Fateh Azzam, at a Rally Outdside of Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D) Portland Office Several Years Ago. He is the Steering Member of the Maine Coalition for Palestine. He Will be a Panel Member on February 28, 2026 at USM, Portland.
You are invited to attend a day-long Conference that centers on Palestine in a global context where international law, human rights, and truth are the casualties of violent state power and media narrative control.
The Conference is slated for SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2026 from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. The location is Hannaford Hall, Abromson Community Education Center at USM, Portland, 88 Bedford Street.
Experts on international law, media and human rights will lead discussions exploring the roots, implications and potential direction and resolution of the conflict over Palestine and itds impact on domestic US politics and the global order according to a press release issued earlier this week by the Maine Coalition for Palestine.
Nearly a cenury after the British Mandate opened Palestine’s doors to the Zionist movement, the battles rage on over land and self-determination. The stubborn discourse of a “geopolitical chess game between state actors” pays little attention to human lives, or to implications for the future of international law and geopolitics. The lack of legal and political accountabiliy surrounding Israel’s 77 – year occupation and crimes now pshes well beyond Palestine’s and Israel’s borders, with global reverberations.
International law and human rights have collapsed in Gaza’s ruins. Demcracies are backsliding towards extreme nationalism, while impunity for genocide and war crimes threatens to overturn the world order. But as resistance grows, and Palestinians continue to deny fatalism and refuse to vansh, the questions remains: where do we go from here?
So, join internationally recognized experts in their fields. The Conferene will take place over four panels, featuring distinguished speakers:
FRANCESCA ALBANESE – Legal scholar and expert on human rights. She is currently United Nations Special Rappoteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. She will be joining the conference by video.
FATEH AZZAM – Steering member of the Maine Coalition for Palestine. His international career in human rights spanned work in civil society, academia, philanthropy and the UN, where he served as Middle East Regional Rep of the UN High Commisioner for Human Rights.
PHYLLIS BENNIS – Writer, activist, political commentator and Fellow at the Insitute for Policy Studies (IPS), Ms. Bennis co-founded the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights and was a board member of JVP, where she continues to serve as its International Advisor.
RAMI GEORGE KHOURI – Journalist, academic and commentator on Middle East affairs and currently Distinguished Public Policy at the American University of Beirut, where he founded and directed the Issam Fares Instiute for Public Policy.
SUSAN AKRAM – Professor & Director of the International Human Rights Clinic at BU School of Law. Ms. Adram has worked for 3 decades on immigration, asylum refugee law, forced migration and human rights, and advocated for forcibly displaced and stateless communities.
LINDSAY KOSHGARIAN – Program Director of the National Priorities Project at the Institute for Policy Studies. Her work on federal budget priorities highlights how militarization of the federal budget creates a lack of investment in people and the planet.
All sessions will be moderated by Nadia El-Shaarawi, Assoc. Professor and Assoc. Chair of Global Studies at Colby College, teaching courses on displacement and migration, global health and humanitarianism.
The conference is organized by Maine Coalition for Palestine, a statewide coalition of orgnizations and idividuals workig on solidartiy toward Palestinian rights and liberation from occupation. The Coalition includes diasporic, indigenous, black, brown and white human rights and political activitists and organizations.
For background information on the subject, please visit post herein dated January 12, 2024.