On Monday, March 28, the Foundation for Palestinian Studies will be giving a presentation to the Kitchener Rotary Club.
Speakers Shawky Fahel, John English and Jasmin Habib will explain to Rotarians and guests the story of the Foundation, what role Canada can play in creating peace between Palestine and Israel and give an overview of the impact the Foundation will have on the University of Waterloo students and faculty.
Anyone interested may join at 7pm on Monday using the following Zoom link:
https://rotary7080.zoom.us/j/86031395729?pwd=WkRRemcwV1BERkVPL0R6YWRvNVhkQT09
No registration is needed.
Shawky Fahel
Shawky Fahel started JG Contracting Ltd in 1979. He now owns and operates several successful businesses under the JG Group.
A Palestinian by birth, he has written extensively about improving relations between Palestinians and Israelis. In the past, he has been asked by the Canadian Government to provide advice and to participate in Middle East economic development and peace process discussions/negotiations. From 1993 to 1997 he attended Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Summits (1993-97) and he was a Canadian Representative at the 1993 Oslo meetings that resulted in the first Israel-Palestine peace accord. Shawky was the first Palestinian in Canada to advise the Canadian Government on Palestinian issues including the Oslo Accord.
Currently, he is proud to work with the University of Waterloo on establishing a Foundation for Palestinian Studies for scholarship on Palestinian culture, history and current affairs.
Shawky is the distinguished recipient of several honours and awards including Waterloo’s Citizen of the Year, Rotary International’s Paul Harris Fellowship Award as well as several humanitarian and outstanding volunteer awards.
He is motivated by a belief in the power of philanthropy to give back to the community and does so through his charity, the Canadian International Development Organization, as well as through his volunteer involvement in several organizations.
He lives in Waterloo with his wife Kathie and their two children Shaddi and Amanda.
Jasmin Habib
Founding director of the Global Engagement Seminar Program and an Associate Professor in the Global Governance Program, Jasmin Habib holds a PhD in Anthropology and an MA in International Peace Studies. Her research publications focus on the politics of empire and the practices of decolonization with primary interest in the experiences of war-affected refugees now living in Israel, Palestine, Canada and the United States; indigenous practices and relations of autonomy in North America; and the architecture of consent for contemporary state violence (systemic and direct).
Dr. Habib’s work is primarily ethnographic and collaborative. Her research methodologies and practices are informed by postcolonial, diaspora, indigenous and feminist theories of the state; and the theories of spatial and visual cultures of violence/non-violence.
Dr. Habib is past-Editor-in-Chief and Anglophone Editor of Anthropologica, the flagship journal of the Canadian Anthropology Society, and General Editor of the Cultural Spaces series at the University of Toronto Press.
She is completing her book manuscript entitled Transnational Palestine: History, Memory, Identity as well as co-editing a book on Arab Canadians with Rachad Antonius; and a book on the US-Canada border with Jane Desmond.
John English
John English is a distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Waterloo. He’s been a Liberal Member of Parliament, a Special Ambassador for Landmines and a Special Envoy for the election of Canada to the United Nations Security Council. He has also served as President of the Canadian Institute of International Affairs, co-editor of the Canadian Historical Review, chair of the Board of the Canadian Museum of Civilization and the Canadian War Museum.
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Arabic