Al Jazeera by Ahmed Habib, September 2009.

Photo: Satellites pointing to the sky in Toronto, Canada.

Moviegoers who were hoping for world class cinema at this week’s Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) may find themselves at the centre of a growing controversy steeped in international politics.

Considered to be one of the five most prestigious film festivals, the TIFF this year introduced the City to City programme, a new theme to its traditional programming grid, “that will explore the evolving urban experience while presenting the best documentary and fiction films from and about a selected city.”

Festival organisers say they have chosen Tel Aviv to be the focus of the inaugural edition of the programme.

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anticipating DAM’s Montreal concert we screen documentary film Slingshot Hip Hop.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17th, 2009
8pm – 10pm
Off the Hook
1021 St- Catherine west
metro Peel
Montreal, Quebec

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for immediate release – September 11th, 2009.

Photo: Wissam Nassar, MaanImages. Palestinian solidarity messages on national flag.

MONTREAL – Members of Montreal Palestine solidarity collective Tadamon! and fans of Montreal poet and singer Leonard Cohen will gather today in Montreal’s Plateau neighbourhood to call on the singer to cancel his concert in Tel Aviv planned for later this month.

By performing in Israel, Cohen is ignoring the 2005 appeal by 171 Palestinian organizations which calls on the international community to join the peaceful movement to end Israeli apartheid and occupation through the implementation of boycotts, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against the Israeli state until it complies with international law and respects Palestinian human rights.

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September 03 – 09, 2009, report Palestinian Center for Human Rights

Photo: Zoriah (c). Movements along the seafront in Gaza.

Israeli violations of international law and humanitarian law in the OPT continued during the reporting period (03 – 09 September 2009)

During the reporting period, IOF killed a Palestinian child and wounded 6 Palestinian civilian, a resistance activist and an Israeli journalist.

On 04 September 2009, IOF shot dead a Palestinian child in Beit Hanoun town in the northern Gaza Strip, as he was walking with his family towards their farm in the border area.

On 03 September 2009, a Palestinian resistance activist was wounded in fighting during an Israeli military incursion into the east of Gaza City.

On 09 September 2009, a Palestinian civilian was wounded in Beit Hanoun town, when Israeli troops positioned at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel fired at him.

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Montreal action to call on Leonard Cohen to cancel Tel Aviv concert.

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 12, 2pm
corner of St. Laurent and Marie-Anne
métro St. Laurent, bus #55
Montreal, Quebec

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Wednesday, September 9, 2009 Toronto Declaration

Photo: Matthew Cassel. Palestinian flag in Gaza winter 2009.

As members of the Canadian and international film, culture and media arts communities, we are deeply disturbed by the Toronto International Film Festival’s decision to host a celebratory spotlight on Tel Aviv. We protest that TIFF, whether intentionally or not, has become complicit in the Israeli propaganda machine.

In 2008, the Israeli government and Canadian partners Sidney Greenberg of Astral Media, David Asper of Canwest Global Communications and Joel Reitman of MIJO Corporation launched “Brand Israel,” a million dollar media and advertising campaign aimed at changing Canadian perceptions of Israel. Brand Israel would take the focus off Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and its aggressive wars, and refocus it on achievements in medicine, science and culture.

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Globe and Mail, Naomi Klein, Tuesday, September 08, 2009.

Photo: Zoriah (c). Palestinian building in Gaza destroyed by Israeli bombs.

When I heard the Toronto International Film Festival was holding a celebratory “spotlight” on Tel Aviv I felt ashamed of my city. I thought immediately of Mona Al Shawa, a Palestinian women’s-rights activist I met on a recent trip to Gaza. “We had more hope during the attacks,” she told me, “at least then we believed things would change.”

Ms. Al Shawa explained that while Israeli bombs rained down last December and January, Gazans were glued to their TVs. What they saw, in addition to the carnage, was a world rising up in outrage: global protests, as many as a hundred thousand on the streets of London, a group of Jewish women in Toronto occupying the Israeli Consulate. “People called it war crimes,” Ms. Al Shawa recalled. “We felt we were not alone in the world.” If Gazans could just survive them, it seemed these horrors would be the catalyst for change.

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Harper’s Magazine, by Naomi Klein, September 2009.

Photo: Zoriah (c). Crack in wall in south Beirut, Lebanon.

When I arrived at the grand offices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, at the Palais Wilson, looking out at a drizzly Lake Geneva, Navanethem Pillay was hunched over the shoulder of her deputy, Kyung-wha Kang, dictating a press release. “I am shocked and deeply disappointed,” I heard her say, pointing at the screen while Kang typed. It was 3:00 p.m., and Pillay was having a very bad day.

“Done,” she finally declared, plopping down at her conference table. The press release was a response to some disappointing news. The previous night, the United States, under the leadership of its first African-American president, had announced that it would boycott the United Nations Durban Review Conference on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, citing its alleged anti-Israel bias. The conference was to start the following day, April 20, 2009, with Pillay presiding. Known by critics as “Durban II,” this was the only United Nations gathering specifically focused on pushing governments to combat racism inside their borders, a task that had become increasingly urgent as financial crises continued to stoke ethnic tensions around the world.

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Report International Solidarity Movement, 4 September 2009:

Photo: Israeli military undermining press freedom in Palestine.

Israeli forces shoot Israeli and Palestinian demonstrator with live ammunition in the West Bank village of Ni’lin.

Palestinian residents, alongside Israeli and international supporters, have been demonstrating today since 12:30pm.

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Report, August 2009 Defense for Children International.

Photo: Palestinian child in the Gaza Strip.

On 14 August 2009, Hamdi al-Ta’mari (UA 1/09) was issued with his fourth administrative detention order by the Israeli military commander in the West Bank. This latest order was issued for a duration of four months. The order was reviewed by an Israeli military court on 20 August 2009, which confirmed the order.

On the same day, Hamdi turned 17.

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