Peterborough Coalition for Palestinian Solidarity

Israeli Apartheid Week 2011

2011-03-16T21:07:00.002-04:00

Peterborough Coalition for Palestinian Solidarity Presents:
Israeli Apartheid Week 2011

Monday, March 21st
One session, two speakers:
Why is there no peace in Palestine? Feyzi Baban
Olive Oil - Activism in Palestine and Beyond. Anne Meneley
LEC Pit 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Israeli Apartheid Wall & Checkpoints
Trent Faryon Bridge 4:30 pm

Tuesday, March 22nd
Film Screening -- Leila Khaled: Hijacker
GCS 115 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Wednesday, March 23rd
A Passage of a Jewish Boat to Gaza: Two Peoples-One Future. If Not Now, When?
Presenters: Glyn Secker and Lillian Rosengaarten
LEC Pit 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Thursday, March 24th
One session, two speakers:
Egypt’s Revolution and the Middle East. Gavin Fridell
An Introduction to the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions Campaign. Suha Jarrar
2:30 pm – 4:30 pm CCN M2

Friday, March 25th
No Fiddler on the Roof: Queer, Feminist, Jewish Arts and Activism of Palestinian Solidarity
Presenters: Zach Ruiter
5:00 pm – 7:00 pm location TBA

Saturday, March 26th
Cultural Night
The Recipe & Poetry
Time and Location TBA

For full descriptions of events, please visit
www.peterborough.apartheidweek.org

If you have any questions or would like to make a DONATION to PCPS or IAW, please contact peterboroughcps@gmail.com

Pride Toronto Bans The Use of "Israeli Apartheid"

2010-05-27T06:57:00.001-04:00

On May 21st, 2010, Pride Toronto Inc. decided to prohibit signs that bear the words “Israeli apartheid” from all 2010 Pride events, effectively banning the group Queers Against Israeli Apartheid from participating in the Pride Day parade.

The Pride parade has, for thirty years, been a site of resistance to a range of oppressive practices (based on sexism, homophobia, racism, and class oppression, amongst other axes); celebration of LGBTQ lives, and solidarity with oppressed peoples in other parts of the world. This tradition of Pride has been severely jeopardised by this decision, which sits in a context of increasing political suppression (in Toronto and elsewhere) of critical, dissenting voices of the continued brutality of the Israeli state against Palestinians.

We urge you to sign this petition: http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/support-queers-against-israeli-apartheid.html

Dear Pride Toronto,

As queers and queer allies from a wide range of backgrounds, faiths and communities, we are deeply disheartened and offended by your censorship of Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QUAIA). Pride owes its existence to the courageous resistance of LGBTQ and 2-Spirited people who fought and struggled to decriminalize homosexuality and queerness in all its wonderful glory so that diverse queer communities could take to the streets and make public our love, our desire and our politics.

Your ability to sell out the principles of Pride and its history as a festival of resistance and rage against social, political and legal injustice is depressing and shameful. We are saddened that under the Executive Directorship of Ms. Sandilands, the Pride Toronto committee has neither the courage nor integrity that the ANC had in apartheid South Africa nor the convictions and courage of its millions of international supporters.

Have you forgotten that here you too hold your march and corporate love-in on occupied territory that is available to you only because of the history of Canadian-state sanctioned genocide? Perhaps you should think about making connections between progressive forces because LGBTQ rights in Canada and elsewhere may have a short-lived victory in light of government policies increasingly influenced by politically and morally conservative, and at times fundamentalist ideologies.

Criticising Israeli Apartheid is not a hate crime but rather an act of love for social justice, and the rights of those who have suffered for more than 60 years as civilians and dispossessed, namely the Palestinians. Today it seems the love that dare not speak its name, is the one expressed by Queers Against Israeli Apartheid, that is love for those who suffer in the name of a Zionist and U.S-led alliance, in which Canada hangs on to the coat -tails of U.S-foreign policy.

If you wish the Festival to be timely and relevant, you must move with the times and with social movements, not corporate agendas and the abandonment of queer Israelis and Palestinians who deserve a future that is demilitarized and a negotiated solution to the problems of homeland and dispossession they currently face.

Palestinian civil society condemns repression in Canada against Palestine solidarity campaigns and humanitarian efforts

2010-05-27T06:54:00.000-04:00

Occupied Palestine, May 26 2010 – The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC), strongly condemns the actions taken by Canadian state bodies, university administrations and pressure groups to defund, repress and otherwise attempt to weaken groups and individuals that provide assistance to, or campaign in solidarity with, Palestinians. Such blatantly anti-democratic measures are not only repulsive per se; they are forms of complicity with Israeli violations of international law and Palestinian rights and have far reaching adverse consequences for civil liberties. The BNC believes that this repression in Canada must be brought to an end.

The BNC is deeply troubled by the politically suspect and professionally unjustifiable defunding of organisations that advocate Palestinian rights and organise humanitarian efforts on behalf of Palestinians. In December 2009, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) cut funding to KAIROS, a faith-based human rights organisation it had funded for the previous 35 years[1]. This cut was a direct consequence of the KAIROS’s promotion of Palestinian human rights. The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)[2], who provide assistance to 5 million Palestinian refugees, and the Al Haq and Al Mezan human rights organisations[3] have all been victims of Canadian funding cuts. The Canadian Arab Foundation (CAF) also had its funding cut[4] following its outspoken criticism of the failure of the Canadian government to speak out against Israel's atrocities in Gaza, described in the UN Goldstone report as “war crimes”.

Attacks on Palestine solidarity activism have become commonplace in Canadian universities. Student and faculty groups that highlight the apartheid nature of the legalized Israeli system of racial discrimination and work to bolster the emerging Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement have been targeted with aggressive bureaucratic delays and obstacles, the arbitrary charging of security fees, and outright banning of their activities.

At the centre of this battle on Canadian campuses is Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW), a global series of campus-based events that seeks to educate about Israel's system of discrimination and its conformity to the UN definition of the crime of apartheid. IAW began in Toronto in 2005, and since then its organizers have significantly suffered from repression and censorship tactics befitting institutions under totalitarian regimes[5]. Prior to the 2009 IAW, Carleton University banned the posters that were being used to promote the Week’s events, citing concerns that the posters might incite students to “infringe rights protected in the Ontario Human Rights Code”[6]. Three other universities followed suit. In March of this year, Laurentian University censored the announcement of IAW. At the federal government level, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Jason Kenney[7] and Leader of the Opposition

Michael Ignatieff[8] joined the smearing campaign against the IAW. Although similar motions failed to pass in the federal Parliament and in the province of Manitoba, the Ontario government passed a non-binding private member’s bill condemning IAW in March 2010[9].

Another admirable example of activism continuing in the face of well-organised and well-funded attempts at censorship is to be found within the Canadian labour movement. The President of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) in Ontario received death threats and was the target of a vicious smear campaign, described as "tantamount to a new form of McCarthyism" after the union had overwhelmingly endorsed the Palestinian civil society call for a campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel until it complies with international law. The state authorities did little to stem the vicious campaign.[10]

The most recent example of the repression that Canadian activists face concerns the Toronto-based group Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA). Bowing to pressure from the Israel lobby and their allies at the Toronto City Council who threatened to cut Pride’s funding over QuAIA’s participation, Pride Toronto has banned QuAIA from 2010 Pride Week events.[11] The interference by the City and the subsequent banning of a group from Pride is unprecedented. The BNC deplores the attempt by politicians to infringe fundamental freedoms so as to protect Israel from a legitimate, not to mention accurate, analysis of its crimes and human rights violations. The most basic democratic principle of freedom of expression seems to be trampled upon in Canada when Israel is the target of this expression.

Other worrying developments in this context of repression include the decision taken by the Koffler Centre of the Arts to disassociate artist Reena Katz for her activities with Israeli Apartheid Week[12] and the pressure faced by the Toronto District School Board to remove from school reading lists The Shepherd’s Granddaughter, a book told from the perspective of a Palestinian girl whose family land is destroyed by an Israeli settler[13].

Perhaps the most high-level and coordinated attack on Palestine solidarity in Canada is the self-appointed Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Anti Semitism (CPCCA), which deceptively conflates criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism. Based on this definition of anti-Semitism, CPCCA has set out to eliminate all criticism of Israel in Canada. The group has no official mandate from the Canadian parliament, but held a series of hearings in late 2009 and early 2010. Moreover, without any public discussion, the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration Canada will be co-hosting the second international conference of the Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Antisemitism (ICCA) in Ottawa in November 2010.

