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An evening of multi-media presentations, information, inspiring poetry and beautiful music on the 4th International Day against the Apartheid Wall.

Come out to learn about the growing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israeli Apartheid.

Thursday, 9 November, 7pm
Maison de l’Amitié, 120 Duluth East
(east of St. Laurent, Sherbrooke metro)

• Joneed Khan, Journalist with La Presse
• Report from Toronto conference on boycotting Israeli apartheid (member of Tadamon!)
• Mostafa Henaway, International Solidarity Movement-Montreal
• Music by Stefan Christoff and Yasser Shoukri
• Poetry and Spoken Word by Ghada Chehade, Hossein Sharang & Claude Maheu, and Kaie Kellough

tea & refreshments, free child-care, whisper translation (English, French & Arabic)

Download flyers: boycott_newflyers.pdf. Download posters: boycottposter.pdf

Tadamon! is holding an evening of presentations, inspiring poetry & beautiful music to advance the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions [BDS] campaignagainst Israeli apartheid in Montreal. This event is being held in coordination with groups internationally who are organizing events to mark the 4th international day of action against the Israeli apartheid wall.

—-> Including Presentations from:

* JOONEED KHAN: Renowned international affairs reporter for La Presse, who has covered conflicts in over 50 countries. Khan has reported on Apartheid from South Africa & Palestine, where he covered both the 1st Intifada in the 1980’s & in recent years the 2nd Intifada.

* MOSTAFA HENAWAY: Independent journalist & social activist with the International Solidarity Movement – Montreal, who will speak on Israeli & Canadian apartheid, drawing links between the struggle in Six Nations & in Palestine. Henaway is the current Community News Coordinator at CKUT Radio in Montreal, 90.3fm.

* Tadamon! Montreal: Representatives from Tadamon! will provide a report-back from the landmark Toronto conference of Israeli apartheid, outlining the growing call for a campaign of Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions against Israel. Tadamon! will present an analysis of the ways Israeli apartheid directly affects the entire Middle East region.

—-> Featuring Performances by:

* KAIE KELLOUGH: Celebrated Montreal writer & poet who is a key member of the Kalmunity Vibe Collective. Kellough has performed widely throughout North America, is author of “Lettricity” & the upcoming anthology “Talking Book” published by Cumulus Press – http://www.cumuluspress.com.

* STEFAN CHRISTOFF on Piano & YASSER SHOUKRY on Percussion: A modern musical duo which blends classical improvisation on piano and Arabic percussion rhythms.

* HOSSEIN SHARANG, an Iranian poet born in Jiroft, Iran, who will recite poetry in Persian & French with CLAUDE MAHEU’s ‘musique actuelle’ sounds on a variety of instruments.

* GHADA CHEHADE: Social justice activist, PhD student & member of Tadamon! currently writing a book on US foreign policy in the Middle East and a dissertation about the criminalization of dissent post-9/11. Chehade will be reading two poems that deal with her experience as a Palestinian in Diaspora and her identity as an Arab Woman.

—-> Israeli Apartheid & Building an International Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions Movement:

Israel’s “Separation Wall” has become a glaring symbol for a 58 year legacy of apartheid colonialist policies in Palestine. In 1948, Israeli settlers expelled approximately two-thirds of the indigenous Palestinian population from the land which became Israel. To this day, while Jewish people anywhere in the world are welcomed to Israel, the Palestinians who have been expelled can’t return.

In 1967 the Palestinian people suffered further expulsion & dispossession when Israel occupied the remaining 22% of their homeland. Israel consolidated its claims to the occupied West Bank & Gaza Strip by developing an elaborate policy of territorial integration and demographic separation.

Israel systematically enclosed & expropriated Palestinian land while allowing the establishment of Jewish settlements in the occupied territories. Settlers continue to be governed by Israeli laws, while Palestinians are subjected to military laws & decrees that regulated their civilian, economic and legal affairs.

Apartheid Israel a close ally to the U.S. & Canada, expanded its war of dispossession beyond Palestine. For decades, Lebanon has been subjected to brutal Israeli military assaults. In 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon, killing over 14,000 people, largely civilians, during the first two weeks of the assault. Israel occupied much of south Lebanon up until 2000.

Israel’s 2006 assault on Lebanon, carried out with full US and Canadian support, claimed the lives of over 1100 civilians, injured more than 4000 others and displaced 1 million people. Israel wiped out thousands of homes leaving entire villages destroyed & many homeless. According to a U.N. estimate, apartheid Israel dropped an estimated 2 million bomblets during its 34-days military campaign on Lebanon, that’s two or three bomblets for every man, woman and child in southern Lebanon.

Hundreds of thousands of unexploded bomblets lurk in farms, in tobacco fields, on rooftops, mixed in with rubble. Bomblets are injuring people continually & have killed tens of people since the U.S. brokered cease-fire in August. Israel continues violating the cease-fire [view a list of major violations, updated daily, at: http://www.tadamon.ca].

Isolating apartheid Israel and containing its brutal US backed aggressions is more urgent than ever. In July 2005, 170 Palestinian civil-society organizations – including Palestinian labour unions, student groups, women’s unions, peasant organizations, refugee committees and popular movements – joined to launch a call for a comprehensive Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions [BDS] strategy as the centerpiece of international solidarity efforts with the Palestinian people [http://www.bds-palestine.net]. In Lebanon, a strong boycott campaign is already underway.

In October of 2006, over 600 people responded to the international call in Canada by attending the Boycotting Israeli Apartheid Conference in Toronto held to discuss strategies for an effective BDS movement. The conference represented a landmark moment in the movement to end Israeli apartheid, with leading anti-apartheid activists from Palestine, South Africa, Canada & England sharing their visions on how to move forward with this campaign.

• For information on the Toronto conference: http://www.caiaweb.org
• Presentation from Rafeef Ziadeh, an organizer of the Toronto conference, during Tadamon’s Fires of War & Voices of Resistance event in Montreal: http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2006/10/14544.php

At the Toronto conference, activists from across Canada agreed to coordinate BDS-related actions & events on the international day of action on November 9th, called by the Stop the Wall campaign, based in the occupied West Bank. Tadamon! Montreal has taken up the call.

• Listen to an interview with Jamal Juma, of the Stop the Wall campaign, on CKUT Radio Montreal: http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2006/10/14545.php.