Palestinian Students’ Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel, August 2010

Photo Hatem Omar Students search newspapers for their exam results, Gaza Strip.

We are a group of students from Gaza, and our only fault is being Palestinians. For that, Mr. Corea, we are imprisoned with our families and loved ones in what major Human Rights Organizations call the largest open air prison in modern history. The state you are planning to entertain, committed a process of ethnic cleansing against the indigenous people in 1948. And now it is engaged in, what the Israeli academic Ilan Pappe calls, “slow motion genocide” against the 1.5 million population of Gaza.

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Jillian Kestler-D’Amours, Electronic Intifada, 6 August 2010

Photo Graffiti at Al-Quds University in Palestine.

Al-Quds University is maintaining a joint Israeli-Palestinian master’s degree program with Haifa, Hebrew and Tel Aviv universities, despite a decision taken by its own University Council in February 2009 to distance itself from Israeli academic institutions.

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Haidar Eid, Al-Shabaka, Palestinian Policy Network, 2 August 2010

Photo Matthew Cassel Does Gaza today resemble South Africa under apartheid?

The Palestinian national movement has overlooked this question: does the Gaza Strip resemble the racist Bantustans of apartheid South Africa? During the apartheid era, South Africa’s black population was kept in isolation and without political and civil rights. Is Gaza similar? The answer is yes and no.

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Lorraine Guay, Juillet 2010

Photo MaanImages Thaeer al-Hassany: Jeunes Palestiniens renferment des chandelles à d’une manifestation pacifique, dans la ville de Gaza.

Dans un récent reportage à TV5, un habitant d’une colonie de peuplement juif, installée illégalement en plein cœur du territoire palestinien, traitait de « terroristes » de jeunes palestiniens faisant du porte-à-porte auprès de leurs concitoyens pour leur demander de boycotter les produits fabriqués dans cette colonie en guise de résistance pacifique à l’occupation/colonisation dont ils sont victimes depuis plus de cinq décennies.

Ces jeunes marquaient à leur manière le 5e anniversaire de l’appel lancé en juillet 2005 par plus de 170 organisations de la société civile palestinienne invitant les sociétés civiles du monde entier à initier des campagnes de Boycott, Désinvestissement et Sanction contre les politiques israéliennes, comme celles appliquées à l’Afrique du Sud à l’époque de l’apartheid. Des personnalités aussi peu « terroristes » que Mgr Tutu et l’ex-président Carter n’hésitent pas d’ailleurs à qualifier la situation globale qui prévaut en Palestine de véritable apartheid.

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Monday, August 02, 2010 Al Jazeera

Photo Palestinians inspect ground after Israeli bombing in Gaza.

A global treaty banning cluster munitions has gone into force.

The Convention on Cluster Munitions, which became binding international law on Sunday, prohibits the use, production and stockpiling of the weapon, which is blamed for killing and maiming tens of thousands of civilians.

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photos on Artists Anti Apartheid by Heri Rakotomalala, Anthony Côte & Khalil Allioui

Photo Kalmunity Jazz collective performs at Artists Against Apartheid, La Sala Rossa.

Artists in Montreal are uniting in unprecedented ways in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for liberation, last winter 500 artists from Montreal signed a collective declaration to support the global boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israeli apartheid.

Artists Against Apartheid concert series has featured many groundbreaking artists from Montreal and the thirteenth edition at La Sala Rossa on July 22nd featured Algonquin hip-hop artist Samian (featuring Nomadic Massive), Kalmunity Jazz collective and Amérythmes. Featured in this photo essay are images captured at Artists Against Apartheid by Heri Rakotomalala, Khalil Allioui and Anthony Cote.

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Hazem Jamjoum, Electronic Intifada, 21 July 2010

Photo Palestine Remembered Palestinian refugees fleeing ‘Imwas village in 1967 turned into Canada Park by the Jewish National Fund (JNF)

For anyone taking a road trip along the highways of the part of Palestine that became Israel in 1948, one is bound to spot a blue and green structure in the shape of a bird marked with the Hebrew letters KKL, which stands for Keren Kayemeth L’Yisrael, the Hebrew name of the Israeli branch of the Jewish National Fund (JNF). All around the bird one will see expanses of forests planted sometime in the past few decades. A walk through one of these forests will take the visitor past fruit trees, cactus plants, terraced hillsides and the ruins of buildings. In some cases, these ruins are explained in a JNF brochure pointing to their ancient history; in other cases, one is left to the devices of one’s imagination. In all cases, these sites are what remains of some of the more than 500 villages depopulated and destroyed through the course of Israel’s establishment, the homes of millions of Palestinian refugees struggling to return to them for more than 60 years. By walking through a JNF park or forest, one inhales the fresh smell of the greenwashing of Palestine’s Nakba.

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July 2010 by Mohannad El-Khairy download pdf

Photo Palestinian worker at stone quarry in Gaza Strip.

Charles C. Boycott seems to have become a household word because of his strong sense of duty to his employer. An Englishman and former British soldier, Boycott was the estate agent of the Earl of Erne in County Mayo, Ireland. The earl was one of the absentee landowners who as a group held most of the land in Ireland. Boycott was chosen in the fall of 1880 to be the test case for a new policy advocated by Charles Parnell, an Irish politician who wanted land reform.

Any landlord who would not charge lower rents or any tenant who took over the farm of an evicted tenant would be given the complete cold shoulder by Parnell’s supporters. Boycott refused to charge lower rents and ejected his tenants. At this point members of Parnell’s Irish Land League stepped in, and Boycott and his family found themselves isolated without servants, farmhands, service in stores, or mail delivery.

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Celebrating 5 yrs since the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions!

Friday, July 9, 2010
12pm – 5:30pm
Indigo Bookstore
1500 McGill College, corner Ste-Catherine
Métro McGill
Montreal, QC

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guardian.co.uk Miri Weingarten, Wednesday 30 June 2010

Photo: Israeli apartheid wall cutting through Palestinian territories.

A new “anti-boycott bill”, the third in a series of proposed laws that aim to curtail the ability of civil society to criticise Israeli government policy, will punish Israelis or foreign nationals who initiate or promote a boycott of Israel.

The bill not only prohibits boycotts of legal Israeli institutions, but also of settlement activities and products. It seeks to impose fines on Israelis who “promote boycotts” and transfer the fines to boycotted organisations.

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