As Palestinian villagers decide to take dismantling the Israeli occupation into their own hands, the Real News Network’s Lia Tarachansky speaks to Jesse Rosenfeld on segregation and the West Bank. Checkpoints and roadblocks play a key role in separating Palestinians from Israelis and Israeli appropriated areas, from commercial areas, and from each other. Since the beginning of the second Intifadah in September 2000 the number of checkpoints in the West Bank increased to over 500. In an act of resistance, the International Solidarity Movement organized a symbolic action of dismantling four roadblocks segregating four villages from each other. Hours after the protest Israeli bulldozers replaced two. This action comes days after former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told in a Yediot Ahronot interview he believes Israel must withdraw from most of the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
This program was produced by the Real News Network for October 17, 2008.
For more information, visit:
http://therealnews.com
http://palsolidarity.org
The US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is back visiting the region within the framework of US efforts to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, while Israeli forces continue to close all the Gaza border crossings, as they have done for more than two years. These stories and more in this week’s update.
This program was produced by the International Middle East Media Center.
For more information, visit:
http://imemc.org
Two converted fishing boats set sail from Cyprus today carrying more than forty activists and humanitarian workers who are part of the Free Gaza movement that is trying to break the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip. The Israeli foreign ministry said in an open letter to the participants, “We assume that your intentions are good but, in fact, the result of your action is that you are supporting the regime of a terrorist organization in Gaza.” We speak with three of the activists at sea: Huwaida Arraf, co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement; Lauren Booth, a journalist and sister-in-law of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair; and Israeli anthropology professor Jeff Halper of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.
This program was produced by Democracy Now! for August 22, 2008.
For more information, visit:
http://democracynow.org
http://freegaza.org
http://icahdusa.org
The Free Gaza Movement has set sail from Cyprus on their way to Gaza. Reports vary as to whether the Israeli government will allow the two boats, the S.S. Free Gaza and the S.S. Liberty, to pass through the naval blockade and reach the Gazan coast. The boats are sending out video updates periodically during their trip. This report was posted from the deck of the S.S. Liberty (named after the U.S.S. Liberty which was fired upon by Israel during the 1967 war killing scores of American crewman) at 7pm GMT on August 22, 2008.
For more information and to donate to the Free Gaza Movement, visit:
http://freegaza.org
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated his call for Palestinian national unity this week while the Bil’in conference on popular resistance ends with a nonviolent protest against the separation wall. These stories and more in this week’s update.
This Week in Palestine for June 1 through June 6, 2008 was brought to you by the International Middle East Media Center.
For more information, visit:
http://imemc.org
In the face of ongoing Israeli military actions directed at the Gaza Strip, which have taken the lives of over one-hundred Palestinians within the past week — including multiple children — a popular committee has formed in Gaza, which has been coordinating a series of popular direct actions and appealing for protests lead by social justice movements throughout the world.
On Monday, February 25th, the Popular Committee Against the Siege in Gaza, organize a major protest, bringing tens-of-thousands of Palestinians on the streets of Gaza, to protest the ongoing Israeli closure enforced on Gaza, which has left the 1.5 million Palestinians of Gaza without basic supplies, without regular electricity and often without clean water. The protest aimed to highlight the realities of the ongoing Israeli siege on Gaza, which Amnesty International recently deemed a violation of international law.
This interview with organizer Sam Hadeeb provides a direct perspective on popular, or grassroots organizing taking place in Gaza in opposition to the ongoing Israeli siege on Gaza, which has been maintained in the context of ongoing Israeli military operations throughout the Gaza Strip, that have drawn international condemnation, including from the Secretary General of the U.N.
This program was produced by Stefan Christoff for Radio Tadamon! on March 10, 2008.
For more information, visit:
http://tadamon.resist.ca
http://freegaza.ps/english/
Mike Cannon speaks with Beck Wolf of the Palestine Solidarity Project. At 27, this former NY high school teacher just returned from a year long stay Beit Ommar, Palestine where she worked with grassroots organizations and communities nonviolently resisting the Israeli Occupation.
This program was produced by The Mike Cannon Show for WNRB-LP on February 26, 2008.
For more information, visit:
http://palestinesolidarityproject.org
Anarchists Against The Wall (AATW) is an Israeli group that supports the popular Palestinian struggle. The proximity of the struggle on the ground to Israeli cities presents an opportunity for intense involvement by many Israelis. At the same time, the physical risk in such activity is quite high. It goes without saying that the risks for our Palestinian partners are much higher. As a small group with an aversion to institutionalization, AATW has to be accountable for taking real physical as well as legal risks. We must strive to be democratic and open while carrying out actions that involve a high degree of trust and much outside social selection. We must maintain a situation in which Palestinians are the ones making important decisions, even as they work together with privileged Israelis. I will attempt to expand on these challenges and review the organizational success of AATW.
Kobi Snitz is a member of Anarchists against the Wall. His political involvement started when he joined CUPE local 3902 as a teaching assistant in Toronto. He continued being active as a graduate student in the United States, working on teaching assistant union drives, and to oppose U.S. aggression. His work with AATW started when he returned to his native Israel in 2003.
This program was produced by the Institute for Anarchist Studies during the 2007 Renewing the Anarchist Tradition conference.
For more information, visit:
http://anarchiststudies.org
http://awalls.org
Residents of Bil’in village, together with international and Israeli activists, chain themselves to olive trees that are to be uprooted to make way for the Israeli Apartheid Wall. The wall is currently being constructed in many areas of Palestine. For Bil’in it will result in the annexation of 2,400 dunums of land – over 50% of the land belonging to the village. This will facilitate massive Israeli settlement expansion east of the Green Line.
Bil’in has carried out a series of non-violent protests against this land theft, and demonstrations are held at least once a week, usually more. The Israeli military has used excessive force against the demonstrators, regularly firing tear gas, rubber coated metal bullets, sound bombs and live ammunition at unarmed civilians peacefully protesting. Many people have been injured and arrested. In other areas of Palestine people have been killed because they have protested against the wall, including two children who were shot dead on the same day that this video was filmed, a short distance away in Beit Liqya.
This program was produced by Lena Green on May 4, 2005.
For more information, visit:
http://bilin-village.org
http://palsolidarity.org
Break The Silence Mural Project report
13 killed as the Gaza strip this week saw the Israeli army intensify their attacks, while the Palestinians commemorate the eight-year anniversary of the second Intifada this week. These stories and more in this weeks program.
This Week in Palestine for September 22 through September 28, 2007 was brought to you by the International Middle East Media Center.
For more information, visit:
http://imemc.org