May 15, 2009 - No. 97 61st Anniversary of Al Nakba Long Live the Palestinian
People
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 Palestinian holds key and certirficate of registration from his original home during a Nakba rally in the West Bank city of Nablus May 14, 2009. |
Today, May 15, marks the 61st anniversary of Al Nakba -- the Catastrophe -- commemorated by Palestinians and their supporters around the world. In 1948, Zionist terrorist bands trained, equipped and supported by the British mandate authorities began staging attacks against Palestinian civilians. Occupying a number of Palestinian towns and villages, the Zionists committed massacres against the Palestinian people and expelled them from their homes. On May 14, 1948 the state of Israel declared independence. The Nakba resulted in the immediate dispossession of hundreds of thousands Palestinians of their ancestral land. Another 350,000 were dispossessed in 1967 following the Six-Day War during which Israel occupied the Gaza Strip, West Bank, Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights. Having established itself on an unjust and illegal basis, since that time Israel has continued its genocidal occupation and other brutal crimes against the Palestinians with the full support of the U.S. imperialists and other big powers. Today there are more than 7 million Palestinian refugees and their descendants, a great many of whom have lived in refugee camps for generations. Meanwhile, Israel is used time and time again by the imperialists to threaten the peoples of the Middle East.
On this occasion, TML denounces the ongoing crimes of the Zionists and their U.S. imperialist backers against the Palestinian people, especially the continued crimes committed under the aegis of the blockade of Gaza. Just solutions are only possible so long as fundamental historical wrongs are addressed. The peoples of the world are demanding that there be justice for the Palestinian people and a reckoning for the perpetrators of these crimes. It is precisely this demand for justice and progress that the Zionists and their imperialist masters are opposed to. According to the Zionists' and imperialists' chauvinist outlook the Palestinian people and their steadfast struggle for their right to be should be eliminated. For them, history is only to be acknowledged if it serves their own interests, or if rewritten for self-serving purposes by creating "facts on the ground" in the present day, as has been done in the past. This state of affairs will never be accepted by the peoples of the world who are undertaking protests, boycotts and other actions to ensure the just cause of the Palestinians is won.
TML also denounces the nefarious actions of the Harper government as an instrument of a Zionist agenda to criminalize opposition to Israeli occupation, apartheid and genocide, both at home and abroad. Canadians are keenly aware of the role of the Canadian state in carrying out state-organized racist attacks and discrimination against national minorities, women, First Nations, persons of the Muslim, Jewish and other faiths, in the past and in the present. For the likes of Prime Minister Stephen Harper or his Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Jason Kenney to portray themselves as opposed to anti-Semitism for purposes of gaining the moral high ground to then carry out attacks against the Canadian Arab Federation, or anyone opposed to the illegal Israeli occupation is utmost opportunism and will not wash.
On this occasion, TML calls on the Canadian working class and people to stand with the Palestinian people and their just cause to ensure that this clash between progress and retrogression is resolved their favour and that of the peoples of the world.
Long Live the Palestinian
People and Their Resistance!
End the Occupation!
Uphold the Right of Return!
Al Nakba Week Memorials Take Place
in Central Gaza Strip Camps
Along with millions of Palestinian refugees locally and throughout the Diaspora, the central Gaza Strip refugee camps are preparing to mark 61 years of Al Nakba.
It is difficult to know the exact number of refugees as United Nations Relief and Works Agency statistics include only 1948 refugees and their direct descendents who request food aid, but Palestinian NGO BADIL estimated that there were 7.2 million in 2005, the Palestine News Network points out.
For the central Gaza camps of Al Bureij, Maghazi, Nuseirat and Deir Al Belah, the Popular Committee for Refugees and the National Committee in the Central Province a series of activities are taking place as part of a larger assertion of the Right of Return, the Network reports.
