Kathy Drinkard: How the VCHR is Preventing Israel Affinity Organizations from Politicizing K-12 Textbooks.
Kathy Drinkard is a retired teacher and elementary school counselor. She has long been concerned about the suffering in the Palestinian territories and has been involved with her church on the issue for more than a decade. She has traveled to the region four times, most recently in the fall of 2018, a trip she helped plan. During her second trip, she spent 10 days in Nablus visiting an Anglican congregation that is in partnership with her church. Her third trip was to participate in a seminar, āFaith in the Face of Empire,ā sponsored by the Reverend Dr. Mitri Raheb and Bright Stars of Bethlehem.
She currently is chair of the Ministry for Middle East Peace and Justice at Grace Presbyterian Church in Springfield, VA.
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15:45
James Metz: Why VCHR is Taking on the Virginia Israel Advisory Board.
James Metz retired after a career in information technologyāworking in both the public and private sectors. In 2013, inspired by a community discussion of Sandy Tolanās book, The Lemon Tree, Metz and his wife Suzanne Hallberg joined with another couple to co-found Richmonders for Peace in Israel-Palestine (RPIP).
In 2016, RPIP joined forces with Freedom2Boycott-Virginiaānow known as the Virginia Coalition for Human Rights (VCHR)āto lobby against and defeat anti-BDS legislation that was introduced in the Virginia General Assembly. Metz and Hallberg live in Richmond, VA.Ā
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16:48
Paul Noursi: What is the Virginia Coalition for Human Rights?
Paul Noursi has been active with the Virginia Coalition for Human Rights (VCHR) since its founding in 2016. Ā He is also active with several other organizations working for peace and justice in the Middle East, including the Palestinian Christian Alliance for Peace, the New Dominion PAC, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, and the Arab American Democratic Caucus of Virginia. Ā He was also a Barack Obama Delegate to the Virginia State Convention in 2008, a Bernie Sanders Delegate to the Virginia State Convention in 2016, and he has served on various Get-Out-the Vote and Democratic campaigns.
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Noursi has lived and traveled extensively in the Middle East, including Palestine, Jordan and Lebanon. Ā He has a BS in Civil Engineering, an MS in Engineering Management, and is a licensed and practicing civil engineer with wide-ranging experience in land development and public works in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, DC.
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14:02
Brad Parker: What Lessons can Activists Take Away from the Promoting Human Rights by Ending Israeli Military Detention of Palestinian Children Act?
Brad Parker, Esq. is Senior Adviser, Policy and Advocacy at Defense for Children International. Parker specializes in issues of juvenile justice and grave violations against children during armed conflict, and leads DCIPās legal advocacy efforts on Palestinian childrenās rights. Parker regularly writes and speaks about the situation of Palestinian children in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Before joining DCIP, Parker worked as a legal advocacy coordinator and staff attorney at MADRE, a New York-based international womenās rights nonprofit organization. He was the 2010-2012 Human Rights Clinical Fellow at the International Womenās Human Rights (IWHR) Clinic at the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law, where he conducted fact-finding investigations, implemented advocacy projects and authored reports on a range of issues affecting women in Guatemala and post-earthquake Haiti.
Parker is a graduate of the University of Vermont and earned his J.D. from the City University of New York School of Law.
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25:47
Saqib Ali: Why Iām Suing Maryland to Protect my Constitutional Right to Boycott Israel.
Saqib Ali served as a Democratic Party member of the Maryland House of Delegates. He represented District 39 from January 10, 2007 to January 12, 2011.
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Since leaving the legislature, he cofounded Freedom2Boycott in Maryland, an organization of Palestinian Solidarity activists dedicated to preserving their constitutional right to boycott Israel and Israel's settlements.
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Ali is a professional software engineer. In January 2019, Ali sued Maryland's Governor Larry Hogan and Attorney General Brian Frosh over the stateās anti-boycott executive order. The anti-boycott measure, which denies government contracts to businesses that boycott Israel, was issued in 2017 after similar legislation repeatedly failed to pass through the state legislature.
IsraelLobbyCon Extra! is an online initiative created in 2020. It advances the IsraelLobbyCon.org mission and provides key expertise, analysis and global outreach opportunities between our annual National Press Club conferences.
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