Past Events Fall 2003

November 11th
    This semester has been very busy for many of the activists involved with Free Palestine Now! here at VCU, and we apologize for not updating the website and sending out emails more often.  Palestine Awareness Week was a success with a good lecture on Wednesday by Dr. Dan Smith and an amazing Palestinian cultural event on Thursday.  Last weekend Free Palestine Now! sent a 4 person delegation to the 3rd National conference of the Palestinian Solidarity Movement in Columbus, Ohio.  We were all very impressed by the strength of the movement, which includes diverse organizations in nearly every state.  On Wednesday November 19th at 7pm we will be hosting a fundraising dinner for Palestine at the PACE center (700. W. Franklin right next to Rhodes Hall) to defray expenses incurred by FPN activists traveling to Palestine this Summer.  Middle Eastern food will be served, and there will be a vegetarian option.  Entrance is on a 5$-10$ sliding scale, and any other donations would be more than welcome.   Free Palestine Now! continues to meet every Wednesday at 7pm in the VCU Student Commons, all are welcome to attend.  Please check out the coming events section, as well as a few new chants in the chants section.


October 27th -------PALESTINE AWARENESS WEEK AT VCU------------
    Event #1- Monday October 27th, 6pm VCU Student Commons- Accounts from Palestine by Thomas (FPN, ISM) and Chris Lucas (FPN, CPT)

    Event #2- Tuesday October 28th, 6pm VCU Student Commons- Video Showing and discussion about Palestine

    Event #3- Wednesday October 29th, 6pm VCU Student Commons- Speaking event on Anti-Semitism by VCU professor Dr. Dan Smith

    Event #4- Thursday October 30th, 6pm VCU Student Commons- Palestinian cultural event with food, music, and other aspects of Palestinian culture

    Event #5- Friday October 31st, 4:30pm Monroe Park- Monthly Critical Mass bike ride

September 27th
    Sorry about the lack of updates, but Hurricane Isabel knocked out power and we were unable to update.  There is much news to report from the past two weekly meetings.  Firstly, upcoming events.  On Tuesday October 14th Free Palestine Now! and other Richmond area activists will be performing Street Theatre on the VCU campus to highlight the brutality of the continued Israeli occupation of Palestine. (there will be a prop making session the weekend before)  On Thursday October 16th Free Palestine Now! activist Thomas will be presenting his accounts from his time in Palestine at 7pm at the PACE center in Richmond Virginia.  This will be one of the first events on a localized Palestinian Truth Tour which will also stop at Mary Washington College, American University, George Mason University, and University of Maryland (and hopefully more) over the months of October and November.  Also, despite the regional Palestinian Solidarity Conference being canceled (due to conflicts with the 3rd national conference) Free Palestine Now! will still be holding a Palestine Awareness Week at VCU from October 27th to October 30th.  The Awareness Week will include multiple speaking events, cultural events, and video showings.  The schedule for the Awareness Week will be posted shortly.  For more information on any of these events please email us at fpn@vcu.edu