Commemorating the ongoing Al Nakba that began in 1948 a program of both cultural and sporting events aims to increase awareness of national rights, say the organizing committees, noting that UN Resolution 194 codifying the Right of Return cannot be waived.
"It is an individual and collective right that is part of the national rights that we must ensure are asserted," stated the Popular Committee for Refugees and the National Committee in the Central Province.
A boxing tournament from a local sports club began on May 5, with Al Nakba officially memorialized Friday, May 15. The Popular Committee for Refugees already sponsored a sporting night on May 3 with wide-spread participation in Maghazi Refugee Camp. In Nuseirat Refugee Camp the commemoration also began with athletics. Specifically political events began in Deir Al Belah with another symposium entitled, "The right to return at this juncture," held on May 5, sponsored by the Popular Committee.
In the same context, the Supreme National Committee emphasized that the message of this year's Al Nakba memorial is "the strong need to unite all of the issues, the most important of which is the Palestinian Right of Return. This is enough to pressure [the factions toward] unity for the sake of confronting challenges," it said. The slogan for radio broadcast from the central camps is: "No division on return."
This year's poster marking 61 years is begin distributed as widely as possible and within the central camps where a candlelight vigil for children calling for return kicked things off.
The organizing committees wrote: "Let us have the Right of Return on this anniversary be a unifying and pressuring force for the sake of unity to confront challenges."
(Palestine News Network)
Resistance to Continued Blockade of Gaza
UN agencies report that economic recovery in the Gaza Strip is being stopped due to Israel's ongoing blockade of cash, materials and spare parts following its brutal Cast Lead operation in late December. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) noted that the ban which prohibits importing construction supplies has also stalled major repairs on Gaza's schools after the operation launched last December, many of which were directly targetted by Israeli Occupation Forces during the assault. The attempt to isolate Gaza through prohibitions and restrictions on the entry of cash has delayed work on almost all of the 200 projects planned under the $615 million UN Flash Appeal for Gaza and its 1.5 million Palestinians residents, according to the OCHA. As of May 13, Zionist authorities were only partially opening crossings occasionally for delivery of limited food and animal fodder and the occasional truck of commercial goods, Ma'an news agency reports.
On May 9, Hamas Deputy Prime Minister Ziad al-Zaza indicated means are being found to deal with the situation and detailed the movement's plans to rebuild the massive number of houses destroyed using materials on hand: "In the next few days we will start using mud to rebuild the houses that the [Israeli] occupation destroyed in Gaza. This is a serious undertaking by the government to break the blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip."
The Hamas-run government is using blueprints approved by local municipalities and the union of Gaza engineers for three-storey buildings that "would last for decades," Zaza said. According to Zaza, the program is beginning with the building of a three-storey "model home" on 250 square meters (around 2,700 square feet) of land. The costs of the project are being covered by the government and local Palestinian aid groups. The program is creating employment including factories resuming activity, Zaza said.
OCHA's March report indicated that the continued blockade on the livelihoods of Gazans -- especially farmers, herders and fishermen -- has been exacerbated by Israeli restrictions on access to farmland along the border and to fishing areas beyond three nautical miles from the shore. For its part, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) noted in April that unemployment in Gaza has risen from 36 percent before the military operations to 43 percent since the official end of Israeli military operations on January 28. Poverty among the unemployed has also increased from 56 per cent to 66 percent during the same time period, UNDP said.
In an April 18 item from the UN News Centre, John Holmes, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, addressed the issue of aid to Gaza being made on a conditional basis: "For the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip to improve, lifesaving assistance must be decoupled from the security and political agendas."
"If the Israeli-Palestinian peace that has been sought for over 60 years, and more recently inter-Palestinian reconciliation, remain preconditions for improving living conditions, the Gaza Strip risks being dependent on handouts for years to come," he warned, appealing for the reopening of all land borders to allow urgently-needed humanitarian and reconstruction supplies into Gaza.
