remi kanazi

This week was the 34th anniversary of Palestinian Land Day, and also a day for awareness of the growing boycott, divestment, sanctions movement. Land Day commemorates the deaths of six peaceful activists in a demonstration, and today we talk about activism and its ability to make change. Remi Kanazi, a poet and activist, and Phyllis Bennis of the Insitute for Policy Studies join us in studio to discuss the ways that art, nonviolent protest, and pushes for creative boycotts are changing the way Americans look at Israel and Palestine.

As we celebrate the life and legacy of U.S. civil rights leader Martin Luther King, we take a look back at another recent discussion of one of the biggest civil rights struggles of our time: the fight to liberate the Palestinian people. Not long ago, the UN Human Rights Council released the Goldstone Report, sharply condemning Israel's actions in the recent fighting between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza strip. Today we rebroadcast our show from the day that report was released, with activists Diana Buttu, a former spokesperson for the PLO, Neve Gordon, senior lecturer at Ben-Gurion Univesity and Phyllis Bennis, director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, to discuss the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement. Then, Hasan Kwame Jeffries talks about the legacy of the African-American struggle for freedom. And author and poet Remi Kanazi performs some of his new work. We also looked at community banking, back in the news as the hearings start up over the financial crisis, and the fight over the health care bill still isn't over either. We can't say for certain what Martin Luther King would do were he still with us. Still, we thought it an appropriate acknowledgement of his legacy of concern and struggle for the rights of all people, while we take the day to honor his memory, to re-air this program.