download report by Richard Lightbown June 2010

Photo Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a visit to an Israeli navy base.

An international flotilla comprising the cruise ship Mavi Marmara, a cargo ship and four smaller craft sailing to Gaza with humanitarian aid was attacked in international waters by a large Israeli naval force on 31 May 2010. Nine passengers were killed and many injured by live fire. The legality of the raid is considered according the San Remo Manual and the Fourth Geneva Convention. The report concludes that the International Committee of the Red Cross declaration of a ‘dire situation’ in the Gaza Strip renders the raid unlawful.

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Sarah Irving, Electronic Intifada 7 July 2010

Photo Palestinian woman in Gaza cleans dishes.

For the last year Mark Buttle has been the coordinator for the “WASH cluster,” the group of aid organizations working on water, sanitation and hygiene in the Gaza Strip. A chartered water engineer, Buttle has worked for a development-oriented nongovernmental organization (NGO) for more than a decade, including in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and has been based in Gaza since May 2009. He spoke to The Electronic Intifada contributor Sarah Irving about the challenges faced by international agencies working in Gaza.

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Amy Darwish, Electronic Intifada 1 July 2010

Photo ActiveStills Palestinians drive a flag covered truck in Bil’in.

On 30 June an Israeli military prosecutor demanded two years’ imprisonment for grassroots activist Adeeb Abu Rahmah, at a military court hearing at the Ofer Military Complex in the occupied West Bank. Abu Rahmah has already spent 11 months behind bars and his arrest and detention is part of Israel’s repressive efforts to criminalize the grassroots popular resistance to the Israeli occupation.

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Celebrating 5 yrs since the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions!

Friday, July 9, 2010
12pm – 5:30pm
Indigo Bookstore
1500 McGill College, corner Ste-Catherine
Métro McGill
Montreal, QC

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Center for Constitutional Rights, July 1, 2010, Washington, D.C.

Photo Palestinian boats gather at Gaza coast-line awaiting for the freedom flotilla

Yesterday, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed eight Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests regarding the United States government’s knowledge of, and actions in relation to, the May 31, 2010 attack by Israel on a flotilla of six vessels in international waters seeking to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, and U.S. policy towards the blockade of Gaza, which has entered its fourth year. The FOIA requests were made to a number of U.S. departments and agencies, including the Coast Guard, the Department of State, the Navy and the U.S. European Command.

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Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem, guardian.co.uk Thursday 1 July 2010

Photo Dome of the Rock at Al Aqsa mosque compound under open sky in Palestine.

A 29-year-old lawyer from Gaza has launched a legal challenge against Israel’s refusal to allow her to travel to the West Bank to study human rights and democracy.

Fatima Sharif must register for her masters degree at Birzeit University near Ramallah in two weeks’ time or she will lose her place.

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Toronto Star Jonathan Power Wed Jun 02 2010

Photo Activist arrested on a Gaza-bound ship held as prisoner on Israeli military bus.

The unprovoked and murderous Israeli commando attack on the peace flotilla is the Selma of the Arab-Jewish struggle for the land of Palestine.

Selma, a small town in Alabama, was where Martin Luther King based his campaign to win voting rights for disenfranchised blacks. Attempting to march to the state capital, Montgomery, the marchers were set upon by baton-wielding police as they tried to cross Pettus Bridge.

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Jasbir Puar guardian.co.uk Thursday 1 July 2010

Photo: Israeli queer couple kisses during a Gay Pride rally in Jerusalem.

Israel’s recent attack on a flotilla delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza, killing at least nine people, suggests a growing indifference of the Israeli government to global condemnation of its Palestine policies. Yet at the same time Israel appears to be actively concerned to shape itself as a benign and even progressive democracy.

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Ben White guardian.co.uk Thursday 1 July 2010

Photo Birds fly over occupied Palestine.

Ten years ago this month, Israelis and Palestinians gathered at Camp David, under the guidance of President Bill Clinton, for negotiations aimed at reaching a final agreement. The talks ended in failure, and by the end of September, the second intifada had begun.

The Camp David talks have largely been remembered in the context of apportioning blame. This was particularly true in the first months and years of the Palestinian uprising, as Israel spun the narrative of a rejectionist Palestinian leadership that had turned down an incredibly “generous offer” and instead opted for a campaign of violence.

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International Solidarity Movement 1 July 2010

Photo ActiveStills Palestinian youth hurls stone at protest against the wall in Bilin 2009.

The people of Al-Ma’asara’s again demonstrated peacefully last Friday, protesting against land seizures and settler harassment. Twenty villagers were joined by a handful of Israelis and internationals, marching from the village out towards the confiscated fields.

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