Join us on Monday, Feb 17 at 6 pm to learn about the current climate in the West Bank, particularly the village of Wadi Foquin.
Rev Yoshii and four others from the US recently spent a week with Palestinian families who have experienced nighttime IDF raids, demolition of homes and the threat of land confiscation to build an apartheid road.
There will be a brief presentation followed by an opportunity for Q&A. Refreshments will be served.
Join us in-person at MCC East Bay (Conference room) 5724 W Las Positas Blvd, Pleasanton or online at mcceastbay.org/live
This event is being hosted by MCC East Bay, Asbury United Methodist Church, Jewish Voices for Peace Bay Area, Friends of Wadi Foquin, Mount Diablo Peace and Justice Center and Soul of My Soul Exhibit.
Speaker Bio:
Reverend Michael Yoshii is a retired pastor of 30 years at Buena Vista United Methodist Church. He understands the profound impact of such injustices from the firsthand experiences of both his former congregation and his parents. This historical and generational trauma in part fuels Yoshii’s solidarity within his own community as well as with other marginalized groups, most notably for him, Palestinians facing apartheid.
Friends of Wadi Foquin was created in 2009 with a small amount of fundraising to build beehives in the village. This helped offset the significant damage inflicted on agricultural life by nearby Israeli settlements, whose roads are prohibited to Palestinians. Through projects like reclaiming a dilapidated building for a community center or building a soccer field on Palestinian land threatened by the occupation, Friends of Wadi Foquin sent a powerful message that life and dignity will not be denied. This is a powerful alliance which reminds us that the movement for justice anywhere reinforces the struggle for justice everywhere.
Yoshii spoke about the first time he visited Palestine in 2006: “The thing is you’re there in person and physically, viscerally, your body is experiencing the occupation and you’re in the presence of other people who are trying to tell their stories. And the couple of things that hit me, I think that were very central to my identity as a Japanese American. The first thing was about people sharing their stories and their history. I mean, history is essentially being censored, particularly when we went on some of our exposure trips and met people from the North and heard their stories of their families and villages, which are being basically dismantled and demolished, people are losing their homes. There’s a resonance for me as a Japanese American because we went through the same struggle. I can’t say it’s anything in comparison to Palestinians, but the similar thread is that we went through the struggle of needing to tell our story too.”
