Qualified as a “war crime” by Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa and illegal “collective punishment” by the European Union and international agencies, the humanitarian and political crisis created by Israel’s five-day hermetic seal on Gaza is taking a toll not only on the 1.5 million inhabitants of the impoverished coastal strip. Damaged “beyond repair”, according to several Palestinians speaking to Al-Ahram Weekly from Rafah, is the image of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is being widely blamed for “turning a blind eye to the misery of his own people in Gaza” while continuing to engage in talks with Israel on peace.

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ZAWTAR WEST, 22 January: Deminers clearing Israeli-dropped cluster bombs in south Lebanon are turning up an average of 10 new sites per month, while Israel continues to ignore requests for data that would assist clearing the estimated one million unexploded bomblets, which continue to kill and maim civilians and decimate rural livelihoods. A single cluster bomb can disperse hundreds of bomblets.

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Last night I received a text message from my dear friend Fida: “It’s coming down — it’s coming down!” she declared ecstatically. “Laila! The Palestinians destroyed [the] Rafah wall, all of it. All of it not part of it! Your sister, Fida.”

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amenez bannières, pancartes, instruments pour faire du bruit…

VENDREDI, le 25 janvier, 14h
Coin Maisonneuve & Mackay
Finira au Square Phillips
(métro Guy-Concordia)
Montréal, Quebec

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Plusieurs villes à travers le Canada et dans le monde participent à une semaine entière d’actions contre l’apartheid israélien du 3 au 10 février. Cette semaine d’actions a été initiée au niveau local en Palestine et en est à sa quatrième année d’existence. En 2008, la semaine contre l’apartheid israélien a lieu au moment de la commémoration des 60 ans de Nakba palestinienne (‘catastrophe’) -60 ans de dépossession, de nettoyage ethnique et d’exil pour les Palestiniens, résultant de la création de l’État d’Israël. Tadamon ! Montréal vous invite à participer à une série d’événements afin de marquer cette semaine contre l’apartheid à Montréal…

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Nahr el-Bared, camp de réfugiés palestiniens situé au bord de la Méditerranée, au Liban près de Tripoli, a été le théâtre d’un violent conflit entre l’armée libanaise et la faction armée Fatah al-Islam, du 20 mai au 4 septembre 2007, obligeant ses 40,000 résidents à évacuer contre leur gré. Aujourd’hui, il ne reste que des ruines, la plupart inhabitables.

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2007 has been a busy and exciting year for the Palestine solidarity movement. While Mahmoud Abbas and Ehud Olmert attempt to hide Israel’s crimes behind the lie of ‘peace negotiations’, thousands of individuals and organizations around the world are building a real and effective alternative centered on boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israeli apartheid. Here in Toronto, the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) has been a proud participant in this global movement. This brief report captures some of our activities over 2007.

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As two of the authors of a recent document advocating a one-state solution to the Arab-Israeli colonial conflict, we intended to generate debate. Predictably, Zionists decried the proclamation as yet another proof of the unwavering devotion of Palestinian – and some radical Israeli – intellectuals to the “destruction of Israel”. Some pro-Palestinian activists accused us of forsaking immediate and critical Palestinian rights in the quest of a “utopian” dream.

Inspired in part by the South African Freedom Charter and the Belfast Agreement, the much humbler One State Declaration, authored by a group of Palestinian, Israeli and international academics and activists, affirms that “the historic land of Palestine belongs to all who live in it and to those who were expelled or exiled from it since 1948, regardless of religion, ethnicity, national origin or current citizenship status”. It envisages a system of government founded on “the principle of equality in civil, political, social and cultural rights for all citizens”.

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Lebanon ended the year much as it had begun, in political limbo. In November 2006, six ministers’ resignations paralysed the government and crystallised the two-year-old split between government loyalists and the opposition. A year later, president Emile Lahoud’s term ended without a successor, leaving a dangerous vacuum at the top. As the year drew to a close, it looked as though Lebanon would drift rudderless until either fractious politicians resolved their power struggle, or frustrations spread to the streets.

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Why are feds subsidizing the refurbishment of a park built on razed Palestinian towns?

Ramallah, Palestine: It‚s easy to forget, while soaking up the tranquillity along with happy picnickers under the pine trees, that Canada Park is steeped in a disturbing controversy.

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