This deep complicity of the Canadian government in supporting and protecting from scrutiny the Israeli apartheid state is discussed at length in a soon to be released report by the Palestine Freedom of Expression campaign. The report exposes the CPCCA’s undemocratic, biased and problematic attempts to shield Israel from legitimate criticism that is allowed against any other state committing similar crimes and violations of international law. [14]

It is not surprising that government officials and some university administrations in Canada have chosen to hone in on the use of the term “Israeli apartheid”. They would prefer to outlaw the term rather than engaging the facts, perhaps because doing so would lead them to the same conclusions of international law experts, scores of civil society organisations and Archbishop Desmond Tutu who argue that the label is an accurate one, in accordance with the UN Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid. The apartheid framing of the Israeli regime is long standing; in 2009, a 302-page legal study overseen by Prof. John Dugard, a former UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, concluded that “the State of Israel exercises control over the Occupied Palestinian Territories with the purpose of maintaining a system of domination by Jews over Palestinians and that this system constitutes a breach of the [UN] prohibition of apartheid”.[15]

The actions of Canadian state bodies, universities and the CPCCA to erase Israeli apartheid from public discourse, defund organisations that provide vital support to Palestinians, and shield Israel from criticism reduce the possibilities of a just and lasting peace, present a serious threat to freedom of expression, and bolsters Israel’s impunity in violating human rights. The failure thus far of Canadian state authorities and public bodies to hold Israel to account for its violation of international law and Palestinian rights is, furthermore, a violation of Canada's obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice against Israel's Wall and colonial settlements. The active suppression of Canadian organizations that work to promote Israel's accountability before international law is beyond reproach.

The BNC therefore calls upon the Canadian government and public bodies to:

- Safeguard freedom of expression of Canadian citizens and civil society organizations with regards to discussion of Palestinian rights and Israeli policies;

- Reject the CPCCA’s deceptive and unfounded conflation of criticism of Israel or of Zionism with anti-Semitism;

- Bring the CPCCA within the realm of public and democratic accountability;

- Refrain from using public funding as a weapon to ban Queers Against Israeli Apartheid from participation in Pride Week events;

- Reinstate all funding cut on biased political grounds from human rights and community-based organizations.

And on individuals, groups and organizations of conscience to:

- Lobby the Canadian Parliament and public bodies to take the aforementioned steps by lifting all censorship and other repressive measures;

- Express solidarity with and support for freedom of expression by signing he Palestine Freedom of Expression Declaration posted on the website at www.freeexpressionpalestine.org/. To endorse the declaration, send an e-mail to pfex@freeexpressionpalestine.org

- Send solidarity messages to Queers Against Israeli Apartheid quaia.toronto@gmail.com

- Disseminate information about the repression in Canada against civil society groups.

It is the height of double standard for the Canadian government to advocate democracy and respect for freedoms elsewhere while suppressing freedoms and undermining democracy at home for political convenience. Palestinian civil society, represented in the BNC, condemns all repression, perpetrated by any party, including by governments that are ostensibly “democratic”.

- The BNC Secretariat

Posted on 26-05-2010

http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=1246

Action Alert: Canada Post to Issue Canada/Israel Stamp

2010-04-15T06:55:00.002-04:00

STAMP OUT APARTHEID!

On April 14th, Canada will be issuing a "Canada-Israel Diplomatic Relations" commemorative stamp to celebrate 60 years of relations. In light of on-going occupation, policies of racial segregation and war-crimes against the Palestinian people, we ask what is there to celebrate?

Please take a minute to send the following message to John Baird (baird.j@parl.gc.ca), the Minister responsible for Canada Post Corporation and Rob Merrifield (Merrifield.R@parl.gc.ca), the Minister of State (Transport) to express your anger at Canada Post's joint issue stamp with Israel Post. Please CC endapartheid@riseup.net.

*** STEP ONE ***

CUT AND PASTE THE FOLLOWING ADDRESSES INTO YOUR EMAIL:
baird.j@parl.gc.ca, Merrifield.R@parl.gc.ca

MAKE SURE TO CC THE LEADERS OF THE OPPOSITION:
IgnatM@parl.gc.ca, laytoj@parl.gc.ca, DucepG@parl.gc.ca

*** STEP TWO ***

Dear Mr. Baird and Mr. Merrifield:

I am writing to express condemnation of your decision to launch a $1.70 "Canada-Israel Diplomatic Relations" joint issue stamp on April 14th. The stamp comes a little more than a year after Israel launched a brutal assault on the Gaza Strip that left 1400 Palestinians, including 320 children, dead. According to the Report of the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, Israel was found responsible for grave violations of international humanitarian law and
war-crimes.

Canada Post should be taking the lead from its employees - represented by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) - in endorsing the call by over 170 Palestinian civil society organization for a comprehensive campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) targeting Israeli institutions complicit with violations of international law. This is a non-violent and effective means of pursuing peace and justice in Israel/Palestine.

Along these lines, it should be noted that Israel Post continues its complicity with the Israeli occupation by servicing Israeli settlements in direct contravention of the Geneva Conventions and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and actively promoting Israeli militarism through a series of stamp issues to that end. Furthermore, Israel continues to impede and disrupt mail delivery throughout Palestine, including through its nearly 3 year long siege on the Gaza Strip and its system of nearly 500 checkpoints throughout the West Bank.

I see little reason to 'celebrate' such policies at the expense of tax-payers residing in Canada.

Sincerely,

Action Alert: Oppose MP Conservative motion attacking free speech on Israel/Palestine!

2010-03-01T06:49:00.002-05:00

Defend free speech on Palestine!
Tell your MPs: Oppose Conservative motion that attacks Israeli Apartheid Week!

Conservative Member of Parliament Tim Uppal (Edmonton - Sherwood Park) has announced that he will introduce a motion in the House of Commons next week that condemns Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW), a series of campus-based educational events that takes place at universities and colleges all over the world (see below the text of Uppal's motion). Uppal's motion also condemns the use of the term "apartheid" in any discussion or debate about Israel.

If Uppal's motion passes, it will represent an unprecedented attack on free speech in Canada. That it has even been proposed, however, is also a clear sign of the strength and exponential growth of the Palestinian-led solidarity campaign grounded in the 2005 call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) of Israel.

What is unfortunate about this motion, in addition to its blatant attack on freedom of expression, is that it shows a lack of understanding of the concept of Apartheid and of the realities of life in Israel/Palestine. No one knows better what Apartheid looks like than the people of South Africa. In South Africa this month, Israeli Apartheid Week is taking place in at least three cities, under the banner of "Apartheid for One is Apartheid for All". It is being co-organized by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), one of the main bodies that significantly contributed to the demise of Apartheid in South Africa.

A similar motion in the Ontario Legislature on February 25 prompted immediate widespread public protest aimed at MPPs' offices. In response, the leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party (ONDP) Andrea Horwath rightly acknowledged the motion as "divisive" and noted that "shutting down debate, on this or any other matter, is not constructive and is entirely unhelpful". The federal NDP, and all other federal parties, should be urged to follow Horwath's leadership on this issue.

Please follow the steps below to let your MPs know that you oppose this attack on free speech and on the Palestine solidarity movement.

E-mailing is the fastest and easiest way to contact MPs. Just follow these steps:

Step 1:
Cut and paste the e-mail addresses of your local Members of Parliament into the "To" line of your e-mail. Include e-mail addresses for both your MPs' Parliament Hill and constituency offices. You can find e-mail addresses for Members of Parliament here:

http://bit.ly/MPsEmail

Step 2:
Cut and paste the e-mail addresses of key government and opposition leaders (from all parties) into your "CC" line. If your e-mail account can't e-mail this many addresses at once, try sending your e-mail to a smaller block of addresses one at a time. You may have to send several e-mails in order to reach everyone.

Uppal.T@parl.gc.ca; Harper.S@parl.gc.ca; HarpeS@parl.gc.ca; HillJ@parl.gc.ca;
HillJ1@parl.gc.ca; lebrem@sen.parl.gc.ca; Reid.S@parl.gc.ca; mp@scottreid.ca;
KenneJ@parl.gc.ca; KenneJ7@parl.gc.ca; Ignatieff.M@parl.gc.ca; ignatm@parl.gc.ca; Goodale.R@parl.gc.ca; GoodaR@parl.gc.ca; cowanj@sen.parl.gc.ca; Silva.M@parl.gc.ca; SilvaM@parl.gc.ca; Cotler.I@parl.gc.ca; CotleI@parl.gc.ca; layton.j@parl.gc.ca; laytoj@parl.gc.ca; Davies.L@parl.gc.ca; Daviel@parl.gc.ca; Mulcair.T@parl.gc.ca;
Mulcat@parl.gc.ca; Wasylycia-Leis.J@parl.gc.ca; wasylj@parl.gc.ca; martin.pat@parl.gc.ca; MartiPD@parl.gc.ca; Duceppe.G@parl.gc.ca; ducepg1@parl.gc.ca; Paquette.P@parl.gc.ca; joliette@pierrepaquette.qc.ca; Gagnon.C@parl.gc.ca; gagnoc1@parl.gc.ca; Desnoyers.L@parl.gc.ca; ThilaE1@parl.gc.ca; info@cpcca.ca;

NOTE: In addition to e-mail messages, it is important for MPs to receive phone calls and office visits in the coming days; please voice your opposition in all possible ways.

Step 3:
Don't forget to fill out your subject line:

I support free speech. Oppose the Conservative motion attacking free speech on Israel/Palestine.

Step 4:
Cut and paste the message below. Feel free to personalize it with your own words. And don't forget to include your name (and address) at the bottom. If you know the name of your Members of Parliament, please make sure you address your message to them.