In March at a donors conference in Egypt, over $5 billion was pledged for reconstruction efforts in Gaza, "possibly the most significant show of donor support for Gaza in the history of the occupied Palestinian territory," Holmes, who also serves as UN Relief Coordinator, said.
However, "for once, money is not the main problem," he noted, adding that the funds are not "hitting [the] mark" with three-quarters of Gazans requiring some form of aid.
In addition, a ban on exports, apart from a few truckloads of flowers, has exacerbated the situation by crushing Gaza's job-creation industries, said Holmes, referring to the blockade as a form of collective punishment.
The blockade and aftermath of the Israeli assault are also having a severe impact on the health of Gaza residents. An April 22 item from UN News Centre reports that the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) warned the number of cases of acute watery diarrhea among children under the age of three have topped the alert threshold for the second time this year.
The agency added that test results released in March showed contamination in 14 percent of water samples, and expressed concerns that water could be further tainted by the residue of toxic munitions.
(Sources: UN News Centre, Press TV, Ma'an News Agency)
More Illegal Demolitions and Settlements
Underway in East Jerusalem
UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Robert Serry deplored the demolition of a home in East Jerusalem while on a visit to sites where Palestinian homes have either been destroyed or are being targeted for demolition, the UN News Centre reported on April 22. Serry called on Israel to stop such actions and to abide by its commitments under the Road Map, stressing that they harm ordinary Palestinians, heighten tensions in the city and undermine efforts to build trust. In spite of this reprimand, a May 10 New York Times article indicates that the demolitions are continuing:
"Israel is quietly carrying out a $100 million, multiyear development plan in some of the most significant religious and national heritage sites just outside the walled Old City here as part of an effort to strengthen the status of Jerusalem as its capital."
The New York Times says parts of the plan have been outsourced to a private group and that the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says it will push ahead despite widespread condemnation. Interior Minister Eli Yishai said of the activity in one core area: "I intend to act on this issue with full strength. This is the land of our sovereignty. Jewish settlement there is our right."
The parts of the city that are being developed were captured in the 1967 Middle East war. To provide historical legitimacy, archaeologists are finding evidence of ancient Jewish life there, which Palestinian officials and institutions say is part of an effort to build a Zionist history.
"..., while the Israeli narrative that guides the government plan focuses largely -- although not exclusively -- on Jewish history and links to the land, the Palestinian narrative heightens tensions, pushing the Israelis into a greater confrontational stance." the Times points out.
"The government development plan was first agreed upon in 2005 'to strengthen the status of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,' as it states in its opening line, and became operational in the past year, with the prime minister's office and the municipality jointly responsible.
"But no one in either office or from the private group, known as Ir David, or City of David, agreed to be interviewed over weeks of requests, reflecting the delicacy of the matter. Some written responses were provided.
"The tenor of those responses is that the improvement of the holy basin is for everyone's benefit -- Jews, Muslims and Christians -- since it involves restoration that will draw more visitors to an area of exceptional global interest that has long suffered neglect.
"The answers also made clear that Israel has no plans to negotiate yielding the area.
"As an official in the prime minister's office put it in his answer: 'Jerusalem has been the eternal capital of the Jewish people for some 3,000 years and will remain the united capital of the State of Israel. Under Israeli sovereignty, for the first time in the history of Jerusalem, the different religious communities have enjoyed freedom of worship and the holy sites of all faiths have been protected.' [...]
"The focus is clearly on Jewish heritage, however. In the larger government plan, much of the presentation is being shaped by a group with a right-wing Zionist approach, emphasizing ancient Jewish religion and history, even near mostly Palestinian neighborhoods.
"Hagit Ofran of Peace Now, a leftist Israeli group that opposes Jewish settlement in Palestinian areas and supports a two-state solution, contended that the plan aimed to create 'an ideological tourist park that will determine Jewish dominance in the area.'
