The Link Newspaper by Justin Giovannetti — November 2, 2010

Photo Palestinians line-up at Israeli military check point in occupied Palestine.

Ramallah, Palestine — “No pictures,” yelled the Palestinian driver as he guided his bus through precariously thick traffic towards the Qalandia Checkpoint.

While the driver admitted that the Israeli Defense Force probably wouldn’t shoot at a foreigner taking pictures, the use of deadly force is authorized at Qalandia. Israel’s 600 other checkpoints scattered across the West Bank operate in a similar manner. Palestinians are reminded of that fact regularly.

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by Isabelle Saint-Mézard Le Monde diplomatique

Photo Kashmir youth battles against Indian military forces.

India and Israel were born (in 1947 and 1948) through long and violent partition processes, from the ruins of the British empire. Both were caught up in inextricable armed conflicts. Yet this did not make for any particular affinity between the countries: rather the reverse.

From the 1920s onwards, the leaders of India’s nationalist movement sided with the Palestinian Arabs against British imperialism, opposing the Zionist aim of establishing a Jewish state. India voted against the partition of Palestine at the UN General Assembly of 1947, and only recognised Israel in 1950. Until the 1980s it formed a bloc with the Arab countries at the UN and within the Non-aligned Movement, in defence of the Palestinian people’s right to a sovereign state.

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PACBI November 2010 response to Nobel laureates’ attack on Israel academic boycott

Photo Israeli apartheid wall cutting through occupied Palestinian West Bank lands.

Once again, the specter of the suppression of academic freedom has been invoked in what is now becoming an organized campaign to counter the growing global movement for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) of Israel, and the academic and cultural boycott in particular. This time, a number of American, European, and Israeli Nobel laureates have been enlisted in the campaign, in the hope that their plea to defend “academic freedom” will stem the tide of this ever-expanding movement.

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Independent Jewish Voices Media Advisory Nov. 5, 2010

Photo Cracks in the the Conservative wall.

Independent Jewish Voices will hold press conference on Monday in Ottawa, releasing a video to the media and Members of Parliament which challenges the Harper government’s mounting attacks on free speech.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and the Harper government are sponsoring an international conference in Ottawa on November 8 and 9 of the ‘Inter-Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Anti-Semitism’ (ICCA), following hearings earlier this year of the ICCA’s local counterpart – the ‘Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Antisemitism’ (CPCCA).

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EPACBI statement launch Paris 26 September 2010

Photo Israeli apartheid wall cutting through Palestine.

This declaration announces the establishment of a common European platform for the academic and cultural boycott of Israel. The national, regional and local organisations and movements adhering to this platform:

* Accept and promote the boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions and divestment from companies that contribute to Israel’s grave violations of international law and human rights;

* Support the call of Palestinian civil society for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) and accept the guidelines on its implementation issued by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) through the Palestine Boycott National Committee (BNC).

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by Rami G. Khouri Daily Star Saturday, November 06, 2010

Photo Matthew Cassel A boy holds his backpack found in the rubble of his family’s home in Jabaliya, which was destroyed by Israel.

We can learn much from the Israeli government’s decision this week to suspend a special strategic dialog with the United Kingdom because of concerns that Israeli officials could be arrested and indicted with crimes against humanity in the UK, according to a British law that provides for “universal jurisdiction” in such cases, i.e., a suspect of any country can be charged, detained and tried in a British court even if the alleged crimes occurred in a third country and did not include British citizens among the victims. Israel’s Kadima Party leader Tzipi Livni recently cancelled a trip to London as did Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor this week, because he was advised that he risked being arrested.

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Cinema Politica | Tadamon! co-presentation | photo Matthew Cassel Just Image

Monday November 15, 2010
screening begins 19h00
free! donations welcome
Room H-110
Concordia University
1455 de Maisonneuve West

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Richard Falk, Electronic Intifada 5 November 2010

Photo Wolf Bonpiedbonoeil Israeli apartheid wall in Palestine.

The following is an oral presentation made by Richard Falk, Special Rapporteur on the Situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territories occupied since 1967, to the United Nations General Assembly on 20 October 2010:

As this is my last report to the General Assembly in my term as Special Rapporteur on the Situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 it seems appropriate to describe some of the special difficulties that have faced the mandate-holder in discharging the functions of the position. The most salient of these difficulties involves the non-cooperation of the Government of Israel. Israel has refused to fulfill its obligations as a member of the United Nations by its repeated failures to allow the special rapporteur to enter Israel so as to visit periodically the occupied territories of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza ever since his expulsion on 14 December 2008 from Ben Gurion Airport when attempting to enter the country. This level of non-cooperation greatly exceeds that associated with the efforts of my predecessor, the distinguished South African international lawyer John Dugard who was allowed to enter Israel for purposes of the mandate, but denied access to Israeli political and military officials charged with administering the occupation. It should be pointed out that this record of non-cooperation was extended to such related important UN undertakings, including the “Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict,” widely known as the Goldstone report, and more recently in relation to the fact-finding panel appointed by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to investigate the allegations surrounding the flotilla incident of 31 May 2010. In each of these instances Israel reinforced this posture of non-cooperation by engaging in a politics of deflection, defaming the messenger and the auspices rather than contesting and responding to the findings and recommendations of the reports.

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PACBI statement | 2/11/2010

Photo Palestinian flag flies proudly over Ireland hills.

With the 29 September 2010 decision by the Senate of the University of Johannesburg “not to continue a long-standing relationship with Ben Gurion University (BGU) in Israel in its present form” and to set conditions “for the relationship to continue,” a new campaign for the academic boycott of Israel was born at the southern tip of the African continent.[1] Almost in tandem, on 11 October, at the northern tip of the European continent, a fresh academic and cultural boycott was announced in Oslo, endorsed by 100 leading Norwegian figures in the academy, culture and sports.[2]

Two weeks earlier, the European Platform for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (EPACBI) was established, after a successful meeting in Paris of 50 representatives of academic boycott campaigns from 9 European countries and a PACBI representative. The meeting was called at the initiative of the French campaign, AURDIP (Association des Universitaires pour le Respect du Droit International en Palestine), and BRICUP (British Committee for the Universities of Palestine).

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Ezra Winton founder Cinema Politica @ Quebec BDS conference Montreal Oct 2010

Photo Ariel view on Israeli apartheid wall cutting though Palestinian lands.

As someone working in the media arts sector, I signed the 500 artist BDS letter along with Cinema Politica’s Executive Director Svetla Turnin. We signed because it was a tangible action that connected art to the resistance against oppression.

We also signed because we feel that too often artists and those working in the arts who are privately critical of Israel take two paths around the issue of Palestine’s occupation: Ignore it all together in their work and their public life, or adopt a liberal stance that argues it is not the role of art to intervene in such matters.

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