Mary Ellen Davis, Le Devoir, jeudi 29 janvier 2009.

Photo: la mort et destruction dans la bande de Gaza.

Les quartiers en ruines dans la bande de Gaza. Des maisons, des immeubles, des édifices: pulvérisés. Comme dans le titre du livre de l’écrivain québecois Rawi Hage: Parfum de poussière. Parmi les décombres, des âmes perdues errent à la recherche des dépouilles d’êtres chers, ou de leurs biens.

Mais nous nous détournons afin de regarder l’avènement de Barack Obama, objet de tous les espoirs. Les scénaristes israéliens ont bien organisé l’enchaînement. À l’aube d’une nouvelle ère, qu’importent les vies perdues, les familles décimées, les blessés, les mutilés, les endeuillés, les médecins et les infirmiers surmenés et ciblés, les 50 000 sans-abri, le tout formant un peuple privé d’État depuis 60 ans?

(more…)

By Stefan Christoff, Sada al Mashrek.

Photo: Sabrien Amrov. Gaza solidarity protests in Montreal.

Response to Israel’s latest military attack on Gaza in Canada took a strikingly different tone on the streets and within the halls of power.

On the streets across Canada thousands marched in solidarity with Gaza, marking some of the largest Palestinian solidarity demonstrations in Canadian history.

Tens-of-thousands marched in Montreal and Toronto in the cold winter winds calling not only for an end to Israel’s military attack on Gaza but also for a boycott of the Israeli government; sparks of decisive movement in solidarity with Palestine rooted in the international boycott campaign that struck a critical blow to the apartheid regime in South Africa.

(more…)

Ali Abunimah, Electronic Intifada, January 2009.

Photo: Palestinian youth resisting Israeli occupation forces.

The merciless Israeli bombardment of Gaza has stopped — for now — but the death toll keeps rising as more bodies are pulled from carpet- bombed neighborhoods.

What Israel perpetrated in Gaza, starting at 11:30am on 27 December 2008, will remain forever engraved in history and memory. Tel al-Hawa, Hayy al-Zeitoun, Khuzaa and other sites of Israeli massacres will join a long mournful list that includes Deir Yasin, Qibya, Kufr Qasim, Sabra and Shatila, Qana, and Jenin.

(more…)

Le Devoir. January 24 2009.

Photo: Israel drops chemical weapons over a U.N. school in Gaza.

We are a group of teachers and employees at Quebec colleges and universities who stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people, and with the people of Gaza who have suffered through the Israeli siege as targets of Israel’s brutal military attack. It will take more than ceasefires to bring a just and lasting peace in Palestine and Israel. We are acting in response to an appeal for support issued January 2, 2009 by the Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees. In the wake of the Israeli bombing of the Islamic University of Gaza, the Federation of Unions has urged academics around the world to support a boycott of Israeli academic institutions.

We support this call and place it within a wider campaign of boycott, divestment, and sanctions. The struggle against apartheid in South Africa was supported through boycotts, divestment, and sanctions. We support a similar strategy against the Israeli state.

(more…)

Gaza solidarity poster designed by graphic artist Kevin Lo.

Poster is available in PDF from the following link on-line.

(more…)

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…)

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…)

What ceasefire? End Israeli Apartheid!

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

(more…)