Toronto Star, Jun 16, 2009 by Iain Marlow.

Photo: ActiveStills. Palestinians protest Israeli apartheid wall.

First came the fence, which splintered the olive trees from Bil’in, the Palestinian village that tended them. Then came the tear gas canister that hit a local, well-liked man named Basem Abu Rahme in the chest, killing him.

Everyone knew Basem, which is what everyone called him. Mohammed Khatib, one of the village’s 1,700 residents, was at that protest, and is still deeply disturbed by the death. Khatib, 35, was in Toronto on the weekend on a national tour to promote the village’s latest bid to seek justice – using Quebec’s courts to stop Israeli settlements.

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lecture with: Mohammed Khatib from Bil’in with Emily Schaeffer Israeli lawyer

FRIDAY JUNE 19, 19h00
donations encouraged
De Sève Cinema
Concordia University
1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd.
Montreal, Quebec

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Al Kitab (Arabic for ‘Book’), is a new book club organized by Tadamon!

Photo: James Longley. Al-Mutanabi Street in Iraq.

Al Kitab club members (six to 10 people) will meet in a comfortable place (someone’s home, a quiet café, or a room in a public library) once a month to discuss and reflect on a book.

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Vue news, by Bryan Birtles, June 4th, 2009.

Photo: ActiveStills. Palestinian resting after protest in Nil’in, Palestine.

In a somewhat stunning reminder of the way the globalization of commerce has connected the whole world in recent decades, two Canadian companies are being accused of war crimes and are being sued in Canada by the village of Bil’in, located in Palestine’s occupied West Bank.

Green Park and Green Mount International, two Québec-based construction companies, are facing accusations that their construction efforts in the occupied territories violate international law and can be considered war crimes. Violating article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention—which states, in part, “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies”—Green Park and Green Mount are building settlements on behalf of Israel, for Israeli civilians on land that belongs to Palestinians.

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cross-Canada speaking tour: June 5-22, 2009.

featuring:
Mohammed Khatib.
Popular Committee Against the Wall, Bil’in, Occupied Palestine

Emily Schaeffer.
Israeli lawyer representing the village of Bil’in

Bil’in, a Palestinian village in the West Bank, has become an internationally celebrated symbol of Palestinian popular resistance to the ongoing construction of the Israeli apartheid wall and settlements on their land. Since 2005, villagers have led weekly protests, with the active participation from both Israeli and international solidarity activists, in opposition to illegal Israeli colonization and annexation of Palestinian land.

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within the Suoni per il Popolo | photo: Matthew Cassel

SUNDAY JUNE 7
20h00 $8 in advance | $10 at door
La Sala Rossa
4848 St. Laurent
Montreal, Quebec

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photos by Ehab Lotayef and Khalil Allioui.

Photo: Ehab Lotayef. Solidarity picket with Bil’in outside Indigo in Montreal.

A protest was held in downtown Montreal in solidarity with the ongoing weekly protests in Bil’in, Palestine and to commemorate Palestinian activist Bassam Ibrahim Abou Rahme the eighteenth Palestinian killed during popular protests in Bil’in village against the Israeli apartheid wall which have occurred each week since 2005.

This protest was held in downtown Montreal at Indigo bookstore within the cross-Canada campaign launched in December 2006 to target the majority shareholders of Indigo/Chapters, Heather Reisman and Gerry Schwartz, who established the HESEG Foundation for Lone Soldiers, a program of financial support for former ‘lone soldiers,’ or non-Israeli mercenaries who leave their country to fight in the Israeli military.

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boycott Israeli apartheid | end Canada and Quebec complicity with Israeli apartheid

SUNDAY MAY 24 13h30
Demonstration: Norman Bethune Square
corner Guy and de Maisonneuve Blvd.
(metro Guy-Concordia)
Montreal, Quebec.

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Hour, by Stefan Christoff, May 7th, 2009.

Photo: ActiveStills. Protest against Israeli apartheid wall in Bil’in.

In April, Palestinian activist Bassam Ibrahim Abou Rahme was killed by Israeli military forces after being shot at close range by a teargas canister, becoming the 18th Palestinian to have been killed for protesting against the Israeli wall being built in Bil’in, a farming village.

“Bassam was a leader from the Bil’in movement against Israeli apartheid. Everyone in the village loved Bassam, who regularly worked with Israeli activists,” remembers Abdullah Abu Rahme, a Bil’in resident and activist.

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Hour interview by Meg Hewings, April 2009.

Photo: Ehab Lotayef. Egyptian soldiers at Rafah border crossing into the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli-Palestinian crisis is one of the most radioactive issues of our day, but it was conspicuously absent from the official program of this week’s Durban Anti-Racism Review Conference in Geneva.

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