Call to support the first major student union in Quebec or Canada to back
the international campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions on Israel…

Montreal May 2008: Across the world grassroots movements struggling in opposition to Israeli apartheid are marking the 60th year of the Palestinian Nakba (”catastrophe”) – 60 years of dispossession, ethnic cleansing and exile for Palestinians resulting from the creation of the state of Israel.

A grassroots response in opposition to Israeli apartheid is growing throughout the world sparked by an appeal launched by Palestinian civil-society organizations in 2005 for an international campaign directed at the government in Israel, a campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions. This critical campaign is modeled on a successful international campaign similar in nature that played a critical role in bringing an end to the apartheid regime in South Africa.

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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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Graffiti for Future Movement, founded by the assassinated Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

In May 2008 the streets in Beirut and throughout Lebanon witnessed military clashes between armed forces backing the Lebanese opposition lead by Hezbollah and the former Lebanese government supported by Saudi Arabia and the U.S. In May the walls on the streets of Beirut expressed the level of political split of Lebanon.

Street level graffiti is now common throughout Lebanon’s capital as rival political forces take their political struggle to the city walls in Beirut. This photo essay from Farah Kobaissy documents the writing on Beirut’s walls, featuring images captured at street level within recent weeks.

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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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What connections can be drawn between the waves of student and popular protest that swept the world in 1968? Amina Elbendary asks Hossam Issa, an Egyptian student in Paris in May 1968…

May 1968 was an exceptional moment in world history, but like moments of protest before and since it had its roots in events long before and its echoes have continued to reverberate long afterwards. In addition to the revolt in Paris in May, 1968 also saw protests in other parts of the world, including Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Mexico, Pakistan and the US. The ongoing war in Vietnam and continuing racial tensions led to student demonstrations in the latter country, notably at Columbia University in New York and at Berkeley in California.

In Egypt’s case, the 1968 events came at a time when the state was already under pressure from failing development goals, and it had resorted to coercive measures in the years leading up to the 1967 defeat. However, popular protest against the regime had been growing since the mid 1960s, and, as Hossam Issa, Professor of Law at Ain Shams University in Cairo recalls, confrontation between students and the authorities had already taken place in summer 1966 when postgraduate students on state-funded study abroad were summoned home to discuss their criticisms of the government with the then president, Gamal Abdel-Nasser.

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With the Palestine Investment Conference (PIC) beginning tomorrow in Bethlehem and the celebrated reforms and development projects proposed last year by the Fayyad government, understanding development in Palestine is more important than ever. Both the PIC and the Fayyad development programs have already elicited severe criticism from Palestinian civil society, political opposition and local communities. Development or Normalisation? is the first report that examines in detail the economic and political implications of the most recent development schemes and the role international institutions have in shaping the development programme of the Fayyad government.

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Photo: Beirut from above.

A Tadamon! interview project aiming to highlight progressive voices from the ground in Lebanon on the ongoing conflict, voices independent from major political parties…

An interview with Nada Bakri, correspondent for the New York Times in Lebanon, who comments on the recent political deal reached in Doha, Qatar resulting in an official end to the recent political crisis in Lebanon. As Lebanese leaders have agreed on a power sharing agreement, people on the streets in Beirut remain skeptical that the recent agreement will result in long term stability as it reinforces the sectarian nature of Lebanese politics.

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Geneva: The economic and social situation of workers in the occupied Palestinian territories has deteriorated alarmingly, with the Gaza Strip the most severely affected, according to an International Labor Organization report published Thursday.

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In May 1968, student protests in Paris challenged the foundations of the social order in the heart of the industrially advanced West. Al-Ahram Weekly investigates what remains of the wave of student activism that swept the world 40 years ago and recalls events at the time in Egypt…

On 20 February 1968, and while Cairo University students were preparing for a general meeting the following day to discuss the political situation following the June 1967 defeat of the Egyptian army at the hands of the Israelis, news of the lenient court sentences handed down to Air Force commanders for their role in the defeat triggered a wave of angry protests that reverberated across the country.

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Adam Hanieh. Socialist Project: the Bullet.

In July 2005, over 170 Palestinian organizations urged the world to adopt a campaign of boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel in the manner of South Africa Apartheid. This call was signed by all the main Palestinian trade union federations, as well as refugee, women and student organizations from across Palestine and the Arab world. It represented the broadest political statement in Palestinian history, precipitating a powerful global solidarity campaign that has grown dramatically over the last few years.

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