Press Release: Bil’in announcs that it has commenced legal proceedings in Canada.

Photo: Palestinian village of Nilin through a window smashed by the Israeli army.

Bil’in, West Bank, Palestine: The Village of Bil’in, in the West Bank, Occupied Palestinian Territories, announced today that it has commenced legal proceedings in Canada against two Canadian Companies for committing war crimes. The case has been filed in the Quebec Superior Court sitting at Montreal, Canada. A full copy of the claim is attached.

Bil’in alleges that Green Park International Inc. and Green Mount International Inc., both registered corporations in the Province of Quebec, acting as agents for Israel, are illegally constructing residential and other buildings on lands under the municipal jurisdiction of the Village and are marketing and selling condominium units to the civilian population of the State of Israel. Bil’in further alleges in its claim that its land and the defendants are subject to the rules and obligations of international law because the West Bank is occupied territory arising from an act of war that took place in 1967.

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Israel’s apartheid wall and Israeli colony Beth-Hal Homar, West Bank, Palestine

Photos from Montreal photographer and community worker Scott Weinstein, who has traveled to Palestine to work with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society as a registered nurse. This photo essay documents the contemporary realities of Israeli colonialism and occupation in the West Bank, specifically focusing on the realities of settler violence against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank, specifically in the Palestinian city of Hebron. As documented by numerous Israeli human rights organizations, such as B’Tselem, Israeli settlers have beaten Palestinian civilians and forced many Palestinians to leave the historic city center in Hebron, traditionally an important and vibrant Palestinian market in the West Bank.

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A special edition of World Skip the Beat, on CKUT Radio in Montreal, which explores music and song from around the world inspired by immigration, Diaspora and migration. Featuring music from all corners of the world, this special program offers unique and rare musical selections from diverse artists from Algeria, Canada, Cap Verde, Egypt, France, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Lebanon, Peru, Slovakia and Spain. A special edition of World Skip the Beat produced by Dror Warschawski.

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Britain’s first Muslim minister has attacked the growing culture of hostility against Muslims in the United Kingdom, saying that many feel targeted like “the Jews of Europe”.

Shahid Malik, who was appointed as a minister in the Department for International Development (Dfid) by Gordon Brown last summer, said it has become legitimate to target Muslims in the media and society at large in a way that would be unacceptable for any other minority.

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Photo: Tyendinaga’s new longhouse on Ridge Road, Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory.

On June 29, 2007, Mohawks from Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory near Belleville, Ontario, erected blockades on the Canadian National rail line, local Highway 2, and Highway 401-the busiest thoroughfare in the country. This marked the second time in six months that the community blocked the rails in defence of their land. In the days before June 29, which had been declared a National Day of Action by the Assembly of First Nations, Mohawk spokesperson Shawn Brant explained to the CBC why the community could no longer wait on distant negotiations. “We bury our children in this country every day,” he said. “We have to force them to drink polluted water. We’re sick and tired of it. It’s going to end-June 29 is going to mark the time when First Nations people are going to be in a different relationship with the rest of the country.”

Native communities in Canada — a “Fourth World” of nations without states — continue to live a colonial legacy that traces a trajectory from the violent European settlement that began 400 years ago, through residential schools, to the colonial present of state surveillance, invasion of traditional lands, poverty, substance abuse, and some of the highest youth suicide rates in the world. According to Health Canada, Native youth are five to seven times more likely to commit suicide than non-Native youth. Canada’s Aboriginal population, particularly its youth, has the highest suicide rate of any culturally identifiable population in the world. Yet some Native communities have largely avoided the tragedy of youth suicide. What sets these communities apart? Evidence is mounting that successful resistance to colonialism may be the antidote.

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Un comité spécial de l’ONU, qui enquête sur les pratiques israéliennes affectant les droits de l’homme dans les territoires palestiniens occupés, a déclaré mardi avoir été empêché par Israël d’y accéder.

« Les autorités israéliennes ne nous ont pas permis de visiter les territoires palestiniens et n’ont donné aucune raison pour expliquer leur refus », a dit dans une conférence de presse à Amman le chef du comité, Prasad Kariyawasam, précisant toutefois qu’Israël ne reconnaissait pas leur mandat. Les trois membres du Comité spécial de l’ONU d’enquête sur les pratiques israéliennes affectant les droits de l’homme des Palestiniens et des autres Arabes des territoires occupés par Israël ont déjà visité l’Egypte et doivent se rendre en Syrie.

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Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) has published a new report titled, “Extra-judicial executions … Official, Declared Israeli Policy” covering Israeli extra-judicial executions against Palestinians during the period from 1 August 2006 till 30 June 2008. The report is the ninth of its kind in a special series on extra-judicial executions by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) against Palestinian activists during Al-Aqsa Intifada.

The first part of the report discussed international standards prohibiting extra-judicial executions. These included the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949) and additional protocols and the Rome Statute. The second part discussed the official Israeli position vis-à-vis extra-judicial executions. Israeli legislative, executive, and judicial authorities officially support this policy, making Israeli the only state in the world that officially commits these crimes.

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by Linda Tabar, Leila Mouammar & Freda Guttman. Photo: Jewish colony in Palestine.

On December 2, 2007 a Jewish National Fund fundraising dinner was held in Toronto which sought to raise $7.5 million to refurbish Canada Park in Israel, a park built on the site of a Palestinian village destroyed in 1967 and created through donations from Canadian Jewish donors. Linda Tabar, Leila Mouammar and Freda Guttman composed an op-ed article shortly before this event in order to educate the public about the JNF’s role in maintaining the Apartheid system imposed upon Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and the fact that the JNF is considered a charitable organization in Canada, therefore making donations to it tax deductible.

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Photo: Walking in south Lebanon 2006. Interview by Stefan Christoff for Tadamon!

In recent weeks, major media outlets in Canada have featured numerous news reports on Hezbollah, outlining that the armed Lebanese political party is planning military operations in North America. Media reports have been based on anonymous intelligence sources in the U.S. and Canada.

Major media coverage in Canada was ignited by a T.V. report from the U.S.-based ABC news network claiming that Hezbollah was planning operations in Canada in response to the assassination of Hezbollah’s military commander, Imad Mughniyeh, in Syria this past winter.

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Photo: Dubai skyline. Interview by Stefan Christoff for Tadamon!

Dubai is famed internationally for lifestyles and modern monuments etched by extreme wealth, a city state in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that has become an unlikely hub for international finance. In a region bombarded by the chaos of the U.S.-driven ‘war on terror’, Dubai a small city state located on the edge of Iran and Iraq has become a city of glamor and glitz, a striking paradox that has enchanted many around the world.

Dubai’s shining exterior is quickly becoming world famous, including a series of three-hundred constructed islands mapping out the shape of world, an indoor ski mountain in the boiling temperatures of the Persian Gulf and the soon to be completed Burj Dubai, now the tallest man made structure in the world.

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