Tents of communist party supporters at the Beirut sit-in.

by Maria Abi-Habib, Montreal Gazette, December 10th, 2006.

Ibtisam Jamaleddine stood in the room of her dead son, Maxim. Maxim was 18 years old when he was mistaken for a fighter and killed by an Israeli missile during this summer’s war between Israel and Hezbollah.

Pictures of Che Guevara and soccer players as well as a plaque dedicated to Shiite Islam’s most revered imam, Ali, adorn the walls of his room. They tell a story unknown in the West, of the complex nature of forces that fought Israel last summer.

(…اكثر)

Toronto Sun Friday, December 15th, 2006, By Sid Ryan

I think I know what the messages on Jimmy Carter’s voice mail sound like.

Last month, the former U.S. President released his book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. And I bet he’s getting an earful.

Last spring, 900 delegates to the Canadian Union of Public Employees [CUPE] Ontario convention overwhelmingly passed a resolution expressing support for the global campaign against Israeli apartheid. (…اكثر)

Today we are launching an appeal for a world-wide cultural boycott against the Israeli state.

John Berger

UK Guardian newspaper, December 15, 2006

Today I am supporting a world-wide appeal to teachers, intellectuals and artists to join the cultural boycott of the state of Israel, as called for by over a hundred Palestinian academics and artists, and – very importantly – also by a number of Israeli public figures, who outspokenly oppose their country’s illegal occupation of the Palestine territories of the West Bank and Gaza. Their call, printed in the Guardian today, can be read here. A full list of signatories can be found here.

(The drawing, After Guernica, is by John Berger.)

(…اكثر)

On Saturday, 16 December 2006, Palestinian solidarity activists gathered on St. Catherine street in downtown Montreal to draw attention to a 2005 appeal from over 170 Palestinian civil-society organizations to, Boycott, Divest from and implement Sanctions against Israel “until it Complies with International Law and Universal Principles of Human Rights.”

Distributing information to Montrealers strolling downtown, members of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and Tadamon! appealed to passers-by to support the Palestinian call to boycott Israel.

Audio report here.  

Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions Against Israel: www.bds-palestine.net and www.stopthewall.org.

Also see www.caiaweb.org for updates in the Canadian BDS campaign against Israeli apartheid.

[This audio report was produced by Stefan Christoff of Tadamon! for broadcast on CKUT Radio, 90.3fm in Montreal & Internet distribution through Electronic Intifada.]

Christmas shopping: what better time to boycott Israeli apartheid

From Kosovo to Lebanon, cluster bomb casualties continue to mount

By Frida Berrigan – IN THESE TIMES

In just one week in October, a series of bomb scares swept across Germany. Outside of Hannover, 22,000 people were evacuated when three bombs were discovered. A few days later in the same city, a weapons removal squad defused a 500-pound bomb found near the highway. Finally, a highway worker was killed when his cutting machine hit a buried bomb on the main highway into Frankfurt.

The bombs hadn’t been planted by terrorists, and they weren’t the opening salvos of the next war. The culprit was unexploded ordnance left over from a war fought more than 60 years ago. “We’ll have enough work to keep us busy for the next 100 to 120 years,” the owner of a bomb-defusing company told the New York Times.

The submunitions dispersed by cluster bombs are a lot smaller than 500 pounds, but their use in every major conflict since World War II ensures that bomb clearers the world over will have work for decades—even centuries—to come. From Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, to the countries of the former Yugoslavia, and onto Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon, modern battlefields are littered with bombs that continue to kill long after wars have ended. Ninety-eight percent of those killed or injured by cluster bombs are civilians. And yet international efforts to restrict the use of cluster bombs—modeled after landmine treaties of previous years—are being undermined by lack of U.S. participation. Worse, instead of destroying old cluster bomb stockpiles, the United States is exporting them to allies around the world. (…اكثر)

Montreal Mirror: by Stefan Christoff

Almost four months have passed since Montrealer Hassan El Akhras lost 11 family members to an Israeli air strike in the south Lebanese village of Aitaroun. Currently, legal representatives of the family are pressing the Conservative government for action on the case.

