Agence France-Presse (AFP), June 26th, 2009.

Photo: Author Naomi Klein

Bil’in, West Bank — Bestselling author Naomi Klein on Friday took her call for a boycott of Israel to the occupied West Bank village of Bilin, where she witnessed Israeli forces clashing with protesters.

“It’s a boycott of Israeli institutions, it’s a boycott of the Israeli economy,” the Canadian writer told journalists as she joined a weekly demonstration against Israel’s controversial separation wall.

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Montreal Gazette, June 25, 2009, by Sue Montgomery.

Photo: Valerian Mazataud. Palestinian Mohamed Khatib at the Quebec Superior Court.

MONTREAL — Two Canadian companies that are building condominiums for Israeli settlers in the West Bank are committing a war crime, a lawyer representing a tiny Palestinian farming village that is trying to sue the firms by using Canada’s War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity Act argued Thursday.

After three days of hearings in Quebec Superior Court on motions filed by lawyers of Green Park International Inc. and Green Mount International Inc. to have the suit thrown out, lawyer Mark Arnold argued the case should go to trial.

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Photo essay by Valerian Mazataud.

Photo: Valerian Mazataud. Bil’in vs. Israeli apartheid at Concordia University.

Bil’in village has been a focus for the Palestinian solidarity movement in Canada during the past month, as Mohamed Khatib from Bil’in’s Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements and Emily Schaeffer, an Israeli lawyer representing the village of Bil’in, have recently toured across Canada.

In Montreal hundreds have gathered in solidarity with Bil’in this past week, for a major lecture at Concordia University, the last stop on the cross-Canada tour and for a solidarity demonstration with Bil’in outside the Quebec Superior Court, both events are documented in this photo essay.

Bil’in’s historic lawsuit against Green Park International and Green Mount International, two companies registered in Quebec, began this week at the Quebec Superior Court. Bil’in’s lawsuit is rooted in the fact that the two companies are constructing illegal Israeli colonies on Bil’in’s lands in the West Bank.

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call for court solidarity surrounding the historic lawsuit launched by Bil’in village.

JUNE 2009: Montreal, Quebec
Tuesday, June 23, 9h30 – 16h00
Thursday, June 25, 9h30 – 16h00
Quebec superior court
room 16.08
1 Notre Dame east
métro Place-d’Armes/Champs-de-Mars

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Montreal Gazette, June 21, 2009, by Sue Montgomery.

Photo: Palestinians and the Israeli apartheid wall in the West Bank.

Members of a tiny Palestinian farming community will be in Quebec Superior Court tomorrow claiming two Canadian construction companies are committing war crimes by building condominiums and roads on the village’s land in the West Bank.

It will be the first time that Canada’s War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity Act, passed in 2000, will be used in a civil case.

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rally to open the Bil’in’s lawsuit in Quebec against Israeli settlements

MONDAY JUNE 22, 12noon
Quebec superior court
1 Notre Dame east
Montreal, Quebec
métro Place-d’Armes/Champs-de-Mars

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press release, Independent Jewish Voices, 18 June 2009.

Photo: Gaza solidarity protest January 2009.

Independent Jewish Voices (Canada) voted to join the growing international campaign in support of the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel, at its first Annual General Meeting this past weekend. This decision makes IJV the first national Jewish organization in the world to do so.

The adopted resolution states that IJV will “Support the Palestinian call for a campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and complies with the precepts of international law, including the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.”

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Hour June 11th, 2009, by Stefan Christoff.

Photo: ActiveStills. Palestinians stand against Israeli apartheid wall.

While Israel’s right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to expand Israeli colonies in the West Bank, in a key speech in Cairo last week the Obama administration called Israeli settlements a violation of international law and an impediment to peace talks.

The heated international issue will become a local one this month when two Quebec companies involved in Israeli settlement construction on Palestinian lands will face a potential lawsuit in Quebec Superior Court.

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Al Kitab (Arabic for ‘Book’), is a new book club organized by Tadamon!

Photo: James Longley. Al-Mutanabi Street in Iraq.

Al Kitab club members (six to 10 people) will meet in a comfortable place (someone’s home, a quiet café, or a room in a public library) once a month to discuss and reflect on a book.

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interview with Mohammed Khatib of the Bil’in popular committee by Stefan Christoff

Photo: ActiveStills. Protest against apartheid wall in Bil’in, Palestine.

In April 2009 an Israeli soldier shot a high-velocity teargas canister at Palestinian activist Bassam Ibrahim Abou Rahme at close range during a protest against the Israeli wall in Bil’in.

Minutes after the shot Bassam Ibrahim Abou Rahme died, the eighteenth Palestinian to die in popular protests against the Israeli wall in Bil’in which have taken place each Friday for over four years.

Israel’s wall surrounds Bil’in residents, cutting the Palestinian villagers from large sections of their farms lands and olive groves, while Israel continue to construct settlements on lands belonging to the Palestinian municipality.

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