Dear Members of Parliament:

I am writing to urge you to oppose the Conservative motion attacking free speech on Israel/Palestine. Conservative Member of Parliament Tim Uppal (Edmonton - Sherwood Park) has announced that he will introduce a motion in the House of Commons next week that condemns Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW), a series of campus-based educational events that takes place at universities and colleges all over the world. Uppal's motion also condemns the use of the term "apartheid" in any discussion or debate about Israel.

This motion, if passed, will represent an unprecedented attack on free speech in Canada. I urge you to defend free speech in Canada, and to oppose Uppal's motion.

IAW has grown in size and scope since it was first launched on campuses in Toronto in 2005, and now includes dozens of events in over 50 cities worldwide, including three cities in South Africa. IAW is marked by its inclusive and diverse nature, its respect for discussion and debate, and its call for peaceful solutions to the Israel-Palestine conflict. IAW has been endorsed and
supported by dozens of organizations including student unions, trade unions, faith groups, and Jewish solidarity organizations.

The term "apartheid" is not a hateful one, nor is it on the "margins" of mainstream debate. South African anti-apartheid campaigners, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu and President of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) Willie Madisha, regularly use the term "apartheid" to describe the conditions in which Palestinians live, both inside Israel and in the Occupied Territories. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter uses the term in his best-selling book Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid. The term is also used widely inside Israel itself: former Israeli Prime Minister and current Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak recently used the term in a speech about the consequences of stalled peace talks.

The conditions in which Palestinians live clearly meet the definition of "apartheid" as described by the United Nations. The increasingly differential system of roads, housing, laws, access to resources, basic rights, living conditions, and quality of life between Jewish Israelis and Palestinians all point to a system of apartheid. Palestinians have the right to describe these
conditions in the way they experience them - without being condemned by the Parliament of Canada.

You may disagree with such an analysis, but you have no right to limit or restrict Palestinians and their supporters from expressing a completely legitimate perspective. Uppal's motion to condemn IAW represents a serious threat to free speech in Canada, and should be opposed. The House of Commons should not be in the business of censorship.

Once again, I strongly urge you to oppose the Conservative motion and to demonstrate support for free speech in Canada – including for those political perspectives with which you might disagree.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,

Step 5:
Press send!

Please BCC emails to freespeechiaw2010@gmail.com so we can keep track of how many emails are going out.

- - - - -
Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) lasts from March 1 to 7 at dozens of venues in 16
cities across Canada. For local city schedules, please visit: www.apartheidweek.org.
- - - - -

Conservative MP Tim Uppal's (tentative) motion:
"That this House considers itself to be a friend of the State of Israel; that this House is concerned about expressions of anti-Semitism under the guise of "Israeli Apartheid Week"; and that this House explicitly condemns any action in Canada as well as internationally that would equate the State of Israel with the rejected and racist policy of apartheid."

Action Alert: Oppose MPP vote to condemn Apartheid Week

2010-02-26T06:24:00.001-05:00

Defend free speech on Palestine!
Tell your MPPs you oppose their decision to condemn Israeli Apartheid Week.

Members of the Ontario legislature passed a unanimous motion on February 25 that condemns Israel Apartheid Week (IAW), a series of campus-based educational events that takes place on university campuses all over the world (full text of motion below).

This is an unprecedented attack on free speech in Ontario. But it is also a clear sign of the strength and exponential growth of the Palestinian led solidarity campaign grounded in the 2005 call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions of Israel.

What is unfortunate about this motion, in addition to blatant attack on freedom of expression, is that it shows lack of understanding of the concept of Apartheid and the realities of life in Israel/Palestine. No one knows what apartheid looks like more than the people of South Africa, and in South Africa, IAW is taking place in at least three cities, under the banner of "Apartheid for One is Apartheid for All". It is being co-organized by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), one of the main bodies which significantly contributed to the demise of apartheid in South Africa. In Quebec, Dr. Jamal Zahalka, a Palestinian leader who will be the keynote speaker for IAW, will be presented before a full session of the National Assembly of Quebec. It is really unfortunate that the Ontario Legislature decided to condemn IAW without knowing what it is, and without even attempting to hear the organizers.

Please follow the steps below to let your MPPs know that you oppose this attack on free speech and the Palestine solidarity movement.

E-mailing is the fastest and easiest way to contact MPPs. Just follow these steps:

Step 1:

Cut and paste the e-mail addresses of the entire Ontario legislature into your "To" line (If your e-mail account can't e-mail this many addresses at once, try sending your e-mail to a smaller block of addresses one at a time. You may have to send several e-mails in order to reach all MPPs.). Please note that this list includes both Queen's Park and constituency office e-mail addresses.

NOTE: In addition to e-mail, it is important for MPPs receive phone calls and office visits all day tomorrow - voice your opposition in all possible ways.

saggelonitis.mpp@liberal.ola.org; saggelonitis.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org; lalbanese.mpp@liberal.ola.org; lalbanese.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org; ted.arnott@pc.ola.org; ted.arnottco@pc.ola.org; warthurs.mpp@liberal.ola.org; warthurs.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org; bob.bailey@pc.ola.org; bob.baileyco@pc.ola.org; bbalkissoon.mpp@liberal.ola.org; bbalkissoon.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org; toby.barrett@pc.ola.org; toby.barrettco@pc.ola.org; rbartolucci.mpp@liberal.ola.org; rbartolucci.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org; cbentley.mpp@liberal.ola.org; cbentley.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org; lberardinetti.mpp@liberal.ola.org; lberardinetti.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org; mbest.mpp@liberal.ola.org; mbest.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org; gbisson@ndp.on.ca; gbisson-qp@ndp.on.ca; gbisson-co@ndp.on.ca; jbradley.mpp@liberal.ola.org; jbradley.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org; lbroten.mpp@liberal.ola.org; lbroten.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org; mbrown.mpp@liberal.ola.org; mbrown.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org; jbrownell.mpp@liberal.ola.org; jbrownell.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org; dcansfield.mpp@liberal.ola.org; dcansfield.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org; dcaplan.mpp@liberal.ola.org; dcaplan.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org; acarroll.mpp@liberal.ola.org; acarroll.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org; mchan.mpp@liberal.ola.org; mchan.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org; ted.chudleigh@pc.ola.org; ted.chudleighco@pc.ola.org; mcolle.mpp@liberal.ola.org; mcolle.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org; kcraitor.mpp@liberal.ola.org; kcraitor.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org; bcrozier.mpp@liberal.ola.org; bcrozier.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org; bdelaney.mpp@liberal.ola.org; bdelaney.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org; vdhillon.mpp@liberal.ola.org; vdhillon.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org; jdickson.mpp@liberal.ola.org; jdickson.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org; dinovoc-qp@ndp.on.ca; dinovoc-co@ndp.on.ca; ldombrowsky.mpp@liberal.ola.org; ldombrowsky.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org; bduguid.mpp@liberal.ola.org; bduguid.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org; dduncan.mpp@liberal.ola.org; dduncan.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org; garfield.dunlop@pc.ola.org; garfield.dunlopco@pc.ola.org; christine.elliott@pc.ola.org; christine.elliottco@pc.ola.org; kflynn.mpp@liberal.ola.org; kflynn.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org; pfonseca.mpp@liberal.ola.org; pfonseca.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org; fgelinas-qp@ndp.on.ca; fgelinas-co@ndp.on.ca; jgerretsen.mpp@liberal.ola.org; jgerretsen.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org; mgravelle.mpp@liberal.ola.org; hhampton-qp@ndp.on.ca; hhampton-co@ndp.on.ca; hhfort@jam21.net; hhkenora@kmts.ca; ernie.hardeman@pc.ola.org; ernie.hardemanco@pc.ola.org; randy.hillier@pc.ola.org; randy.hillierco@pc.ola.org; ahorwath-qp@ndp.on.ca; ahorwath-co@ndp.on.ca; ehoskins.mpp@liberal.ola.org; ehoskins.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org; phoy.mpp@liberal.ola.org; phoy.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org; tim.hudak@pc.ola.org; tim.hudakco@pc.ola.org; hjaczek.mpp@liberal.ola.org; hjaczek.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org; ljeffrey.mpp@liberal.ola.org; ljeffrey.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org; rjohnson.mpp@liberal.ola.org; rjohnson.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org; sylvia.jones@pc.ola.org; sylvia.jonesco@pc.ola.org; frank.klees@pc.ola.org; frank.kleesco@pc.ola.org; pkormos-qp@ndp.on.ca; pkormos-co@ndp.on.ca; kkular.mpp@liberal.ola.org; 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Step 2:
Don't forget to fill out your subject line:

I oppose your decision to condemn IAW. I support free speech in Ontario.

Step 3:

Cut and paste the message below. Feel free to personalize it with your own words. And don't forget to include your name at the bottom. If you know the name of your MPP, address your e-mail to her/him.

Dear Members of the Provincial Parliament:

I am writing in response to your decision to support a motion on February 25 that condemns Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW), a series of campus-based educational events that takes place annually on campuses all over the world.

The motion, which was introduced by Progressive Conservative MPP Peter Shurman (Thornhill), is an unprecedented attack on free speech in Ontario. I condemn and oppose your decision to support such a motion.

