All posts for August 2010

A million dollar festival will not rescue Israel’s image as an apartheid state

August 17th, 2010 | Posted in Boycott, Culture, Palestine
    PACBI – Occupied Ramallah, 15 August 2010

tadamonpalestinianwalkingoccupation

    Photo Palestinian walks along Israeli apartheid wall.

Once again, the Brand-Israel machine is in high gear, this time organizing a million-dollar international youth extravaganza in Eilat in September 2010 called “Funjoya.” This unabashed propaganda exercise is sponsored by the Israel Ministry of Tourism and the Israeli Student Union, among other official and semi-official bodies. The Ministry of Tourism explains one of the aims of the festival: “branding Israel as an attractive tourism destination for students, an improvement in Israel’s image among this target group and facilitating multi-cultural encounters for students from Israel and European countries.” [1]

(more…)

Sharp Increase in Demolitions and Displacement in the West Bank

August 17th, 2010 | Posted in Boycott, Canada, Events, Palestine, Politics, Quebec

U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. July 2010. download report

tadamontentspalestine

Photo: Palestinians surviving in terrible living conditions under Israeli occupation.

In recent weeks, around 550 people have lost their homes or sources of livelihood as a result of demolitions carried out by Israeli authorities in East Jerusalem and Area C. These recent developments represent a significant increase in demolitions and forced displacement in the West Bank, raising a number of serious humanitarian concerns.

(more…)

Bourj el-Barajneh: Searching for Meaning in a Refugee Camp

August 17th, 2010 | Posted in Beirut, Lebanon, Palestine
    by Ramzy Baroud, Palestine Chronicle – Beirut, Lebanon

tadamonbeirutcampnight

    Photo Simon Norfolk Palestinian refugee camp Bourj el-Barajneh.

Two young girls stood, as if frozen, starting below them at an ever vibrant Beirut. Their balcony, like the rest of their house and most of their refugee camp was of an indistinct color. It was dirty, as were their clothes. They, on the other hand, looked beautiful and bright, although their future didn’t.

Here in Bourj el-Barajneh, one of a dozen Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, time seems to have stood still for years. Generation after generation, children grow up in the same desperate reality, punished for crimes they did not commit, injured by a history not of their making. They stand on dirty balconies, cracked beyond repair, watching Beirut and the world go by.

(more…)

Poisoning of Gaza water puts population at risk

August 16th, 2010 | Posted in Environment, Palestine
    Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) August 2010.

tadamonboywatergaza

Photo Palestinian boy fills container with water collected at UN school in Gaza.

The signs which dot the beach along the Gaza City waterfront are clear: “THIS BEACH IS POLLUTED,” they read, and yet they seem to serve only as obstacles for children running to the sea rather than warnings to be heeded of the serious health risks associated with swimming here. For those who care to doubt the sign’s veracity, one need only to stroll north along the beach for a couple hundred meters to see raw sewage being pumped directly into the Mediterranean Sea from one of the 16 discharge sites along the coast. Yet thousands fill Gaza’s beaches and waters in spite of the clear dangers.

(more…)

Besieging Israel’s siege

August 12th, 2010 | Posted in Boycott, Palestine
    The Guardian by Omar Barghouti Thursday 12 August 2010

tadamonskygaza

    Photo Open sky over the Gaza Strip 2010.

Despite Israel’s siege of Gaza, and the escalating displacement in the Negev and East Jerusalem, Palestinians have some reason to celebrate. In Washington a food co-op has passed a resolution calling for a boycott of Israeli products, confirming that the boycott movement – five years old last month – has finally crossed the Atlantic. Support for the move came from prominent figures including Nobel peace laureates Desmond Tutu and Máiread Maguire, and Richard Falk, the UN’s special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories.

(more…)

Irish artists make BDS history, issuing the first nation-wide ‘pledge’ to boycott Israeli apartheid

August 12th, 2010 | Posted in Boycott, Culture, Palestine
    PACBI – Occupied Ramallah, 11 August 2010

tadamonwallsky

    Photo Israeli apartheid wall in Palestine

The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) strongly welcomes the Irish artists’ ‘pledge’ to boycott Israeli cultural institutions until Israel complies with international law. This pledge not only represents a significant victory for the ethical responsibilities of international cultural figures; a key factor in the cultural boycott of Israel, but is a ground breaking strategy in supporting Palestinian struggle for freedom and justice.

(more…)

Australia: Churches back Israel boycott

August 11th, 2010 | Posted in Boycott, Palestine, Politics
    Green Left by Raul Connolly, Sunday, August 8, 2010

tadamongazarubble

Photo Palestinian clears rubble from building destroyed in Israeli air-strike in Gaza

A growing number of unions across Australia have backed the international boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign targeting Israel. The campaign demands that Israel ends its apartheid-like policies towards Palestinians.

The National Council of Churches in Australia (NCCA) said in a July 20 statement that it would “continue to add its voice to the call for an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestine and condemning all acts of terrorism”.

(more…)

Gaza aid waste

August 10th, 2010 | Posted in Labor, Palestine
    August 7th, 2010 Al Jazeera by Nicole Johnston

tadamonpalestinianman

    Photo Palestinian worker at stone quarry in an increasingly barren Gaza.

As you approach Gaza’s main dump by road you see a massive wall of trash looming over the plain.

It’s crawling with around one hundred scavenger dogs and dozens of poor children, combing through the trash for anything they can sell.

(more…)

Words without Borders “dialogue” violates Palestinian boycott call

August 10th, 2010 | Posted in Boycott, Culture, Palestine
    Haidar Eid, Electronic Intifada 9 August 2010

tadamonnightcheckpoint

Photo Khaleel Reash Words without Borders initiative does not explicitly oppose the many borders that exist for Palestinians under occupation.

An initiative recently launched by the prestigious online literature magazine Words without Borders entitled “Cross-Cultural-Dialogues in the Middle East,” rings alarm bells in light of the Palestinian civil society call for boycott divestment and sanctions (BDS) on Israel.

(more…)

Gaza: An Open Letter to Chick Corea

August 9th, 2010 | Posted in Boycott, Culture, Palestine

Palestinian Students’ Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel, August 2010

090819-gaza-tawjihi

Photo Hatem Omar Students search newspapers for their exam results, Gaza Strip.

We are a group of students from Gaza, and our only fault is being Palestinians. For that, Mr. Corea, we are imprisoned with our families and loved ones in what major Human Rights Organizations call the largest open air prison in modern history. The state you are planning to entertain, committed a process of ethnic cleansing against the indigenous people in 1948. And now it is engaged in, what the Israeli academic Ilan Pappe calls, “slow motion genocide” against the 1.5 million population of Gaza.

(more…)

Upcoming events

Search