#Palestine conference canceled by #USM over speaker’s sanctions has new location
The academic discussion called the ‘#ConsequenceOfPalestine’ will take place at #FirstParishCongregationalChurch in #GorhamME
by Riley Board, February 26, 2026
"A conference on Palestine scheduled for Saturday has found a new venue after the University of Southern Maine said it would no longer sponsor the event because one of the planned speakers is subject to sanctions by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
"The 'Consequence of Palestine' event will now be hosted at the First Parish Congregational Church in Gorham, and is scheduled to proceed on the same date, organizers with the #MaineCoalitionForPalestine and #MaineVoicesForPalestinianRights announced Thursday.
"University officials told organizers late last week they could no longer use Hannaford Hall on the USM’s Portland campus for the event after learning that speaker #FrancescaAlbanese is on the Office of Foreign Assets Controls’ #SanctionsLlist.
"#Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on #HumanRights in the #OccupiedPalestinianTerritories, was slapped with sanctions in July after she wrote letters to several major American businesses, telling them she planned to name them in a U.N. report for contributing to human rights violations by #Israel; the #StateDepartment called the letters campaigns of political and #EconomicWarfare. U.S. businesses and entities are prohibited from doing business with Albanese.
"Albanese was scheduled to speak at the conference remotely, and organizers said they received guidance that her participation was permitted so long as they did not engage in any financial transaction with her or offer an honorarium for her participation.
"Organizers also say they offered to remove Albanese from the schedule, but the university said it still could not host the event because it needed, 'time to assess the risk and put in place measures to ensure compliance with all federal and state laws and university policies.'
"More than 300 people had registered for the event as of Tuesday.
"Albanese is still slated to speak at the conference, an organizer confirmed. The USM Department of Criminology and Sociology, previously a co-sponsor of the event, is no longer involved."
Archived version:
https://archive.md/8VwxN
#MainePol #Capitulation #USPol #Fascism #Authoritarianism #IsraeliWarCrimes #USWarCrimes #FreeGaza #Gaza #GazaGenocide #LandTheft #Colonialism #FreePalestine #BibiIsAWarCriminal #MaineVoicesForPeace