ISM activity sighted in Portland, Oregon: Mideast clash gets a closer look.

“It is truly a world-class conference, being held right here in Portland,” says Zaha Hassan, a co-founder of Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights and a conference spokeswoman.

Speakers at the conference, which will begin with registration at 1 p.m. today, will include journalists, activists and scholars whose work has focused on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Tonight’s keynote speaker, the Rev. Naim Ateek, a Palestinian Anglican priest based in Jerusalem, will give an update on the peace process in that part of the Middle East.

Ateek directs a theological center in Jerusalem.

Other speakers will include Joseph Carr, an activist with the International Solidarity Movement who was present when Evergreen College student Rachel Corrie was killed by an Israeli military bulldozer as she protested in Gaza earlier this year; Tom Nelson, a Portland attorney who is involved with the International Solidarity Movement; and Donald Wagner, director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Northpark University in Chicago.

The conference runs from 1 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. today and from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 1624 N.E. Hancock St.

It costs $75 for the full conference or $45 for one day. Check the Web sites at auphr.org, fosna.org and sabeel.org or call 503-653-6625 for information.