closing event for Israeli Apartheid Week 2009 co-presented with Cinema Politica
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has recently ordered an inquiry into the attacks against UN facilities in the Gaza Strip, including educational facilities. While Ban Ki-moon, Amnesty International, and many other human rights groups are looking for answers regarding Israeli military aggression in the Gaza Strip, McGill has shamefully excluded itself from the process of seeking truth and establishing justice and equality.
A recent motion submitted to SSMU’s General Assembly that called for the condemnation of Israel’s bombing of educational institutions in Gaza was not even given a chance to be discussed or debated; as it turns out, even human rights can be “postponed indefinitely.”
The last few months have seen a global surge in support for the movement of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israeli Apartheid. Important solidarity actions have occurred across the globe, including: a wave of student occupations across the UK; union resolutions in Europe, New Zealand and Australia; and, most recently, the historic action of South African dockworkers refusing to unload Israeli ships.
These actions register important steps forward in building solidarity with the Palestinian people and show that popular opinion is beginning to shift towards an understanding of Israel as an apartheid state that must be isolated in the manner of the struggle that was waged against South African Apartheid.
At the same time, pro-Israel organizations have responded to the strength of the BDS movement with the familiar tactics of repression, stifling of dissent and bureaucratic harassment. This article details a remarkable case of repression against student organizing at the University of Toronto (UofT).
“For the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.” –Martin Luther King Jr., Beyond Vietnam, April 4, 1967
We salute the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU) in Durban, and Western Australian dock worker members of the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA), for refusing to handle Israeli cargo.
Theirs is a courageous response to Israel’s attack on Palestinians in Gaza that, since December 27 alone, have left some 1,400 dead and 5,000 wounded — nearly all of them civilians.
This action is in the best tradition of dock workers in Denmark and Sweden (1963), the San Francisco Bay Area (1984) and Liverpool (1988), who refused to handle shipping for apartheid South Africa; Oakland dock workers’ refusal to load bombs for the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile (1978); and West Coast dock workers’ strike against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (2008).
30 Mars 2009: Journée d’action mondiale, Boycott Désinvestissement Sanctions.
En Décembre 2008, Israël a décidé de marquer le 60e anniversaire de son existence, de la même manière que lors de sa création c’est-à-dire en commettant des massacres contre le peuple palestinien. Durant les 23 jours de l’offensive, Israël a tué plus de 1300 personnes et fait plus de 5000 blessés dans la bande de Gaza.
L’ironie de l’histoire, c’est qu’Israël a précisément ciblé ces Palestiniens et Palestiniennes – et leurs descendant-e-s – qui ont été expulsés de leurs maisons, dont les terres ont été volée et qui ont été contraints de se réfugier à Gaza en 1948, qui continuent d’être opprimés depuis 1967 sous l’effet d’une occupation militaire brutale et qu’Israël tente d’affamer par le maintien d’un blocus implacable et criminel interdisant l’entrée de nourriture, de carburant et d’électricité depuis les 18 derniers mois précédant l’agression militaire. Nous ne pouvons pas attendre d’Israël élimine complètement la population de Gaza lors de sa prochaine agression. La Palestine est devenue aujourd’hui le test incontournable de notre conscience morale et de notre commune humanité.
Nous demandons donc à tous et à toutes d’unir nos ressources et d’unifier nos luttes dans une : Journée mondiale d’action en solidarité avec le peuple palestinien et de Boycott, Désinvestissement et Sanctions (BDS) contre Israël en Mars 30.
In an unprecedented action, the first following the recent Israeli war on Gaza, workers of an Egyptian Fertilizers Company in Suez protested on Saturday February 7th against the export of fertilizers to Israel.
The Fertilizers Egyptian Company is owned by Sawiris family, Naguib Sawiris ranks 62 in Forbes’ world’s richest list, while his father Onsi ranks 96 and his brother Nassif ranks 226, under the name Orascom construction company. Fertilizers Egyptian Company signed an agreement to export 1000 tons of phosphate fertilizer to Israel, at a rate of 100 tons per week. An estimated 800 Egyptians work at this factory.
La Semaine contre l’apartheid israélien est un rendez-vous annuel mettant en place différents événements dans plusieurs villes et campus partout sur la planète. Il vise à sensibiliser les gens sur la situation d’apartheid que maintient Israël à l’intérieur de ses frontières. L’organisation de cette semaine vise aussi à mettre de l’avant différentes campagnes locales de boycottage, de désinvestissement et de sanctions (BDS) contre Israël dans le cadre de la mobilisation internationale sans cesse grandissante de la campagne BDS. À Montréal, des groupes et des individus solidaires avec la situation vécue par les Palestiniens organisent neuf jours de conférences, d’ateliers et de présentation de films afin d’informer et de sensibiliser le public sur cet enjeu.
Afrique du Sud : Le syndicat des dockers renforce la campagne BDS contre l’apartheid israélien et appelle travailleurs et syndicats à amplifier le boycott
Décision ayant été prise par leur syndicat de renforcer la campagne BDS contre l’Israël de l’apartheid, les dockers de Durban, Afrique du Sud, ont annoncé leur refus de décharger des marchandises devant arriver d’Israël dimanche.
Photo: Protesting complicity of the Canadian government with Israeli military actions.
Thousands marched on the streets of Montreal throughout recent weeks to protest the Israeli military campaign in Gaza which took an estimated 1300 Palestinian lives in the Gaza Strip. Beyond Montreal protests mounted around the world from Europe, to the Middle East, to Latin America, mobilizations for Gaza that mark some of the largest Palestinian solidarity demonstrations in recent history.
Protests in Montreal in solidarity with Gaza were documented by photojournalist Darren Ell. Tadamon! features selected images from an extended visual slide-show.
As the world monitors a fragile ceasefire in Gaza across the Gaza Strip, Palestinians are slowly rebuilding after the devastating military attack, which saw the U.N. administered schools, the Islamic University of Gaza, hundreds of homes and civilian infrastructure bombed in Israeli air strikes across Gaza.
