Photo: Stefan Christoff. Wires in sky, Ein el-Hilweh, Palestinian camp, Lebanon.
Pictures of Fouad Sakr’s family line the walls of his modest Park Extension apartment in Montreal north.
“My son’s wedding in Lebanon,” said Sakr, pointing to a framed photograph displaying the smiling faces of his son, his son’s bride, his wife and himself.
On the other side of the room, school photos of Sakr’s granddaughters hang beneath two recognizable images: a small Palestinian flag and the Lebanese cedar tree, the country’s national symbol.
At the Quebec Social Forum thousands converged in Montreal from throughout Quebec for concerts, workshops and conferences focused on building social justice movements. On Saturday, October 10th hundreds gathered at cégep du Vieux Montréal for the tenth edition of Artists Against Apartheid, presented as a main cultural event within the Quebec Social Forum.
Featured at the concert was Qurna a conceptual and experimental music project of Iraqi Maqam music, lead by Omar Dewachi on oud and featuring Jérémi Roy on double bass, Pierre-Guy Blanchard on percussion, Sam Shalabi on oud, Radwan Moumneh on saz, Xarah Dion on synth and Zayid Al-Baghdadi on nay. Sabrien Amrov documented the concert via photograph presented now on-line.
As we made ourselves comfortable on a terrace at a nearby café, Rawi Hage began scanning the neighboring tables for an ashtray. “Do you mind if I smoke?” I didn’t, and reached over behind me and snagged the seemingly last ashtray that had yet to be claimed. Not lighting up right away, Hage began maneuvering a small, tightly packed cigar between his fingers as he began telling me about his travel plans for the summer: Europe, Australia and all of Canada. There is so much to see, we agreed, and any city, town or far off countryside is as good as any to start with.
Campagne de Boycott – Désinvestissement – Sanctions au Forum social québécois
Photo: Valerian Mazataud. In Montreal Mohammed Khatib speaks to the media.
Eyewitnesses on the ground in Bil’in, Palestine, recount that in the early morning hours of Sept. 16, Israeli occupation forces seriously beat Palestinian community member and activist Mohammad Khatib during a nighttime military raid on civilian homes in Bil’in.
“As Israeli soldiers came into Bil’in, Mohammad came over to the soldiers who were raiding a civilian home without pretext and threw him down on the ground and began beating him,” outlines Israeli human rights lawyer Emily Schaeffer who represents Bil’in village.
Photo: Kevin Walsh. Riot police in front Concordia University, September 2002.
This past August, Concordia President Judith Woodsworth was the opening speaker at a Conference entitled, “Israel on Campus: Defending Our Universities.”
anticipating DAM’s Montreal concert we screen documentary film Slingshot Hip Hop.
