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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Beirut: “I was in Cairo for my first Egyptian concert,” Rima Khcheich smiles. “I was preparing an Umm Kalthoum song, a dour [a classical vocal form without improvisation] called ‘Dour Emta al-Hawa.’ Two days before the concert I met [iconic Egyptian composer] Fouad Abdel Majid. The rehearsals were difficult and I was very tired but they asked me to sing his song ‘Foutina al-Lathi.’ They recorded it on a little cassette tape recorder.”

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BEIRUT: The peoples of Lebanon and Palestine have an ambivalent relationship. In the years since the terms “Lebanon” and “Palestine” were assigned their 20th-century political meanings, they have accumulated meaning, just as the experiences of their citizens have diverged.

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Tuesday, July 1st, 9pm, 2008
in the lot beside l’Insoumise
2035 St-Laurent
(between Ontario and Sherbrooke)
metro St-Laurent

Join us for a double-bill of fabulous documentary films under the moon in downtown Montreal. Tadamon! will be presenting two excellent films reflecting on struggles against land theft and colonization in Palestine and Turtle Island. Presented as part of the mobilization for the demonstration “400 years of colonialism and militarism: nothing to celebrate!” in Quebec City on July 3rd.

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Photo: Maan Images. Palestinians in Gaza take cover during clashes with Israeli troops during demonstrations marking 60 years of Palestinian dispossession from their homeland. May 15th 2008.

“The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet but not to make them die of hunger,” said Dov Weissglas, Sharon’s closest advisor, a few years ago. Today, Israel is slowly choking occupied Gaza, indeed bringing its civilian population to the brink of starvation and a planned humanitarian catastrophe.

If the US government is an obvious accomplice in financing, justifying and covering up Israel’s occupation and other forms of oppression, the European Union, Israel’s largest trade partner in the world, is not any less complicit in perpetuating Israel’s colonial oppression and special form of apartheid.

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Photo essay from Carole Kerbage.

Beirut May 10th 2008: Barbour district Beirut witnessed harsh armed battles.

As Lebanon’s political crisis moves to a temporary negotiated solution, tensions remain high after intense street level clashes in recent weeks between pro-government forces and the Hezbollah-backed opposition. Street barricades struck across Lebanon’s capital city have now been removed, as Lebanese political leaders return to Beirut after arriving at an agreement in Doha, Qatar.

This photo essay documents recent events in Beirut’s, featuring images captured at street level within recent weeks. Lebanon’s current political struggle extends back to an intense national political history, in a nation still recovering from a 2006 Israeli bombardment that left over 1000 Lebanese civilians dead and major elements to the countries national infrastructure destroyed. Lebanese photographer Carole Kerbage has documented Beirut’s streets in the past week and now features photographs from Beirut on Tadamon!

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Ahdaf Soueif discusses her work in advance of Beirut lecture…

Daily Star. by Laura Wilkinson. Friday, May 23, 2008. Photo: Palestinian boy in Gaza.

Giant sculptures of keys, 21,915 black balloons and wailing sirens – so far, commemorations of the 60th anniversary of the Nakba (the Palestinian Catastrophe) have unfolded across the region in the form of protest, art, dance and now – with the efforts of author, journalist and translator, Ahdaf Soueif – literature.

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