Despite existing legal efforts, Hassan El Akhras holds little faith in the current government. “The government has done nothing,” says El Akhras. “Our family wants the Canadian government to launch an international investigation on the war crime committed against my family, but we have gotten no phone call, nothing.”
(…اكثر)

سماح ادريس – جريدة النهار
ستندلع حرب في الصيف المقبل. الساحة وحدها هي ما لم يتم اختياره بعد. الاجواء لدى قوات الدفاع الاسرائيلية كانت في الشهر الماضي [تشرين الثاني] متشائمة جداً. الجولات الاخيرة في الحملتين العسكريتين كلتيهما، على جبهتي لبنان وقطاع غزة، خلّفت كثيراً من القضايا معلّقة، وكثيراً من الصواعق المحتملة التي قد تسبّب حريقاً هائلاً جديداً. وقد استنتج الجيش الاسرائيلي من ذلك أن حرباً في المستقبل القريب احتمال معقول… وتفترض قوات الدفاع الاسرائيلية أن حرباً ستندلع ضد حزب الله، وربما ضد سوريا ايضاً، خلال أشهر الصيف المقبلة

هذا ما كتبه صحافيان في جريدة هآرتس الاسرائيلية بتاريخ 4/12/2006. ولكن هنا، في قلب بيروت، تبدو الاجواء مختلفة. فالمعارضة في الشارع تعتصم حتى تشكيل حكومة “اتحاد وطني” أو “وحدة وطنية”، أو حتى إسقاط حكومة فؤاد السنيورة. والاحتقان السنّي – الشيعي بلغ أوجه، رغم تطمينات الجميع بأن لبنان لا يمكن أن “يتعرقن” (سبق أن سمعنا في الماضي تطمينات بأن العراق لا يمكن أن “يتلبنن”). شهيد (اسمه “قتيل” لدى أنصار الحكومة) سقط في صفوف المعارضة. الجرحى بالعشرات. صحف غربية تتحدث عن تسليح جديد وصل قوى الامن الداخلي من إحدى الدول العربية لمواجهة نفوذ “حزب الله” وايران. صور رفيق الحريري تمزّق. صور حسن نصرالله تتعرض لإطلاق النار. المسؤول الطالبي في الحزب الاشتراكي يتعرّض للضرب. المقاومة يراد لها أن تكون في الزواريب

لكنها ليست زواريب مارون الراس وبنت جبيل وعيتا الشعب التي لقّنت العدو الاسرائيلي ودباباته الميركافا أقسى الدروس. بل هي زواريب كورنيش المزرعة والبربير والطريق الجديدة وقصقص والدنا؛ و”العدوّ” الآن يراد له أن يكون لبنانياً سنيّاً. والهدف: قبر المقاومة الاسلامية في الزواريب البيروتية، بعدما عجزت فرنسا والولايات المتحدة عن نزع سلاحها بالقرار الدولي 1559، وبعدما عجزت الولايات المتحدة واسرائيل عن محقها وتدمير سلاحها أو مصادرته في اجتياح تموز – آب الاخير

لكأننا أمام سيناريو قديم يُراد له أن يتجدّد، أو أمام مشهد يُراد لنا أن نشعر بأننا قد رأيناه من قبل: سيناريو الصراع الفلسطيني – اللبناني زمن الثمانينات، أو مشهد المقاومة الفلسطينية وهي تتحول عن قتال العدو الاسرائيلي لتغرق في مستنقع حرب الدكاكين (التي ساهمت، هي أحياناً، في تفريخها). وبعيداً عن تبنّي نظرية المؤامرة كيفما أتت، يتساءل المرء: أتكون من بشائر الشرق الاوسط الاميركي الجديد، بعد لبننة العراق، عرقنة لبنان و”فلسطنة” المقاومة الاسلامية اللبنانية؟

لقراءة المقالة كاملة، انقر هنا: كلنا… بدنا نعيش

I’m somebody with nobody’ campaign grew out of wartime humanitarian movement
By Iman Azzi – Daily Star

BEIRUT: As anti-government protesters concluded their second week of camping out in the city center on Thursday, another – albeit smaller and shorter – protest arrived in Beirut. Not only was it a demonstration against the demonstration, but it was also a demonstration against the government, and the 20 people who participated took their anti-status quo sentiment to the streets – or one street.

The “I’m somebody with nobody” campaign kicked off Thursday evening on Hamra Street with hopes of uniting Lebanese citizens who feel isolated by the polarized politics plaguing the country. (…اكثر)

(…اكثر)