March 2, 2007 -- Annex Discussion Series: The Arrogance of Occupation
On March 2, 2007 the Hillsdale County Greens, along with the Hillsdale Coalition for Peace & Justice, sponsored the first in the Annex Discussion Series. Leading the presentation and discussion were Richard Wunsch of the Hillsdale County Greens and Henry Herskovitz and Aimee Smith of the Huron Valley Greens.
Though attendance was greatly diminished due to a severe winter storm, the crowd enjoyed a very engaging presentation and discussion of Henry's visits to occupied Palestine. By the end of the presentation, the mostly local audience had grown to more than twenty persons.
The presentation began with Richard Wunsch of the Hillsdale County Greens offering a historical context, outlining the Jewish diaspora from the time of Jesus through the growth of Zionism.
Next, Huron Valley Green Henry Herskovitz briefly continued the historical perspective with a visual representation of the gradual loss of Palestinian lands to Israeli occupation. Though blocked by Henry's hand, the last segment of the projected image, reflecting the Palestinian holdings as of 2005, shows only a small smattering of green (Palestinian land) in a vast sea of white (Israeli occupied land).
Henry next proceeded to the main presentation, an account of his travels to the occupied Palestinian territories in 2003 and 2005, with some help from fellow HV Green Aimee Smith, doing her best Vanna White impersonation and providing some visual geographical reference for Henry's account of visits to half a dozen Palestinian towns.
Though Henry presented a number of images and other material from his travels, including a disturbing audio clip of an assault by Israeli Defense Force troops on a social gathering at a private Palestinian residence, this last image is perhaps the most definitive: a young Palestinian boy throwing a rock in hopeless defiance against an Israeli bulldozer.
For more information on the occupation of Palestine, please visit