IAW has grown in size and scope since it was first launched on campuses in Toronto in 2005, and now includes dozens of events in over 50 cities worldwide including 3 cities in South Africa. IAW is marked by its inclusive and diverse nature, its respect for discussion and debate, and its call for peaceful solutions to the Israel-Palestine conflict. IAW has been endorsed and supported by dozens of organizations including student unions, trade unions, faith groups, and Jewish solidarity organizations.

The term "apartheid" is not a hateful one, nor is it on the "margins" of mainstream debate. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter uses the term in his best-selling book Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid. South African anti-apartheid campaigners, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu and President of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) Willie Madisha, regularly use the term "apartheid" to describe the conditions in which Palestinians live both inside Israel and in the Occupied Territories. The term is also used widely inside Israel itself: former Israeli Prime Minister and current Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak recently used the term in a speech about the consequences of stalled peace talks.

The conditions in which Palestinians live clearly meet the definition of "apartheid" as described by the United Nations. The increasingly differential system of roads, housing, laws, access to resources, basic rights, living conditions, and quality of life between Jewish Israelis and Palestinians all point to a system of apartheid. Palestinians have the right to describe these conditions in the way they experience them.

You may disagree with such an analysis, but you have no right to limit or restrict Palestinians and their supporters from expressing a completely legitimate perspective. Your decision to condemn IAW represents a serious setback for free speech in Ontario, and should be reconsidered. The Ontario legislature should not be in the business of censorship.

I urge to rethink your position, to become more informed about this issue, and to demonstrate support for free speech in Ontario – including for those political perspectives with which you might disagree.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,

Step 4:
Press send!
If you get a response from you MPPs, please let us know. Forward e-mail responses to endapartheid@riseup.net

Israeli Apartheid Week begins next week on campuses across Ontario despite this motion. For city schedules please check: www.apartheidweek.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Private Members Motion 93 Reads
That, in the opinion of this House, the term Israel Apartheid Week is condemned as it serves to incite hatred against Israel, a democratic state that respects the rule of law and human rights, and the use of the word 'apartheid' in this context diminishes the suffering of those who were victims of a true apartheid regime in South Africa.

Isreali Apartheid Week March 1-7, 2010

2010-01-19T18:23:00.002-05:00

The Sixth Annual Israeli Apartheid Week
"Solidarity in action: Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions"
March 1 - 7, 2010
www.apartheidweek.org

The preliminary list of confirmed speakers along with the specific themes of each evening for IAW 2010 Toronto is now available. Mark your calendars with the different topics for each evening and speakers:

Monday, March 1: Five Years Since the BDS Call - Celebrating Our Success

speakers: Yves Engler and Na'eem Jeena

Tuesday, March 2: Fighting Racism, Fighting Apartheid

speakers: Nadia Elia, Gabriel Ash and Delegates from 7th Generation Indigenous Visionaries

Wednesday, March 3: "Planning" Apartheid: Environment, Architecture, and Colonialism

speakers: Ben Powless, Atif Kubursi and Ilaria Giglioli

Thursday, March 4: Coming Out Against Apartheid: Queer Solidarity Activism

speakers: Trish Salah, John Greyson and Jenny Peto

Friday, March 5: National Liberation: From Turtle Island to Palestine

speakers: Rabab Abdulhadi

All speakers and full programme available soon at www.apartheidweek.org

About IAW 2010

First launched in Toronto in 2005, IAW has grown to become one of the most important global events in the Palestine solidarity calendar. Last year, more than 35 cities around the world participated in the week's activities, which took place in the wake of Israel's brutal assault against the people of Gaza. In Toronto, IAW 2009 featured a full week of events kicked off by Palestinian activist and writer Omar Barghouti.

IAW 2010 takes place following a year of incredible successes for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement on the global level. Lectures, films, and actions will highlight some of these successes along with the many injustices that continue to make BDS so crucial in the battle to end Israeli Apartheid.

Join us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=185933489468

Endorsers of Israeli Apartheid Week 2010 so far:

Canadian Arab Federation
Palestine Community Centre
Not In Our Name: Jewish Voices Opposing Zionism
Independent Jewish Voices
Educators for Peace and Justice
Socialist Action
Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid
Queers Against Israeli Apartheid
Labour For Palestine
Faculty For Palestine
No One Is Illegal
International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
CAW Sam Gindin Chair in Social Justice
Salaam, Queer Muslim Communities
CUPE Local 3907
Equity Studies Students' Union
The Centre for Women and Trans People at UofT
Barrio Nuevo
Young Communist League
Resistance Art
Ontario Public Interest Research Group - UofT

Anniversary of Israeli Assault on Gaza / Gaza Freedom March

2009-12-08T16:08:00.003-05:00

ONE YEAR SINCE GAZA - Rally Outside Israeli Consulate
Sunday December 27th

In conjunction with the Gaza Freedom March, community and activist organizations in Toronto will be holding a rally to mark the one-year anniversary of the Israeli invasion and military assault on the Gaza Strip that left more than 1,400 dead.

On December 27th, gather outside the Israeli consulate (180 Bloor St) at 1:00 pm to voice your solidarity with the Palestinian people and to demand an end to Israel's siege of the Gaza strip
(http://www.gazafreedommarch.ca/toronto).

The Gaza Freedom March that will take place in Gaza on 31 December is an historic initiative to break the siege that has imprisoned the 1.5 million people who live there. The march will gather people from all over the world to march -- hand in hand -- with the people of Gaza to demand that Israel open the borders.

Initial list of Sponsors

Gaza Freedom March ( Toronto )
Palestine House Educational and Cultural Center
Canadian Arab Federation (CAF)
Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA)
Toronto Coalition to Stop the War
Educators for Peace and Justice
Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA-York)

To endorse this action in Toronto and/or for more information please email
info@palestinehouse.org

see statement of context for Gaza Freedom March at
http://www.gazafreedommarch.org/article.php?id=5081

Week Against the Apartheid Wall: Toronto Events, Nov. 9-16

2009-10-26T13:11:00.001-04:00

Unite against Apartheid! Tear down the walls in Palestine! Break the siege in Gaza!

THE SEVENTH WEEK AGAINST THE APARTHEID WALL, NOVEMBER 9 – 16 2009.

The Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, its popular committees and member organizations has called on activists to launch a week of global mobilization against the walls of apartheid in the West Bank and Gaza from November 9 to 16 2009.

Toronto Events: (for updated information visit http://www.caiaweb.org/event)

Wed November 11 - Students Against Israeli Apartheid - UT (SAIA-UT): Film Screening - Palestine Blues (time and location TBD)

Students Against Israeli Apartheid - York - Movie screening and panel discussion - details TBD

Thur November 12 - Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights - Ryerson (SPHR): Film Screening - The Iron Wall (time and location TBD)

Fri November 13 - 7:30pm - Public Forum "The Campus and Palestine Solidarity Organizing" - Ted Rogers School of Business, Room 2-166, 55 Dundas St. W, Ryerson University

The Week of Action Against the Wall:

On November 9 1989 – exactly 20 years ago – the Berlin Wall fell. The event was celebrated as a victory of the ‘Free World’. Today, however, the same powers back the construction of walls which are destroying Palestine.

Five years ago – the International Court of Justice ruled that the Wall is illegal and has required that it be torn down and all laws and orders related to it be reversed. The Court has reminded the international community of its obligation not to render any aid or assistance to the Wall and to ensure the implementation of international law. To date, the international community has not promoted any tangible move towards the ruling’s implementation.

The hypocrisy must end – justice has to prevail.

Gaza has been imprisoned by walls and razor wire for 15 years. The wall and its no-go zone confiscate almost 25% of the prime agricultural land of the starving Strip. About 15% of Gaza’s farmers are barred from working their farmlands, while tens of water wells and about 50% of livestock shelters and other related industry in the east part of the Gaza strip have been destroyed. Many farmers have been killed while tending to their land or have been displaced and forced into overcrowded urban centers.

In the West Bank, the Apartheid Wall carves out today’s Bantustans. It curves around settlements, which continue to grow despite disingenuous talks of a “settlement freeze.” So far its path has isolated 78 Palestinian villages, trapping them between walls, settlements and/or the Green Line while stealing land, water and other resources from hundreds more. Jerusalem remains isolated by the Wall and settlements, and an increasing number of Palestinians have found their homes demolished or taken over by settlers.

In response, the international community has put a veil of silence over these crimes – yet another Nakba for the Palestinian people.

In spite of this, Palestinian resistance to the Wall has grown. Protests have been a weekly undertaking in a number of West Bank villages. In an attempt to uproot what they have termed “a dangerous phenomenon”, Occupation forces have employed increasing violent means against protesting communities, targeting youth in particular. In barely more than a year, 6 have been shot and killed by soldiers, hundreds have been injured and dozens arrested in the villages struggling against the Wall.

Gaza has seen much worse. In response to their resilience under siege, the people of Gaza have faced an overwhelming military onslaught. More then 1,500 were killed as a result and thousands more injured this past winter when Occupation forces laid waste to the small coastal territory.

