Members of a tiny Palestinian farming community will be in Quebec Superior Court tomorrow claiming two Canadian construction companies are committing war crimes by building condominiums and roads on the village’s land in the West Bank.
It will be the first time that Canada’s War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity Act, passed in 2000, will be used in a civil case.
While diminishing water resources are a global concern, in Palestine the struggle for water is not against global warming or multinational corporations, but for access to water, and against contamination of what precious resources there are.
Mohamed Ahmed, director of the Water Control Department in the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA), says “there continues to be a very rapid depletion and deterioration of ground water.”
What is behind the latest wave of legislative proposals flooding the Knesset agenda? I refer specifically to those intended to curb manifestations of Palestinian patriotism and to restrict the political activity of Arab Israelis.
Netanyahu and Lieberman
The aim of these laws is to impose the Israeli nationalist creed by coercion. It’s really that simple. Over the last decade, the Knesset has experienced several bursts of legislative activity seeking to restrict freedom of opinion and expression on the questions of the Jewishness of the state and the right to resist occupation. The advocates of these laws are indefatigable. If the proposals fail to pass through any of the necessary stages, they are resubmitted over and over again in the hope of wearing out their opponents.
Excitement is building around the ongoing Artists Against Apartheid concert series, which unites ground breaking artists and musicians in Montreal in solidarity with Palestinian human rights. As part of the annual Suoni per il Popolo music festival the eighth edition of Artists Against Apartheid featured some of the most celebrated grassroots artists in Montreal.
Esmerine headlined the concert with a quartet performance that included an appearance from singer Lhasa de Sela, while saxophonist Colin Stetson opened the concert stunning the audience at La Sala Rossa with a performance that clearly outlined the reasons for the growing hype surrounding Stetson’s music. Also joining the evening was Jean the Hatchet a collaboration between violinist Sarah Neufeld of Arcade Fire and Bell Orchestre, percussionist Shahzad Ismaily from New York City and Colin Stetson.
The small Palestinian village of Bilin will face-off this month against two Canadian corporations accused of aiding and abetting the colonization of the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Bilin has charged Green Park International and Green Mount International with illegally constructing residential buildings and other settlement infrastructure on village territory, and marketing such structures to the civilian population of the State of Israel. The condominiums in question are located in a settlement neighborhood known as Matityahu East.
Independent Jewish Voices (Canada) voted to join the growing international campaign in support of the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel, at its first Annual General Meeting this past weekend. This decision makes IJV the first national Jewish organization in the world to do so.
The adopted resolution states that IJV will “Support the Palestinian call for a campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and complies with the precepts of international law, including the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.”
While Israel’s right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to expand Israeli colonies in the West Bank, in a key speech in Cairo last week the Obama administration called Israeli settlements a violation of international law and an impediment to peace talks.
The heated international issue will become a local one this month when two Quebec companies involved in Israeli settlement construction on Palestinian lands will face a potential lawsuit in Quebec Superior Court.
First came the fence, which splintered the olive trees from Bil’in, the Palestinian village that tended them. Then came the tear gas canister that hit a local, well-liked man named Basem Abu Rahme in the chest, killing him.
Everyone knew Basem, which is what everyone called him. Mohammed Khatib, one of the village’s 1,700 residents, was at that protest, and is still deeply disturbed by the death. Khatib, 35, was in Toronto on the weekend on a national tour to promote the village’s latest bid to seek justice – using Quebec’s courts to stop Israeli settlements.
lecture with: Mohammed Khatib from Bil’in with Emily Schaeffer Israeli lawyer
