Photo: Maan Images. Palestinians in Gaza take cover during clashes with Israeli troops during demonstrations marking 60 years of Palestinian dispossession from their homeland. May 15th 2008.

“The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet but not to make them die of hunger,” said Dov Weissglas, Sharon’s closest advisor, a few years ago. Today, Israel is slowly choking occupied Gaza, indeed bringing its civilian population to the brink of starvation and a planned humanitarian catastrophe.

If the US government is an obvious accomplice in financing, justifying and covering up Israel’s occupation and other forms of oppression, the European Union, Israel’s largest trade partner in the world, is not any less complicit in perpetuating Israel’s colonial oppression and special form of apartheid.

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At its Biennial Delegate Conference in May 2008 the public sector union IMPACT passed two motions criticizing Israeli suppression of the Palestinian people and calling for a boycott of Israeli goods and services. The motions also called for divestment from those companies engaged in or profiting from the occupation as well as an education campaign to raise awareness of the plight of the Palestinian people. Conference furthermore called on the Irish Government to take a stand on Palestine independent of EU foreign policy, demanded the restoration of EU funding, and also called for the suspension of the preferential trading status enjoyed under the Euro-Med Agreement.

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Les Palestiniens, qui subissent les privations quotidiennes dues au siège de l’armée israélienne, sont très durement frappés par la flambée des prix des aliments, qu’ils doivent importer en grande partie.

C’est ce qu’a indiqué le syndicaliste Manawell Abdul-Al, dirigeant de la Fédération générale des syndicats palestiniens (FGSP), hier à La Presse.

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Call to support the first major student union in Quebec or Canada to back
the international campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions on Israel…

Montreal May 2008: Across the world grassroots movements struggling in opposition to Israeli apartheid are marking the 60th year of the Palestinian Nakba (”catastrophe”) – 60 years of dispossession, ethnic cleansing and exile for Palestinians resulting from the creation of the state of Israel.

A grassroots response in opposition to Israeli apartheid is growing throughout the world sparked by an appeal launched by Palestinian civil-society organizations in 2005 for an international campaign directed at the government in Israel, a campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions. This critical campaign is modeled on a successful international campaign similar in nature that played a critical role in bringing an end to the apartheid regime in South Africa.

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With the Palestine Investment Conference (PIC) beginning tomorrow in Bethlehem and the celebrated reforms and development projects proposed last year by the Fayyad government, understanding development in Palestine is more important than ever. Both the PIC and the Fayyad development programs have already elicited severe criticism from Palestinian civil society, political opposition and local communities. Development or Normalisation? is the first report that examines in detail the economic and political implications of the most recent development schemes and the role international institutions have in shaping the development programme of the Fayyad government.

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Adam Hanieh. Socialist Project: the Bullet.

In July 2005, over 170 Palestinian organizations urged the world to adopt a campaign of boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel in the manner of South Africa Apartheid. This call was signed by all the main Palestinian trade union federations, as well as refugee, women and student organizations from across Palestine and the Arab world. It represented the broadest political statement in Palestinian history, precipitating a powerful global solidarity campaign that has grown dramatically over the last few years.

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Photo from Artists Against Apartheid III in Montreal from photojournalist Ion Etxebarria.

Photos documenting the 3rd edition of Artists Against Apartheid in Montreal that brought together multiple artists, musicians, poets and performers as part of the global campaign struggling for Palestinian human rights through an international campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions on the Israeli government.

Artists Against Apartheid III attracted upwards of two-hundred people in Montreal to a lively concert crossing multiple musical styles from Jazz, to hip-hop, to folk. A cultural element to this international boycott campaign is growing in Montreal and internationally. This latest event in Montreal featured multiple musicians and artists from the celebrated hip-hop group Nomadic Massive and the roots, improvisational African Diaspora-driven Kalmunity Vibe Collective.

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We read with dismay and sadness the report of your remarks in the Montreal Gazette with regard to those who criticize the State of Israel. As Jews, and as Canadians, we are deeply offended by your allegations that objections to Israeli policies that include the occupation, forced eviction, and denial of human rights to Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank — as well as discrimination against the many Palestinians living in Israel — are signals of “anti-Semitism.”

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to student unions and social movements across Quebec and Canada.

Montreal, May 2008 – L’Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (ASSÉ), a Quebec-wide student union representing over 42 000 students, has passed a resolution to support the growing boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israeli Apartheid. The motion was passed at the ASSÉ annual Congress, held on April 26th and 27th in Montreal. This resolution comes after over a year of consultations and discussions held within local student unions, in collaboration with Tadamon! Montreal, a local social justice collective. ASSÉ now invites all progressive organizations to join and support the call for the boycott campaign, issued by over 170 Palestinian civil society groups.

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An evening of Palestinian films to commemorate 60 years since Al-Nakba – the catastrophe of dispossession brought about by the establishment of the State of Israel – and to celebrate the Palestinian voice.

1947-1948: Zionist forces provoke the exodus of 750,000 refugees, forcibly evicted from their homes and villages. May 15 has been chosen to mark the tragedy.

2008: 5 million Palestinians live scattered throughout the world and demand recognition of their right to return. 4 million Palestinians live under brutal occupation in the West Bank and under a state of permanent siege in Gaza.. And over 1 million live in Israel as second-class citizens.

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