New York Times by Ethan Bronner, August 27, 2009.

Photo: ActiveStills. Palestinian youth demonstrate in Bil’in, Palestine.

BILIN, West Bank — Every Friday for the past four and a half years, several hundred demonstrators — Palestinian villagers, foreign volunteers and Israeli activists — have walked in unison to the Israeli barrier separating this tiny village from the burgeoning settlement of Modiin Illit, part of which is built on the village’s land. One hundred feet away, Israeli soldiers watch and wait.

The protesters chant and shout and, inevitably, a few throw stones. Then just as inevitably, the soldiers open fire with tear gas and water jets, lately including a putrid oil-based liquid that makes the entire area stink.

It is one of the longest-running and best organized protest operations in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and it has turned this once anonymous farming village into a symbol of Palestinian civil disobedience, a model that many supporters of the Palestinian cause would like to see spread and prosper.

(…اكثر)

Bil’in: village de la Palestine qui continue de résister

Photo: ActiveStills. Manifestation à Bil’in.

Bil’in, situé à l’ouest de Ramallah, est un village typique de la Méditerranée orientale à bien des points de vue: des maisons blanches disposées le long de rues qui épousent les méandres et contours naturels des collines; des vergers, des jardins, des pâturages; l’attitude accueillante et généreuse des habitants; beaucoup d’enfants espiègles et sages. Cependant, ceux de Bil’in vivent dans les mêmes conditions déplorables que tant d’autres en Cisjordanie: une colonie israélienne a été construite illégalement sur leurs terres, et la clotûre dite “de sécurité” dévore d’autres hectares pour les séparer de ce qui leur appartient. Personne n’a le droit de circuler librement: ni vers la ville la plus proche, ni vers la plage, ni vers leur capitale, Jérusalem.

(…اكثر)

letter submitted to the Montreal Gazette, Tuesday, August 25th, 2009.

Photo: Satellites in the sky Cairo, Egypt.

Although this was likely unintentional, Terrine Friday’s article “Students misinformed …” (24 August 2009) speaks strongly in favour of the Community-University Research Exchange (CURE) program and of the CURE project proposed by the Montreal social-justice collective Tadamon.

Tadamon’s CURE project submission proposed that a student investigate institutional ties between Montreal universities and Israeli corporations, government agencies and other organizations that support the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands.

(…اكثر)

LA Times by Neve Gordon, August 20, 2009.

Photo: Israeli apartheid wall.

Israeli newspapers this summer are filled with angry articles about the push for an international boycott of Israel. Films have been withdrawn from Israeli film festivals, Leonard Cohen is under fire around the world for his decision to perform in Tel Aviv, and Oxfam has severed ties with a celebrity spokesperson, a British actress who also endorses cosmetics produced in the occupied territories. Clearly, the campaign to use the kind of tactics that helped put an end to the practice of apartheid in South Africa is gaining many followers around the world.

Not surprisingly, many Israelis — even peaceniks — aren’t signing on. A global boycott can’t help but contain echoes of anti-Semitism. It also brings up questions of a double standard (why not boycott China for its egregious violations of human rights?) and the seemingly contradictory position of approving a boycott of one’s own nation.

(…اكثر)

Haaretz August 27th, 2009, by Anat Matar.

Photo: Palestinians walk along the Israeli apartheid wall in the West Bank.

Several days ago Dr. Neve Gordon of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev published an opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times. In that article he explained why, after years of activity in the peace camp here, he has decided to pin his hopes on applying external pressure on Israel – including sanctions, divestment and an economic, cultural and academic boycott.

He believes, and so do I, that only when the Israeli society’s well-heeled strata pay a real price for the continuous occupation will they finally take genuine steps to put an end to it.

(…اكثر)

International Solidarity Movement, August 20, 2009.

Photo: Valerian Mazataud. Palestinian community activist Abu Nizar.

20 August 2009: Once again the night in Bil’in was disrupted by a raid ending with the arrest of one the members of the Village’s Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements. This occurred the night after the childrens demonstration where the children had chanted slogans like “We want to sleep,” “Stop the night raids”.

The house of Bil’in Popular Committee member and vice president of the Bil’in village council, Mohammad Abu Rahma, (age 50), known by his friends as Abu Nizar, was raided shortly before 2am on Thursday morning. About 25 soldiers with their faces painted in black had come to the village on foot.

(…اكثر)

17 August 2009.

Tadamon! collective responds to Montreal Gazette.

Peggy Curran’s article entitled “Activist group stirs up storm” (August 14, page A6) is filled with inaccuracies and misrepresentations, some of which bear directly on the Montreal social-justice collective Tadamon!. For the record, we would like to identify and correct some of these inaccuracies and misrepresentations.

(…اكثر)

Doug Smith, Electronic Intifada, 17 July 2009

Photo: Israel’s apartheid wall in occupied Palestine.

For the first time since the 2005 Palestinian civil society call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against institutions supporting Israeli apartheid, students from North America and Palestine came together in Ramallah to share their ideas and experiences. Consisting of eight days of travel and a four-day workshop, the North American student delegation spent their two weeks getting connected with the struggle in Palestine in order to better articulate the BDS movement in their respective cities. The visiting students met face to face with those who are living and resisting the systematic oppression of Palestinians by the state of Israel.

(…اكثر)

action in solidarity with Mohammad Khatib and all Palestinian political prisoners

FRIDAY AUGUST 14th 12h00
Indigo Bookstore
corner of St. Catherine & McGill college
(metro McGill)
Montreal, Canada

(…اكثر)

video report on Bil’in weekly demonstration Friday, August 7th, 2009

Photo: ActiveStills. Palestinian in Bil’in overwhelmed by Israeli teargas.

Bil’in, Palestine continues to maintain weekly protests against Israel’s apartheid wall, demonstrations which have attracted international attention. Israel’s apartheid wall annexes large parts of Bil’in village lands, essential lands for the small agricultural village in the West Bank. In recent weeks Israeli military forces have been carrying out night-time raids on Bil’in, targeting key Palestinian community activists for arrest, including Mohammad Khatib of Bil’in’s Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements

(…اكثر)