In their struggle, the Palestinian people shall not stand alone.

Unite against apartheid!

Public Forum: The Campus and Palestine Solidarity

2009-10-25T15:21:00.002-04:00

Friday, November 13 at 7:30 PM
Ted Rogers School of Business (Room 2-166)
55 Dundas Street West, Ryerson University, Toronto

Speakers:
John Greyson – Award-winning filmmaker, video artist and educator – York University; Yafa Jarrar – Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA), Carleton University; Mary-Jo Nadeau – Faculty4Palestine, Wilfrid Laurier University; and Leah Katz – Not in Our Name (NION): Jewish Voices Opposing Zionism, York University

A public forum organized as part of the Week Against the Wall, by:
Faculty4Palestine; Not in Our Name (NION): Jewish Voices Opposing Zionism; Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA)-York; SAIA-U of T (an action group of OPIRG-Toronto); and the CAW Sam Gindin Chair in Social Justice

Information: info@NION.ca or faculty@caiaweb.org
www.NION.ca www.caiaweb.org/faculty www.caiaweb.org/campuscommittee

Teachers for Palestine: 'It's Time for Divestment' Panel Discussion

2009-10-18T16:11:00.003-04:00

ATTENTION TEACHERS AND EDUCATION WORKERS: LET'S TALK ABOUT DIVESTMENT

The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan has investments in:

Cement Roadstone Holdings
Lockheed Martin
Siemens
MDA
Finning International

Each of these companies play a role in Israeli apartheid, from partnering with a company that produces cement used in the construction of the Apartheid Wall, to distributing Caterpillar's D9 bulldozers used to demolish Palestinian homes.

It's time for divestment. Come learn more at a panel discussion hosted by Teachers for Palestine.

Wednesday October 28 at 7 p.m.
University of Toronto
Galbraith Building, 35 St. George
Room GB 119

Child Care Provided

For more info contact: tfp@tao.ca

****

Background:

DIVESTMENT

WE DID IT IN 1991 - IT’S TIME TO DO IT AGAIN

The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) does not, as a matter of policy, consider investment on ethical or moral principles. There was one exception: in the 1990s the Plan, under public pressure, was allowed to divest from apartheid South Africa. For at least the past 40 years in Israel-Palestine another apartheid system very similar to that of the former South Africa has been put in place by Israel. Many prominent public figures, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, U.N. Special Rapporteurs John Dugard and Richard Falk, former Israeli education minister, Shulamit Aloni, and editor of the Israeli daily Haaretz, Danny Rubenstein, have drawn the parallels.

Over 170 Palestinian civil society organizations, including the Palestinian trade union movement, have called on the world to adopt a campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel, similar to that used against South Africa under apartheid. Israeli peace groups such as the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions and Canadian Jewish organizations such as Not In Our Name and the Independent Jewish Voices have spoken out against Israel’s apartheid policies and human rights abuses.

In 2009 the OSSTF passed a motion demanding that the OTPP adopt the UN's “Principles for Responsible Investment”. This would require the Plan to divest from companies that are in direct violation of UN and ICC resolutions condemning Israeli Apartheid, and complicit in the
violation of the human rights of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.

PALESTINE / ISRAEL: FREEDOM OF SPEECH, FREEDOM TO TEACH

2009-10-13T14:31:00.003-04:00

A conference on elementary, secondary, and post-secondary education – rights
and repression

Friday, October 16, 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Saturday, October 17, 9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Steelworkers Hall, 25 Cecil Street , Toronto

Friday Opening Panel:
Sharing Stories of Repression and Fightback
Panelists include Javier Davila, Adnan Husain, Golta Shahidi, and Palestinian educator, Saed Abu-Hijleh. Liisa Schofield will present a video short she made about Mohammad Othman from Stop the Wall who was arrested last month upon his return from Norway where he was campaigning for Palestinian rights.

Saturday: Keynote addresses: Yafa Jarrar and Sherene Razack
Also: Legal Context: Know Your Rights as Activists - Yutaka Dirks and Irina Ceric and
Sectoral Workshops: Post-Secondary Faculty - Academic Research, Conferences, Publication and Organizing * Post-Secondary Faculty -Teaching and the Curriculum * Elementary and Secondary Teachers – The Classroom, the Curriculum and Finding Spaces within the Union * Student Organizing * Community

Registration: $5–$30 sliding scale (includes lunch with vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free options). Please register by Wednesday October 14th at Noon to receive the lunch.

For further information and to pre-register, contact us at
freedomtoteach.registration@yahoo.ca

Organized by Educators for Peace and Justice, Faculty for Palestine , and
Students Against Israeli Apartheid

Also coming up this week:

Three important presentations to be delivered by visiting Palestinian scholar, Saed Abu-Hijleh.

Special thanks to Ottawa activists for coordinating the tour, and to the Departments and Palestinian Solidarity organizations providing venues for us to hear from Professor Abu-Hijleh..

* * * * * * * * * * **

#1 WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 3:00 - 5:00 p.m
"The Political Geography of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict"
Room 2125, Sidney Smith Hall, 100 St. George St., University of Toronto

Hosted by the University of Toronto Department of Geography. Providing an overview of the historical geography of Palestine from the beginning of the Zionist project till today, Professor Abu-Hijleh will explain how the political map has changed, and identify the main forces that worked to shape it on the local, regional, and international levels. The presentation will also provide an evaluation of the different proposed schemes for the resolution of the conflict, and what they entail geographically.

#2 FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
Guest speaker on "Sharing Stories of Repression and Fightback" panel at Israel/Palestine: Freedom of Speech, Freedom to Teach Conference Steelworkers Hall, 25 Cecil Street (co-organized by Faculty4Palestine, Students Against Israeli Apartheid, and Educators for Peace and Justice) TO PRE-REGISTER FOR TWO-DAY CONFERENCE send an e-mail to
freedomtoteach.registration@yahoo.ca

#3 MONDAY, OCTOBER 19, 12:00 noon
"Education Under Military Occupation and Apartheid"
SESE Seminar Room, 12th Floor, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), 252 Bloor St

Hosted by the OISE Graduate Students' Association Right to Education Committee. An overview of the different aspects of teaching and learning under the regimes set by the Israeli military occupation, identifying and classifying the different Israeli violations of the Palestinian Right to Education. The presentation explains how Palestinian students and academics are trying to
counter the effects of the Apartheid-like policies on the Palestinian educational system. Examples are given from the day-to-day life under occupation.

Saed J. Abu-Hijleh (2009)
Saed J. Abu-Hijleh is a Palestinian human geographer, poet, and radio show host, who is currently working as a lecturer of political and environmental geography at An-Najah National University in Nablus, Palestine. He is the founder & director of the Center for Global Consciousness (CGC), an independent media and cultural exchange institute dedicated to building bridges between Palestine and the world.

Mr. Abu-Hijleh holds a BS in International Development Studies from the University of Iowa and an MA in Political Geography from the University of Northern Iowa, USA. In the past fifteen years, Mr. Abu-Hijleh worked with key Palestinian public and private organizations in the fields of international development, public relations and protocol, and small and medium enterprises development projects. Mr. Abu-Hijleh is the former Director Public Relations Department of An-Najah University (2005-2007). Since 2004, Mr. Abu-Hijleh prepared and hosted a talk show on An-Najah University FM station called “Global Perspectives” in which he interviewed many
international personalities who visited Palestine on key contemporary political, economic, and cultural issues. Mr. Abu-Hijleh has conducted academic research on the political geography of Palestinian statehood and the multidimensional obstacles facing its realization. His current
research interests focus on the human geography of Palestinian identity & Diaspora, Israeli territoriality, Palestinian liberation theology, and the geography of the Palestinian environmental movement. He also conducted research on the new social media and the problems of media coverage in conflict zones. Mr. Abu-Hijleh is presently preparing to publish a poetry collection entitled “Words of a Palestinian Dinosaur!”

Like many other Palestinians who grew up under the Israeli military occupation, Mr. Abu-Hijleh started his political activism at an early stage in his life. He was only 10 years old when he joined student demonstrations against the occupation authorities. In April 1982, at the age of 15, he was seriously wounded by Israeli soldiers when they opened fire on a student demonstration in the city of Nablus. This did not stop him from continuing his activism for the realization of peace
and justice in Palestine and around the world.

On October 11, 2002, Israeli soldiers assassinated his mother Shaden Abu-Hijleh, a renowned Palestinian peace activist and philanthropist, and injured him and his father Dr. Jamal Abu-Hijleh. (www.remembershaden.org)

Poster Competition: Israeli Apartheid Week 2010

2009-10-07T17:03:00.002-04:00

We are proud to announce the first international Israeli Apartheid Week poster competition. First launched in Toronto in 2005, Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) has grown to become one of the most important global events in the Palestine solidarity calendar. Last year, more than 35 cities around the world participated in the week's activities.

The aim of IAW is to contribute to the international opposition to Israeli apartheid and to bolster support for the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) campaign in accordance with the demands outlined in the July 2005 call from Palestine (for full statement, including demands please see: http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/52)

We are calling on all creative artists/designers to submit poster designs for IAW 2010. The poster will be used internationally to promote IAW and to raise awareness about the BDS campaign.

