An evening of Palestinian films to commemorate 60 years since Al-Nakba – the catastrophe of dispossession brought about by the establishment of the State of Israel – and to celebrate the Palestinian voice.

1947-1948: Zionist forces provoke the exodus of 750,000 refugees, forcibly evicted from their homes and villages. May 15 has been chosen to mark the tragedy.

2008: 5 million Palestinians live scattered throughout the world and demand recognition of their right to return. 4 million Palestinians live under brutal occupation in the West Bank and under a state of permanent siege in Gaza.. And over 1 million live in Israel as second-class citizens.

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Lebanon is currently facing a major political crisis, as armed battles have erupted in multiple districts in Beirut, battles between pro-government forces and the political opposition backed by the Lebanese movement Hezbollah. Currently the Lebanese capital is divided, as opposition forces maintain a hold in West Beirut, having handed control in certain districts to the Lebanese Army, while the western-backed Lebanese government remains in lock down within government buildings.

Today Lebanon’s government has maintained a contested hold on official state power in Lebanon without representation from Hezbollah or other opposition parties for over one year. This week the government announced that Hezbollah’s independent communications network or telephone system operating in Lebanon as illegal, sparking the current crisis. Hezbollah’s independent telephone or communications system is considered to be a critical element to the success of the Lebanese resistance to Israel in successfully halting Israel’s 2006 attack on Lebanon.

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It is with great shock and dismay that we have learned of your intention to participate in the Israeli Writers’ Festival this May, in conjunction with the “Israel at 60” festivities (largely supported by the Israeli Foreign Ministry). The function of cultural events such as this one in the international public relations campaigns of apartheid regimes is strongly reminiscent of the same maneuverings by the South African apartheid government. Have you forgotten the morally unconscionable historical ties between apartheid Israel and apartheid South Africa during the years of sanctions, when millions of dollars of weapons were supplied by Israel to the apartheid regime?

The friendships that you have shared with the late Palestinian scholar Edward Said, or John Dugard, UN Special Rapporteur on Palestinian Rights in the Occupied Territories, have offered you ample insight into the depths of the violence inflicted daily on Palestinians by the Israeli state. The 2001 World Conference Against Racism, held in Durban, South Africa, labeled Israel as a “racist, apartheid state” and denounced its policies as “crimes against humanity.” Archbishop Desmond Tutu has even asserted that the situation in Palestine is worse than apartheid South Africa.

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Lettre ouverte à Erri de Luca.

Cher Erri de Luca

Si nous prenons la plume pour vous écrire c’est que nous sommes avant tout des lecteurs de vos livres, qui apprécions beaucoup votre travail ainsi que votre parcours, si nous en croyons les articles que nous avons lus à votre sujet.

Nous croyons savoir que vous êtes un homme épris de justice. Nous savons aussi que vous vous intéressez à la Bible et au judaïsme, et que vous avez appris l’hébreu. Cette curiosité vous honore. Toutefois l’histoire du judaïsme, qui comporte de très belles pages dépasse, et de loin, celle de l’Etat d’Israël qui ne comporte que des pages tachées de sang. C’est parce que nous avons peur que vous confondiez les deux que nous vous demandons de reconsidérer votre participation au prochain Festival International des Ecrivains de Jérusalem, au mois de Mai.

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THURDAY MAY 8, 2008
11am Phillips Square
(Ste-Catherine & Union)
11:45am Place du Canada
(Boul. Rènè Lèvesque & rue de la Cathédrale /Metcalf)

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Bold claims about Middle East peace from
London ring hollow in the empty streets of Gaza.

It is a strange feeling: after working as a productive professional in Gaza for five years, I have become a black market junkie. I make several phone calls a day hunting for fuel for my car, diesel for the electricity generator waiting on standby to power the house, even cigarettes and vitamins. The only way to get hold of these things, to buy life-saving medicines, to purchase the essentials for a life of basic dignity, is through the black market, if at all. Today all Gaza suffers severe water shortages, with the fuel needed to pump and transport water (as well as sewage) dangerously scarce. The few cars seen on Gaza’s mostly empty streets today almost invariably run on used cooking oil due to the lack of diesel.

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Fédération nationale des enseignantes et des enseignants du Québec (FNEEQ-CSN)

M. Denis Lemelin. Président national
Syndicat des travailleurs et travailleuses des postes

Au nom de la Fédération nationale des enseignantes et des enseignants du Québec (FNEEQ-CSN), j’aimerais féliciter le Syndicat des travailleurs et travailleuses des postes (STTP) pour l’adoption d’une importante résolution de solidarité avec le peuple palestinien, lors de son congrès du 13 au 18 avril dernier réunissant des représentantes et représentants de plus de 50 000 travailleurs et travailleuses de l’État canadien. En effet, la recommandation adoptée par le STTP exprime, non seulement un appui politique à la lutte du peuple palestinien, mais elle permet de renforcir la campagne internationale de boycottage, de désinvestissement et de sanctions (BDS) contre l’apartheid israélien, tant qu’Israël ne respectera pas ses obligations de reconnaître le droit inaliénable du peuple palestinien à l’autodétermination et ne se conformera pas aux préceptes du droit international, incluant le droit au retour des réfugiés palestiniens dans leurs foyers et sur leurs terres, tel que stipulé par la résolution 194 des Nations Unies.

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May Actions Against Israeli Apartheid in Montreal.

Join in Actions & Events taking place in Montreal throughout the month of
May 2008, which marks sixty years of struggle against Israeli apartheid.

April 2008.

April 2008: We the undersigned organizations congratulate the Canadian Union of Postal workers (CUPW) for joining the international boycott of Israeli apartheid. We call on workers and labour unions worldwide to join CUPW in creating a strong and effective labour movement in solidarity with struggles against Israeli apartheid and violence.

At the national convention of CUPW, representing over fifty thousand workers across Canada, a strong majority of delegates voted for a resolution in support of the international campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israeli apartheid.

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When you hit your 60th birthday, most of you will guzzle down your hormone replacement therapy with a glass of champagne and wonder if you have become everything you dreamed of in your youth. In a few weeks, the state of Israel is going to have that hangover.

She will look in the mirror and think – I have a sore back, rickety knees and a gun at my waist, but I’m still standing. Yet somewhere, she will know she is suppressing an old secret she has to face. I would love to be able to crash the birthday party with words of reassurance. Israel has given us great novelists like Amos Oz and A.B. Yehoshua, great film-makers like Joseph Cedar, great scientific research into Alzheimer’s, and great dissident journalists like Amira Hass, Tom Segev and Gideon Levy to expose her own crimes.

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