Al Jazeera October 2009.

Photo: Palestinians in Gaza struggle for food in area damaged by Israeli bombings.

Poverty in the Gaza Strip has tripled this year under the Israeli blockade, according to the UN agency helping refugees living there.

John Ging, the head of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza, told reporters on Thursday that the number of Gazans considerered “abject poor” had tripled to 300,000 this year, equal to one in five Gazans.

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Daily Star Tuesday, October 13, 2009.

Photo: Mary-Ellen Davis. Nahr el-Bared refugee camp destroyed pictured in late 2007.

BEIRUT: Demonstrators gathered in their thousands at Downtown Beirut’s Martyrs Square Monday to protest against government failure to begin reconstruction to Nahr al-Bared refugee camp. Organizers claim some 2,000 protestors from all over Lebanon attended the peaceful demonstration, watched over by soldiers and a dozen police in riot gear.

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photos by Sabrien Amrov

Photo: Sabrien Amrov. Qurna performing at Artists Against Apartheid.

At the Quebec Social Forum thousands converged in Montreal from throughout Quebec for concerts, workshops and conferences focused on building social justice movements. On Saturday, October 10th hundreds gathered at cégep du Vieux Montréal for the tenth edition of Artists Against Apartheid, presented as a main cultural event within the Quebec Social Forum.

Featured at the concert was Qurna a conceptual and experimental music project of Iraqi Maqam music, lead by Omar Dewachi on oud and featuring Jérémi Roy on double bass, Pierre-Guy Blanchard on percussion, Sam Shalabi on oud, Radwan Moumneh on saz, Xarah Dion on synth and Zayid Al-Baghdadi on nay. Sabrien Amrov documented the concert via photograph presented now on-line.

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Sami Hermez, Electronic Intifada, 1 October 2009.

Photo: ‘No tank parking’ graffiti in Palestine.

Over the last three years, the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel has been gaining stride. Individuals around the world have been joining this call, from organizing actions in supermarkets in France and Great Britain protesting Israeli products made in settlements, to filmmakers withdrawing movies from film festivals, to prominent Israelis making a public stand with the BDS movement. Only recently, a multi-billion dollar Norwegian wealth fund divested from the Israeli arms company Elbit, while other companies, like Veolia, a French conglomerate involved in building and managing the Jerusalem light-rail, have suffered setbacks due to the bad publicity the boycott movement has generated.

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George Bisharat, San Francisco Chronicle October 1st, 2009.

Photo: US President Barack Obama.

US President Barack Obama has placed restoration of the stature of the United States among his primary foreign policy goals. He has already achieved substantial progress in Europe, where polls indicate that he is widely admired. The president’s June Cairo University speech also won praise in the Arab and Muslim worlds. Yet many across the globe still await the substantive policy changes implied by his inspiring words.

President Obama can solidify broader global respect by supporting the recommendations of the just-released Goldstone report in the United Nations Human Rights Council. Richard Goldstone, an eminent South African jurist, led a mission to investigate allegations of war crimes in Gaza last winter.

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Haaretz 28/09/2009

Photo: Public train passing in Cairo, Egypt.

The London-based Arabic-language daily A Sharq al Awsat reported Monday that the board of directors of the powerful Egyptian media group Al-Ahram had decided to boycott Israel and Israelis of all positions.

The Al-Ahram group is considered the most powerful media body in Egypt. Al-Ahram publishes newspapers considered to be the official mouthpiece of the Egyptian government.

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Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendler, Inter Press Service, 29 September 2009.

Photo: Palestinians walking in East Jerusalem.

Almost a year ago a barely noticed event took place in Sawarha, a Palestinian neighborhood in the Israeli-occupied part of the city.

On that November day, Israeli Jerusalemites were voting in a new mayor and a new city council.

On that same day, in this neighborhood home to 25,000, people were ignoring the Israeli-run elections. Instead, they were focused on electing their own local council.

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To: The Member States of the United Nations General Assembly:

Photo: Tahrir, 17; Ikram, 15; Samar, 12; Dina eight; and Jawaher, four, killed by Israel.

Upon the culmination of the 64th session of the United Nations General Assembly, the Palestinian human rights community would like to take the opportunity to raise its collective voice in reasserting the significance of the role of the UN in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT) and to call upon the General Assembly in particular to take a more proactive role in ensuring a just resolution to the conflict.

Despite few conflicts having received as much international attention as that between Israel and the Palestinians, hopes for peace have been repeatedly dashed in the light of Israel’s refusal to end 42 years of military occupation. Israel’s ongoing denial of Palestinian rights and political freedoms, including the basic right of Palestinians to self-determination continues unabated.

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concert occurring within the Quebec Social Forum

SATURDAY OCTOBER 10th 20h00
suggested donation 5-10$
Cégep du Vieux Montréal
255 rue Ontario east
room 4.82 A
métro Berri-UQAM

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Dissident Voice by Neve Gordon / September 28th, 2009

Photo: ActiveStills. Israeli anarchist Kobi Snitz in an Israeli prison.

Sometime in 1846, Henry David Thoreau spent a night in jail because he refused to pay his taxes. This was his way of opposing the Mexican-American War as well as the institution of slavery. A few years later he published the essay “Civil Disobedience,” which has since been read by millions of people, including many Israelis and Palestinians.

Kobi Snitz read the book. He is an Israeli anarchist who is currently serving a 20 day sentence for refusing to pay a 2,000 shekel fine.

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