Beirut, Lebanon, August, 2009 Menassat.

Photo: Markus Moning. Reading the newspaper at La Grande Arche, La Défense, Paris.

BEIRUT—On Tuesday, on the third anniversary of al-Akhbar, the Lebanese daily signed a partnership with the Arabic version of Le Monde Diplomatique, a major international newspapers that has more than 70 foreign editions in 25 languages.

At a conference at the Holiday Inn Hotel in Verdun, Beirut, attended by journalists, media persons, and politicians, it was announced that the partnership gives al-Akhbar the exclusive right to distribute a monthly issue of the Arabic language Le Monde Diplomatique in Lebanon and Syria.

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International Solidarity Movement, August 20, 2009.

Photo: Valerian Mazataud. Palestinian community activist Abu Nizar.

20 August 2009: Once again the night in Bil’in was disrupted by a raid ending with the arrest of one the members of the Village’s Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements. This occurred the night after the childrens demonstration where the children had chanted slogans like “We want to sleep,” “Stop the night raids”.

The house of Bil’in Popular Committee member and vice president of the Bil’in village council, Mohammad Abu Rahma, (age 50), known by his friends as Abu Nizar, was raided shortly before 2am on Thursday morning. About 25 soldiers with their faces painted in black had come to the village on foot.

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Globe and Mail by Paul Koring, Friday August 20th.

Photo: Zoriah (c). Palestinian handles necklace at Israeli checkpoint.

A tough Israeli crackdown that discriminates against some American citizens because they are of Palestinian origin has been sharply protested by the Obama administration, but the same treatment curtailing freedom of movement for Canadian citizens has produced no response from the Harper government.

Border guards at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport have been barring entry to arriving Canadian and American citizens with Palestinian-sounding names. They are told they must make a long detour and enter via the Allenby Bridge land-border crossing that connects the West Bank with Jordan. On arrival there, their passports are stamped “Palestinian Authority only” – preventing them from entering Israel, including the annexed parts of East Jerusalem.

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Al-Ahram by Mustafa Barghouthi, August 2009.

Photo: Palestinian children walking in the West Bank.

Palestinians have only two choices before them, either to continue to evade the struggle, as some have been trying to do, or to summon the collective national resolve to engage in it.

The latter option does not necessarily entail a call to arms. Clearly Israel has the overwhelming advantage in this respect in both conventional and unconventional (nuclear) weapons. Just as obviously, neighbouring Arab countries have neither the will nor ability to go the military route. However, the inability to wage war does not automatically mean surrender and eschewing other means to wage struggle.

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17 August 2009.

Tadamon! collective responds to Montreal Gazette.

Peggy Curran’s article entitled “Activist group stirs up storm” (August 14, page A6) is filled with inaccuracies and misrepresentations, some of which bear directly on the Montreal social-justice collective Tadamon!. For the record, we would like to identify and correct some of these inaccuracies and misrepresentations.

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Haartez Tue., August 11, 2009, by Dana Weiler-Polak.

Photo: Hussein Alazaat. Skyline over Amman, Jordan.

If the term “sweatshop” used to be associated with Asian countries and global brands such as Nike, now such methods of production by exploiting workers have made aliyah. Two Israeli entrepreneurs run a sweatshop in Jordan that produces clothes for leading Israeli brands such as Irit, Bonita, Jump and Pashut, Haaretz has learned.

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Doug Smith, Electronic Intifada, 17 July 2009

Photo: Israel’s apartheid wall in occupied Palestine.

For the first time since the 2005 Palestinian civil society call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against institutions supporting Israeli apartheid, students from North America and Palestine came together in Ramallah to share their ideas and experiences. Consisting of eight days of travel and a four-day workshop, the North American student delegation spent their two weeks getting connected with the struggle in Palestine in order to better articulate the BDS movement in their respective cities. The visiting students met face to face with those who are living and resisting the systematic oppression of Palestinians by the state of Israel.

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action urgente en solidarité avec Mohammad Khatib de Bil’in
et tou(te)s les prisonnièr(e)s politiques palestinien(ne)s

vendredi, le 14 août à 12h00
devant la librairie Indigo
au coin de Ste-Catherine & McGill college
(métro McGill)
Montréal, Canada

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video report on Bil’in weekly demonstration Friday, August 7th, 2009

Photo: ActiveStills. Palestinian in Bil’in overwhelmed by Israeli teargas.

Bil’in, Palestine continues to maintain weekly protests against Israel’s apartheid wall, demonstrations which have attracted international attention. Israel’s apartheid wall annexes large parts of Bil’in village lands, essential lands for the small agricultural village in the West Bank. In recent weeks Israeli military forces have been carrying out night-time raids on Bil’in, targeting key Palestinian community activists for arrest, including Mohammad Khatib of Bil’in’s Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements

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photos by Darren Ell, Scott Weinstein, Valerian Mazataud.

Photo: Scott Weinstein: Solidarity rally for Bil’in in Montreal

A protest in solidarity with Bil’in, Palestine took to the street in downtown Montreal on Friday, August 7th, to denounce the ongoing night-time raids on Bil’in and string of arrests by the Israeli military targeting Palestinian community activists. Israeli military forces have been launching night incursions into the village throughout recent weeks and targeting the homes of members of Bil’in’s Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements.

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