Montreal Mirror. by Matthew Hays.

Photo: Israeli bombings over the Gaza Strip.

It’s an old adage in the film business that timing is everything, but the coincidence involving the Palestinian Perspectives documentary film series showing in the next couple of weeks at the Cinémathèque is truly odd.

The series, which features several different docs on issues facing Palestinians, screens on the next two consecutive Fridays at the Cinémathèque québécoise. The films were chosen and programmed last year, long before the current Gaza offensive by the Israeli military. “Now it’s become a crisis,” says Mary Ellen Davis, a filmmaker and co-programmer of the event. “But even before this, every day, the Palestinians have been under siege. They’ve been dealing with checkpoints, new settlements and the wall for some time now.”

(more…)

Montreal, January 15th, 2009.

Photo: Palestinians running with flag along Israel’s apartheid wall.

On the twentieth day of Israel’s attack on Gaza, a group of Montrealers occupied the office of Quebec’s Economic Development Minister Raymond Bachand, calling on the Charest government to immediately end ties with Israel, and specifically withdraw from the Quebec-Israel accord.

“The accord, signed this fall, establishes unconditional economic ties between the two countries,” said Marc-André Faucher, spokesperson for ASSÉ, representing over 40,000 Quebec students. “The accord does not include measures to force Israel to respect international law, but provides economic backing and diplomatic cover for current war crimes in Gaza.”

(more…)

new single from hip-hop artist the Narcicyst

Gaza remix featuring Shadia Mansour is available: free download

(more…)

by Yves Engler, January 2009.

Photo: Scott Weinstein. Demonstrators in Montreal in solidarity with Gaza.

The Canadian Left has taken a major step forward in its opposition to Zionism. On Saturday, Montréal held probably the largest pro-Palestinian demonstration in Canadian history. Despite some ridiculous media reports, I estimate that there were between 12,000 and 17,000 (possibly as many as 25,000) people marching through the streets of downtown. “Jews, Christians, Muslims, anglos, francos, grandmothers and children walked together yesterday in the bitter cold to call for an immediate ceasefire in [Gaza],” noted the Montréal Gazette. The march was endorsed and organized by all three major Québec unions and most of the province’s social groups.

(more…)

Stefan Christoff, Sada al-Mashrek. January 2009.

Photo: Scott Weinstein. Protests in solidarity with Gaza in Montreal.

Quebec inked an economic partnership agreement with Israel this fall in Jerusalem. Attracting little attention from major media outlets, Quebec’s bilateral accord was signed during a government-led delegation to Israel that included high-level state officials and corporate representatives this past September, amidst Israel’s ongoing siege of Gaza.

(more…)

Jonathan Cook, The Electronic Intifada, 13 January 2009.

Photo: Wissam Nassar. Smoke rises over Gaza City during Israeli bombardment.

Concerns about Israel’s use of non-conventional and experimental weapons in the Gaza Strip are growing, with evasive comments from spokesmen and reluctance to allow independent journalists inside the tiny enclave only fueling speculation.

The most prominent controversy is over the use of shells containing white phosphorus, which causes horrific burns when it comes into contact with skin. Under international law, phosphorus is allowed as a smokescreen to protect soldiers but treated as a chemical weapon when used against civilians.

(more…)

What ceasefire? End Israeli Apartheid!

SUNDAY JANUARY 25th
13h00 carré Cabot
corner St. Catherine | Atwater
(metro Atwater)
Montreal, Quebec

(more…)

photo essay on January 10th demonstration in solidarity with Gaza.

Photo: Sabrien Amrov. Palestinian flag flying on the streets in Montreal.

Thousands gathered in downtown Montreal in freezing winds on Saturday, January 10th for a major demonstration in solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza, currently under bombardment from a major Israeli military offensive.

Protesters gathered in Montreal as the Israeli offensive into Gaza has killed over 800 Palestinians and wounded nearly 4000. Israeli military forces are threatening to intensify the military campaign within the upcoming days, “the Israeli Defense Forces will escalate the operation in the Gaza Strip,” read leaflets in Arabic dropped from Israeli military planes over Gaza this past weekend. Protests have swept the world in recent weeks in solidarity with Gaza, from the streets in Europe, to the Middle East, to Latin America to the streets in Montreal protesters have gathered in unprecedented numbers.

(more…)

Photo: Palestinians walked past a house damaged by an Israeli air strike in Rafah.

It’s time. Long past time. The best strategy to end the increasingly bloody occupation is for Israel to become the target of the kind of global movement that put an end to apartheid in South Africa.

In July 2005 a huge coalition of Palestinian groups laid out plans to do just that. They called on “people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era.” The campaign Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions—BDS for short—was born.

(more…)

Independent, Saturday, 10 January 2009.

Photo: Members from the Samouni family being laid to rest in the Gaza Strip.

Bitterly cold, famished, and thirsty they may have been. But the dozens of men, women, children and elderly of the extended Samouni family, sheltering in the unfinished warehouse-like building owned by one of their relatives, at least felt relatively secure.

Some explain that Israeli troops had explicitly told them to remain in the building – in several cases after actually escorting them there. They were relieved to wake to find the neighbourhood quiet for the first time since the ground offensive had began 36 hours earlier. So much so, according to one of them, that some time after 6am, four of the men decided to set out and bring an uncle and his family to their refuge.

(more…)