Leader of Middle East nonviolent resistance movement visits Cleveland

Iyad Burnat, head of the nonviolent Popular Committee of the West Bank Palestinian village of Bil’in, will be speaking at River’s Edge on Sunday, Dec. 2 at 3 p.m. (3430 Rocky River Drive, Cleveland) and at Cleveland State University (CSU) on Monday, Dec. 3 at 6 p.m. (Student Center at 21st and Euclid, Room 313). The presentations, accompanied by photos and videos, are free and open to the public.  

As members of Interfaith Peace Builders (IFPB) delegations, Cleveland Heights residents Jacquie Talbott, Douglas and Mary Ann Kerr and other Northeast Ohioans have traveled to Bil’in to meet with Bernat and other peace makers on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Burnat is the leader of Bil’in’s popular resistance movement, which since 2005 has held weekly demonstrations against the building of the Israeli separation wall that has taken 60 percent of the village farming lands for Israeli settlements. The demonstrators are joined by Israeli and international peace activists, and have maintained a commitment to nonviolence.  

Burnat’s trip to Cleveland is co-sponsored by IFPB, Cleveland Peace Action, CSU’s departments of history, modern languages and political science, and the Middle Eastern studies program, as well as the Cleveland Justice Team of the congregation of St. Joseph. For more information about IFPB peace delegations to the Middle East, go to www.interfaithpeacebuilders.org.