March 30, 2009: Global day of action for boycott, divestment and sanctions on Israel.

launched at the World Social Forum 2009 in Belém, Bazil.

In December 2008, Israel decided to mark the 60th anniversary of its existence the same way it had established itself – perpetrating massacres against the Palestinian people. In 23 days, Israel killed more than 1,300 and injured over 5,000 Palestinians in Gaza.

The irony of history is that Israel targeted those Palestinians – and their descendants – whom it had expelled from their homes and pushed into refugee-hood in Gaza in 1948, whose land it has stolen, whom it has oppressed since 1967 by means of a brutal military occupation, and whom it had tried to starve into submission by means of a criminal blockade of food, fuel and electricity in the 18 months preceding the military assault. We cannot wait for Israel to zero in on its next objective. Palestine has today become the test of our indispensable morality and our common humanity.

We therefore call on all to unite our different capacities and struggles in a Global Day of Action in Solidarity with the Palestinian people and for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel on March 30th.

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Interview with journalist Jooneed Khan, for Tadamon! by Stefan Christoff.

Photo: U.N. school shelled by the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip.

Major gaps exist between different narratives on the recent war in Gaza; as major Canadian media outlets and human rights organizations on the ground in Gaza offer strikingly different pictures of the conflict.

U.N. officials have labeled recent Israeli actions as ‘disproportionate’ while the U.N. Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories issued a statement outlining the Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip as representing “severe and massive violations of international humanitarian law.”

In discord to U.N. positions on Gaza statements from the Conservative government of Canada consistently painted Israel’s actions as defensive in nature. Editorials across the Canadian media offered a similar line to the Conservative government.

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Tadamon! translation from Mashahed, Egypt.

Photo: Hossam el-Hamalawy. Workers strike in Egypt.

In an unprecedented action, the first following the recent Israeli war on Gaza, workers of an Egyptian Fertilizers Company in Suez protested on Saturday February 7th against the export of fertilizers to Israel.

The Fertilizers Egyptian Company is owned by Sawiris family, Naguib Sawiris ranks 62 in Forbes’ world’s richest list, while his father Onsi ranks 96 and his brother Nassif ranks 226, under the name Orascom construction company. Fertilizers Egyptian Company signed an agreement to export 1000 tons of phosphate fertilizer to Israel, at a rate of 100 tons per week. An estimated 800 Egyptians work at this factory.

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February 2009. United Press International (UPI).

Photo: Rebuilding after an Israeli bombing in the Middle East.

Beirut, Lebanon. The removal of cluster bombs strewn throughout southern Lebanon is slowing as international funding for the efforts has dwindled, an official says.

Tekimiti Gilbert, acting program manager for the U.N. Mine Action Coordination Center, said mine clearance organizations are struggling to retain international funding and interest in bomb removal efforts, the U.N. Integrated Regional Information Networks said Thursday.

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Interview with Derrick O’Keefe, editor of rabble.ca, by Stefan Christoff.

Photo: Mohanned Mansour. Solidarity protests with Gaza in Montreal.

Media coverage in Canada on the latest war in Gaza often failed to clearly represent the situation on the ground in Palestine and also the response in Canada to the latest crisis.

As thousands gathered for unprecedented street protests in solidarity with Palestinian human rights across the country, mainstream media often downplayed the numbers protesting and at times misrepresented the messages expressed at the demonstrations.

Street protests in Canada against the latest Israeli attack on Gaza were the largest Palestinian solidarity demonstrations in Canadian history, while reports from major media outlets, including the CBC, did not accurately convey the unprecedented size of the protests.

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By Mohammed Omer, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.

Photo: Iyad Albaba. Tunneling essential goods into the Gaza Strip.

Options are few in Rafah. As in other societies throughout history trapped behind walls or segregated in ghettos, the smuggling in of basic necessities, as well as weapons for defense, means the difference between life and death. In Gaza, tunneling dates back to the 1980s, when Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt. During the first intifada, which began in late 1987, tunnels were used as an underground railroad, transporting people out of Gaza, as well as serving as safe houses for resistance fighters, and storage spaces for weapons and supplies.

Since Israel imposed its siege on Gaza after Hamas won democratic legislative elections in January 2006, the number of Palestinians tied to some segment of the tunnel industry has grown in direct proportion to the increasing lack of availability of raw materials and basic necessities, including food, fuel and medicine. Palestinian sources estimate that some 6,000 people are employed as diggers in the hundreds of tunnels crisscrossing the Gaza-Egyptian border.

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Interview with Maureen Clare Murphy, editor for Electronic Intifada, by Stefan Christoff.

Photo: Matthew Cassel. Bombarded Palestinian home in Gaza.

As world attention turned to the latest Israeli military bombardment of the Gaza Strip, Israel barred international media outlets and correspondents access to Gaza. As Israel controls all entry and exit points into Gaza – land, sea and air – Israel as an occupying power possesses the power to cut-off the Palestinian reality from the international press.

Press freedom in Gaza became severely restricted in Gaza as Israel moved to control global media coverage from Gaza. Despite a decision from the Israeli Supreme Court admits the latest conflict to allow the international media into Gaza to report on the impacts of Israeli air strikes on Palestinians, the ban on international press in Gaza remained.

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March 1st – 9th, 2009

Join us to make 2009 a year of struggle against apartheid and for justice and peace!

Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is an annual international series of events held in cities and campuses across the globe. Israeli Apartheid Week aims to educate people about the nature of Israel as an apartheid system and to build Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns as part of a growing global BDS movement. In Montreal, local solidarity groups and individuals are planning nine full days of awareness-raising events ranging from lectures and workshops to film screenings.

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photo exhibition launch!

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 13th 2009
6-8pm Bar Populaire
6584 St-Laurent
this is a free event

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Ma’an News Agency, February 2009.

Photo: Open skies over docks in South Africa.

South African dock workers announced their refusal to offload cargo from a ship carrying goods from Israel scheduled to arrive in Durban on Sunday.

It follows the decision by dock workers there to strengthen the campaign in South Africa for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against “apartheid” Israel, a statement said.

The pledge by union members in Durban “reflects the commitment by South African workers to refuse to support oppression and exploitation across the globe,” the workers said.

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