"Daniel Seidemann, the founder of Ir Amim, or City of Nations, an Israeli association dedicated to sharing Jerusalem, noted that strategically located Palestinian properties bought by Ir David and other settler groups were to be linked by the new state parks, creating a belt around the Old City that will make it harder than ever to divide Jerusalem as part of a two-state solution.
"He said 'the DNA of the settler organizations is informing government decisions' while 'government powers are being handed over to the settler organizations.'
"Mr. Seidemann points in part to the Palestinian village of Silwan, which was built on the ruins of what is widely believed to be the ancient capital of the biblical King David.
"Silwan spills down the steep slopes south of the Old City wall, in the shadow of the Temple Mount and the steely dome of Al Aksa Mosque. The Wadi Hilwe section, in Silwan, which houses thousands of Palestinians in cramped quarters, sits on an ancient ridge where King David is said to have conquered an existing stronghold and laid the foundations of Jewish Jerusalem 3,000 years ago.
"It is one of the most important archaeological sites in the region, and is, according to Ir David -- which sponsors digs there and brought in some 400,000 visitors last year -- 'the place where it all began.'
"It is also the place where Ir David began, taking over its first houses in 1991 under the name Elad (a Hebrew acronym for 'to the city of David'). The group says that it now owns dozens of assets in the area, and that close to 500 Jews live around the site.
"It also runs an archaeological sifting center at Zurim Park northeast of the Old City in a joint project with the government-financed Israel Nature and Parks Authority, Bar-Ilan University and the Israel Antiquities Authority.
"At the Mount of Olives, which includes an ancient Jewish cemetery, Ir David has opened an information center and has set up a Web site mapping all the graves, running ahead of the government's own plans. It also runs tours of an ancient aqueduct farther to the south.
"A spokeswoman for the parks authority, Osnat Eitan, was unable to explain how some of its sites came to be contracted out to a settler group. [...]
"Among archaeologists, there is keen consternation about Ir David's role because of its strong Jewish focus, which many view as a politicized betrayal of the neutral role of scholarship.
"Raphael Greenberg of Tel Aviv University, for example, wrote in the February issue of Public Archaeology that the Ir David site at Silwan was promoting a selective history.
"'The sanctity of the City of David is newly manufactured and is a crude amalgam of history, nationalism and quasi-religious pilgrimage,' he wrote. He asserted that 'the past is used to disenfranchise and displace people in the present.' [...]
"Prof. Benjamin Kedar, chairman of the Israel Antiquities Authority, acknowledged in a letter to fellow archaeologists that Ir David was 'an association with a pronounced ideological agenda' and 'has presented the history of the City of David in a biased manner.'" [...]
(Sources: UN News Centre, New York Times)
Bil'in Village Brings Lawsuit Against
Canadian Construction Firms
In July 2008, the Palestinian village Bil'in located near Ramallah launched a lawsuit in the Quebec Superior Court against two companies registered in Quebec, Green Park International and Green Mount International, currently helping to build an Israeli-only settlement on land within Bil'in's municipal jurisdiction. Bil'in is scheduled to have a series of court dates in June of this year that will determine if the lawsuit will be heard.
"Israel is colonizing our land and stealing it for future generations. They are trying to erase Palestine," explains Abdullah Abu Rahme, a Bil'in resident and activist.
 Demonstration against Israeli Apartheid wall, Bil'in, May 8, 2009. |
Bil'in's land is also being severed and stolen by Israel's Apartheid wall. Four years ago, construction started on the wall which cuts through the middle of Bil'in. Residents have lost about 60 percent of their land -- agricultural land where most of the income of the village was made.
The people of Bil'in have taken their case to the Israeli Supreme Court many times. In September 2007, the Israeli Supreme Court finally ruled that the path of the separation wall was prejudicial to Bil'in and must be altered. This decision should have allowed Bil'in to regain almost 50 percent of the land that was stolen in 2004.
Despite all of these decisions and the international laws that find the wall illegal, construction continues and Bil'in's land continues to be stolen.