Criteria:

1. The concept has to reflect its use as a poster – clearly indicating Israeli Apartheid Week 2010 (dates to be added at later stage).

2. The poster must express the politics of IAW (information on the history and politics of IAW can be found at www.apartheidweek.org)

### The submissions deadline is December 1, 2009 ###

Please submit entries ONLY via email to poster@apartheidweek.org as JPEG or PDF files. In the email you send, please include

* your full name,
* country of residence, and
* phone number.

The winning design will be used in various Israeli Apartheid Weeks across the globe.*

All submitted entries will be posted on the website in an online gallery of all submissions.

Please send any questions or comments to poster@apartheidweek.org

We look forward to receiving your submission!**
Israeli Apartheid Week International Coordinating Committee

* some cities might elect to use other designs.
**The IAW-ICC reserves the right to modify the winning entry in coordination with the winning artist/designer.

Free Mohammad Othman, Palestinian prisoner of conscience

2009-10-03T09:38:00.003-04:00

On September 22, Mohammad Othman was arrested by soldiers on the Allenby Bridge Crossing, at the Jordan-Palestine border. He is being held in administrative detention as a prisoner of conscience, arrested solely for his human rights advocacy work. Even after his first trial yesterday, the charges against him have not been made clear.

Mohammad, 33 years old, is from Jayyous, a village devastated by the Apartheid Wall and the Zufim settlement. He has dedicated the last ten years of his life to the defense of Palestinian human rights, working primarily with Palestinian youth and with the Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign.

Mohammad was arrested upon his return from Norway, where he met with senior officials, including Norwegian Finance Minister Kristen Halvorsen. Norway’s national Pension Fund recently announced its divestment from Elbit, an Israeli company that designs and manufactures military technology for the Occupation forces, including Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and security systems for the Wall and settlements.

Post-travel arrest is a common Israeli repression tactic, intended to deter Palestinians from international human rights advocacy. Recently, Muhammad Srour, an eye witness for the UN Fact Finding Mission on Gaza, was arrested on his way home from Geneva. In June 2009, Mohammad Khatib traveled to Canada to attend the preliminary hearings of an historic lawsuit launched by the Palestinian village of Bil’in against two Quebec-based companies building illegal Israeli settlements on Bil’in's land. Shortly after his return, Khatib was arrested during a raid on the village. There are many similar cases.

Mohammad Othman is one of 11,000 Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons. More than 800 of these prisoners are in “administrative detention”, held indefinitely without criminal charge. Mass imprisonment is a key component of Israel’s policy of isolating the Palestinian people and silencing their struggle for justice.

What you can do to help:

• Contact the Canadian in Tel Aviv to demand the immediate release of Mohammad Othman (sample letter below):

Canadian Embassy in Tel Aviv
Email: taviv@international.gc.ca
Phone: (011 972 3) 636 3300
Fax: (011 972 3) 636 3383

• Contact your Member of Parliament to demand that they advocate for the release of Mohammad Othman (sample letter below):

To find contact info for your MP, go to the link below:
http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Parlinfo/Compilations/HouseOfCommons/MemberByPostalCode.aspx?Menu=HOC

• Sign the online petition for Mohammad:
http://www.petitiononline.com/stopwall/petition.html

• Follow the blog and facebook to free Mohammad Othman to see the
latest updates and action alerts.
Blog: http://freemohammadothman.wordpress.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=36429272741&ref=ts
Detailed information about his detention and trial:
www.stopthewall.org or http://addameer.info/

---------------------------

Sample letter to the Canadian Embassy and MPs:

Dear x,

I am writing to you to express my deepest concern about the detainment of Mohammad Othman on, September 22, at the border between Jordan and the West Bank. He was returning home after a visit in Norway.

I fear that the detainment of Mohammad Othman is a result of his peaceful criticism of violations of international law by Israeli authorities. The charges against him have not been made clear even after his first court appearance, but there is reason to believe that he is a prisoner of conscience, arrested solely for his human rights work through legal organizations.

I ask you to take all appropriate measures, including official inquiries and protests, to ensure Mohammad’s immediate and unconditional release. Furthermore, whilst being held, he should be protected from any form of torture or ill-treatment, and the conditions of his detention should fulfill the requirements of international law.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this urgent matter.

Sincerely,

York Faculty Members Rally to Pay Costly Fines Imposed on Students Against Israeli Apartheid

2009-10-03T09:33:00.003-04:00

For Immediate Release
October 1st, 2009

STUDENTS AND FACULTY TAKE UNITED STANCE IN DEFENCE OF FREE SPEECH ON CAMPUS: York Faculty Members Rally to Pay Costly Fines Imposed on Students Against Israeli Apartheid

We are a concerned group of York faculty members -- concerned for the rights of free speech at York, concerned for the right to dissent, concerned for Palestinian human rights.

During the Spring of this year, 40 of us agreed to make personal contributions to help Students Against Israeli Apartheid-York (SAIA-York) defray the cost of a $1000 fine imposed upon the club by the York administration following a February 12th demonstration in Vari Hall. We did so because we see these fines as part of a larger pattern of repression on those who speak out at York in defence of Palestinian human rights on our campus.

In recent years, York administrators have attempted to expel a student and to discipline a faculty member for speaking out on campus in support of Palestinian human rights. In addition, they have on numerous occasions disciplined and fined SAIA and its members. Such actions bring discredit to the university, and they create a climate hostile to free speech and legitimate dissent.

For this reason, we have chosen to support SAIA with our wallets. And we will do so again, should it be necessary. In the coming weeks and months, we will be informing the York community about further actions in defence of free speech and Palestinian human rights.

Sincerely,

Concerned Faculty For Palestinian Human Rights
-30-

Please join us in demanding that York University President Mamdouh Shoukri denounce the use of prohibitory fines and sanctions against student clubs like SAIA-York as an instrument to silence Palestine solidarity activism and free speech on campus. Direct your letters to mshoukri@yorku.ca and CC SAIA-York as well saiayork@riseup.net. Feel free to use the sample letter provided below, however you are strongly encouraged to write your own.

SAMPLE LETTER:

President Shoukri,

I am writing to you today to strongly denounce the punitive measures taken against Students Against Israeli Apartheid-York (SAIA-York), in which the club was suspended for a total of 30 days and fined $1000 (alongside an additional $250 charged directly to the student acount of one of its members). I find it both shameful and morally reprehensible to sanction SAIA-York so severely simply for organizing a Palestine solidarity rally at a time when the people of Gaza were being indiscriminately bombed by the Israeli military for 22 consecutive days without reprieve, culminating in the deaths of over 1,400 people - most of which were innocent civilians.

If York is truly 'open to the world', as its own mission statement proudly claims, the fundamental right of students to legitimate dissent and peaceful assembly on campus must remain paramount. Vari Hall is at the core of student life and activism on campus and its rightful claim as 'student space' must never be compromised or outlawed. As President of York, it is your responsibility to protect free speech on campus, not to sanction and police those who refuse to stay silent on issues of moral consequence. Should such repressive administrative measures as those levied against SAIA-York continue in the future, you will no doubt be hearing from me again!

Sincerely,

YOUR NAME

2nd annual Toronto Palestine Film Festival (26 Sept - 2 Oct)

2009-09-15T13:32:00.001-04:00

Dear CAIA Supporters,

We encourage everyone to attend the 2nd annual Toronto Palestine Film Festival (TPFF) taking place across the GTA September 26 - October 2. All details below.

In Solidarity,
Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid

*Please Post Widely*

Toronto Palestine Film Festival
Non-Stereotypical Cinema from Palestine
September 26-October 2, 2009
www.tpff.ca

Join us at the Toronto Palestine Film Festival!

The 2nd annual Toronto Palestine Film Festival (TPFF) is pleased to present a wide selection of award-winning short, feature, documentary, experimental and animation films to Toronto audiences.

From September 26 to October 2, TPFF will showcase 34 films, including Canadian and North American premieres, and will host a contemporary art exhibit, a film & food brunch and several forums. Check out our programme to learn more about TPFF (www.tpff.ca).

TPFF opens the festival with the internationally acclaimed film Amreeka, on Saturday September 26, 2009, 6:30 at the Bloor Cinema (560 Bloor St. W & Bathurst).

Amreeka is a comedy-drama about Muna, a single mother who leaves Ramallah with her teenage son, Fadi, to provide him with a better future in small-town Illinois. As Fadi learns to navigate high school hallways, Muna, a former bank employee, scrambles together a new life cooking up hamburgers at the local White Castle. (trailer)

Award-winning independent filmmaker and television writer Cherien Dabis has been named one of Variety’s “Ten Directors to Watch” in 2009. Amreeka is her feature writing and directorial debut, which won the Director’s Fortnight, FIPRESCI Prize (Critic’s Prize) Cannes Film Festival 2009.

TPFF closes on October 2 at the Bloor Cinema, with two excellent films that can’t be missed.

