The Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine presents:
Water, Health and Human Rights:
Marking World Water Day, from the U.S. to Palestine
Monday, March 22, 2021
7:00 pm – 8:30 pm Eastern Standard Time
Featuring:
Rep. Rashida Tlaib
Rashida Tlaib has served as the Representative for Michigan’s 13th Congressional district since 2019. Her district includes the city of Detroit where she was born and raised as the daughter of Palestinian immigrants. In 2008, Rashida made history by becoming the first Muslim woman to serve in the Michigan Legislature. She has played a prominent role in pushing for equity, and economic and environmental justice. Rashida and her colleague Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) are the lead sponsors of the Emergency Water is a Human Right Act (H.R. 616) to prohibit water shut-offs during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Monica Lewis-Patrick
Monica Lewis-Patrick is an educator, entrepreneur and human rights activist. One of the founders of We the People of Detroit, she currently serves as its President and CEO. We the People of Detroit is dedicated to community coalition building and the provision of resources that inform, train and mobilize the citizens of Detroit and beyond to improve their quality of life. Monica is known throughout the environmental community as The Water Warrior for her engagement and leadership in the struggle for access to safe affordable water for all under-resourced communities.
Mahtowin Munro
Mahtowin Munro (Lakota) has been co-leader of United American Indians of New England (UAINE) since the 1990s and engaged in legislative campaigns in MA since 2015. She has for decades been a frequent speaker at rallies, symposia and other events, expressing solidarity with and bringing an Indigenous perspective to many struggles. Mahtowin founded IndigenousPeoplesDayMA.org and has helped to guide successful efforts throughout Massachusetts to get communities to celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day instead of Columbus Day. In addition, Mahtowin led the formation of the MA Indigenous Legislative Agenda, a statewide coalition of people and organizations working to pass Indigenous-centered legislation at the State House. She frequently presides over the annual National Day of Mourning (the US Thanksgiving Day) in Plymouth MA.
Wayland "X" Coleman
Wayland “X” Coleman is a founding organizer of #DeeperThanWater, an abolitionist coalition that holds the state accountable for toxic human and environmental conditions, as well as a jailhouse lawyer, musician, student, and artist. He has been incarcerated for 23 years and has dedicated much of his time inside to organizing for abolition, justice, and dignity for Black people and all incarcerated people. He will be introduced by Elizabeth Ruckus, who works for the #DeeperThanWater coalition with Wayland, and is a member of Showing Up for Racial Justice in Boston.
Jehad Abusalim
Jehad Abusalim is from Deir el-Balah, in the Gaza Strip, Palestine. He is the Policy and Education Associate at the American Friends Service Committee in Chicago and part of the team that created the website Gaza Unlocked, which features personal stories and resources on the history of the Gaza Strip and life there under the 14-year-long Israeli blockade that cuts it off from the world. Jehad is a Ph.D. candidate in History at New York University. He speaks and publishes widely and has chapters in two recent books, Gaza as Metaphor, and Palestine: A Socialist Introduction.
Nidal al-Azraq
Nidal al-Azraq is a Palestinian refugee who was born and raised in Aida Refugee Camp in Bethlehem, Palestine. He is the Executive Director of 1for3.org, a US-based organization that focuses on water, food, health, environmental work and education in Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank. 1for3.org, which holds an annual ‘Walk for Water for Palestinian Refugees’ in Cambridge MA and other US cities, has worked with partners in Aida and other refugee camps to establish portable water quality monitoring programs, rooftop gardens and greenhouses, community cisterns and a community hydroponic garden which will serve over 800 people. Nidal has also worked as a translator and organized and led medical and water testing delegations to Palestine.
We thank our co-sponsoring groups:
1for3.org, Adalah Justice Project, Alliance for a Secular and Democratic South Asia, American Friends of the Palestinian House of Friendship, American Friends Service Committee, BDS Boston, Black and Pink Massachusetts, Brooklyn For Peace, BU SJP, Cambridge/Bethlehem People-to-People Project, Cambridge United for Justice with Peace, Centre for Faith, Art & Justice, Dorchester People for Peace, Episcopal Peace Fellowship, Eyewitness Palestine, First Baptist Jamaica Plain, Grassroots Global Justice, Grassroots International, GreenRoots, Human Rights Awareness: Palestine Israel/ MA 3rd Congressional District, Jewish Women for Justice in Israel/Palestine, JVP Action, JVP Boston, JVP New Haven, Massachusetts Peace Action, Middle East Children’s Alliance, Middle East Peace & Justice Coalition of Western Mass, New Generation for Palestine, Palestine Education Network, Palestine Foundation, Palestine Museum, Peace and Social Justice Committee of Friends Meeting at Cambridge, Peace Education Center of Greater Lansing, Rebuilding Alliance, Sabeel - New England, Tree of Life Educational Fund, Tufts SJP, Unitarian Universalists for Justice in the Middle East – MA Chapter, United American Indians of New England, US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, Vermonters for Justice in Palestine, Virginia Coalition for Human Rights, Watertown Citizens for Peace, Justice and the Environment, We the People of Detroit.