Deborah Guterman, Electronic Intifada, 11 June 2009.

Photo: Bilin: Palestinian with son in arms in front of Israeli soldier.

The small Palestinian village of Bilin will face-off this month against two Canadian corporations accused of aiding and abetting the colonization of the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Bilin has charged Green Park International and Green Mount International with illegally constructing residential buildings and other settlement infrastructure on village territory, and marketing such structures to the civilian population of the State of Israel. The condominiums in question are located in a settlement neighborhood known as Matityahu East.

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press release, Independent Jewish Voices, 18 June 2009.

Photo: Gaza solidarity protest January 2009.

Independent Jewish Voices (Canada) voted to join the growing international campaign in support of the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel, at its first Annual General Meeting this past weekend. This decision makes IJV the first national Jewish organization in the world to do so.

The adopted resolution states that IJV will “Support the Palestinian call for a campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and complies with the precepts of international law, including the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.”

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Hour June 11th, 2009, by Stefan Christoff.

Photo: ActiveStills. Palestinians stand against Israeli apartheid wall.

While Israel’s right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to expand Israeli colonies in the West Bank, in a key speech in Cairo last week the Obama administration called Israeli settlements a violation of international law and an impediment to peace talks.

The heated international issue will become a local one this month when two Quebec companies involved in Israeli settlement construction on Palestinian lands will face a potential lawsuit in Quebec Superior Court.

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Toronto Star, Jun 16, 2009 by Iain Marlow.

Photo: ActiveStills. Palestinians protest Israeli apartheid wall.

First came the fence, which splintered the olive trees from Bil’in, the Palestinian village that tended them. Then came the tear gas canister that hit a local, well-liked man named Basem Abu Rahme in the chest, killing him.

Everyone knew Basem, which is what everyone called him. Mohammed Khatib, one of the village’s 1,700 residents, was at that protest, and is still deeply disturbed by the death. Khatib, 35, was in Toronto on the weekend on a national tour to promote the village’s latest bid to seek justice – using Quebec’s courts to stop Israeli settlements.

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lecture with: Mohammed Khatib from Bil’in with Emily Schaeffer Israeli lawyer

FRIDAY JUNE 19, 19h00
donations encouraged
De Sève Cinema
Concordia University
1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd.
Montreal, Quebec

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Al Kitab (Arabic for ‘Book’), is a new book club organized by Tadamon!

Photo: James Longley. Al-Mutanabi Street in Iraq.

Al Kitab club members (six to 10 people) will meet in a comfortable place (someone’s home, a quiet café, or a room in a public library) once a month to discuss and reflect on a book.

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Ma’an news, June 8th, 2009

Photo: Israeli fence around Qalandia check-point.

Bethlehem – Ma’an – Under pressure from pro-Palestine campaigners, a French company is poised to withdraw from the controversial Jerusalem Light Rail project that links the city center to illegal West Bank settlements.

The company Veolia, which was supposed to operate the transport system after its construction, is now abandoning the project and also seeking to sell its 5% stake in Citypass light rail consortium, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

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guardian.co.uk, by Ahdaf Soueif, Friday 5 June 2009.

Photo: Barack Obama speaks at Cairo University in Egypt.

This is hard. It’s hard because we so need to believe that Obama is about change, that he’s wise, that he’s good, that he has the interests of the world – rather than just the interests of the United States – at heart.

The 3,500 invited guests were told they’d have to be in their places by 10.30. But Obama would speak at one. An odd time for everyone, it would seem: for us in Cairo, where the cool of the evening is the preferred time for any event, and for people in America, who wouldn’t yet have woken up. I dress with my eye on the television screen: the loop of Obama touching cheeks with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, his hand resting for a companionable minute on the old monarch’s arm. Just before I leave the house I glimpse the prancing horses that make up part of Obama’s procession into Cairo.

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Ma’an news, June 5th, 2009.

Photo: Marco Baroncini. Israeli soldier shooting rubber coated steel bullets.

Bethlehem – Ma’an – A Palestinian demonstrator was killed and another injured after Israeli forces opened fire at an anti-wall rally in the West Bank village of Ni’lin on Friday.

The slain Palestinian was identified as Yousef Akel Sadiq Srour, 36, who was shot in the chest with live fire, according to medics at the scene.

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Vue news, by Bryan Birtles, June 4th, 2009.

Photo: ActiveStills. Palestinian resting after protest in Nil’in, Palestine.

In a somewhat stunning reminder of the way the globalization of commerce has connected the whole world in recent decades, two Canadian companies are being accused of war crimes and are being sued in Canada by the village of Bil’in, located in Palestine’s occupied West Bank.

Green Park and Green Mount International, two Québec-based construction companies, are facing accusations that their construction efforts in the occupied territories violate international law and can be considered war crimes. Violating article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention—which states, in part, “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies”—Green Park and Green Mount are building settlements on behalf of Israel, for Israeli civilians on land that belongs to Palestinians.

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