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July 28, 2008 FREE GAZA! Mounting International Resistance to the devastating siege of Gaza Eva Bartlett - Scottish couple barred from delivering medical supplies at Gaza’s Rafah crossing Linda and Khalil have driven day and night in a van crammed with urgently-needed medical supplies and equipment to reach northeastern Sinai’s Rafah. They are part of a growing trend of international citizens who have decided to help end the Israeli siege on Gaza where residents are denied the most basic necessities —including vital medicines and hospital equipment parts. Ma'an News - "Free Gaza" initiative to try and enter Gaza by sea and open port Bethlehem – Ma'an – A small shipping vessel will set sail for Gaza from Cyprus on 5 August expecting to be illegally detained as it enters Gazan waters......There will be 60 people aboard the "Free Gaza" vessel including a Holocaust survivor a survivor of the Palestinian Nakba, and members of the international Palestinian diaspora. BBC News - UK MPs call for talks with Hamas A UK parliamentary committee has called for dialogue with Hamas, as a UN report says poverty has reached an unprecedented high in the Gaza Strip......The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, said 52% of Gaza households were living in poverty, and unemployment there had topped 45%. July 24, 2008 Embassy Magazine - Canada Isolated at UN Over Israel One week after a Senate committee warned that strong support for Israel at the UN Human Rights Council is isolating Canada, Prime Minister Stephen Harper vowed he will not be "bullied" into changing his position, "whatever the diplomatic or political cost." July 21, 2008 Hamilton Spectator - Police seeking hate charges over winter rally at Mac (Comment from an activist who was there: Having been at this Forum I can say that this is not a true portrayal of the rally, there were no "provocative images and messages" or any "hate-crime" . This is simply an action to punish the students for a successful rally on behalf of Palestinian human rights and free speech. McMaster students have been harassed continuously over the past 6 years for their Palestinian work. More information will be forwarded as the case unfolds and as the students request support. Susan.) Hamilton police are recommending at least two people involved with a controversial rally last winter at McMaster University be charged with promoting hatred. The case is now in the hands of the Hamilton Crown Attorney's office, which is deciding how to proceed. Background on last winter's rally Example of part harrassment by Hamilton police. July 19, 2008 Judy Haiven, a non-Zionist Jewish Canadian responds to an article by Irwin Cotler recently published in the Jerusalem Post. Mr. Cotler is a Liberal MP and a former president of the Canadian Jewish Congress. He has built a reputation as a Human Rights lawyer but his concern for human rights does not extend to Palestinians, in fact, he is an outspoken advocate for Israel's right-wing policies. In the article "Double Nakba" (also printed below) Cotler promotes the latest Zionist twist of history which claims that as many Jews were expelled from Arab countries in 1948 as Palestinians from Palestine. He neglects to mention that this exodus was prompted by fear that Arabs would seek vengeance on Jews for the expulsion of Palestinians from Palestine. Zionist operatives also engaged in false flag operations against Jews in Arab countries to frighten them into moving to Israel. July 18, 2008 Georgia Straight - CanWest huffs and puffs while free speech burns In June 2007, the Palestine Media Collective produced a newspaper parody of the Vancouver Sun that satirized CanWest’s anti-Palestinian bias with articles such as “Study Shows Truth Biased Against Israel” by Cyn Sorsheep....We decided to create the satirical publication after a November 2006 trip to the Occupied Palestinian Territories.... When we returned home to Vancouver, we were appalled by CanWest’s one-sided coverage of the situation we had just witnessed in the Middle East. In CanWest publications, Israelis are almost always portrayed as innocent victims and Palestinians as inhuman terrorists. We read nothing of the peaceful Palestinian families who shared their lunch with us in the shade of gnarled olive trees. Nor of the violent gangs of Israeli settler youth that stoned, kicked, and injured international volunteers and Palestinian farmers while Israeli soldiers stood by. July 15, 2008 Gideon Levy - The General of onions and garlic These bizarre pictures of a closure order issued by the general of command, stuck on the window of a cosmetics store or a physiotherapy center, of a confiscation order stuck to a pita oven, show that the Israeli occupation has gone crazy. A few months ago I visited the charity institutions and commercial centers the IDF has begun closing in Hebron; I saw infuriatingly absurd scenes. A modern school, intended for 1,200 students, standing closed on orders of the GOC, and a library for young people about to shut. Thus the occupation proves once again that there is no place in Palestinians' lives that it cannot reach, and that it has no boundaries: An army that closes a school, library, bakery and boarding school; soldiers who raid a licensed commercial television station, confiscating its equipment and threatening its closure, as happened recently at the Afaq TV station in Nablus. [More - Anti-Zionist Jews condemn Zionist pogroms in WB and strangulation of Gaza] July 14, 2008 Four years after the INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE decision declaring Israel's "SECURITY BARRIER" ILLEGAL, construction continues, destroying Palestinian agricultural land, farms and lives. Seth Freedman of the Guardian (UK) describes how peaceful Palestinian resistance to the ongoing construction of the wall is met by the Israeli Occupation Forces. After four days of curfew, the village of Nilin is not a pretty sight. Torched cars lie strewn on the sides of the road, bedroom windows sport gaping bullet holes, and debris is scattered the length and breadth of the town: evidence of the brutality meted out indiscriminately by the army against the locals. July 12, 2008 This isn't about defence it is about destroying all civil society institutions..... PCHR Condemns IOF Measures against Nablus Charities At approximately 1:00 on Tuesday, 8 July, IOF raided several organizations affiliated with Hamas. IOF closed 7 organizations for 2 years. IOF claimed that these organizations were used to "finance terrorist organizations." The organizations that were closed are: Nablus Mall (owned by the Development, Investment, and Insurance Company), Nafha Association for Prisoners' Affairs; Federation of Islamic Trade Unions, Scientific Medical Assocaiton, Yazour Benevolent Society, Basma Association, and Graduates Cultural Forum.
