- In commemoration of the 60th year of the Palestinian Nakbah (Catastrophe),
NECEF and SPHR present Israeli Historian and Professor Ilan Pappé.
- Tuesday March 25th, 7:30pm
Concordia University, room H-110
1455 De Maisonneuve Blvd. West
Representatives of 25 Egyptian and Arab syndicates, led by Mohamed Salmawy and Ibrahim El-Moalem, chairman of the Arab Publishers Union, submitted a memorandum to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 24 February explaining the reasons behind the Arab protest at Israel’s invitation as guest of honour at this year’s Paris Book Fair, which opened in the French capital last week.
“Honouring Israel, and celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of Israel’s independence, a state which constantly violates international peace and the basic human rights of the Palestinian people, can only be seen as an unjustified provocation for Arab and international public opinion,” the memorandum read.
Hundreds of protesters gathered in downtown Montreal on Saturday, March 15th to participate in an international day of action against the U.S. military occupation of Iraq and in Canadian cities in opposition to Canada’s military role in Afghanistan.
The current Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip was highlighted within the Montreal demonstration, as a Palestine focused contingent called for an end to Israeli apartheid. Protesters also directed attention on Canadian complicity towards Israeli military policies towards the Palestinians, which have left over one-hundred Palestinians dead in the past weeks.
JERUSALEM: A United Nations panel voted overwhelmingly this month to condemn Israel for a recent armed incursion in the Gaza Strip that claimed more than 120 lives, many of them civilian.
Thirty-three member countries of the 47-seat UN Human Rights Council endorsed the resolution, which accused Israel of war crimes in its ongoing battles against Palestinian militants in Gaza.
Yesterday, Occupation forces carried out a widespread demolition operation across the West Bank. Communities in the Jordan Valley were the hardest hit, although people in the Qalqilya district were also affected.
Around 9:00 in the morning, Occupation border police, soldiers and the so-called “civil administration” forces rolled into al-Hadidya with a bulldozer. Residents reported that a massive number of jeeps and soldiers surrounded the small community and began demolition quickly.
Quand il a quitté Montréal, en avril 2007, pour aller passer quelque temps chez sa mère, dans la bande de Gaza, Marouane Aboudraz croyait faire un voyage de trois ou quatre mois, question de présenter ses deux derniers-nés à leur grand-mère.
Mais ce voyage s’est transformé en cauchemar. En juin 2007, le mouvement intégriste Hamas a pris le contrôle de ce territoire palestinien dont les frontières ont été hermétiquement scellées par Israël. Et la famille Aboudraz s’est retrouvée coincée en enfer.
Canada’s government has failed to respond to the ongoing crisis in the Gaza Strip.
Today, Montreal families recently visiting relatives in Gaza remain trapped under the Israeli bombardment, having received no assistance from Canadian consulate authorities in the Middle East or in Ottawa.
Canada’s first trade accord signed outside the western hemisphere was with Israel in 1997. International trade relations with Canada, the U.S. and the European Union are essential components to Israel’s economy, creating external markets for Israeli products to be sold, while embedding Israeli economic activity within the international market. Today, Palestinians are appealing for an international campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions on Israel, in response to the ongoing occupation of Palestine defined by a military enforced apartheid facing the Palestinian people.
Throughout the Middle East a strong campaign against the normalization of economic and political relations with Israel remains. Kole Kilibarda is an organizer with the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid in Toronto, which is campaigning against the Israel-Canada free trade agreement. Kilibarda explains the details of the Canada-Israel trade agreement, while offering a critique on Canada’s interest in maintaining a trade accord with Israel.
Listen to an interview with Sam Hadeeb from the Popular Committee Against the Siege in Gaza. In the face of ongoing Israeli military actions directed at the Gaza Strip, which have taken the lives of over one-hundred Palestinians within the past week — including children — a popular committee has formed in Gaza, which has been coordinating a series of popular direct actions and appealing for protests lead by social justice movements throughout the world.