As part of the 2010 Plenary Conversation, the Palestine Program nominated a speaker on behalf of the US Palestinian Community Network. This is a significant opportunity to bring Palestine forward to the entire US Social Forum assembly, and to actively participate in a transformative conversation on social justice organizing and action.

Jamal Juma will be speaking live via video from Palestine.

Jamal Juma was born in Jerusalem and has dedicated his life to the defense of Palestinian rights. The main focus of his work is on empowering local communities to defend their national and human rights in the face of the incessant and escalating violations and oppressive measures brought about by Israeli occupation and colonialism. He has played a leading role in mobilising grassroots popular committees and unions in resistance to the apartheid wall, and has worked with farmers, workers, organizers, students and solidarity activists in reviving the civil resistance movement for Palestinian liberation. He is a founding member of a number of Palestinian grassroots and civil society networks, and has been the coordinator of the Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign since 2002.

Jamal Juma, a former political prisoner in Israeli prisons, is sadly unable to attend the US Social Forum. After his latest detention without charge for nearly a month last December, the Israeli authorities continue to illegally hold his travel documents. The USPCN, as well as Palestine’s allies, condemn this violation of Juma’s freedom of movement, and violations of the freedom of movement of indigenous people, immigrants and refugees everywhere, from Arizona to Palestine.