by Roger Waters 27 December 2009

Photo: Ronald de Hommel Israeli military wall in Gaza, Palestine.

My name is Roger Waters. I am an English musician living in the USA. I am writing to express my great admiration for and solidarity with the 1360 men and women from 42 different countries around the World who are gathering in Egypt, preparing for The Gaza Freedom March. We all watched, aghast, the vicious attack made a year ago on the people of Gaza by Israeli armed forces and the ongoing illegal siege. The suffering wrought on the population of Gaza by both the invasion and the siege is unimaginable to us outside the walls.

The aim of The Freedom March is to focus world attention on the plight of the Palestinian people in Gaza in the hope that the scales will fall from the eyes of all, ordinary, decent people round the world, that they may see the enormity of the crimes that have been committed, and demand that their governments bring all possible pressure to bear on Israel to lift the siege.

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photo by ActiveStills

Photo: ActiveStills. Poet Saul Williams visiting Bil’in, Palestine.

Celebrated US poet and performer Saul Williams visited Bilin, Palestine in November 2009, expressing solidarity with the Palestinian struggle against Israeli apartheid while touring near the apartheid wall build on Bil’in village lands and visiting with the residences in Bil’in about life under the Israeli occupation.

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a year-end solidarity gathering | musical performances celebrating Sheikh Imam

SATURDAY DECEMBER 12th 20h
entrance: $5-10
Kaza Maza, 4629 Avenue du Parc
north from Mont-Royal street
Montréal Québec

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Fred Moten | PACBI | 7 November 2009

Photo: Palestinian stands in Gaza Strip grave after Israeli military bombing.

1. The justification of the boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions is quite simple and quite clear: the victims of a sovereign brutality instantiated in racial-military domination have come to an overwhelming consensus, in the very shadow of the state that has come to exemplify The State and its exception, that boycott is the most immediate form of international support they require. To be in solidarity with the Palestinian people is to enact and support the boycott. However, the significance of the boycott is a slightly more complicated matter. Arguments against the boycott that go beyond the rejection of whatever form either of criticism of Israel or Palestinian resistance or the sometimes open/sometimes veiled assertion of an assumed Israeli exception and exemption, focus on the negative impact the presumed isolation and withdrawal of support for Israeli dissidents will have, already a morally obtuse argument insofar as it shifts our primary political and ethical concerns away from the actual victims of racial-military domination.

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Haaretz 06/11/2009

Photo: City Hall at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv.

Israel dismally fails the requirements of a tolerant pluralistic society, according to a new report from the U.S. State Department.

Despite boasting religious freedom and protection of all holy sites, Israel falls short in tolerance toward minorities, equal treatment of ethnic groups, openness toward various streams within society, and respect for holy and other sites.

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November 14, 2009 Faster Times Interview with Palestinian Author Ghada Karmi

Photo: Larry Towell Palestinian women in occupied Palestine.

Ghada Karmi is a Palestinian physician and author based in London. Since her autobiography In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story was first published in 2002 by Verso Books, it has been translated into forty languages. The late Edward Said described the memoir as “…the story of a fascinating woman…humanly rich and interesting.” On a speaking tour throughout the US to promote the newly-released second edition of In Search for Fatima, Mrs. Karmi visited Columbia University at the behest of an Arab cultural group, Turath. While there, she sat down with TFT associate editor Aseel Najib to discuss her wok.

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Le Courrier de Geneve Emmanuel Dror, 21 octobre 2009

Photo: Ronald de Hommel Israeli apartheid wall cutting through Palestine

Culture Chansons – Si le rap a repris le flambeau, la Palestine fut chantée par les grandes voix arabes, puis les Français Renaud ou Zebda. Tour d’horizon.

Alors que les hommes politiques sont empêtrés dans des stratégies cyniques ou dans une langue de bois perpétuelle, les chanteurs reflètent plus fidèlement le monde dans lequel ils vivent. Ils traduisent l’opinion de «la rue» mieux que ne le font les porte-parole officiels ou les médias traditionnels. Exemple avec l’histoire de la Palestine depuis quelques dizaines d’années…

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photos by Elsa Marie Jabre and Anthony Côte

Photo: Elsa Marie Jabre. Seven Arrows performs at Artists Against Apartheid.

Montreal’s groundbreaking concert series Artists Against Apartheid continues to unite artists on stages across the city for major cultural events in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for freedom.

At the eleventh Artists Against Apartheid hundreds gathered to listen to performances, including a trio featuring Sam Shalabi on oud, Omar Dewachi on oud and Pierre-Guy Blanchard on percussion to open the evening.

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photo essay by Farah Kobaissy in Lebanon

Photo: Farah Kobaissy. Palestinian youth plays football in Nahr el Bared

Nahr al-Bared, a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon, center to a major military conflict between the Lebanese army and Fatah al-Islam in 2007, remains destroyed in 2009.

Palestinian civilians in Nahr al-Bared faced massive displacement during the armed conflict in 2007, as the civilian infrastructure in the camp was bombarded by the Lebanese military and dozens of Palestinian civilians killed. Until today the overwhelming majority of the 30,000 Palestinian refugees from Nahr al-Bared remain displaced, living within other Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.

Years after the military conflict in Nahr al-Bared, the refugee camp remains largely rubble, while millions in international aid dollars for reconstruction have equaled little concrete reconstruction on the ground in Nahr al-Bared. Lebanese activist and photographer Farah Kobaissy visited the camp in October 2009 and took these photos.

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Norman Finkelstien in Montreal for premier, presented by Cinema Politica & Tadamon!

Monday November 16, 2009
Screening 19h00
1455 De Maisonneuve Blvd. West
Concordia University
Montreal, Quebec

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