Join us for a virtual Freedom Flicks screening and Q&A of "Advocate" (2019)

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We're excited to announce that we are going virtual with our next Freedom Flicks screening!

We’ll be partnering with the Columbia University Center for Palestine Studies Wednesday, April 15, in the online screening of Advocate (2019) and a post-screening Q&A with Staff Attorney Diala Shamas and Columbia Law School Professor Katherine Franke.

Since the early 1970s, attorney Lea Tsemel has made a career out of defending Palestinians in Israeli courts: feminists and fundamentalists, non-violent demonstrators and armed militants. As far as most Israelis are concerned, she defends the indefensible. As far as Palestinians are concerned, she's more than an attorney — she’s an advocate. Advocate follows Tsemel’s caseload in real-time, including the high-profile trial of a 13-year-old boy, her youngest client to date. It also revisits her landmark cases and reflects on the political and professional significance of her work, as well as the personal price one pays for assuming the role of “devil’s advocate.” As a Jewish-Israeli woman who has represented political prisoners for nearly 50 years, Tsemel pushes the definition of a human rights defender to its limits.

There are limited “seats” for this virtual stream. Kindly RSVP on our event page.

TODAY - Webinar: Israel-Palestine at the International Criminal Court

This evening, please join the Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP) and Human Rights Watch for a webinar on Israel-Palestine at the International Criminal Court (ICC) featuring Center for Constitutional Rights Senior Staff Attorney Katherine Gallagher. The International Criminal Court is currently considering opening a formal probe into Israeli and Palestinian actions in the Occupied Territories. This webinar will examine that case — what it is about, why and how it was brought before the ICC, and the controversy that it has generated. The expert panelists will also delve into the broader stakes involved in this case — a case that is testing the legitimacy and viability of both the Court and the international law it is designed to uphold.

Join the conversation by RSVPing on our website.

Thursday - Webinar: Movement Lawyering in States of Emergenvy with Law for Black Lives

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Join us and Law for Black Lives Thursday, April 16, for a webinar focusing on the use of militarization, criminalization, and surveillance during times of crisis. While many of us work tirelessly to support our families and communities, the U.S. Government is laying the groundwork to turn this health crisis into a criminalization crisis. We have already seen the DOJ request additional detainment powers, that Congress funnel almost a billion dollars to local law enforcement agencies, and that cities across the country use police to enforce stay-at-home orders.

Together we will explore how lawyers and organizers have mobilized to mitigate the harms of criminalization and the way forward in this moment.

RSVP for the webinar on our website.

"The Activist Files" podcastr: We've been here before - How History is Repeating Itself in Government Overreach

In the latest episode of The Activist Files, Legal Director Baher Azmy and Executive Director Vince Warren talk about lessons learned from the government response to past crises, ranging from the AIDS/HIV epidemic to 9/11, and their implications on the COVID-19 pandemic. They discuss how this public health emergency will disproportionately harm the most vulnerable in our society with overreach, such as allowing judges to close courtrooms, including for criminal procedures and habeas corpus, and under-reach, by not allowing those in jails, prisons, ICE detention centers, and Guantánamo Bay to follow the CDC guidelines of social distancing.

Listen to the latest episode of The Activist Files on our website.