Artists Against Apartheid in Montreal captured in photo and video, an incredible cultural event which united many celebrated artists as part of the global campaign against Israeli apartheid through an international campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions on the Israeli government.
Photo: Activestills. Palestinian worshipers trying to reach Jerusalem in Ramadan.
For years, Israeli authorities have both barred Palestinian access to rings of land surrounding settlements, and have not acted to eliminate settlers’ piratical closing of lands adjacent to settlements and blocking of Palestinian access to them. Blocking access is one of the many ways used to expand settlements. In recent years, Israel has institutionalized the closing of such lands in an attempt to retroactively sanction the unauthorized placement of barriers far from the houses at the edge of the settlements.
Settlers pave patrol roads and place physical obstructions on Palestinian lands adjacent to settlements, at times with the authorities’ approval, at others not. Settlers also forcibly remove Palestinians, primarily farmers, from their lands. B’Tselem – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, has documented cases of gunfire, threats of gunfire and killing, beatings, stone throwing, use of attack dogs, attempts to run over Palestinians, destruction of farming equipment and crops, theft of crops, killing and theft of livestock and animals used in farming, unauthorized demands to see identification cards, and theft of documents.
On a hot afternoon during the month of Ramadan, there are few better places to be than resting beneath the shade of an orchard of guava trees, with the scent of fresh ripening fruit wafting around you. Farmer Sa’id Al-Agha sits quietly, his eyes resting on his fruit trees. ‘My father and my grandfather both grew up here, farming guavas, and I’ve lived here all my life’ he says. ‘This land is in my blood.’
Sa’id Al-Agha farms thirty donumms of guava plantations in Mawasi, in the south western Gaza Strip, where the loamy soil also encourages date palms and citrus trees to thrive (a donumm is equivalent to 1,000 square metres). His Mawasi farm is a tranquil haven in Gaza, which has one of the highest population densities in the world. There are some 120 guava farms dotted around Mawasi, and between them the farmers and their families cultivate more than 2,500 donumms of guavas. August and September are the height of the Gaza guava season, and we can hear workers calling to each other as they harvest the fruit by hand.
picket to support the international campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions!
Cher Jean-Luc Godard,
En cette année où l’écran de fumée des célébrations du 60ème anniversaire de l’Etat d’Israël occupe tout l’espace médiatique, que ce soit de façon ouverte ou déguisée sous la forme de célébrations culturelles “apolitiques”, votre décision de ne pas vous rendre au Festival du Film de Tel Aviv le mois dernier nous a fait l’effet d’un rayon de soleil!
Notre association basée à Montréal, Tadamon, qui signifie Solidarité en arabe, tente de relayer les voix palestiniennes qui appellent la communauté internationale à un boycott des manifestations culturelles organisées par l’Etat d’Israël. Cette démarche est une forme de pression non violente et populaire qui peut avoir des effets bénéfiques, comme ce fut le cas pour l’Afrique du Sud dans les années 80.
Bridges to Bil’in: performances, presentations and visuals against Israeli apartheid.
Press Release: Bil’in announcs that it has commenced legal proceedings in Canada.
Photo: Palestinian village of Nilin through a window smashed by the Israeli army.
Bil’in, West Bank, Palestine: The Village of Bil’in, in the West Bank, Occupied Palestinian Territories, announced today that it has commenced legal proceedings in Canada against two Canadian Companies for committing war crimes. The case has been filed in the Quebec Superior Court sitting at Montreal, Canada. A full copy of the claim is attached.
Bil’in alleges that Green Park International Inc. and Green Mount International Inc., both registered corporations in the Province of Quebec, acting as agents for Israel, are illegally constructing residential and other buildings on lands under the municipal jurisdiction of the Village and are marketing and selling condominium units to the civilian population of the State of Israel. Bil’in further alleges in its claim that its land and the defendants are subject to the rules and obligations of international law because the West Bank is occupied territory arising from an act of war that took place in 1967.
by Linda Tabar, Leila Mouammar & Freda Guttman. Photo: Jewish colony in Palestine.
On December 2, 2007 a Jewish National Fund fundraising dinner was held in Toronto which sought to raise $7.5 million to refurbish Canada Park in Israel, a park built on the site of a Palestinian village destroyed in 1967 and created through donations from Canadian Jewish donors. Linda Tabar, Leila Mouammar and Freda Guttman composed an op-ed article shortly before this event in order to educate the public about the JNF’s role in maintaining the Apartheid system imposed upon Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and the fact that the JNF is considered a charitable organization in Canada, therefore making donations to it tax deductible.
On Sunday June 14th, the Jewish National Fund held their annual fundraising banquet in Vancouver at the Four Seasons Hotel. The JNF is one of the primary organizations responsible for the historic and ongoing colonization of Palestinian lands for the development of Jewish-only settlement. This has resulted in the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, and contributed to the apartheid system in Israel. Despite its racist history and policies, the JNF is granted status as a charity in Canada, enabling it to raise millions of dollars through tax-deductible donations, including annual fundraising dinners held across Canada.
BEIRUT: The peoples of Lebanon and Palestine have an ambivalent relationship. In the years since the terms “Lebanon” and “Palestine” were assigned their 20th-century political meanings, they have accumulated meaning, just as the experiences of their citizens have diverged.
