“A kind of aggression.” “A successor to the Berlin Wall.” “A lever in the long power struggle between democratic values and fundamentalism.” “An insult to education.” “A terrorist operation.” These descriptions–by former French President Jacques Chirac; economist Jacques Attali; and philosophers Bernard-Henri Lévy, Alain Finkielkraut and André Glucksmann–do not refer to the next great menace to human civilization but rather to the Muslim woman’s headscarf, which covers the hair and neck, or, as it is known in France, the foulard islamique.

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For decades, efforts to bring about a two-state solution in historic Palestine have failed to provide justice and peace for the Palestinian and Israeli Jewish peoples, or to offer a genuine process leading towards them.

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Photo: Israeli Settlement in the West Bank

Israel’s housing ministry said yesterday it plans to build 307 new homes in a settlement in East Jerusalem, drawing swift condemnation from Palestinian officials.

Tenders were published for housing units in Har Homa, a settlement to the south-east of the city on land captured by Israel in the 1967 war and later annexed. East Jerusalem is now home to around 200,000 Jewish settlers. Most of the international community does not recognise Israel’s annexation of the east of the city.

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(Beirut, December 4, 2007) – Lebanese authorities arrest Iraqi refugees without valid visas and detain them indefinitely to coerce them to return to Iraq, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

“Iraqi refugees in Lebanon live in constant fear of arrest,” said Bill Frelick, refugee policy director for Human Rights Watch. “Refugees who are arrested face the prospect of rotting in jail indefinitely unless they agree to return to Iraq and face the dangers there.”

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A presentation given by Brian Aboud in Montreal on Wednesday, October 17th, hosted by Tadamon! Montreal & the Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG) at McGill University within the context of the campaign to challenging Hezbollah’s listing as a ’Terrorist’ Group in Canada.

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Listen to a presentation from Bilal Elamine, the former editor of Left Turn magazine concerning the role of Hezbollah as a political force in Lebanon, touching on the 2006 Israeli attack on Lebanon, the recent political crisis / turmoil in Lebanon, including the general strike of 2006 and opposition demonstrations.

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Last Tuesday’s demonstrations, which brought thousands onto the streets of Ramallah, Hebron, Tulkarem, Nablus and Gaza in defiance of the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) attempt to silence the peoples’ voice, represented a crucial moment for Palestine.

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BETHLEHEM, West Bank: Graffiti artist Banksy is trying to bring cheer and boost tourism in Bethlehem this Christmas with a series of subversive murals in the town revered as Jesus’ birthplace.

The elusive street artist has painted six provocative new images — including a dove of peace strapped with a bulletproof vest and a young girl with pigtails frisking an Israeli soldier — on buildings around the West Bank town.

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A Panel Discussion on Racism in Quebec.

Saturday, December 8th. 7pm
Center Communautaire Musulman de Montreal (CCMM)
3300 Cremazie East, corner of St. Michel
(Saint-Michel Metro)
Child Care Available.

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MONTREAL: As the hearings of the Consultation Commission on Accommodation Practices Related to Cultural Differences approach their final stage, the group ‘Rejetons l’intolérance au Québec’ (RIQ) calls on the Bouchard-Taylor Commission and Quebec society to tackle the causes of the current, biased ‘reasonable accommodation’ debate and to challenge its foundations in political opportunism.

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