On July 7, 2019 B’nai Brith Canada reported that Trinity-St. Paul’s United Church has cancelled a previously scheduled event for the “Ghassan Kanafani Resistance Arts Scholarship Launch,” organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM).
Here is PYM Toronto’s statement:
PYM Toronto invites you to an evening of spoken word, music, and food to celebrate the artistic and cultural contributions of Palestinians in the diaspora and showcase the winners of the Ghassan Kanafani Resistance Arts Scholarship in this years anthology entitled “We feel a country in our bones.” We hope to see you there!
The Palestinian Youth Movement (“PYM”) is a transnational, independent, grassroots movement of young Palestinians in Palestine and exiled worldwide as a result of the on-going Zionist colonization and occupation of our homeland. Our belonging to Palestine and our aspirations for justice and liberation motivates us to assume an active role as a young generation in our national struggle for the liberation of our homeland and people.
More on our Ghassan Kanafani Resistance Arts Scholarship:
The Resistance Arts Scholarship is the first of its kind in the United States. By awarding these scholarships and compiling an anthology of our top fifteen submissions, we aim to provide a space for Palestinians in the diaspora to reflect on their Palestinian identities, positionality, and relationships to Palestine. In honor of the works and vision of the heroic novelist, Ghassan Kanafani, the scholarship aims to focus on Palestinian history, our past, present, and future struggles, and our multi-faceted identities. We reiterate a truth that Ghassan Kanafani held in his life’s work and legacy: art and culture are critical vehicles for resistance. More information can be found at www.pymusa.com.
Suggested donation of $10-$50 at the door, pending venue capacity. No one will be turned away for lack of funds. Proceeds will go to the Resistance Arts scholarship fund.
Ghassan Kanafani joined the ranks of the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in 1967. Two years later he was appointed the editor of Al-Hadaf, PFLP’s official newspaper that promoted the “armed struggle” and terrorist attacks against Israeli/Jewish targets in Israel and Europe. Kanafani also served as the official spokesperson of the PFLP and was a member of its political bureau.
In November 13, 2013 Canada designated PFLP as a terrorist entity. According yo Public Safety Canada:
Formed in 1967, the goals of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) are the destruction of the State of Israel and the establishment of a communist government in Palestine. During the 1970s, the group took part in some of the boldest terrorist attacks of the period, such as hijacking three civilian airliners in one day and storming the Vienna headquarters of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Since 2000, the PFLP has turned increasingly to the use of suicide bombers, guerilla tactics, car bombings, and mortar strikes. The PFLP was also responsible for the first assassination of a cabinet minister in Israel’s history, killing Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi in 2001. In 2014, the PFLP claimed responsibility for a November gun and knife attack at an Orthodox Jewish synagogue in West Jerusalem that killed 6 people. More recently, on June 16, 2017, two coordinated attacks targeting Israeli police officers were carried out near the Damascus Gate of Jerusalem’s walled old city.