by Abbas Al Lawati, Gulf News November 2009

Photo: Piax. Dubai skyline from airplane.

Dubai: A pressure campaign targeted at Gulf states was launched in Occupied Jerusalem on Monday by a coalition of 170 Palestinian organisations urging Arab states to boycott companies complicit in Israel’s expansion in the holy city.

In a rare public pressure campaign, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement in Palestine, a grouping of Palestinian civil society organisations, has turned its focus on the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which is preparing to build a multi-billion dollar railway to link its six members.

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Marryam Haleem, Gaza Strip, Electronic Intifada November 2009

Photo: Rusty Stewart Palestinian children crossing road to school by Israeli tank

“That was the happiest day of my life,” Ahmad explained, “I was freed that day.”

“Come on,” I laughed as we walked down the dusty Gaza street, the Mediterranean sun beating down hard on our faces. “It couldn’t have been that bad. I mean, we all dislike school to some degree, but it has its nice things too.”

His grave eyes looked wholly unconvinced. “The day I graduated from university was the best day of my life,” he firmly repeated. And then he added, more to himself than to me, “I wish I could erase all my memories of my time in school.”

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Press Release – 25 November 2009

Photo: Palestinian flag at a solidarity demonstration in London.

In reaction to reports alleging that a Palestinian trade union official has stated his reservations about the Palestinian civil society campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), the full spectrum of the Palestinian trade union movement has expressed solid support for the BDS National Committee (BNC)* and for the global BDS campaign against Israel as an effective form of resisting its military occupation, war crimes and apartheid policies.

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Ctrl.Alt.Shift interview by Jody McIntyre 16/11/09

Photo: Valerian Mazataud Palestinians continue to protest in Bil’in against all odds.

Earlier this year, Khamis Fathe Abu Rahmah, aged 27, was shot in the head with a high-velocity tear gas canister whilst participating in a non-violent demonstration at the wall in Bil’in, a Palestinian village. It was the same weapon the Israeli Occupation Forces would use to murder his close friend Bassem Abu Rahme, in the same village, just a few months later. Jody McIntyre spoke to Khamis to hear about his experiences…

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A lecture by Huwaida Araff and Adam Shapiro.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009
19h30 – 22h
Concordia University
Pavillon Hall Building
Room/Local H-767
1455 De Maisonneuve O
Montreal, Quebec

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An interview with author Ben White by Stefan Christoff.

Photo: ActiveStills Palestinian held at Israeli military check-point during Ramadan.

Public discourse towards the Palestine-Israel conflict has shifted. More and more, we hear the word “apartheid” associated with discussions concerning Israeli policy towards the Palestinian people. Such an analysis of apartheid makes connections between the contemporary conflict in the Middle East and the apartheid era in South Africa. It is, in part, this political tie that has mobilized grassroots networks globally in solidarity with Palestine.

U.K.-based author Ben White, author of Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner’s Guide, has just topped off a cross-country tour of major Canadian universities where he has lectured on Israeli Apartheid.

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Fred Moten | PACBI | 7 November 2009

Photo: Palestinian stands in Gaza Strip grave after Israeli military bombing.

1. The justification of the boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions is quite simple and quite clear: the victims of a sovereign brutality instantiated in racial-military domination have come to an overwhelming consensus, in the very shadow of the state that has come to exemplify The State and its exception, that boycott is the most immediate form of international support they require. To be in solidarity with the Palestinian people is to enact and support the boycott. However, the significance of the boycott is a slightly more complicated matter. Arguments against the boycott that go beyond the rejection of whatever form either of criticism of Israel or Palestinian resistance or the sometimes open/sometimes veiled assertion of an assumed Israeli exception and exemption, focus on the negative impact the presumed isolation and withdrawal of support for Israeli dissidents will have, already a morally obtuse argument insofar as it shifts our primary political and ethical concerns away from the actual victims of racial-military domination.

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Haaretz 06/11/2009

Photo: City Hall at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv.

Israel dismally fails the requirements of a tolerant pluralistic society, according to a new report from the U.S. State Department.

Despite boasting religious freedom and protection of all holy sites, Israel falls short in tolerance toward minorities, equal treatment of ethnic groups, openness toward various streams within society, and respect for holy and other sites.

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November 14, 2009 Faster Times Interview with Palestinian Author Ghada Karmi

Photo: Larry Towell Palestinian women in occupied Palestine.

Ghada Karmi is a Palestinian physician and author based in London. Since her autobiography In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story was first published in 2002 by Verso Books, it has been translated into forty languages. The late Edward Said described the memoir as “…the story of a fascinating woman…humanly rich and interesting.” On a speaking tour throughout the US to promote the newly-released second edition of In Search for Fatima, Mrs. Karmi visited Columbia University at the behest of an Arab cultural group, Turath. While there, she sat down with TFT associate editor Aseel Najib to discuss her wok.

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Hebrew University Student Union: Build Wall between the university and Issawiya

Photo: Masser Israeli apartheid wall in occupied Palestine.

According to the Jerusalem online newspaper Mynet, Hebrew University’s Student Union Chairperson, Ofer Raviv, recently recommended that a Separation Wall between the university’s Mount Scopus campus and the nearby Palestinian village of Issawiya be constructed.

Hebrew University officials suggested that such a wall could be financed by the parking meters located on Mount Scopus and the Jerusalem Municipality has agreed to examine this possibility. If implemented, this would be just one more action in Hebrew University’s long tradition of documented institutional participation in the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, this time at the instigation of its official student body.

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