THE WEST AND THE MIDDLE EAST

UBC Humanities 101: Undercurrents Public Forum Series

"THE WEST AND THE MIDDLE EAST"

Monday, October 16th - 7:30pm - 9pm

Vancouver Public Library

Alma Van Dusen and Peter Kaye Room

With Special Guests: Dr. Michael Byers, Deborah

Campbell, Hadani Ditmars and Hila Russ-Woodland

Moderated by Am Johal - Director of Public Programs

and Outreach, Humanities 101

DR. MICHAEL BYERS is Professor of Political Science

and Canada Research Chair in Global Politics and

International Law at the University of British

Columbia. Prior to 2005, he was Professor of Law and

Director of Canadian Studies at Duke University; from

1996-1999 he was a Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford

University. In April 2004, he taught as a visiting

law professor at the University of Tel Aviv.

Professor Byers is the author of War Law:

Understanding International Law and Armed Conflict

(Douglas & McIntyre, 2005), and a regular contributor

to the London Review of Books and the Globe and Mail.

DEBORAH CAMPBELL is an adjunct professor of narrative

nonfiction at UBC and has reported from Tehran, Cairo,

Paris, Havana, St. Petersburg, Tel Aviv and

the Gaza Strip. Her book This Heated Place is a

literary journey inside the Israel-Palestine conflict.

An associate editor at Adbusters, she has

written for numerous publications including the

Guardian, Utne, The Walrus, Asia Times and Modern

Painters.

Journalist and author Hadani Ditmars reported from

post-war Beirut in 1992, wrote for the first joint

Israeli-Palestinian magazine post Oslo accord

in 1994 era Jerusalem, and traveled to Iran for the

Globe and Mail, Sight and Sound and Vogue magazine in

1997 (when Rafsanjani was in power). Her

work, which has also taken her to Zanzibar, Guatemala,

Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia

and Uzbekistan, has been published in the New York

Times, the London Independent and broadcast on CBC and

BBC radio and television.

Her best selling book Dancing in the No Fly Zone

recounts her reporting from Iraq from 1997 until the

fall of 2003. Boyd Tonkin, literary

critic of the London Independent wrote that it

³Štouches places in the nation¹s soul that horror

headlines never reach."

She has recently received a Canada Council award to

write her next book on her return to Israel/Palestine

and Lebanon.

HILA RUSS-WOODLAND is an artist and an educator. She

was born in Jerusalem, grew up in Israel, and came to

Canada in 2001. Hila has been working as a teacher

since 1995. Living in Israel for 31 years before

moving to Canada, she has been engaged with formal and

informal dialogue groups and peace demonstrations. As

an artist she was exposed to the power of visual and

expressive arts as a tool to collaborate, outreach and

impact public opinion and the media.

In Vancouver she volunteers and works in different art

programs, festivals and environmental projects. This

work combines her passion to the arts and her

commitment to peace education and contributing to the

community. Hila believes that experiencing creativity

through the arts is an essential tool for personal

learning and growth and a wonderful way of getting to

know people and cultures. The Arts is a universal

language that can help building bridges and overcome

fear and stereotypes.

In 2002 Hila became involved with the Peace Walker

Society www.peacewalker.com which promotes awareness

for global peace through peace walks and storytelling

in communities. She has been on two peace walks in

Israel/Palestine since then. The experience of going

back to the Middle East created a shift in her

perspective on the conflict there. “I realized that I

am deeply concerned and effected by the current

situation and that I have to be proactive in anyway I

can to promote peace education through creative

process”.

Hila was working as a program coordinator for the

Peace Walker Society in 2002 and 2003 planning,

coordinating and performing in multi media

presentation, “Just One Step”, about the Peace Walks

in Israel/Palestine and other places. She also

produced Peace Music concert: “Voices for Peace” at

the Canadian Memorial Centre for Peace and “Sharing

peace workshops”, five educational sessions about the

Israeli/Palestinian conflict in the Jewish Community

Centre in Vancouver BC.

In 2004 Hila was one of the founders of a Muslim

Jewish Dialogue group in Vancouver with Imam Fude

Drome and Rabbi David Mivasair, both an amazing

sources of inspiration as spiritual leaders committed

to peace education.

The group has two major projects:

1-May 2004 planning a Muslim Jewish Peace walk in

Vancouver which involved many dialogue circles in

homes, synagogues and mosques and actually transformed

to an on line Yahoo group discussion

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/muslim-jewish

2-This also led to a mutual on going project

called “Feed the Hungry” when Muslims, Jews and others

prepare lunch in a church to people in need.

In 2004 Hila joined Creative Peace Network with its

main project Peace it Together. Peace It Together

summer program brings Israeli and Palestinian youth

over to Canada to work with local youth on getting to

know each others and braking stereotypes through

dialogue, creativity and team building activities.

http://www.creativepeacenetwork.ca

Being a board member of CPN is a team work experience

and an educational journey.

PIT is one of the most important works in her life

right after spending time with her 3 years old son

Ben. Hila strongly believes that we can make a

difference in our world by working for peace,

inspiring and empowering other people to join in.

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