Human Rights Watch – Mohammed Othman Held without Charge

Photo: Palestinian youth holding flag along Israeli apartheid wall.

(Jerusalem) – The Israeli military appeals court should end the administrative detention of Mohammed Othman, a West Bank rights activist, and order his release, Human Rights Watch said today.

Israeli authorities have detained Othman without charge for more than two months on what appear to be politically motivated grounds. On the basis of secret evidence that Othman and his lawyers were not allowed to see, a military court confirmed a military order that consigned Othman to three months administrative detention without charging him with any crime. Othman has no criminal record and, to the knowledge of Human Rights Watch, has never advocated or participated in violence. His detention period, which may be renewed, ends on December 22.

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Montreal album launch for Palestinian poet Rafeef Ziadah

Thursday March 18th 2010
20h00 $8 in advance | $10 at door
La Sala Rossa
4848 St. Laurent
Montreal, Quebec

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Majida Abu Rahmah, Huffington Post January 4, 2010

Photo: Valerian Mazataud Palestinians in Bil’in raise Palestinian flag at weekly protest.

On International Human Rights Day in 2008, my husband Abdallah Abu Rahmah was in Berlin receiving a medal from the World Association for Human Rights. Last year on the same day, December 10th, Abdallah was taken away at 2am by Israeli soldiers who broke into our West Bank home. Abdallah was arrested for the same reasons he received the prize – his nonviolent struggle for justice, equality and peace in Israel/Palestine.

My husband is a school teacher and farmer from the Palestinian village of Bil’in. When Israel built its apartheid wall here, it separated Bil’in from more than half of its land, in order to facilitate the expansion of the illegal settlement Mattityahu East. In response, Abdallah and fellow villagers began a campaign of nonviolent resistance. Every Friday for the past five years, we’ve marched, with Israeli and international supporters, to protest the theft of our land and livelihoods.

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Cairo Declaration, January 1, 2010.

Photo: Gaza Freedom Marchers in Cairo, Egypt.

(Cairo) Gaza Freedom Marchers approved today a declaration aimed at accelerating the global campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israeli Apartheid.

Roughly 1400 activists from 43 countries converged in Cairo on their way to Gaza to join with Palestinians marching to break Israel’s illegal siege. They were prevented from entering Gaza by the Egyptian authorities.

As a result, the Freedom Marchers remained in Cairo. They staged a series of nonviolent actions aimed at pressuring the international community to end the siege as one step in the larger struggle to secure justice for Palestinians throughout historic Palestine.

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Join Global Day of Action!

Tuesday 30 March 2010
4-6pm Phillips Square
across from the Bay
St. Catherine and Union
metro McGill

worldwide event schedule here
listen to CKUT Radio announcement here

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report written by Luciana Coconi from Palestina al Cor in Catalonia

Photo: Smoke rises over the Gaza Strip after Israeli bombing raid.

The aim of this report is to determine whether or not a crime of apartheid is being committed by Israel against the Palestinian people. It adopts an outside, non preconceived side whatsoever and it analyses, on the one hand, international human rights legislation and international humanitarian law and, on the other hand, internal legislation and its application, both in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Throughout the study, we shall observe what is understood to be the crime of apartheid. We know what happened in South Africa, we suspect it could be occurring in Israel and in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, but little has been researched about why apartheid arose and became a crime against humanity and exactly what its legal content is.

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Free Palestinian political prisoner Abdallah Abu Rahmah!

Friday, December 18th 12h00
Indigo Bookstore
corner of St. Catherine & McGill college
(metro McGill)
Montreal, Canada

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rabble.ca by Murray Dobbin | November 2009

Photo: Sabrien Amrov Solidarity demonstration with Palestine in downtown Montreal.

Ever since the Israeli invasion of the Gaza strip last December the global debate surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has intensified with both sides upping the ante, and the stakes of the framing battle increasing almost daily.

One of the most recent — but almost totally unreported — developments in Canada is something called the Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Antisemitism (CPCCA). It is not an official parliamentary body but is a multi-party, voluntary association of 13 MPs. It is currently holding an inquiry into anti-semitism because, it says, “The extent and severity of anti-semitism is widely regarded as at its worst level since the end of the Second World War.”

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Announcing a Quebec and Canada-wide BDS conference

UQAM, Montreal, Quebec 22-24th October 2010

Since 2005’s historic Palestinian call for a comprehensive, international movement for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israeli apartheid, we have seen many important victories for this movement in both Québec and Canada. Now is the time to reflect on the successes of the BDS movement in Quebec and Canada to date and to consolidate and intensify our efforts in solidarity with the people of Palestine, who continue to suffer under the brutal system of Israeli apartheid.

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by Abbas Al Lawati, Gulf News November 2009

Photo: Piax. Dubai skyline from airplane.

Dubai: A pressure campaign targeted at Gulf states was launched in Occupied Jerusalem on Monday by a coalition of 170 Palestinian organisations urging Arab states to boycott companies complicit in Israel’s expansion in the holy city.

In a rare public pressure campaign, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement in Palestine, a grouping of Palestinian civil society organisations, has turned its focus on the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which is preparing to build a multi-billion dollar railway to link its six members.

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