by Edmund Sanders, Los Angeles Times, June 2010

Photo Palestinian child walk to U.N. school in Gaza.

Reporting from Gaza City — Don’t ask Hatem Hajaj whether there’s a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.

Four months ago, the unemployed salesclerk’s son was born with a heart blockage. Doctors told Hajaj that the baby’s only hope was transfer to a Jerusalem hospital because Gaza lacked a pediatric surgery unit.

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LA Times Saree Makdisi, June 13, 2010

Photo ActiveStills Israeli activists protest Israeli Gaza freedom flotilla massacre.

Unconscionable. Offensive. Hurtful. Bigoted. Terrible. Hateful.

These are the words being used to describe Helen Thomas’ recent comment about Israel and Palestine. Editorialists across the country have condemned her statement that Jews should “get the hell out of Palestine” and “go back” to Europe.

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Monday, June 21 6:30pm
First floor
The School of Community and Public Affairs
2149 MacKay
Between Maisonneuve and Sherbrooke
Metro Guy-Concordia, bus 165 or 24

All those interested in getting involved in the movement for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israeli apartheid and for Palestinian human rights are welcome to attend an open meeting of Tadamon!

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Adri Nieuwhof, Electronic Intifada, 4 June 2010

Photo Palestinian youth launches stone towards Israeli occupation forces.

Israel’s bloody attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla on 31 May killing at least nine and injuring dozens of activists carrying humanitarian aid to the blockaded Gaza Strip, has already intensified global actions for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it respects international law and human rights, including endorsement by major trade unions in several countries.

The Gaza Freedom Flotilla was on an honorable, peaceful mission in solidarity with the Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip, challenging the Israeli-imposed blockade that has deprived them of basic necessities and the ability to travel outside their densely populated enclave for four years.

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Survivor’s account of Mavi Marmara, by Lubna Masarwa, ISM 7 June 2010

Photo Israeli military ships prepare to raid Mavi Maramara off Gaza coastline.

During the Israeli attack on the Mavi Maramara, deep in international waters, I was inside the body of the ship. We were unarmed civilians ranging in age from a one-year-old child to an 88-year-old priest. We were going to Gaza to break the siege that Israel has imposed on a million-and-a-half people for the last four years. We were carrying a cargo of humanitarian and construction aid as well as letters from Turkish children to the children of Gaza. We were full of hope. When the attack began at 4 AM on the 31/5/10, our ship was transformed into a military target. On the deck, at first there was heavy firing, and then the Israeli occupation’s commandos took control of the ship.

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by Jamal Elshayyal Al Jazeera June 6th, 2010

Photo Activists on board the Mavi Marmara within the Gaza Freedom Flotilla

Firstly I must apologize for taking so long to update my blog. The events of the past few days have been hectic to say the least, and I am still trying to come to grips with many of the things that have happened.

It was this time last week that I was on the top deck of the Mavi Marmara, and first spotted Israeli war ships in the distance, as they approached the humanitarian flotilla. Little did I know how deadly and bloody were the events that soon began to unfold.

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Palestinian Trade Union Movement Calls on International Dockworkers Unions to Block Loading/Offloading Israeli Ships Until Israel Complies Fully with International Law and Ends its Illegal Siege of Gaza

Photo Israeli military forces raids the Gaza freedom flotilla.

June 7, 2010 – The Palestinian trade union movement, as a key constituent member of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) calls on dockworkers’ unions worldwide to block Israeli maritime trade in response to Israel’s massacre of humanitarian relief workers and activists aboard the Freedom Flotilla, until Israel complies with international law and ends its illegal blockade of Gaza.

Drunk with power and impunity, Israel has ignored recent appeals by the UN Secretary General as well as a near consensus among world governments to end its siege, putting the onus on international civil society to shoulder the moral responsibility of holding Israel accountable to international law and ending its criminal impunity. Dockworkers around the world have historically contributed to the struggle against injustice, most notably against the apartheid regime in South Africa, when port workers unions refused to load/offload cargo on/from South African ships as a most effective way of protesting the apartheid regime.

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June 7 2010 Tadamon! letter to Fédération des Femmes du Québec (FFQ)

Photo: Alaa Badarneh Palestinian woman clashing with Israeli soldier in 2004 during a demonstration against the controversial security barrier near the West Bank village of Al-Zawiya, north west of Qalqilya city.

Dear Ms. Conradi, Montreal Middle East solidarity collective Tadamon would like to extend its warm congratulations to the members of the Fédération des Femmes du Québec (FFQ) (Québec Federation of Women). At its most recent convention on May 29 and 30, 2010 in Québec City, the Federation’s members voted unanimously in favour of a historic resolution in support of the global campaign of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israeli apartheid.

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Gulf News by Abbas Al Lawati, June 4 2010.

Photo Alberto Denkberg An activist, arrested aboard a Gaza-bound ship, places his hands against the window of a bus as it leaves Ella prison in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba June 2, 2010. Israel began expelling all activists seized during a raid on an aid convoy sailing to Gaza that has drawn international outrage and officials on Wednesday vowed to prevent any other ships from reaching the coastal territory.

“Going to get some sleep. Action continues in a couple of hours. Hope we still have internet access.”

That was one of my last few posts on Twitter before the partially successful Israeli media blackout on the Mavi Marmara, the biggest passenger ship on the Freedom Flotilla to Gaza which came under an Israeli attack that killed nine people.

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download document from Omar Barghouti May 31 2010

Photo Gaza sign in Bosnia day after the Israeli massacre of the freedom flotilla.

Only a few days since Israel’s illegal and fatal act of aggression against the Gaza Freedom Flotilla,, BDS-related reactions around the world were quick and qualitatively consequential.

Building on 5 years of international BDS activism since the Palestinian Civil Society Call for BDS was launched on 9 July 2005, a year and a half since Israel’s war crimes in Gaza, when its base criminality and status was revealed to the world, and months after the watershed UN Goldstone report, international civil society’s tolerance of Israel’s impunity and war crimes has grown very thin.

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