Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Young activist will present eyewitness account of “Life in Occupied Palestine"
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Anna Baltzer, a 26-year-old Jewish American Columbia graduate and Fulbright scholar, will present “Life in Occupied Palestine: Eyewitness Stories and Photos” from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Monday, February 27, in Carter Hall D in the University Center. The granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor, Baltzer grew up believing that Israel was a peace-seeking democracy, but as a Fulbright scholar teaching English at a university in Ankara, Turkey, she came to question that view. While in the Middle East, she traveled in Syria, Lebanon, and Iran. “My new friends told me stories of past and present military attacks, house demolitions, land confiscation, imprisonment without trial, torture, and assassination sponsored by the Israeli government,” she said. “It seemed that these atrocities were not carried out for the protection of the Jewish people, as I had previously been taught, but rather for the expansion of Israel beyond its legal borders at the expense of the rights, lives, and dignity of non-Jewish people living in the region. It was hard for me to believe that Israel could act so unjustly.” Baltzer decided go to the Occupied Territories to see the situation for herself. She applied and was accepted to work with the International Women’s Peace Service (IWPS), a grassroots peace organization dedicated to documenting and nonviolently intervening in human rights abuses in the West Bank, and supporting the nonviolent movement to end the Occupation. Now, she is touring the United States with a presentation and book covering her experiences with the IWPS. Witness in Palestine: Journal of a Jewish American Woman in the Occupied Territories is a collection of her writings and photographs from five months working in the West Bank. “It documents both the situation on the ground as I observed it and my personal emotional and intellectual journey as I pieced together my version of ‘the truth’ about the conflict,” she said. Baltzer’s talk provides information about checkpoints, settlements, environmental issues, the olive harvest, Israeli activism, the Separation Wall, and the growing Palestinian and Israeli nonviolent resistance movement against the Occupation. The event is sponsored by the Department of Philosophy, Political Science, and Public Administration; the USI Bookstore; International Programs and Services, and the June 1st Peace and Justice Coalition. It is free and open to the public. Baltzer will sign copies of her book from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, February 26, at Barnes & Noble Booksellers, 624 South Green River Road in Evansville. For more information about Baltzer, go to www.annainthemiddleast.com. |
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