MAPA Annual Meeting 2024

Fascism, Liberalism, and the Assault on Gaza

Support Human Needs at Home and Abroad; Not Militarism and War

Date: April 6, 2024 | Time: noon to 5pm

Location:  TBA / Boston or Cambridge

Event is in person but Keynote will be livestreamed

Registration: free for MAPA members; $10 for others; $75 donation for supporters

The crisis of war calls for a renewed commitment to peace.  Join us to plan our year going forward organizing for human needs over military might.

We are passing through one of the most perilous periods of national and international tension in many decades. In such times it is critically important that Massachusetts Peace Action and sister organizations remain beacons of clarity — calling for peaceful resolutions of conflict, promotion of social and economic justice, and reducing the danger of nuclear war.

Our Annual Meeting, open to all dues paying members, is a key gathering to affirm our values and set our path forward for the coming year. Please join the MAPA Annual Meeting on April 6, 2024!

The keynote address on “Gaza, Genocide, Occupation and U.S. Politics” will be presented by scholar-activist Phyllis Bennis.   Bennis directs the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, focusing on the Middle East, U.S. militarism, and UN issues. She is also a fellow of the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam.

In 2001 she helped found the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights and more recently spent six years on the board of Jewish Voice for Peace, where she now serves as its International Adviser. She works with many anti-war and Palestinian rights organizations, writing and speaking widely across the U.S. and around the world. She has served as an informal adviser to several top UN officials on Middle East issues and was twice short-listed to become the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Phyllis has written and edited 11 books. Among her latest is the 7th updated edition of her popular Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, published in 2018. She is also the author of Before & After: U.S. Foreign Policy and the War on Terror and Challenging Empire.

Michel Moushabeck, Palestinian-born publisher of  Interlink Books, will respond to Bennis’s remarks.

After the keynote address and Q&A period, the board will present MAPA’s 2024 program plan for ratification by the members.

Breakouts will allow members to meet each other and make new connections.

In the business meeting, we will elect board members and hear a financial report from the treasurer.

Board nominees will be announced by March 18.  Members who wish to run for the board or nominate someone should contact the office at info@masspeaceaction.org or by phone, 617-354-2169.  Five signatures of members are required for a nomination.

Agenda:

12:30 Light lunch

1:00 Welcome and overview – Jonathan King and Rosemary Kean, co-chairs

1:10 Keynote Address – Phyllis Bennis.  Gaza, Genocide, Occupation and U.S. Politics

– Respondent – Michel Moushabeck, publisher of Interlink Books

– Q&A

2:00 Program Presentation

3:00 Breakouts

4:00 Business Meeting

– Board Election

– Finance Report – Maryellen Kurkulos, treasurer

5:00 Adjourn