To protest the theft of their land, the people of Bil'in have organized weekly demonstrations against the wall. Every Friday, the villagers, internationals, and press gather beside the mosque; and after Friday prayers they walk together to the wall. Solidarity demonstrations have also taken place in Montreal.
The Palestine Monitor reported on May 10, "Israel's response to these non-violent demonstrations is teargas, rubber bullets, rubber coated steel bullets, sound bombs, and live ammunition.
Three weeks ago, Israeli soldiers killed a peaceful demonstrator in Bil'in for the first time. His name was Bassem Abu Rahmah, and he was shot in the chest from 30 metres away with a new high velocity teargas canister that is shaped like a bullet. He died on the way to the hospital in Ramallah.
Despite the dangers, the demonstrations have not stopped.
For Your Information
July 8, 2008
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 (click here).
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.
Bil'in claims that Green Park International Inc. and Green Mount International Inc. have violated international law and Canadian domestic law. Bil'in claims protection under the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Those statutes both prohibit an occupying power from transferring its civilian population into territory that it has occupied as a result of war. Bil'in also relies on the Canadian Geneva Conventions Act and the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act which contain the same prohibition. These statutes have jurisdiction over Canadians regardless of where in the world the offence has taken place.
Bil'in is seeking an immediate Order from the Canadian court stopping the illegal construction, punitive damages and other relief as set out in the claim. Upon obtaining such an Order in Canada, Bil'in intends to petition the Israeli Court to enforce the Canadian Court Order in Israel and the West Bank.
A Quebec Registry search has revealed that the Green Park companies have appointed a single director who resides in the Montreal Region. It is believed that this director is likely a nominal director having no direct involvement with Green Park and at this time Bil'in has no direct evidence implicating or linking this director personally to any of the civil wrongs set out in the claim.
The legal claims of Bil'in are not related in any way to the business or undertakings of Greenpark International Inc., "Canada's Largest Homebuilder," located at 8700 Dufferin Street, Vaughan, Ontario or its affiliated companies. [...]
To obtain background information on Bil'in please visit www.bilin-village.org/english.
(Sources: Hour.ca (Montreal), Palestine Monitor, www.bilin-village.org)
UN Probes Gaza Crimes Despite Israeli Fury
UN experts plan to visit Gaza soon to investigate the Israeli war crimes during the three-week war on the Gaza Strip amid Israel's opposition to the probe.
International human rights experts said on Friday [May 8] that they renewed a call on Israel to fully cooperate with the probe into the alleged war crimes that left thousands of civilians killed and wounded.
Former UN war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone heads the team of four investigators who were appointed last month.
"In the course of its work, the mission intends to conduct visits to affected areas of southern Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, including Gaza, and has requested the cooperation of the government of Israel in this regard," the team said in a statement issued by the UN in Geneva on Friday.
Last month Israeli officials said that Israel would not cooperate with the UN investigation team, claiming that its military forces had acted professionally and tried to avoid civilian casualties during the offensive.
Israeli Gaza war crimes include the use of deadly white phosphorus shells in densely populated civilian areas. While Tel Aviv initially denied using the controversial weapon, mounting evidence later forced officials to admit having employed the shells.
In March, Richard Falk, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories presented a report to the UN Human Rights Council in which he declared that Israel committed war crimes in Gaza and called for an independent inquiry into the issue.
He explained that Tel Aviv enforced an already crippling blockade on Gaza while bringing three weeks of devastation to the territory and preventing civilians from fleeing "from the orbit of harm."
Falk, who himself is Jewish but was banned from Israel before the war, describes the operations against Gaza as a "military assault with modern weaponry against an essentially defenseless society."
Earlier on Wednesday [May 6], a UN probe into the Israeli offensive against Gaza found Israel guilty of intentionally shelling a UN-run school and killing three people seeking shelter there. The raid was one of eight occasions where the Israeli army targeted UN personnel or facilities.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said he would pressure Israel to pay compensation in excess of the $11 million in damages caused to UN property.
