The Israeli army on Wednesday invaded both the city of Nablus, in the northern West Bank, and the village of Beit Ummer, located near the city of Hebron in the southern West Bank. In total, at least 85 Palestinian civilians were abducted by the invading military.

Israeli troops stormed the village of Beit Ummar at around 1:00 am on Wednesday. Troops searched and ransacked scores of homes, with local sources stating that the army placed the village under curfew, not allowing families to leave their homes.

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Condemnation of a virtual blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip by Israel since last June reverberated loudly yesterday along Montreal’s prime downtown shopping strip.

A vocal 90-minute march by more than 230 demonstrators – punctuated with such chants as: “Israel is criminal, Canada is complicit” – broke the weekend-afternoon tranquility of Ste. Catherine St. W.

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SUNDAY, FEBRUARY, 17th, 8pm
O Patro Vys
356 Mont-Royal east
(mount royal metro)
suggested donation: 7-15$

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On 7 February 2008, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) killed seven Palestinians, raising the number of victims from its military attacks to seventeen persons since the beginning of this month, and 96 persons since the beginning of 2008 in the Gaza Strip. The IOF launched seven attacks in different parts of the Gaza Strip since last night, of which the most affected areas were Khan Younis, al-Nuseirat, and other areas in northern Gaza.

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“His very name scatters fire through ice,” wrote Byron of an 18th-century revolutionary leader, and so it has always been with the name of that extraordinary Palestinian George Habash. For those in anti-colonial movements across the world who learned and trained under him, his name embodies that inextinguishable human demand for justice and freedom. His exhilarating emancipatory model of resistance to injustice, his radical optimism and, above all, his tight political organization scorched the consciousness of young people across the Arab world, mobilized masses and inspired a huge wave of talented artists and intellectuals.

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occurring within the context of the international Israeli Apartheid Week.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 9th, 12:30
Maisonneuve & Mackay
(metro Guy-Concordia)
Montreal, Quebec

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Whenever he stands at his front door, or looks out of an upstairs window, Jamal Swailem can clearly see Erez Crossing. His house lies just 400 metres from Erez, close enough for him to see pedestrians walking through the crossing into Gaza; and also close enough for the Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) to see every move the Swailem family make.

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An angry debate was reignited in the Guardian last summer over calls for an academic boycott of Israeli universities by British ones. The United Kingdom’s University and College Union recommended boycotting Israeli academics’ “complicity” in their government’s occupation of Palestine. The act hearkens back to the 1965 academic boycott of apartheid South Africa, which the union considered instrumental in ending state-sponsored segregation.

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Qualified as a “war crime” by Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa and illegal “collective punishment” by the European Union and international agencies, the humanitarian and political crisis created by Israel’s five-day hermetic seal on Gaza is taking a toll not only on the 1.5 million inhabitants of the impoverished coastal strip. Damaged “beyond repair”, according to several Palestinians speaking to Al-Ahram Weekly from Rafah, is the image of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is being widely blamed for “turning a blind eye to the misery of his own people in Gaza” while continuing to engage in talks with Israel on peace.

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ZAWTAR WEST, 22 January: Deminers clearing Israeli-dropped cluster bombs in south Lebanon are turning up an average of 10 new sites per month, while Israel continues to ignore requests for data that would assist clearing the estimated one million unexploded bomblets, which continue to kill and maim civilians and decimate rural livelihoods. A single cluster bomb can disperse hundreds of bomblets.

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