July 10, 2008 CPNO - Canadian shot in leg by rubber-coated steel bullet during siege on Nil'in A Canadian citizen, has been shot in the leg by a rubber-coated steel bullet while attempting to take in food and other supplies to the West Bank village of Ni'lin, which has been holding constant non-violent demonstrations against the Israeli annexation barrier for the last two months. CBC - Palestinian town sues Canadian builders over Israeli settlement A West Bank village is suing two Quebec-based companies for $2 million, alleging they violated international law by building Israeli settlements on occupied territory. The claim, filed Wednesday against sister companies Green Park International and Green Mount International, also asks the Quebec Superior Court for an injunction to stop further construction, and demolish apartment buildings already erected in Moddin Illit, a Jewish settlement northwest of Ramallah. July 8, 2008 This humble attempt at poetry is inspired by my beloved family in Gaza who have taught me that life always wins in the end. Children are born, weddings are celebrated and even in the bleakest circumstances people still fall in love. Life is more powerful than missiles, politics and oppression. Life has the power to transcend the siege, the walls and the occupation. Life wins every single time. July 6, 2008 Tikun - Caterpillar Kills Israelis Too Israeli politicians are once again baying for collective blood-vengeance against East Jerusalem residents despite that fact that a single individual was responsible. They have conveniently forgotten that collective guilt violates not only international law, but Jewish law as well.... Vice Premier Haim Ramon (Kadima) told Army Radio on Thursday morning that Israel should treat the East Jerusalem neighborhoods of Jabel Mukaber and Zur Baher as Palestinian villages, and revoke the permanent residency status of their residents. B'tselem warns of grave water shortage in the West Bank The chronic water shortage in the West Bank, resulting from an unfair distribution of water resources shared by the Palestinians and Israel, will be much graver this summer because of this year’s drought. In the northern West Bank, water consumption has fallen to one-third of the minimal amount needed.... Average per capita consumption throughout the West Bank is 66 liters, two-thirds of the minimal amount needed according to the WHO. These figures include water for livestock, meaning that the water consumed for personal use is even less. In comparison, average daily water consumption in Israeli cities is 235 liters, and 214 liters in local councils, 3.5 times higher than Palestinian consumption in the West Bank. [More on Israeli created water shortages - The Nation - The thirst for West Bank water] July 3, 2008 TorStar - Death by bulldozer in Jerusalem Comment - The paragraph below is paragraph 19 in the article from the Toronto Star article on the rampage of the Arab Israeli bulldoze driver in Jerusalem yesterday. I wonder what we would do if someone was going to destroy our home? Israel has demolished thousands of Palestinians homes in Israel and the Occupied territories. Violence must be condemned no matter who the guilty party is but ignoring or minimizing the root causes will only perpetuate the conditions leading to the violence. Dwayyat had been fined $50,000 for building his house without a permit, and a demolition order was on file, said Hassib Nashashibi, head of a group that defends Palestinians against such orders. That might explain Dwayyat's motivation in the attack, and the circumstances might also influence Israel's decision about whether to destroy the house as punishment. July 1, 2008 CPNO - Finding one's humanity in Nablus Report from Ben, a Jewish friend and member of NION (Not In our name - Jewish voices opposing Zionism (Ottawa), currently in the West Bank. They seemed to find some common humanity in me. They were smiling and joking, machine guns slung to their side, asking me where I was from. "Weren't you scared of what would happen if they caught you" the cute young soldier with the big brown eyes said with a smile, a sly knowing smile, a smile that seemed to say we're on the same side. Reliefweb - “Horrible situation for children”, Israel blocks UN committee from entering ‘Half of the population of Gaza is made up by minors: their current situation is horrible and could worsen still’, said a special UN committee that accused Israel of having forbidden its access to Gaza ‘to hide the violations of human rights perpetrated against Palestinians’. In Cairo, Prasad Kariyawasam, president of the committee and Sri Lanka’s ambassador to the UN, said that Israeli authorities have blocked the group’s access to Gaza, forcing it to ‘interview local witnesses by phone and to speak with humanitarian operators to understand what is happening on the ground’.
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