Israel Must Be Judged at the International
Criminal Court -- Universal Petition
Approximately 300 among NGOs and associations ask
the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to open an
investigation on the war crimes committed by Israel in Gaza. Our
support is indispensable. Sign and circulate this urgent "universal
petition"
***
To the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC)
Law is the distinguishing mark of human civilisation. All progress made by humanity coincides with the consolidation of rights. The challenge that Israel's aggression against Gaza poses to us consists in affirming, when confronted with such great suffering, that the response to violence is justice.
War crimes? Only courts are able to bring about a sentence, but all of us can bear witness, because a human being only exists in his relationship with others. The circumstances show the breadth of their dimension in Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1949, "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."
The protection of populations, and not only of States, is the reason why the International Criminal Court exists. A population without a State is the most threatened of all, and before History, they are placed under the protection of international bodies. The most vulnerable populations must be the most protected. Killing Palestinian civilians, the Israeli armoured tanks have caused humanity as a whole to bleed. We have been insisting that the power of the Prosecutor be put at the service of all the victims, and this task must allow that the entire world receives a message of hope, that of the construction of international rights based on human rights. And together, one day, we can pay homage to the Palestinian people for the contribution that they have given to the defence of human freedom.
Write to the International Criminal Court!
Campaign begun on 19/01/2009
To sign the petition click here.
For Your Information
U.S. General Builds a Palestinian Army
Last Thursday, in what was billed as his very first on-the-record address, Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton, U.S. security coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority, spoke to the 2009 Soref Symposium organized by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. WINEP, of course, is the chief thinktank for the Washington-based Israel lobby.
And in his talk, Gen. Dayton delivered an important warning.
First, the background. For the past three and a half years, Dayton has lived and worked in Jerusalem and across the West Bank, overseeing the creation of three Palestinian battalions of troops, hand-picked in the West Bank, trained at an academy in Jordan, and then deployed in the occupied territory.
The three 500-man battalions are intended to grow, to as many as ten battalions. Their mission, he said, is to "create a Palestinian state." Recognizing that many in the WINEP audience were not exactly enamored with the idea of an independent Palestine, Dayton told his audience: "If you don't like the idea of a Palestinian state, you won't like the rest of this talk."
From the detailed description provided by Dayton, it's clear that the Palestinian forces he's enabling could certainly be accused of carrying out the self-policing of the West Bank for the Israelis. Because the West Bank is, after all, occupied by Israel and riddled with illegal settlements besides -- plus beset by a surrounding wall, 600-plus intrusive checkpoints, and a network of Jews-only highways -- the Palestinian troops are utterly at the mercy of the Israelis. Each recruit is vetted by U.S. security forces (i.e, the CIA), then vetted by Shin Bet, the domestic intelligence arm of Israel, and then by Jordan's super-efficient intelligence service, before they begin their training in Jordan. Dayton made it quite clear that the Palestinian units thus trained are primarily deployed against two targets in the West Bank: against criminal gangs, and against Hamas.
So far, they've received $161 million is U.S. funding.
Dayton described how, during the Israeli assault on Gaza last December and January, the West Bank remained quiet -- even though some analysts were predicting an upsurge of sympathy for Hamas, which controls Gaza, along with violence, even a third intifada. "None of these predictions came true," said the general, who added that the Palestinian battalions allowed peaceful demonstrations of solidarity with Hamas, but kept the lid on violent actions. Israel, he said, "kept a low profile," and not a single Palestinian was killed in the West Bank during the three-week carnage in Gaza.
Most of the work he's done, Dayton said, occurred in the West Bank after the June, 2007, Hamas takeover in Gaza. "What we have created are 'new men,'" he added.
