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Rachel Corrie Foundation hosts Olympia Washington ArabFest Oct 5 – 30, 2020

Month long virtual online festival will begin October 5 through Oct. 30 with new events each day from 8 AM until 5 PM. Check out their website at https://rachelcorriefoundation.org/

Since 2012, the Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice has provided a biennial Olympia Arab Festival coinciding with Olympia’s Fall Arts Walk.

Plans were underway for our fifth festival this October when the realities of COVID-19 hit. We quickly determined that the pandemic would not stop us! We feel a great sense of responsibility for the health of our community, and the RCF office has been closed since March except for mail pick-up and essential tasks. But our small staff and dedicated volunteer committees are working as hard as ever remotely.

We’re thrilled to let you know that with the addition of youthful, creative and technical energy, and growing comfort with online platforms, we’ll be bringing Shuruq 4.5, a digital alternative to the fifth Olympia Arab Festival, to you and others.

Shuruk 4.5 ArabFest in Olympia Washington October 2020 hosted by the Rachel Corrie Foundation

Throughout the entire month of October viewers will be able to select, enjoy, and be inspired by an array of events featuring new work from Arab writers, Arab films, and pre-recorded and live presentations and performances exploring and celebrating Arab culture and the 22 Arab countries.

The schedule is firming up; logistics are being worked out; and excitement is building! You can expect a Moroccan cooking class, a Dabka dance tutorial, discussions on topics relevant in today’s Arab world, new poetry and prose from Arab contributors, and more. We’re thrilled to bring people together digitally from far and wide to learn and to grow in their appreciation of our Arab neighbors.

This festival will be remarkable, and we need your help now to pull off this new rendition of Shuruq!

We’ve added staff time for event management, and we have fees to cover for digital platforms and multiple film screenings throughout October, for stipends to presenters and performers who are lending their support during challenging times, for new graphic design work being completed, and more.

Please take a moment to review individual, business, and organization cosponsorship options here! You will also find important information about cosponsorship levels, available perks, and registering as a cosponsor.

Shukran (“Thank you”) in advance for your years of support and for any help you can provide now. Stay healthy and get ready for a lift in October with Shuruq 4.5 (“Sunrise”)!

Rachel Corrie was a 23-year-old American peace activist from Olympia, Washington, who was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer on 16 March 2003, while undertaking nonviolent direct action to protect the home of a Palestinian family from demolition.

Since her killing, an enormous amount of solidarity activities have been carried out in her name around the world.

Rachel’s journals and emails from her time in Palestine are available in a variety of forms. They have been published in books, turned into plays and dramatic readings, and used around the internet. They are not always reproduced in their entirety and we have collected them here, un-cut, for easier reading. Read Rachel’s emails from Palestine.

For more background visit the Mifta.org tribute to Rachel Corrie by clicking here.

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rayhanania

Op-Ed writer, author, radio host, podcaster at The Arab Daily News

Ray Hanania is an award-winning columnist, author & former Chicago City Hall reporter (1977-1992). A veteran who served during the Vietnam War and the recipient of four SPJ Peter Lisagor Awards for column writing, Hanania writes weekly opinion columns on mainstream American & Chicagoland topics for the Southwest News-Herald, Des Plaines Valley News, the Regional News, The Reporter Newspapers, and Suburban Chicagoland.

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Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.

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