Cornell alum to speak on her work for peace in West Bank

MOUNT VERNON — Cornell College graduate Abigail Ozanne, who has traveled to Israel and Palestine working for peace, will discuss her experiences in a lecture at Cornell on Tuesday, Jan. 9, at 7 p.m. in Shaw Lounge of The Commons. Admission is free.

Her talk, “Suffering and Hope: Witnessing for Peace in Palestine and Israel,” will detail her work in the West Bank. A resident of Falcon Heights, Minn., she became active in social justice issues in college and took two trips to Israel and Palestine to work for peace. Since graduating from Cornell in 2005 with a teaching degree, Ozanne has remained active in working for justice and joined Christian Peacemaker Teams last summer working full time in Palestine.

For 2 1/2 months in the West Bank last fall, she was involved in grassroots peacemaking, as well as on-the-ground reporting of the situation. She witnessed incidents including home invasions by Israeli soldiers, settler attacks on farmers and schoolchildren, cooperation between Palestinians and Israelis, and daily life under occupation.