Now for the warning. Recognizing that by organizing and training thousands of Palestinian troops, professionally led, he is creating in effect a nationalist army, Dayton warned the 500 or so WINEP listeners that the troops can only be strung along for just so long. "With big expectations, come big risks," said Dayton. "There is perhaps a two-year shelf life on being told that you're creating a state, when you're not." To my ears, at least, his subtle warning is that if concrete progress isn't made toward a Palestinian state, the very troops Dayton is assembling could rebel.
Dayton was responding to a question from Paul Wolfowitz, the neoconservative former deputy secretary of defense, who now hangs his hat at the neocon-dominated American Enterprise Institute. "How many Palestinians see your people as collaborators?" Wolfowitz asked. In answering Wolfowitz, the general acknowledged that Hamas and its sympathizers accuse the Palestinian battalions of being "enforces of the Israeli occuption." But he stressed that each one of them believes that he is fighting for an independent Palestine. The unstated message: the United States and Israel had better deliver. Thus the two year warning. Which, to me, sounds spot on with the Obama administration's timetable.
One more thing: General Dayton signed up for another stint in the West Bank. And how long did he agree to serve? Yes -- two years.
Calendar of Events
Commemorating the Nakba
Friday, May 15 -- 7:30 pm
Phillips Square, corner of Ste-Catherine and Union (metro McGill)
Sunday, May 24 -- 1:30 pm
Norman Bethune Square, corner Guy and de Maisonneuve Blvd. (metro Guy-Concordia)
Join us on the streets for two events organized just months after tens-of-thousands protested in Montreal in solidarity with Gaza.
Events occurring to commemorate the Nakba (catastrophe in Arabic), as sixty-one years ago an estimated 750 000 Palestinians were expelled from their lands through the creation of Israel in 1948.
Today an estimated six-million Palestinian refugees remain stateless in the Middle East and around the world. Palestinians make-up one of the biggest displaced populations in the world.
Israel today maintains a colonial policy towards Palestine, as the Palestinian population is subjected to a brutal military occupation throughout the West Bank and Gaza, while Israel continues enforcing an institutionalized discrimination against the Palestinian population maintaining Israeli citizenship within 1948 territories occupied by Israel.
Gaza remains under siege, as Palestinians struggles to recover from the massive Israeli military assault this past winter that killed over 1,400 Palestinians and injured approximately 4,300 others.
1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza, the majority of whom are refugees expelled by Israel in 1948, are denied adequate access to basic necessities like fuel, medicine, clean water and food, while the majority of the population relies on U.N. relief.
Desmond Tutu, the South African Nobel laureate, has repeatedly called for an end to the "abominable" Israeli blockade of Gaza and U.N. officials have described Gaza as an "open air prison."
In the West Bank, Israel continues to construct the apartheid wall, running over six-hundred kilometers long, being built on Palestinian lands that "violates international law", according to the U.N.
Towering over eight meters high in certain districts, fortified with armed military watchtowers and surrounded by razor wire trenches for many throughout the world, the Israeli "security" wall has become a symbol of Palestinian dispossession and Israeli apartheid.
In 2004, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the highest legal body in the world, deemed the wall illegal. In addition, the U.N. general assembly voted in 2004, with a strong majority, for a resolution calling on Israel to halt the wall's construction.
In response to Israel's apartheid policies, we stand with the growing international movement calling for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel apartheid. This movement is picking-up momentum around the world and is rooted in the 2005 call from over 170 Palestinian civil society organizations to social movements around the world.
We also take to the streets in Montreal to protest the extreme pro-Israel position expressed by the current Conservative government of Canada, that has expressed unwavering support for Israel's military actions in Palestine, the Middle East and including support for the massive bombardment against Lebanon in 2006.
Join us for these actions in Montreal to express solidarity with the Palestinian refugees and to support the growing international movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel's apartheid.
