Bunting Peace and Justice Speaker Series

The Bunting Peace and Justice Speaker Series, made possible with a generous gift from Mary Catherine Bunting, hosts speakers and events that contribute to raising awareness about peace and justice issues.

"Partnering for an End to War and a Just Peace in Israel/Palestine: An Evening with Combatants for Peace"

Keynote talk: Thursday, Nov. 14, at 6 p.m.
4th Floor Program Room of the Andrew White Student Center

Click here to register on the Bridge!

Combatants for Peace (CfP) is committed to joint nonviolence and uses civil resistance, education, and other creative means of activism to transform systems of oppression and build a free and peaceful future from the ground up. Launched in 2006, they are the only movement worldwide founded by former fighters on both sides of an active conflict. As a result, they were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017 and 2018. Delivering the keynote talk will be 4 activists: Elie Avidor, Iris Gur, Sulaiman Khatib, and Mai Shahin. 

Elie Avidor is an Israeli engineer and former combatant who grew up in Haifa. He fought and was wounded during the Yom Kippur war at Mt. Hermon. He is a member of CfP’s bi-national activists leadership team and now focuses on helping Palestinian shepherd communities resist Israeli ethnic cleansing and settler violence in the Jordan Valley using “protective presence.” 

Iris Gur is an educator and social activist, a former school principal in the Israeli education system, and a human rights activist. She has served as the community director at CfP since 2021. 

 

 

Sulaiman Khatib is CfP’s co-founder and international relations director. As a local Palestinian community organizer, renowned international speaker, and lecturer, he has been recognized worldwide for his contributions to promoting peace, social justice, and equality for all. 

 

Mai Shahin is a therapist and activist with CfP with more than 12 years of experience in conflict resolution, specializing in nonviolent communication, nonviolent resistance, and war trauma-focused therapy. Her belief in nonviolence is deeply rooted in her identity as a woman, a Palestinian, and a believer in the power of humanity.

Film screening: There is Another Way
Thursday, Nov. 14, at 12 pm
Loyola Notre Dame Library Ridley Auditorium (L045)

Click here to register on the Bridge!

There is Another Way, directed by Stephen Apkon of Reconsider, builds on the award-winning film Disturbing the Peace (2016), which features Combatants for Peace members and documents “Israelis and Palestinians, born into conflict, sworn to be enemies, who laid down their weapons and challenged their fate—knowing that no one is free unless everyone is free.” The screening, which is free and open to the public, will be followed by a Q&A with the film director and four activists.

"Singing into the Wound: An Evening of Poetry & Conversation with Brian Turner"

Brian Turner
Thursday, October 24 in the 4th Floor Program Room of the Andrew White Student Center

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Brian Turner is an award-winning poet and memoirist. His keynote talk will explore conflict, love, and resilience through storytelling and verse. Turner is the author of five collections of poetry, including Here, Bullet, a first-person account of his experience as a soldier during the Iraq War, for which he received the 2005 Beatrice Hawley Award. His poems and essays have been published in The New York Times, The Guardian, National Geographic, and Harper’s Magazine, among other journals, and he was featured in the documentary film Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience, which was nominated for an Academy Award.  A Guggenheim Fellow, Turner has received a USA Hillcrest Fellowship in Literature, the Amy Lowell Traveling Fellowship, the Poets’ Prize, and a Fellowship from the Lannan Foundation.