AFP, by Jailan Zayan, Sunday, August 16th.

Photo: Zoriah (c). Hezbollah logo painted on bullet pocked wall in Beirut, Lebanon.

CAIRO — Twenty-two men, dressed in white and crowded into a cage in a Cairo court, denied charges on Sunday of plotting attacks in Egypt for Lebanon’s Hezbollah group, with some alleging torture by police.

As the trial began, the alleged members of the cell pleaded not guilty to charges of “conspiracy to murder, spying for a foreign organisation with intent of conducting terrorist attacks and weapons possession.”

(more…)

Bil’in: village de la Palestine qui continue de résister

Photo: ActiveStills. Manifestation à Bil’in.

Bil’in, situé à l’ouest de Ramallah, est un village typique de la Méditerranée orientale à bien des points de vue: des maisons blanches disposées le long de rues qui épousent les méandres et contours naturels des collines; des vergers, des jardins, des pâturages; l’attitude accueillante et généreuse des habitants; beaucoup d’enfants espiègles et sages. Cependant, ceux de Bil’in vivent dans les mêmes conditions déplorables que tant d’autres en Cisjordanie: une colonie israélienne a été construite illégalement sur leurs terres, et la clotûre dite “de sécurité” dévore d’autres hectares pour les séparer de ce qui leur appartient. Personne n’a le droit de circuler librement: ni vers la ville la plus proche, ni vers la plage, ni vers leur capitale, Jérusalem.

(more…)

letter submitted to the Montreal Gazette, Tuesday, August 25th, 2009.

Photo: Satellites in the sky Cairo, Egypt.

Although this was likely unintentional, Terrine Friday’s article “Students misinformed …” (24 August 2009) speaks strongly in favour of the Community-University Research Exchange (CURE) program and of the CURE project proposed by the Montreal social-justice collective Tadamon.

Tadamon’s CURE project submission proposed that a student investigate institutional ties between Montreal universities and Israeli corporations, government agencies and other organizations that support the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands.

(more…)

LA Times by Neve Gordon, August 20, 2009.

Photo: Israeli apartheid wall.

Israeli newspapers this summer are filled with angry articles about the push for an international boycott of Israel. Films have been withdrawn from Israeli film festivals, Leonard Cohen is under fire around the world for his decision to perform in Tel Aviv, and Oxfam has severed ties with a celebrity spokesperson, a British actress who also endorses cosmetics produced in the occupied territories. Clearly, the campaign to use the kind of tactics that helped put an end to the practice of apartheid in South Africa is gaining many followers around the world.

Not surprisingly, many Israelis — even peaceniks — aren’t signing on. A global boycott can’t help but contain echoes of anti-Semitism. It also brings up questions of a double standard (why not boycott China for its egregious violations of human rights?) and the seemingly contradictory position of approving a boycott of one’s own nation.

(more…)

Haaretz August 27th, 2009, by Anat Matar.

Photo: Palestinians walk along the Israeli apartheid wall in the West Bank.

Several days ago Dr. Neve Gordon of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev published an opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times. In that article he explained why, after years of activity in the peace camp here, he has decided to pin his hopes on applying external pressure on Israel – including sanctions, divestment and an economic, cultural and academic boycott.

He believes, and so do I, that only when the Israeli society’s well-heeled strata pay a real price for the continuous occupation will they finally take genuine steps to put an end to it.

(more…)

Palestinian Center for Human Rights, August 13-19, 2009.

Photo: Palestinian boy holds-up Israeli shell in occupied Palestine.

On 14 August 2009, Israeli gunboats opened fire at Palestinian fishing boats opposite to Rafah beach. As a result, a 12-year-old Palestinian child, who was at the beach, was seriously wounded by a gunshot to the head.

During the reporting period, Israeli forces used force against peaceful demonstrations organized by Palestinian civilians in protest to the construction of the Annexation Wall in the West Bank. A number of demonstrators also suffered from the inhalation of an unknown substance used by Israeli forces in Bal’ein village, west of Ramallah.

In the Gaza Strip, Israeli warplanes bombarded the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt allegedly to destroy smuggling tunnels.

(more…)

Tuesday, August 24th, AFP by Adel Zaanoun.

Photo: Zoriah (c). Damaged wall along the Gaza / Egypt border.

GAZA CITY — Three Palestinian brothers were killed and nine other people were wounded on Tuesday when Israel bombed smuggling tunnels between the Hamas-run Gaza Strip and Egypt, medics said.

Rescue services were digging through the rubble to try to find another man who was reported missing after the first Israeli air strike against the tunnels in more than two weeks.

Mansur, Wael and Ibrahim al-Batniji, aged 30, 26 and 24, were working inside the tunnels when Israeli warplanes struck two tunnels in the early morning hours near the border town of Rafah.

(more…)

Beirut, Lebanon, August, 2009 Menassat.

Photo: Markus Moning. Reading the newspaper at La Grande Arche, La Défense, Paris.

BEIRUT—On Tuesday, on the third anniversary of al-Akhbar, the Lebanese daily signed a partnership with the Arabic version of Le Monde Diplomatique, a major international newspapers that has more than 70 foreign editions in 25 languages.

At a conference at the Holiday Inn Hotel in Verdun, Beirut, attended by journalists, media persons, and politicians, it was announced that the partnership gives al-Akhbar the exclusive right to distribute a monthly issue of the Arabic language Le Monde Diplomatique in Lebanon and Syria.

(more…)

International Solidarity Movement, August 20, 2009.

Photo: Valerian Mazataud. Palestinian community activist Abu Nizar.

20 August 2009: Once again the night in Bil’in was disrupted by a raid ending with the arrest of one the members of the Village’s Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements. This occurred the night after the childrens demonstration where the children had chanted slogans like “We want to sleep,” “Stop the night raids”.

The house of Bil’in Popular Committee member and vice president of the Bil’in village council, Mohammad Abu Rahma, (age 50), known by his friends as Abu Nizar, was raided shortly before 2am on Thursday morning. About 25 soldiers with their faces painted in black had come to the village on foot.

(more…)

Globe and Mail by Paul Koring, Friday August 20th.

Photo: Zoriah (c). Palestinian handles necklace at Israeli checkpoint.

A tough Israeli crackdown that discriminates against some American citizens because they are of Palestinian origin has been sharply protested by the Obama administration, but the same treatment curtailing freedom of movement for Canadian citizens has produced no response from the Harper government.

Border guards at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport have been barring entry to arriving Canadian and American citizens with Palestinian-sounding names. They are told they must make a long detour and enter via the Allenby Bridge land-border crossing that connects the West Bank with Jordan. On arrival there, their passports are stamped “Palestinian Authority only” – preventing them from entering Israel, including the annexed parts of East Jerusalem.

(more…)