Organized by: Alternatives, D'abord solidaires, Forum musulman canadien, Independent Jewish Voices
PAJU (Palestinian and Jewish Unity), Parole Arabe, Présence musulmane Montréal, Québec solidaire
SPHR (Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights), Tadamon!, MSA (Muslim Students Association. Concordia and McGill), endorsed by the Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine (CJPP)
Israel and Canada: Military and Political Connections
Friday, May 15 -- 7:30 pm
Room 5-250, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE)
University of Toronto, 252 Bloor Street West (at St. George subway)
Organized by Not In Our Name (NION): Jewish Voices Opposing Zionism; also part of the OPIRG-Toronto Peoples' History Series and endorsed by Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid
For information: info@NION.ca / www.nion.ca / www.opirguoft.org / www.caiaweb.org
Speakers:
- Kole Kilibarda — author, "Canadian and Israeli Defense-Industrial and Homeland Security Ties" (2009), a report for The New Transparency: Surveillance and Social Sorting research project; and Organizer with Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid
- Yves Engler — author, The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy; and Canada in Haiti: Waging War on the Poor Majority (with Anthony Fenton)
- Discussant: Jason Kunin; Moderator: b.h. Yael
Canada's close links to Israel, and support for its illegal occupation of Palestine are well known. But the recent assault on Gaza, fully backed by the Harper government, exposed the real meaning of this connection. Hear KOLE KILIBARDA explain the military and industrial links and YVES ENGLER describe the political context of the Israel/Canada connection.
Saturday, May 23 -- 6:30pm - 10:30pm
Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, 12 Alexander Street
Food and refreshments will be provided. This event is located in a wheelchair accessible venue.
Free. Everyone Welcome.
1986: Queer people in Toronto united in the Simon Nkoli Anti-Apartheid Committee (SNAAC) to fight for justice in South Africa.
2009: Another struggle against apartheid is building throughout the world. Queer people are joining the international call to name Israel's occupation of Palestine apartheid. Israel has now begun to frame itself as a tolerant, queer-positive democracy. This can never be reality under Occupation.
Join Queers Against Israeli Apartheid on May 23 for an evening to reignite Toronto's queer community in the fight against apartheid. This event will feature:
- Tim McCaskell was a member of the Simon Nkoli Anti-apartheid Committee, which did queer solidarity with anti-apartheid struggles in the 1980s. He was also a member of the Body Politic Collective, the ground-breaking Toronto radical queer newspaper; an organizer of the 1981 bath raids protest; co-founder of AIDS Action Now; and has been an anti-racist activist for several decades. Tim is also one of the subjects of John Greyson's new documentary opera, Fig Trees.
- Rafeef Ziadah is a leading member of the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid, as well as a spoken word poet and performer, and a union activist.
- Natalie Kouri-Towe (Queers Against Israeli Apartheid)
- Opening Remarks by El-Farouk Khaki (cofounder of Salaam and 2009 Pride Grand Marshall)
This event is co-sponsored by Salaam: Queer Muslim Communities and OPIRG-Toronto.
Protest against the JNF, Apartheid and 61 Years of Ethnic Cleansing
Sunday, May 31 -- 5:00 pm
Four Seasons Hotel, W. Georgia & Howe (near Granville Skytrain Station)
Organized by: Canada Palestine Association (Vancouver), www.cpavancouver.org
Canada Palestine Association-Vancouver www.cpavancouver.org is calling for a picket against the Jewish National Fund (JNF) Negev Dinner at the Four Seasons Hotel in Vancouver, Canada. The Picket will protest against the continued theft of Palestinian land by the JNF and discrimination by the JNF against Palestinians, even those who are citizens of the state of Israel. With the theme of the Jewish National Fund equals 61 years of Palestinian dispossession, the picket will also commemorate the 61st anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba. The JNF and its tax-deductible status are of particular concern to all people in Canada concerned with genuine justice because of the infamy called "Canada Park", built by the JNF on three destroyed Palestinian villages.
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