Laila’s Birthday, directed by celebrated Palestinian filmmaker Rashid Masharawi, tells the story of Abu Laila, a judge turned taxi driver, who must purchase a cake for his daughter’s birthday. This becomes an epic task as Abu Laila navigates the chaos of daily life in Ramallah. The film is a revealing and humorous portrait of a city and a decent man at their breaking point.

Checkpoint Rock shines a spotlight on music in Palestine. Beginning with renowned musician Marcel Khalife at Mahmoud Darwish’s funeral, the film traverses Palestine/Israel and presents a diverse range of musical performances along the way. Rappers, a wedding singer and classical musicians express their personal struggles through their music.

Advance tickets, TPFF 10 Pass or Memberships can be purchased online or at the Toronto Women’s Bookstore (73 Harbord St.). Buy early and avoid disappointment at the door!

We look forward to seeing you at the Toronto Palestine Film Festival.

Protest Toronto International Film Festival City-to-City Spotlight on Tel Aviv:

2009-08-29T12:59:00.005-04:00

TIFF Celebrating Israeli colonialism, ethnic cleansing and apartheid!

Dear CAIA allies and supporters,

We urge you to write to the Toronto International Film Festival protesting its decision to Spotlight Tel Aviv for its inaugural City-to-City program. The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) issued a statement urging all filmmakers and audiences to boycott this Spotlight on Tel Aviv. For the full PACBI statement please see:
http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=1085

As the PACBI statement points out:

“The ‘diversity’ celebrated by the Spotlight is in fact based on the erasure of the physical presence of the Palestinians, their culture, heritage and memory. The adjacent Palestinian city of Jaffa and numerous villages were emptied of their indigenous inhabitants to make way for Tel Aviv. Many refugees from Jaffa and other destroyed villages that Tel Aviv replaced reside in
Toronto today, denied the right to return to their homes.

Such a celebration at this time, therefore, can only be seen by Palestinians and supporters of a just peace around the world as an act of complicity in whitewashing Israel’s war crimes and other grave violations of international law. It is a cynical and immoral politicization of the TIFF.”

Please send letters of protest to TIFF co-director and City-to-City programmer at CBailey@tiff.net and to TIFF’s press office at proffice@tiff.net

A sample letter is provided below, though it is always better to draft your own original letter.

For more information please email us at: endapartheid@riseup.net

In Solidarity,
Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid
www.caiaweb.org

SAMPLE LETTER

Re: City-to-City Spotlight on Tel Aviv

I am writing to you out of my concern about the Toronto International Film Festival’s City-to-City spotlight on Tel Aviv.

According to your website, the spotlight “will showcase the complex currents running through today’s Tel Aviv. Celebrating its 100th birthday in 2009, Tel Aviv is a young, dynamic city that, like Toronto, celebrates its diversity”. Nowhere in this description of Tel Aviv is there mention of the fact that Tel Aviv is built on destroyed Palestinian villages. In 1948, the inhabitants of these villages were forcibly removed in order to make room for the city of Tel Aviv. Today, many of the former inhabitants of these villages and Tel Aviv’s neighbouring city of Jaffa reside in Toronto because they are refugees who have been denied the right to return to their homes.

In addition to ignoring Palestinian history, the spotlight is also part of an Israeli propaganda campaign known as ‘Brand Israel’. In 2008, Israel chose Toronto as a test city for ‘Brand Israel’. This campaign is an effort by the Israeli government to improve its image globally. The campaign’s goal is to draw attention toward Israel’s medical, scientific and cultural accomplishments in order to shift attention away from its numerous crimes against the Palestinian people. The ‘Brand Israel’ campaign is a blatant example of how Israeli cultural institutions play a vital role in whitewashing Israeli war crimes. Israeli consul general Amir Gissin said that the culmination of the campaign would be a major Israeli presence at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival. Whether or not TIFF sees it this way, the City-to-City program is being viewed by the Israeli state as an important aspect of its international propaganda campaign.

This past winter the world watched in horror as Israel launched a full-scale military assault on the people of Gaza. Over 1400 Palestinians were killed in this attack, including over 400 children. TIFF showcasing Tel Aviv and Israel is equivalent to the festival choosing to showcase Cape Town at the height of South African Apartheid. It is simply unacceptable and inexcusable.

In support of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) statement calling for a boycott of the Spotlight, I will not be attending any of these films and will be encouraging others to do the same. I strongly urge TIFF to reconsider its celebration of Tel Aviv and Israel – a state that has been described as an Apartheid regime by prominent figures such as South African Bishop Desmond Tutu and former US President Jimmy Carter.

****

Artist John Greyson takes up BDS Campaign, Pulls out of TIFF in protest:
http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/250.php#continue

ALERT: Tell Amnesty International that Entertaining Apartheid Israel Deserves No Amnesty!

2009-08-06T19:56:00.001-04:00

ISSUED BY: The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), Adalah-NY: The Coalition for Justice in the Middle East, Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from Within (Israel), British Committee for the Universities of Palestine (BRICUP), International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Jews Against the Occupation-NYC, Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods (UK), New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel (NYCBI), New York City Labor Against the War, Palestine Solidarity Campaign (UK), US Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel

August 5, 2009

The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) and groups around the world have been calling for months for musician Leonard Cohen to cancel his planned September concert in Israel. With the international community failing to take action to stop Israeli oppression of the Palestinian people, and inspired by the international boycott movement that helped bring an end to apartheid in South Africa, Palestinian civil society has launched calls for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel, including an academic and cultural boycott of Israel. Ninety-three artists, writers and other cultural workers have signed onto the Palestinian cultural boycott call. Many dignitaries signed the "No Reason to Celebrate" pledge and refused to participate in any artistic or literary event during Israel's year-long 60th anniversary celebrations.

Feeling the heat of the protests, Cohen and his PR staff tried to schedule a small concert in Ramallah to “balance” his concert in Israel. However, Palestinians rejected the Ramallah concert and any claimed symmetry between the occupying power and the people under occupation.

Now Cohen and his PR staff are trying to whitewash the concert in Israel by using Amnesty International USA’s good name. According to a July 28th article in the Jerusalem Post, Amnesty International USA will serve as sponsor of a new fund. The fund will launder the money raised at Cohen’s concert in Israel by using it to finance programs for “peace.”

In response, sixteen groups and coalitions issued a July 30th Open Letter to Amnesty International calling on Amnesty to be true to its values and immediately withdraw support for Leonard Cohen’s ill-conceived concert in Israel. The groups noted that by supporting Cohen’s concert, Amnesty International is undermining a successful effort by Palestinian and international civil society to end Israel's occupation and other violations of international law and human rights principles. Amnesty International also is partnering in the initiative with Israeli institutions that undermine peace, including a bank directly involved in supporting Israeli settlement construction. The only alleged Palestinian partner has announced it is not taking part.

TAKE ACTION

Please email Amnesty International, calling on Amnesty to withdraw from support for Cohen’s concert. Amnesty International is recognized by many as defending human rights worldwide, so please be respectful and courteous in your message.

You can write and email your own letter, or use the sample letter below and email it, or send an editable form letter via the website of the New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel: http://boycottisraelnyc.org/category/629/tell-amnesty-international-entertaining-apartheid-israel-deserves-no-amnesty
Further below, for reference, is the full Open Letter to Amnesty International.

-If you send your own email, please email your letter to:

lcox@aiusa.org, cgoering@aiusa.org, ZJanmohamed@aiusa.org,
ikhan@amnesty.org, ccordone@amnesty.org, msmart@amnesty.org, drovera@amnesty.org

(Larry Cox, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA; Curt Goering, Senior Deputy Executive Director of Amnesty International USA; Zahir Janmohamed, Advocacy Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International USA; Irene Khan, Amnesty International Secretary General; Claudio Cordone, Amnesty International (UK) Senior Director, Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International (UK) Middle East Director, Research and Regional Programs; Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International (UK) Researcher on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories)

-If you email your own letter, please cc it to: noamnesty4israeliapartheid@gmail.com so that we can keep track of the responses.

SAMPLE LETTER TO AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Dear Amnesty International,

I hold Amnesty International’s worldwide work for human rights and international law in high esteem. For this reason, I was very troubled to learn that Amnesty International has agreed to manage a fund that will disburse the proceeds from Leonard Cohen’s planned concert in Israel in September. I call on Amnesty International to be true to your values, distance yourself from efforts to normalize Israel’s occupation and apartheid, and immediately withdraw support for Leonard Cohen’s ill-conceived concert in Israel.

By supporting Cohen’s concert, Amnesty International will be subverting the worldwide movement to boycott Israel, a non-violent, effective effort by Palestinian and international civil society to end Israel's violations of international law and human rights principles. Accepting funds from the proceeds of Cohen’s concert in Israel is the equivalent of Amnesty accepting tainted funds from a concert in Sun City in apartheid South Africa.

Ninety-three artists, writers and other cultural workers have signed onto the Palestinian cultural boycott call. Many dignitaries signed the "No Reason to Celebrate" pledge and refused to participate in any artistic or literary event during Israel's year-long 60th anniversary celebrations.

