Tadamon! Collective 2012. More Dishonest Rhetoric from Honest Reporting Canada

Photo A protester flies the Palestinian flag at the start of the regular protest n the village of Nil’in to demonstrate against land confiscation and the separation wall.

In a recent piece entitled “The Apartheid Myth: HRC Responds to Tadamon!”, Honest Reporting Canada (HRC) took issue with a letter written by Jewish members of the Tadamon! collective. HRC’s principal contention is that the letter (“Don’t Conflate Judaism with Zionism,” Wednesday, January 12, 2012) in the McGill Daily “recycled the tired Israeli Apartheid canard” while putting forth compensatory rhetorical arguments that “lack[ed] in substance.”

This disingenuous tactic of dismissing factual arguments critical of Israel as “canards,” so as to avoid the responsibility of earnestly responding to their content, is both cowardly and insincere. While Tadamon! offered specific examples of several Israeli laws and policies (out of the thirty or so) that discriminate against Palestinians, HRC offered no comment on these legal instruments of apartheid. Furthermore, HRC’s response is filled with inaccuracies and dubious statistics, most of which are themselves “recycled” from questionable sources.

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listen/download interview series from independent journalist Lillian Boctor

Photo: Hossam el-Hamalawy Thousands chant against SCAF and the army on Friday night in Tahrir Square.

Interview series from independent journalist Lillian Boctor examining the situation facing post-Mubarak Egypt produced for broadcast on CKUT community radio in Montreal.

As the first anniversary of the January 25 uprisings approaches, the Voices from Egypt interview series aims to highlight grassroots voices that provide perspective, ideas and context to post-Mubarak Egypt and in the ongoing transition and revolutionary period. Examining the current political winds and push from grassroots movements on the left to implement the revolution’s call for social and economic justice, challenge the repression by the ruling military council and create a new, democratic and equitable Egyptian society.

Tadamon! collective presents the following interviews for download from various independent media websites in an attempt to share information, news and analysis on the contemporary struggles in Egypt today that have dropped from the international media headlines.

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Wafa Palestine News Agency, May 2010.

Photo: Israeli military cameras line the apartheid wall in Palestine.

Palestinian press photographers have always been targeted by the Israeli forces and at least three have been arrested and two others have been physically attacked by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank since the start of April. “These incidents must stop,” Reporters without Borders said. “The Israeli army must investigate them and punish the soldiers responsible.”

In the latest incident, an Israeli soldier fired a tear-gas grenade at photographer Muammar Jamil Awad, while he was covering the weekly protest in Beit Jala (a village 10 km south of Jerusalem) against the Israeli separation wall. He was taken directly to Jerusalem’s Sheari Tzedek hospital for treatment to a head injury.

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Adbusters by Craig Smith, October 2009.

Photo: Masser Faces within buildings in Palestine / Israel.

The public relations (PR) industry has made exceptional use of the communications revolution. But for all the globalizing effects of multinational campaigns, many brands seem inextricably tied to their home country. Injecting products into foreign markets has, to a certain extent, acted as a driving force in the way nation-states are perceived internationally.

Coke, Marlboro and Starbucks are inseparable from their provenance, and Brand America is intimately tied to its products. But consumerism alone doesn’t tell the story of how America is perceived in the world; military adventurism and moral exceptionalism undermine the feel-good aspects of consuming Americana. A nation’s brand is inextricably tied to its actions in the world.

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Photo: Beirut by Piax. Tadamon! special edition: entire program is on-line for download.

A special edition produced by Mostafa Henaway, featuring music that spans different eras and moments in Middle East history, music composed and performed during the moments of social and political transformation. Music from the Middle East that either directly or indirectly is a reflection of these critical historical moments, from Egypt with music from the 1950’s and 1960’s that is a celebration of a new era, independent of colonialism, or more contemporary songs that present a critique dictatorship and tyranny in Egypt in the 1970’s song by Sheikh Imam.

Music from Lebanon, compositions and artists that emerged in the context of over twenty years of Israeli occupation and fifteen-years of civil-war in the country. Music from Lebanon that reflects a will of people to not be divided by sectarian politics, expressed by artists such as Ziad Rahbani in the famous song Ana Mesh Kafer, a song which asks how people of different religious faiths can condemn each other.

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Yet more haunting images of blindfolded, stripped down Palestinian men being contemptuously dragged by soldiers in uniform from one place to another. Yet more footage of bloodied men lying on hospital beds describing their ordeals to television reporters who have heard this story all too often. Yet more news of Palestinian infighting, tit-for-tat arrests, obscene language and embarrassing behaviour from those who have elected themselves — or were elected — to represent the Palestinian people.

Once again, the important story that ought to matter the most — that of a continually imposing and violent Israeli occupation — is lost in favour of Palestinian-infused distractions, deliberate or not.

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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.

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Israel’s apartheid wall and Israeli colony Beth-Hal Homar, West Bank, Palestine

Photos from Montreal photographer and community worker Scott Weinstein, who has traveled to Palestine to work with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society as a registered nurse. This photo essay documents the contemporary realities of Israeli colonialism and occupation in the West Bank, specifically focusing on the realities of settler violence against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank, specifically in the Palestinian city of Hebron. As documented by numerous Israeli human rights organizations, such as B’Tselem, Israeli settlers have beaten Palestinian civilians and forced many Palestinians to leave the historic city center in Hebron, traditionally an important and vibrant Palestinian market in the West Bank.

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Photo: Tyendinaga’s new longhouse on Ridge Road, Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory.

On June 29, 2007, Mohawks from Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory near Belleville, Ontario, erected blockades on the Canadian National rail line, local Highway 2, and Highway 401-the busiest thoroughfare in the country. This marked the second time in six months that the community blocked the rails in defence of their land. In the days before June 29, which had been declared a National Day of Action by the Assembly of First Nations, Mohawk spokesperson Shawn Brant explained to the CBC why the community could no longer wait on distant negotiations. “We bury our children in this country every day,” he said. “We have to force them to drink polluted water. We’re sick and tired of it. It’s going to end-June 29 is going to mark the time when First Nations people are going to be in a different relationship with the rest of the country.”

Native communities in Canada — a “Fourth World” of nations without states — continue to live a colonial legacy that traces a trajectory from the violent European settlement that began 400 years ago, through residential schools, to the colonial present of state surveillance, invasion of traditional lands, poverty, substance abuse, and some of the highest youth suicide rates in the world. According to Health Canada, Native youth are five to seven times more likely to commit suicide than non-Native youth. Canada’s Aboriginal population, particularly its youth, has the highest suicide rate of any culturally identifiable population in the world. Yet some Native communities have largely avoided the tragedy of youth suicide. What sets these communities apart? Evidence is mounting that successful resistance to colonialism may be the antidote.

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Photo: Dubai skyline. Interview by Stefan Christoff for Tadamon!

Dubai is famed internationally for lifestyles and modern monuments etched by extreme wealth, a city state in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that has become an unlikely hub for international finance. In a region bombarded by the chaos of the U.S.-driven ‘war on terror’, Dubai a small city state located on the edge of Iran and Iraq has become a city of glamor and glitz, a striking paradox that has enchanted many around the world.

Dubai’s shining exterior is quickly becoming world famous, including a series of three-hundred constructed islands mapping out the shape of world, an indoor ski mountain in the boiling temperatures of the Persian Gulf and the soon to be completed Burj Dubai, now the tallest man made structure in the world.

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