International Solidarity Movement, August 20, 2009.

Photo: Valerian Mazataud. Palestinian community activist Abu Nizar.

20 August 2009: Once again the night in Bil’in was disrupted by a raid ending with the arrest of one the members of the Village’s Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements. This occurred the night after the childrens demonstration where the children had chanted slogans like “We want to sleep,” “Stop the night raids”.

The house of Bil’in Popular Committee member and vice president of the Bil’in village council, Mohammad Abu Rahma, (age 50), known by his friends as Abu Nizar, was raided shortly before 2am on Thursday morning. About 25 soldiers with their faces painted in black had come to the village on foot.

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Al-Ahram by Mustafa Barghouthi, August 2009.

Photo: Palestinian children walking in the West Bank.

Palestinians have only two choices before them, either to continue to evade the struggle, as some have been trying to do, or to summon the collective national resolve to engage in it.

The latter option does not necessarily entail a call to arms. Clearly Israel has the overwhelming advantage in this respect in both conventional and unconventional (nuclear) weapons. Just as obviously, neighbouring Arab countries have neither the will nor ability to go the military route. However, the inability to wage war does not automatically mean surrender and eschewing other means to wage struggle.

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17 August 2009.

Tadamon! collective responds to Montreal Gazette.

Peggy Curran’s article entitled “Activist group stirs up storm” (August 14, page A6) is filled with inaccuracies and misrepresentations, some of which bear directly on the Montreal social-justice collective Tadamon!. For the record, we would like to identify and correct some of these inaccuracies and misrepresentations.

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Doug Smith, Electronic Intifada, 17 July 2009

Photo: Israel’s apartheid wall in occupied Palestine.

For the first time since the 2005 Palestinian civil society call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against institutions supporting Israeli apartheid, students from North America and Palestine came together in Ramallah to share their ideas and experiences. Consisting of eight days of travel and a four-day workshop, the North American student delegation spent their two weeks getting connected with the struggle in Palestine in order to better articulate the BDS movement in their respective cities. The visiting students met face to face with those who are living and resisting the systematic oppression of Palestinians by the state of Israel.

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action in solidarity with Mohammad Khatib and all Palestinian political prisoners

FRIDAY AUGUST 14th 12h00
Indigo Bookstore
corner of St. Catherine & McGill college
(metro McGill)
Montreal, Canada

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video report on Bil’in weekly demonstration Friday, August 7th, 2009

Photo: ActiveStills. Palestinian in Bil’in overwhelmed by Israeli teargas.

Bil’in, Palestine continues to maintain weekly protests against Israel’s apartheid wall, demonstrations which have attracted international attention. Israel’s apartheid wall annexes large parts of Bil’in village lands, essential lands for the small agricultural village in the West Bank. In recent weeks Israeli military forces have been carrying out night-time raids on Bil’in, targeting key Palestinian community activists for arrest, including Mohammad Khatib of Bil’in’s Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements

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photos by Darren Ell, Scott Weinstein, Valerian Mazataud.

Photo: Scott Weinstein: Solidarity rally for Bil’in in Montreal

A protest in solidarity with Bil’in, Palestine took to the street in downtown Montreal on Friday, August 7th, to denounce the ongoing night-time raids on Bil’in and string of arrests by the Israeli military targeting Palestinian community activists. Israeli military forces have been launching night incursions into the village throughout recent weeks and targeting the homes of members of Bil’in’s Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements.

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Ma’an News Agency, August, 7th, 2009.

Photo: Palestinian woman walks past Israel’s apartheid wall in Palestine.

Bethlehem, Ma’an: HBO TV’s Sex and the City star Kristin Davis was suspended from her duties as Oxfam’s goodwill ambassador for her advertizing work with the illegal settlement-based company Ahava Dead Sea Laboratories.

Oxfam International is a large confederation of 13 organizations that says it works with over 3,000 partners in more than 100 countries to find lasting solutions to poverty and injustice.

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Ottawa, Canada, August 6, 2009.

open letter from New Democratic Party MP Libby Davies: download letter

To Whom It May Concern: I write to support Mohammad Khatib, from the village of Bil’in. Mr. Katiib visited Ottawa in June of this year. I was fortunate to be one of the Canadian Members of Parliament who met him, on Parliament Hill. We heard in detail the history of his village and the work of the local community to draw attention to the impact of the barrier fence on the village.

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update on Mohammad Khatib and Biliners abducted by the Israeli occupation forces

Photo: ActiveStills. Israeli occupation forces launch tear-gas on protest in Bil’in

The Military Prosecution is claiming that the 7 people taken from their homes during the night raid that took place in Bil’in on August 3rd are suspected of stone throwing. A leading member of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, non-violent activist Mohammad Khatib, is accused of incitement to “damage the security of the area.”

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