on Saturday, June 20, at 11 AM PST via Zoom. Please register here today: http://bit.ly/fight4liberation.
We hope you will join us!
Co-Sponsoring Organizations:
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition
Anakbayan
American Friends Service Committee– Oakland
American Muslims for Palestine (AMP)
Arab America
Arab American Civic Council
Arabs4BlackPower
AROC: Arab Resource & Organizing Center
جمعية أهالي بيت حنينا Beit Hanina Community Association
Eyewitness Palestine
Free Thinking Society AlNadwa
Friends of Sabeel North America FOSNA
Handala Coalition
Jews for Palestinian Right of Return
Jewish Voice for Peace
Jewish Voice for Peace Bay Area
Karama
Love Not Blood Campaign
Middle East Children’s Alliance – MECA
Midwest SJP
National SJP
New Generation for Palestine
NorCal Friends of Sabeel
Palestinian American Cultural Center- PACC Houston
Palestine Action Network
Palestinian American Women’s Association
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
US Palestinian Community Network
USPCN-Detroit
The Toronto Palestine Film Festival
Within our Lifetime • United for Palestine
Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism (QUIT)
