Downtown Business Meeting Draws Protest.
by Jordan Flaherty

THIS WEEK IN NEW ORLEANS

PATOIS AND NOLAPS PRESENT:

Salt of this Sea

108m | fiction | directed by Annemarie Jacir | Regional Premiere

Friday | March 19 | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center |

1618 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd

Introduced by Tony Award-winning actor and Def Jam poet Suheir Hammad

Soraya, born in Brooklyn in a working class community of Palestinian refugees, discovers that her grandfather’s savings were frozen in a bank account in Jaffa when he was exiled in 1948. Stubborn, passionate and determined to reclaim what is hers, she fulfills her life-long dream of “returning” to Palestine. Slowly she is taken apart by the reality around her and is forced to confront her own internal anger. She meets Emad, a young Palestinian whose ambition, contrary to hers, is to leave forever. Tired of the constraints that dictate their lives, they know in order to be free, they must take things into their own hands, even if it’s illegal.

Flags on Fire:

(Re)Actions from New Orleans to Gaza

Art Exhibition | Works by Abdul Aziz

March 12—March 21 | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center

As the world’s economies continue writhe and geologic shudders shatter infrastructure from Santiago to Port-au-Prince, our global community is left questioning everything that once felt unbreakable. Working from a national context defined by privatization and occupation, photojournalist and activist Abdul Aziz explores two of the communities that define this new century: New Orleans and Gaza. As Iraq and Afghanistan reel from US occupation branded as freedom and democracy and Haiti begins its shift from after-shocks to shock doctrine, Aziz illuminates two worlds separated by thousands of miles but united in a common struggle for liberation and self-determination. In beautiful images of resistance and resilience, the peoples of New Orleans and Gaza set the flags of their occupiers on fire.

NOT IN OUR NAME!

Demonstration Against Louisiana Tax Dollars Spent to Support Military Occupation

Tuesday, March 16, 8:00am

New Orleans World Trade Center (at Canal Street, near Harrah's Casino)

From the World Trade Center building we will march to The Westin Hotel at Canal Place.

On Tuesday, March 16, the anniversary of the day that US citizen Rachel Corrie was killed by an Israeli Military Bulldozer, The Louisiana Department of Commerce and the Louisiana World Trade Center are sponsoring a seminar called "Doing Business in Israel."

The seminar represents the use of Louisiana taxpayer funds to encourage local investment in a state that is currently intensifying an illegal military occupation against the people of Palestine.

As New Orleanians, we believe our money should be spent on rebuilding, not war and occupation. If Louisiana is going to encourage investment in another country, they should encourage investment in a sustainable rebuilding for Haitii.

Please let us know if you can come, or if you have any questions, by emailing nolaps@nolapalestinesolidarity.org.

More Information About March 16: Rachel Corrie, a human rights activist from Washington state, was 23 years old when she was crushed to death by an Israeli army bulldozer on March 16, 2003. She was working with others trying to protect the home of a Palestinian pharmacist from demolition in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Palestine. Her parents are suing the Israeli state for the murder of their daughter, and the trial is happening right now.

For more about Rachel Corrie, see http://rachelcorriefoundation.org.

For a recent news report on Rachel Corrie and the current trial, see: http://www.democracynow.org/2010/3/10/family_of_slain_us_peace_activist

Sponsored by New Orleans Palestine Solidarity, General Union of Palestine Students - UNO, and General Union of Palestine Students, Delgado.