Three racist, discriminatory decisions undermine Israel’s democratic character…

One of the clearest rules that distinguishes a democratic state from a non-democratic state is the principle of equality when it comes to rights and obligations. In a democratic country, all citizens regardless of race, religious, gender or origin are entitled to equality when it comes to national assets, services and resources, and all citizens regardless of race, religion, gender or origin are equally obligated by national duties.

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BEIRUT: An empty lot in Dahiyeh, Beirut’s southern suburbs and a Hizbullah stronghold, has been converted into an open-air exhibition in remembrance of last summer’s war with Israel.

Spider Web, as the exhibit is titled, serves as a stark reminder of the scale of death, destruction and the breadth of military engagement of the conflict.

“The idea behind this project was conceived by a group of artists and media people in commemoration of the war last summer. The exhibition embodies a panoramic story of the war told in an artistic way,” says Ali Daher, who supervised the project.

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Join us on Saturday, 28 July to remember the second Qana massacre in 2006, and to support the growing boycott against Israeli apartheid.

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Le 20 juillet, dans les colonnes du Devoir, M. Attali, consul général d’Israël à Montréal, pose la question suivante: «Quel est le point commun entre les nombreuses turbulences que traverse le Moyen-Orient actuellement, qu’il s’agisse de la prise de contrôle de la bande de Gaza par le Hamas, de la lutte pour le pouvoir du Hezbollah au Liban, de l’agitation qui secoue l’Irak ou de l’acquisition prochaine de l’arme nucléaire par une dictature radicale? La réponse est l’Iran.» En réalité, cette réponse serait plutôt: les États-Unis. Lorsqu’on connaît les projets américains de «nouveau Moyen-Orient», agiter la «menace iranienne» constitue une stratégie de diversion qui ne résiste pas à l’examen des faits.

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Listen to an interview with Khaled Mouammar, of the Canadian Arab Federation (CAF) on the recent decision of the Conservative government of Canada to re-institute limited funding toward the Palestinian Authority (PA). On Monday, July 23rd, Canada’s Forgein Minister Peter MacKay announced that the Canadian government would pledge a limited $8 million to the fragile P.A.

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The battle between the Lebanese Army and Fatah al-Islam inside the Nahr al-Bared camp has lasted 40 days so far, resulting in huge destruction and displacing 30,000 people to the other camps. In Ein al-Hilweh, many arguments lead to clashes between armed young men. Some other camps are besieged in an attempt to control human and arms flows to the camps.

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The Lebanese army and internal security forces have arbitrarily detained and physically abused some Palestinian men fleeing the fighting in Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, Human Rights Watch said today.

Since Sunday, more than 340 civilians have fled the camp in northern Lebanon, where fighting between the Lebanese army and the armed group Fatah al-Islam has entered its fourth week. The Lebanese army is interrogating many of the men as they leave the camp, and detaining those suspected of supporting or having information about Fatah al-Islam.

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Every day the Knesset has the option of passing laws that will advance Israel as a democratic Jewish state or turn it into a racist Jewish state. There is a very thin line between the two. This week, the line was crossed. If the Knesset legal counselor did not consider the bill entitled “the Jewish National Fund Law” as sufficiently racist to keep it off the agenda, it is hard to imagine what legislation she will consider racist.

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Last fall, shortly after I returned from Nigeria, I was accosted by a perky blond college student whose blue eyes seemed to match the “African” beads around her wrists.

“Save Darfur!” she shouted from behind a table covered with pamphlets urging students to Take Action Now! Stop Genocide In Darfur!

My aversion to college kids jumping onto fashionable social causes nearly caused me to walk on, but her next shout stopped me.

“Don’t you want to help us save Africa?” she yelled.

It seems that these days, wracked by guilt at the humanitarian crisis it has created in the Middle East, the West has turned to Africa for redemption. Idealistic college students, celebrities such as Bob Geldof and politicians such as Tony Blair have all made bringing light to the dark continent their mission. They fly in for internships and fact-finding missions or to pick out children to adopt in much the same way my friends and I in New York take the subway to the pound to adopt stray dogs.

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Alex Selim, The Daily Star Thursday, July 19, 2007

Photo, Lens on Lebanon: Amani Bzei in the village of Zibquine, with Eric Gottesman.

Project empowers members of hardest-hit communities to express their own stories and opinions about conflict through photographs and videos…

BEIRUT: Last summer’s war with Israel drew the world’s attention, once again, to Lebanon in a state of siege. During the 34 days of bombardment, most of the stories and images about the war came filtered through the mainstream media. Some journalists and photographers for both domestic and international press outlets reported their stories with a tinge of their own or their employer’s political bias. Lost in such coverage was the perspective of private citizens who lived through the upheaval.

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