In the face of mounting injustice, immense suffering, and heightened violence, how do we begin to radically imagine a future where all live safe and free in Palestine & Israel? On Thursday, April 25, Combatants for Peace and American Friends of Combatants for Peace hosted a conversation on Radical Imagination for Collective Liberation.
Our conversation was led by speakers, Hassan El-Tayyab, Marcina Hale, and Stephen Apkon, and facilitated by Rae Abileah. Hassan El-Tayyab reflected on the heavy, horrific moment that we are in. He shared how there is an unfolding humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Roughly 1.3 million displaced Palestinians are currently sheltering in Rafah, a city built to host only 300,000, and over 1 million Palestinians in Gaza are experiencing catastrophic food insecurity and acute starvation due to the deliberate blocking of humanitarian assistance. And yet in the midst of great suffering, he shared that we are witnessing an unprecedented surge of solidarity and nonviolent uprising around the world. Our speakers discussed what radically imagining a free Palestine and taking action for collective liberation looks like. Radical imagination brings us back to the seeds of how Combatants for Peace began 18 years ago. It brings us back to the courage it took to imagine a different outcome at that first meeting of CfP, to work together creating space for joint grief, and to imagine an end to the occupation and then take joint action for a future of freedom for all.
Hassan El-Tayyab is an author, songwriter, and Friends Committee on National Legislation's (FCNL) legislative director for Middle East policy and advocacy organizer. Hassan leads FCNL’s work to end U.S. military involvement in the Saudi-led war on Yemen, advocate for Palestinian human rights, and advance diplomacy with Iran.
Marcina Hale has spent 20 years developing and presenting workshops for individual and communal change and transformation. A master therapist and dynamic facilitator, she challenges and inspires others to live their lives more consciously and to take responsibility for their own creations. She is an Executive Producer of Fantastic Fungi, Producer of Disturbing the Peace, and is the primary facilitator for Reconsider workshop experiences, which have been given in the U.S. and internationally. Marcina spoke at TEDxKC Women about how to change the world in which we are living and is both an LMFT and a trained psychedelic therapist.
Stephen Apkon is an award-winning filmmaker and social entrepreneur. He is the Founder and former Executive Director of the Jacob Burns Film Center, a non-profit film and education center located in Pleasantville, NY. Stephen is the Director and Producer of Disturbing the Peace. He is also an Executive Producer of Fantastic Fungi, Planetary, and Backyard Wilderness, Producer of I’m Carolyn Parker, and Enlistment Days, and Co-Producer of Presenting Princess Shaw. He is the author of The Age of the Image: Redefining Literacy in a World of Screens, published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux – foreword by Martin Scorsese.
Rae Abileah will facilitate and moderate the discussion. Rae is a social change strategist, writer, facilitator, and Jewish ritualist. She is a trainer at Beautiful Trouble, an international network of artist-activist-trainers helping grassroots movements become more creative and effective and is the co-creator of the global Climate Ribbon art ritual. She consulted on digital strategy for social justice at ThoughtWorks, which informs her current work engaging tools for innovation at The Nature Conservancy’s Agility Lab. Rae is a contributing author to books including Beyond Tribal Loyalties: Personal Stories of Jewish Peace Activists and Corporate Complicity in Israeli Occupation. Rae graduated from Barnard College at Columbia University and received ordination by the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute. After the 2008 bombing of Gaza (Operation Cast Lead) she became active in the global movement for a free Palestine, traveling to Gaza as an organizer for the Gaza Freedom March in 2009 and co-leading delegations to the West Bank with Eyewitness Palestine.