It’s the 2010 FIFA World Cup in post-apartheid South Africa!!!! Come kick the ball around in Parc Jeanne-Mance for a friendly “anti-apartheid soccer tournament,” an activity in solidarity with Palestinians living under Israeli apartheid.
Israel has subjected the Gaza Strip to an illegal closure policy since 1991. This policy’s current, most extreme form has been applied continuously for over three years following the Hamas takeover in June 2007. This closure constitutes a form of collective punishment and has completely cut off Gaza from the outside world.
What to do when the country I live in totally loses its compass? Totally loses its shame? What to do when the regime that collects my taxes uses them to deploy its high-tech military, armed to the teeth, against activists sailing to oppose a criminal siege? When this country’s politicians authorize soldiers to shoot-to-kill into a deck-bound crowd? And then tell me they are protecting me? What to do when the governments of the world are too deeply implicated to hold this regime, this country accountable?
Photo Palestinian kids walk beside Israeli apartheid wall in occupied Palestine.
A leading Israeli supplier of warplanes used to kill and maim civilians in Gaza is in the running for two new scientific research grants from the European Union.
Israel’s attacks on Gaza in late 2008 and 2009 provided its air force with an opportunity to experiment with state-of-the-art pilotless drones such as the Heron. Although human rights groups have calculated that the Heron and other drones killed at least 87 civilians during that three-week war, EU officials have tentatively approved the release of fresh finance to the Heron’s manufacturer, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).
Ameer Makhoul is a human rights defender, the director of the Arab nongovernmental organization network Ittijah, a leading voice of the Palestinian boycott, divestment and sanctions movement and a Palestinian citizen of Israel. He has been in Israeli detention since he was arrested from his family home in Haifa in the early morning hours of 6 May. Initially his arrest could not be reported under an Israeli gag order, and he was not allowed to see his lawyers for almost two weeks. Eventually charged with “espionage,” local and international human rights organizations have condemned Israel’s actions against him as politically-motivated persecution intended to crack down on organizing by Palestinian citizens within Israel and international solidarity. On the very day Makhoul was arrested, The Electronic Intifada published an article it had received from him days earlier, titled, “Israel’s repression of its Palestinian citizens unites us in struggle.” He wrote the following letter from Israeli detention on 30 May 2010:
Letter to Polish Prime Minister from Polish Palestine Solidarity Campaign June 2010
Do not exploit our history – one cannot redeem the injustices of history with new and ongoing injustices
We observe the developments and comments from the Polish government on the arrest of the suspected Mossad agent Uri Brodsky with great dismay and concern.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said he does not want the arrest of an individual suspected of being involved in an extra judicial killing to damage relations between Poland and Israel.
Photo Stefan Christoff Palestinian youth walk on the streets of Burj el-Shemali camp.
Palestinian refugees, Lebanese activists and civil society organizations are gearing up for a demonstration on June 27 to demand civil rights for Palestinians in Lebanon.
Activists on Tuesday urged massive participation in the day’s protests in which participants will gather in Sidon, Tripoli, the Bekaa, Mount Lebanon and march toward the Parliament building in Beirut.
The activists were speaking before a Parliament session on Tuesday to discuss the civil rights of Palestinian refugees with the aim of pressuring representatives to amend laws discriminating against Palestinians.
Photo: Stefan Christoff Campaign posters for civil rights for Palestinians in Lebanon.
Lebanon’s parliament has tabled a proposal to offer basic rights to hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees.
The proposed legislation – the subject of a heated debate on Tuesday – would allow Palestinian refugees to work and own property in Lebanon. Nabih Berri, the parliament speaker, referred the bill to a committee for a one-month review.
Palestinian refugees have long been a controversial subject in Lebanon, and the debate cut across Lebanon’s usual political alliances.
The hardship faced by Gaza’s 1.5 million people cannot be addressed by providing humanitarian aid. The only sustainable solution is to lift the closure.
The serious incidents that took place on 31 May between Israeli forces and activists on a flotilla heading for Gaza once again put the spotlight on the acute hardship faced by the population in the Gaza Strip.
As the ICRC has stressed repeatedly, the dire situation in Gaza cannot be resolved by providing humanitarian aid. The closure imposed on the Gaza Strip is about to enter its fourth year, choking off any real possibility of economic development. Gazans continue to suffer from unemployment, poverty and warfare, while the quality of Gaza’s health care system has reached an all-time low.
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.
