Press Release and Video: Russell Tribunal on Palestine

Noam Chomsky, Alice Walker, and Angela Davis at the Russell Tribunal on Palestine
New York City, October 6-7, 2012

The world's most prominent public intellectual Noam Chomsky, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker, and the civil rights leader Angela Davis will be offering and weighing testimony at the Russell Tribunal on Palestine (RToP), an international people’s tribunal that was created to expose human rights abuses and stir people to action in opposition to Israel’s recognized violations of international law. 

In addition, Russell Means and Dennis Banks, dubbed by the LA Times "the two most famous Indians since Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse," will join Israeli historian Ilan Pappé, the former Palestine Liberation Organization spokesperson Diana Buttu, and a Who's Who of international human rights figures at RToP in New York City, Oct. 6-7, 2012.

RToP was launched in 2009 following the massacre of more than 1,400 Gazans perpetrated by Israel, and has since worked to bring together legal experts, scholars, activists, and other people of note to help shed light on the reality of Israel’s occupation of Palestine. RToP also shines a light on the active role that third parties—foreign governments and corporations—play in perpetuating human rights violations in Israel-Palestine.

Walker, Davis, Means, and Banks—all of whom are Black or Native American—are among the Russell Tribunal participants to issue an “urgent call to others who share our commitment to racial justice, equality, and freedom.” They invite people to attend the hearings in New York City on October 6 and 7, writing, “Each and every one of us—particularly those of us and our fellow jury members who grew up in the Jim Crow South, in apartheid South Africa, and on Indian reservations in the United States—is shocked by what Israel is doing to the Palestinians.” 

Previous sessions of the tribunal have been held in Barcelona, London, and Cape Town. These hearings have addressed, respectively, European Union support for Israel, the complicity of corporations in the occupation of Palestine, and the question of whether Israel is guilty of the crime of apartheid. The fourth and final session will be held in New York City this October 6-7, and will examine the role of the United Nations and the United States in perpetuating Israel’s impunity in depriving the Palestinian people of their right to self-determination. 

If you want more information about the Russell Tribunal on Palestine-NYC or to arrange for an interview with one of our speakers or jurors, please contact Sherry Wolf:

• Telephone: 773-991-3877
• E-mail: sherrywolf2000@yahoo.com