Meet former political prisoners Rasmea Odeh (Palestine) and Dhoruba Bin Wahad (Black Panther Party), and Charlotte Kates (Samidoun) in Gent (Wednesday 21 February 2018, 7.30pm)

An exceptional event during the Eye on Palestine Festival in Gent (18-24 February 2018) under the theme : “Imprisonment and Solidarity in Palestine and beyond” will gather together Rasmea Odeh, Dhoruba Bin-Wahad and Charlotte Kates in a panel.

Moderated by Luk Vervaet.

An event not to miss ! Venue: Foyer De Expeditie, Dok Noord 4F, 9000 Gent

Rasmea Odeh

 Rasmea Odeh is a leading member of Chicago’s Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim communities, and her decade of service in Chicago has changed the lives of thousands of people, particularly disenfranchised Arab women and their families. She has been with the Arab American Action Network (AAAN) since 2004, and is responsible for the management of day-to-day operations and the coordination of its Arab Women’s Committee, which has a membership of nearly 600 and leads the organization’s work in the areas of defending civil liberties and immigrants’ rights. She is a mentor to hundreds of immigrant women, as well as many members of the AAAN’s staff and board, and is a well-known and respected organizer throughout Chicagoland, the U.S. and the world.

The Case of Rasmea Odeh : A Palestinian Hero. Read it here 

Book :

Criminalising the Victim: The Life Story of Rasmea Odeh by Nahla Abdo. Read the article on Plutobooks here

Dhoruba Bin Wahad

 Dhoruba Bin Wahad was a leader member of the New York Black Panther Party, a Field Secretary of the BPP responsible for organizing chapters throughout the East Coast, and a member of the Panther 21. Arrested June 1971, he was framed as part of the illegal FBI Counter Intelligence program (COINTELPRO) and subjected to unfair treatment and torture during his nineteen years in prison. During Dhoruba’s incarceration, litigation on his behalf produced over three hundred thousand pages of COINTELPRO documentation, and upon release in 1990 he was able to bring a successful lawsuit against the New York Department of Corrections for all their wrongdoings and criminal activities. Living in both Ghana and the U.S. Dhoruba, an uncompromising critic of imperialism and capitalism, continues to write and work promoting freedom for all political prisoners and revolutionary Pan-Africanism.

Books : Look for Me in the Whirlwind: From the Panther 21 to 21st-Century Revolutions (2017) by Dhoruba Bin Wahad  and others.

Still Black, Still Strong (1993) by Dhoruba Bin Wahad  (Author),‎ Assata Shakur (Author),‎ Mumia Abu-Jamal (Author)

Read an interview with Dhruba Bin-Whad by Amy Goodman of Democracynow  here.

Charlotte Kates

Charlotte Kates is the international coordinator of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network and the coordinator of the International Committee of the National Lawyers Guild. She is also a member of the Organizing Collective of the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel and Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition.

An interview with Charlotte Kates listen here 

Read : Charlotte Kates, Samidoun international coordinator denied entry to Palestine, interrogated about BDS and prisoner solidarity here 

Source :