Last night the rains finally arrived in Beit Jala, a small town in the West Bank, one kilometer west of Bethlehem and about eight kilometers south of Jerusalem. Its alluring hills are covered with olive trees, vineyards and apricots. In 1967 Israel confiscated 22 percent of Beit Jala’s land. Now, the construction of Israel’s separation wall is in full swing and will cut off another 45 per cent of Beit Jala’s land. We went to visit the area to feel the impact of the wall and listen to the stories of the farmers who didn’t sell their land and choose to resist the its confiscation.

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In the European Union, Canada and the United States, numerous organizations – including many national liberation movements and organizations – are listed as “designated terrorist organizations.” This status is used in an attempt to criminalize popular resistance and national liberation movements, equate those movements with “terrorism,” frighten and silence communities’ support of their national movements, and potentially penalize supporters of the Palestinian cause, as well as other national liberation movements.

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JERUSALEM: The Israeli army on Monday said it will not press charges against officers who ordered the use of cluster bombs during last year’s war in Lebanon, brushing off international criticism that the weapons unnecessarily put Lebanese civilians at risk.

Announcing the results of a more than year-long probe, the army said investigators determined Israel’s use of cluster bombs was a “concrete military necessity” and did not violate international humanitarian law. Lebanese officials accused the army of covering up war crimes.

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GAZA CITY: “Santa Claus is empty handed this year … insolvent,” says Father Manuel Musallam, head of the Holy Family School in Gaza City.

“All forms of celebration are absent,” he says, raising his empty palms skywards. “We Christians and Muslims all live in fear and instability. The Israeli tanks, bulldozers and warplanes have laid siege on us all.”

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Friday, December 21
12 noon to 1pm
The Israeli Consulate
Peel & Rene Levesque

Since Monday, December 17, in a series of air strikes that are continuing, Israel killed 24 and wounded dozens of residents of the Gaza strip leaving some of them with severed limbs. Israeli air strikes in the past also bombed crowded streets and markets in Gaza — Gaza is the most densely populated place on earth — resulting in many civilian casualties.

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Palestinian medical sources reported on Tuesday that six Palestinians have been killed and 19 others wounded, during an Israeli army ground offensive on southern Gaza Strip today.

Dr. Moa’wiya Abu Hasanin, chief of emergency room of the health ministry, told the IMEMC that a number of the wounded had to undergo surgery to amputate limbs and that majority of those killed had burns all over their bodies.

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For decades, efforts to bring about a two-state solution in historic Palestine have failed to provide justice and peace for the Palestinian and Israeli Jewish peoples, or to offer a genuine process leading towards them.

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(Beirut, December 4, 2007) – Lebanese authorities arrest Iraqi refugees without valid visas and detain them indefinitely to coerce them to return to Iraq, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

“Iraqi refugees in Lebanon live in constant fear of arrest,” said Bill Frelick, refugee policy director for Human Rights Watch. “Refugees who are arrested face the prospect of rotting in jail indefinitely unless they agree to return to Iraq and face the dangers there.”

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A presentation given by Brian Aboud in Montreal on Wednesday, October 17th, hosted by Tadamon! Montreal & the Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG) at McGill University within the context of the campaign to challenging Hezbollah’s listing as a ’Terrorist’ Group in Canada.

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Listen to a presentation from Bilal Elamine, the former editor of Left Turn magazine concerning the role of Hezbollah as a political force in Lebanon, touching on the 2006 Israeli attack on Lebanon, the recent political crisis / turmoil in Lebanon, including the general strike of 2006 and opposition demonstrations.

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