September 11th
    Last nights meeting went very well with over 30 people packing into the James River Room of the VCU Student Commons to discuss the structure and upcoming events of Free Palestine Now! Here are the unofficial minutes of the meeting (the official minutes will be posted as soon as they are transcribed) A membership list has been established for Free Palestine Now! which will be completely private and confidential.  To become a member one must pay a due of 10$ a semester (which can be lower for people who cannot afford it) and in exchange due paying members will receive voting rights at the meetings.  People who do not wish to become a member of FPN or who do not wish to pay the 10$ dues can still come to meetings (and are encouraged to do so) propose activities, and participate in discussion and debate, they will just not be allowed to vote on FPN proposals.  Currently the membership list has 21 persons on it, and if you have not signed up on the list (or if you were not at last nights meeting) and would like to become an Free Palestine Now! member please email Thomas at  or bring 10$ dues to next weeks meeting.  For everybody who signed the membership list and did not pay dues at last nights meeting, please try to pay the 10$ within the next week, or at next weeks meeting. (we need to have all the dues in by next Wednesday) the fundraising committee is in charge of collecting the dues and keeping track of who has paid. Additionally due to the rapidly expanding size of Free Palestine Now! (now 21 official members and many more who attend meetings) it was decided at the meeting that FPN needs to have a more solidified officer structure.  Thus, at last nights meeting a 3 person Executive Council was created, which will consist of the chairs of the 3 committees (who were elected at last weeks meeting; divestment, publicity, fundraising) and the office of President and Secretary were created. Our new elected President is Tima  and our new elected Secretary is Diana.  The President, Secretary and Executive Council have been charged with developing a structural constitution for FPN and will hold 1 or more constitutional meetings that are open to everybody in the organization to develop this structure.  The first open constitutional meeting is Friday September 12th at 3pm in the SAC office (Basement of the student commons) Once the constitutional committee has developed recommendations for structure they will bring those recommendations back to the whole group for debate and a vote.
    Also at the meeting it was decided that the regional Palestinian Solidarity Conference that was scheduled for the weekend of November 1st and 2nd will be canceled (due to conflicts with the National Palestinian Solidarity Conference on November 7th and 8th) and rescheduled for some time in the Spring semester. Also please check out the chants page for new chants sent to us from a supporter in Internet land.

September 3rd
    Last night nearly 25 people showed up for the first organizational meeting of the semester, and considerable progress was made on a number of issues.  Primarily, after a lively discussion Free Palestine Now! voted to create an official membership list as the first step towards a more stable structure for the organization.  More discussion on the membership list and what it means to become a member will be held at the next meeting.  The next issue that was raised was also about structure and involved the introduction of the three FPN committees (Publicity, Divestment, and Fundraising) and the election of chairs for those committees.  Ibrahim Farhan was elected to chair the publicity committee, Ari Packer and Rob Lin were elected to co-chair the divestment committee and Thomas was elected to chair the fundraising committee.  After the meeting finished the committees briefly met to generate some ideas and meeting times for the coming week, and will present their ideas for the upcoming semester at next weeks meeting.  There was also a proposal for an open-mike poetry night on the topic of Palestine, and a Palestinian dance troupe from North Carolina for the Palestine Awareness Week in October.  Stay tuned for more information about these two events.  New updates to the website include a new editorial from Thomas  about his trip to Palestine entitled "Palestine: Through my eyes; A Personal Account from an "International" in Occupied Palestine" (click here), and updates to the upcoming events page.

September 2nd
    Last week's video showing and meeting went very well with over 30 new and interested people showing up to watch the documentary "Palestine: People and the Land" and participate in a discussion about the video and the first semester meeting of Free Palestine Now! at VCU.  Upcoming events include tabling all this week at the student commons, an info table at the student activities fair on Wednesday, the weekly FPN meeting Wednesday night (7pm student commons), and a fundraising dinner towards the end of September.

August 18th
    Over the past month there have been massive changes made to the website, both visible and behind the scenes.  With this massive overhaul of our website we hope to be able to update more sections more often.  The newest section is the "FPN in Palestine" section which contains all the pictures and report backs of the two Free Palestine Now! activists who traveled to Palestine this summer.  The upcoming events page has been updates with the following new activities: This coming Sunday August 24th is a march and rally against occupation (Iraq and Palestine) in Monroe Park, from Friday August 22nd to Friday August 29th FPN will have an info table set up in the student commons, and next Wednesday August 27th FPN will hold its first event of the semester, a video showing followed by our first meeting of the semester. (movie at 6pm, meeting at 7:30pm) We hope to see everybody this semester during our many Palestinian Solidarity actions in the Richmond, VA and Virginia Commonwealth University area.

July 22nd
     A member of Free Palestine Now!, Thomas, has made his way to Palestine, and is working with the International Solidarity Movement.  He has been sending short autobiography, and his daily journal entries of his events in Palestine and Jordan.  His autobiography and daily journal entries are online; (click here!)