Beirut: [Yet another] blackout has descended upon Bourj al-Barajneh Palestinian refugee camp this night. It makes your efforts to find the Palestinian Arab Center that much more atmospheric and inspires vague hopes that perhaps you won’t miss the first minutes of Jackie Salloum’s “Slingshot Hip Hop” after all.

You find the hall’s exterior bathed in generator-driven light. The interior is dim but for the concert footage projected on a screen and reflected back upon the white plastic chair-mounted eyeballs fixed before it.

Salloum’s first feature-length film, “Slingshot” chronicles the rise of the Palestinian hip-hop scene – starting in ’48 Palestine (sometimes called “Israel”) and the other occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza.

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Yet more haunting images of blindfolded, stripped down Palestinian men being contemptuously dragged by soldiers in uniform from one place to another. Yet more footage of bloodied men lying on hospital beds describing their ordeals to television reporters who have heard this story all too often. Yet more news of Palestinian infighting, tit-for-tat arrests, obscene language and embarrassing behaviour from those who have elected themselves — or were elected — to represent the Palestinian people.

Once again, the important story that ought to matter the most — that of a continually imposing and violent Israeli occupation — is lost in favour of Palestinian-infused distractions, deliberate or not.

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Photo: Active Stills. Palestinians protest against Israel’s apartheid wall in Bil’in.

Despite largely facetious denials, the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority (PA) has been carrying out a vindictive campaign against Hamas sympathisers and supporters. According to various sources, hundreds of school teachers, college students, journalists, and other professionals as well as ordinary citizens have been arrested and imprisoned on largely amorphous charges such as “constituting a threat to state security” — when the PA is neither a state nor a sovereign entity — and “violating the rule of law”.

In cities and villages throughout the West Bank, PA security agencies raided Islamic-oriented cultural and academic centres, non-governmental organisations, sports clubs as well as schools and charitable associations, closing them down and arresting members.

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I had expected conditions in Gaza to be bad, but I was still shocked at the devastation when I went there in July.

Last month my companion and I entered Gaza at the Erez crossing through a modern building reminiscent of an airport terminal. After questioning by the Israeli border police, we left the building and had a kilometre walk to pick up transportation.

It was as if we had travelled to another planet. The sandy track is surrounded by the blown-up remnants of Gaza’s former industrial district. Rubble stretching for hundreds of metres lines the route.

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Bridges to Bil’in: performances, presentations and visuals against Israeli apartheid.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 7th, 2008
8pm. 5-10$
La Sala Rossa, 4848 St. Laurent
Montreal, Quebec

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Press Release: Bil’in announcs that it has commenced legal proceedings in Canada.

Photo: Palestinian village of Nilin through a window smashed by the Israeli army.

Bil’in, West Bank, Palestine: The Village of Bil’in, in the West Bank, Occupied Palestinian Territories, announced today that it has commenced legal proceedings in Canada against two Canadian Companies for committing war crimes. The case has been filed in the Quebec Superior Court sitting at Montreal, Canada. A full copy of the claim is attached.

Bil’in alleges that Green Park International Inc. and Green Mount International Inc., both registered corporations in the Province of Quebec, acting as agents for Israel, are illegally constructing residential and other buildings on lands under the municipal jurisdiction of the Village and are marketing and selling condominium units to the civilian population of the State of Israel. Bil’in further alleges in its claim that its land and the defendants are subject to the rules and obligations of international law because the West Bank is occupied territory arising from an act of war that took place in 1967.

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Israel’s apartheid wall and Israeli colony Beth-Hal Homar, West Bank, Palestine

Photos from Montreal photographer and community worker Scott Weinstein, who has traveled to Palestine to work with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society as a registered nurse. This photo essay documents the contemporary realities of Israeli colonialism and occupation in the West Bank, specifically focusing on the realities of settler violence against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank, specifically in the Palestinian city of Hebron. As documented by numerous Israeli human rights organizations, such as B’Tselem, Israeli settlers have beaten Palestinian civilians and forced many Palestinians to leave the historic city center in Hebron, traditionally an important and vibrant Palestinian market in the West Bank.

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A special edition of World Skip the Beat, on CKUT Radio in Montreal, which explores music and song from around the world inspired by immigration, Diaspora and migration. Featuring music from all corners of the world, this special program offers unique and rare musical selections from diverse artists from Algeria, Canada, Cap Verde, Egypt, France, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Lebanon, Peru, Slovakia and Spain. A special edition of World Skip the Beat produced by Dror Warschawski.

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Britain’s first Muslim minister has attacked the growing culture of hostility against Muslims in the United Kingdom, saying that many feel targeted like “the Jews of Europe”.

Shahid Malik, who was appointed as a minister in the Department for International Development (Dfid) by Gordon Brown last summer, said it has become legitimate to target Muslims in the media and society at large in a way that would be unacceptable for any other minority.

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Photo: Tyendinaga’s new longhouse on Ridge Road, Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory.

On June 29, 2007, Mohawks from Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory near Belleville, Ontario, erected blockades on the Canadian National rail line, local Highway 2, and Highway 401-the busiest thoroughfare in the country. This marked the second time in six months that the community blocked the rails in defence of their land. In the days before June 29, which had been declared a National Day of Action by the Assembly of First Nations, Mohawk spokesperson Shawn Brant explained to the CBC why the community could no longer wait on distant negotiations. “We bury our children in this country every day,” he said. “We have to force them to drink polluted water. We’re sick and tired of it. It’s going to end-June 29 is going to mark the time when First Nations people are going to be in a different relationship with the rest of the country.”

Native communities in Canada — a “Fourth World” of nations without states — continue to live a colonial legacy that traces a trajectory from the violent European settlement that began 400 years ago, through residential schools, to the colonial present of state surveillance, invasion of traditional lands, poverty, substance abuse, and some of the highest youth suicide rates in the world. According to Health Canada, Native youth are five to seven times more likely to commit suicide than non-Native youth. Canada’s Aboriginal population, particularly its youth, has the highest suicide rate of any culturally identifiable population in the world. Yet some Native communities have largely avoided the tragedy of youth suicide. What sets these communities apart? Evidence is mounting that successful resistance to colonialism may be the antidote.

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