🍉 VanGran4Pal Community Newsletter (August 28, 2026)
Introduction
Dear neighbours & friends,
The summer is coming to a close for students and children who are stocking up on school supplies, clothing, and backpacks, while parents are planning for another busy school year of activities.
Yet, this past summer we've seen Israel continue its intentional attack on children. At least 300 children have been reported killed in Gaza in the past 300 days. Children are also risking their own lives helping to remove the rubble from their homes and their communities. In a world where Israel can say they are investigating their own for the murder of Hind Rijab, and pretend that there will be any sort of accountability, where children are being threatened with state violence for simply flying kites, we are situated in a time where violence against children is completely acceptable to our politicians, to our so-called leaders.
Let us all take this as an opportunity to not only fight for Palestinians, but fight for their children. And in doing so, let us teach our own children, nieces, nephews, nibblings, and students what it means to be Palestinian. What it means to question what is being said about Palestinians. What it means to be critical of those that will say some children belong while others should be erased.
Today's book club recommendation is something that can be read by adults, students, and children alike. For those with children in their lives, there is also a free virtual workshop for navigating racism with kids.
Take care.
Actions you can take
Vote Palestine, Vancouver
Palestine is the moral litmus test of our times.
Please join us in supporting Palestinian human rights by pledging to vote for municipal candidates who endorse the Vancouver Palestine Platform.
The Vancouver Palestine Platform outlines key demands of Palestinian organizations and allies in Vancouver for municipal recognition of and action on the human rights of Palestinians, as enshrined in international and Canadian law.
You can use the Vote Palestine Vancouver site to review candidates’ stances on the Vancouver Palestine Platform when deciding how to vote on October 17th or have your organization endorse the platform to mobilize its constituents to vote.
We encourage everybody (voters or not) to ask your local candidates to endorse the four platform points below. Make it clear that this election, voters of conscience will only support candidates that stand up for Palestinian human rights and international law.
The Vancouver Palestine Platform
Demand 1: Condemn the Genocide
Demand 2: Sign the Apartheid Free Communities pledge
Demand 3: Cut ties with Israeli institutions, including reviewing municipal contracts
Demand 4: Recognize the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association (ACLA) framework of Anti-Palestinian Racism
ABOUT:
Vote Palestine Vancouver is a grassroots action inspired by the federal Vote Palestine campaign, working to cement Palestine as an electoral issue in the City of Vancouver.
Our governmental and business systems are complicit in the continued war crimes devastating Palestinian, Lebanese, and Iranian civilians. Around the world, a growing majority of people are voting against representatives who refuse to end genocidal violence.
We believe there can be no electoral business as usual while the genocide of Palestinians is ongoing, at any level of government. Vote Palestine Vancouver supports like-minded voters, organizations, political parties, and municipal candidates in demonstrating their support for the Vancouver Palestine Platform.
Read the Vancouver Palestine Platform.
No genocide promoter at CEO summit
Recently David Suzuki, Yann Martel, Roger Waters, Ellen Gabriel and 1000 other authors, artists, academics and activists signed a public letter calling to "Confront Carney's CEO Summit." On September 14-15 the Prime Minister is hosting 100 of the wealthiest bankers and investment managers in downtown Toronto. A leading participant is BlackRock CEO Larry Fink. A staunch advocate of Israeli crimes, BlackRock is heavily invested there and with companies arming the genocidal supremacist state. Please email Mark Carney to call on him to rescind his invitation to BlackRock.
Upcoming Events
Press Conference: APR Guide launch | September 1
Date & Location
📅 September 1, 2026
⏰ 10:00 - 11:00 AM
📍Vancouver School Board Office1580 W. Broadway, Vancouver, BC
About
Parents 4 Palestine is launching Anti-Palestinian Racism in B.C. Schools: A Guide for Palestinian Families and Allies Navigating Anti-Palestinian Racism (APR) in British Columbia Schools, and they are inviting you to come support students, teachers, and parents who will be speaking at the press conference. Let's show the media that kids, parents, and teachers are united in stopping Anti-Palestinian Racism this school year!
Don’t drink with Genocide! | September 12
Date & Location
📅 September 12, 2026
⏰ 2:00 PM
📍Cambie & W. 8th (2395 Cambie St)
About
Join our next round of actions to tell the BC NDP government to end its complicity in Israeli genocide and war profiteering. Selling Israeli wines is actively aiding and abetting a state committing genocide. Come out on September 12 to demand that the BC Government immediately deshelve Israeli wines. Eighteen years of war profiteering off Palestinian and Arab dispossession is shameful!
Check out the history of this 18 year campaign. As the Israeli regime steps up its terror raids in the West Bank, arresting hundreds and displacing even more, and continues its genocide in Gaza, it is more crucial than ever to speak out. We must not allow the BC government to make us complicit in this infamy (through the provincial taxation of these illegal products).
Liberation for Littles | September 16
Date & Location
📅 September 16, 2026
⏰ 7:00 PM EST
📍 Virtual
About
This workshop is for parents, caregivers, auncles, grandparents, guardians, and all who want to be in liberatory community with children. We will discuss how to explain our current conditions to little ones, how to equip them (and ourselves), and how to organize alongside them to resist and transform our realities.
Kids are more than welcome to participate.
DIE-IN' AND SPEAK OUT AT UBCM 2026 | September 18
Date & Location
📅 September 18, 2026
⏰ 11:30 am
📍 Waterfront Skytrain Station
About
11:30am Gather outside Waterfront Skytrain Station
12:00pm ‘Die-in’ outside the Union of BC Municipalities convention
12:30pm Speak Out for Harm Reduction and to end the war on drugs
HARM REDUCTION WORKS! Defend decriminalization, overdose prevention & safe supply. Our lives depend on it.
Community Spotlights
Support Gazan families in Canada
Your donation provides direct and immediate support to Gazans and Palestinians in Canada. Together, we can support them to find safe and stable housing, access food security and settlement services, get language support, locate employment opportunities, and overall rebuild their lives here with dignity, hope, and stability.
We have partners all across Canada, you can identify where you would like your donation to go to directly - Surrey/Lower Mainland, Toronto/GTA, Montreal, London, Calgary or Edmonton. Every dollar you give goes directly to supporting real people, we don’t take any for operational or administrative costs. Your donation is also Zakat eligible - give with confidence knowing that your donation will reach eligible recipients fully and directly.
Any amount helps - give today and stand in solidarity with Gazan evacuees, refugees and Palestinians nation-wide.
Book Club
Homeland by Hannah Moushabeck, Reem Madooh
A father and his daughters may not be able to return home . . . but they can celebrate stories of their homeland!
As bedtime approaches, three young girls eagerly await the return of their father who tells them stories of a faraway homeland—Palestine. Through their father's memories, the Old City of Jerusalem comes to life: the sounds of juice vendors beating rhythms with brass cups, the smell of argileh drifting through windows, and the sight of doves flapping their wings toward home. These daughters of the diaspora feel love for a place they have never been, a home they cannot visit. But, as their father’s story comes to an end, they know that through his memories, they will always return.
A Palestinian family celebrates the stories of their homeland in this moving autobiographical picture book debut by Hannah Moushabeck. With heartfelt illustrations by Reem Madooh, this story is a love letter to home, to family, and to the persisting hope of people that transcends borders.