In his protest resignation from Amnesty International over this issue, Irish author and composer, Raymond Deane, wrote:

"By assisting Cohen in his ruse to bypass this boycott, Amnesty International is in fact taking a political stance, in violation of the premise of political neutrality with which it so regularly justifies its failure to side unambiguously with the oppressed. Amnesty is telling us: resistance is futile, the voice of the oppressed is irrelevant, international humanitarian law is a luxury."

Furthermore, the Israeli partners in the concert, the Peres Center for Peace and Israel Discount Bank, actively hinder efforts to achieve a just peace. A columnist in Israel’s Ha’aretz Daily called the Peres Center for Peace a patronizing and colonial organization that is in the business of training “the Palestinian population to accept its inferiority and prepare it to survive under the arbitrary constraints imposed by Israel.” According to research by Who Profits, a project of Israel’s Coalition of Women for Peace, Israel Discount Bank is deeply involved in supporting Israel’s settlement enterprise. Israeli settlements violate the very tenets of international law that Amnesty International works to uphold.

Finally, the only Palestinian organization falsely reported in the July 28th Jerusalem Post article as being a partner in this project, the Palestinian Happy Child Center, has confirmed that it is not taking part. There is no Palestinian organization participating in this whitewash.

Thank you for your attention to this vital human rights issue. I look forward to learning of Amnesty International’s withdrawal of its support for the Leonard Cohen concert in Israel.

Sincerely,

Your name
Your city and country of residence

-------------------------------Original Open Letter to AI------------------------

Entertaining Apartheid Israel Deserves No Amnesty!

Open Letter to Amnesty International

July 30, 2009

In May, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) called on singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen to heed the Palestinian call for a cultural boycott of Israel and avoid complicity with Israel’s violations of international law by cancelling his planned September concert in Israel, particularly in view of Israel’s war crimes in Gaza earlier this year. Sadly, according to a July 28 article in the Jerusalem Post, Amnesty International USA has agreed to cooperate with Cohen in dealing with Israel on the basis of business as usual. Amnesty International USA will serve as sponsor of a new fund that will whitewash the money raised at Cohen’s concert in Israel by using it to finance programs for “peace.” Being one of the world’s strongest proponents of human rights and international law, you shall thus be subverting a non-violent, effective effort by Palestinian and international civil society to end Israel's violations of international law and human rights principles. We call on you to be true to your values and immediately withdraw support for Leonard Cohen’s ill-conceived concert in Israel.

The Jerusalem Post report indicates that Cohen and his PR staff, having been criticized for trying to normalize Israel’s occupation and apartheid, are trying to whitewash the concert in Israel by using Amnesty International USA’s good name. According to the article, “All of the net proceeds from Leonard Cohen's September 24 concert at Ramat Gan Stadium will be earmarked for a newly established fund to benefit Israeli and Palestinian organizations that are working toward conciliation,” and the fund will be “sponsored by Amnesty.” Curt Goering, the senior deputy executive director of Amnesty International USA, told the Post, "We saw this as an exciting opportunity with potential to recognize, support and pay tribute to the Israelis and Palestinians who have been working for peace and human rights amid a difficult environment and insurmountable odds. I see our participation as complementary to what we do, even though this initiative is different from Amnesty's ongoing work."

WHY WE ARE CALLING ON AMNESTY TO WITHDRAW FROM THE PROJECT

By supporting Cohen’s concert in Israel, Amnesty International is actively undermining a particularly successful effort by Palestinian and international civil society to end Israel's occupation and other violations of international law and human rights principles. We find this position by Amnesty particularly frustrating and puzzling given your call for an arms embargo against Israel following its atrocities in Gaza earlier this year, which your organization described as constituting war crimes.

Accepting funds from the proceeds of Cohen’s concert in Israel is the equivalent of Amnesty accepting funds from a concert in Sun City in apartheid South Africa. Profits earned through violations of human rights and international law are tainted and should not be accepted by any morally consistent human rights organization, particularly when this money is intended to be used to whitewash the very violations behind those profits.

Furthermore, your Israeli partners in this venture actively hinder efforts to achieve a just peace. The Peres Center for Peace, with its multi-million dollar annual budget and fifteen million dollar building, is listed incongruously by the Jerusalem Post as both a beneficiary of the fund and a member of the new fund’s Board of Trustees. The Peres Center has been denounced by leading Palestinian civil society organizations for promoting joint Palestinian-Israeli projects that are “neither effective in bringing about reconciliation, nor desirable” and that enhance “Israeli institutional reputation and legitimacy, without restoring justice to Palestinians, in the face of continued Israeli Government violations of international law and fundamental Palestinian human rights, including breaches of the Geneva Conventions.” A columnist in Israel’s Haaretz Daily called the Peres Center patronizing and colonial, explaining that “Efforts are being made to train the Palestinian population to accept its inferiority and prepare it to survive under the arbitrary constraints imposed by Israel, to guarantee the ethnic superiority of the Jews.”

Your other indirect partner in this project, according to the Jerusalem Post, is Israel Discount Bank, a key sponsor of the Cohen concert. Who Profits, a project of Israel’s Coalition of Women for Peace, reports that Israel Discount Bank has branches in the settlements of Beitar Illit and Maale Adumim, has financed construction in the settlements of Har Homa, Beitar llit and Maale Adumim, and is a major shareholder in a factory in a settlement. Amnesty hardly needs any reminder that all Israeli colonial settlements built on occupied Palestinian territory are not only illegal under international law but are considered war crimes in the Fourth Geneva Convention. Your intention to indirectly partner with a bank that profits from the occupation and to oversee a fund that uses some of that legally and morally stained money contradicts Amnesty’s founding principles and commitment to human rights.

The latest attempt by the Cohen team to find an alternative Palestinian fig leaf has also failed. The only Palestinian organization falsely reported in the Jerusalem Post article as being a partner in this project, the Palestinian Happy Child Center, has confirmed that it is not taking part. There is no Palestinian organization participating in this whitewash.

BACKGROUND ON THE BOYCOTT

With the international community failing to take action to stop Israeli oppression of the Palestinian people, and inspired by the international boycott movement that helped bring an end to apartheid in South Africa, Palestinian civil society has launched calls for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel, including an academic and cultural boycott of Israel. Endorsed by nearly sixty Palestinian cultural and civil society organizations and inspired by the South African anti-apartheid boycotts, PACBI calls on “the international community to comprehensively and consistently boycott all Israeli academic and cultural institutions as a contribution to the struggle to end Israel‘s occupation, colonization and system of apartheid.” These Palestinian calls have inspired a growing international boycott movement which gained added momentum following Israel’s assault on Gaza last winter.

In April, the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine (BRICUP) and over 100 Israelis called on Leonard Cohen to cancel his planned September concert in Israel. Protests against Cohen’s plans to play in Israel were then held at Cohen’s concerts in New York, Boston, Ottawa and Belfast, among other cities. Feeling the rising heat of the protests, Cohen tried to schedule a small concert in Ramallah to “balance” his concert in Israel. However, Palestinians rejected the Ramallah concert. The Palestinian group that was supposed to host the Ramallah event cancelled its invitation to Mr. Cohen after realizing the adverse effects this would have on the boycott movement, which is widely supported by Palestinians. Reflecting the general mood in Palestinian society against any claimed symmetry between the occupying power and the people under occupation, a July 12 PACBI statement explained, “Ramallah will not receive Cohen as long as he is intent on whitewashing Israel‘s colonial apartheid regime by performing in Israel. PACBI has always rejected any attempt to ‘balance’ concerts or other artistic events in Israel--conscious acts of complicity in Israel‘s violation of international law and human rights--with token events in the occupied Palestinian territory.”

For all the above reasons, we strongly urge you to distance Amnesty International from this discredited project and its tainted money.

Signed:

The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), Adalah-NY: The Coalition for Justice in the Middle East, The Alternative Information Center (AIC), American Jews for a Just Peace (US), Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine (UK), Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from Within (Israel), British Committee for the Universities of Palestine (BRICUP), Independent Jewish Voices (Canada), International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Jews Against the Occupation-NYC, Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods (UK), New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel (NYCBI), New York City Labor Against the War, Palestine Solidarity Campaign (UK), US Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel

Cc:
-Larry Cox, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA
- Curt Goering, Senior Deputy Executive Director of Amnesty International USA
-Zahir Janmohamed, Advocacy Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International USA
- Colm Ó Cuanacháin, Amnesty International (UK) Senior Director, Campaigns
-Claudio Cordone, Amnesty International (UK) Senior Director, Research and Regional Programs
-Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International (UK) Researcher on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories

Report/Updates on ROM Pickets: Looted Scrolls

2009-07-16T15:20:00.001-04:00

Dear CAIA friends and allies:

Last Friday’s picket at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), protesting the Exhibition of the looted Dead Sea Scrolls, was a success (see video, pictures and media coverage below). Friday pickets are ongoing: please join us this Friday July 17, to keep up the pressure on the ROM and to continue to inform the public about the theft of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

In Solidarity,
Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid

Video from Last week ROM picket:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQEMzy951d4

Pictures from Last week ROM picket:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chelseylichtman/sets/72157621267379719/

Media Coverage:
Robert Fisk (Independent): You won't find any lessons in unity in the Dead Sea Scrolls http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fiskrsquos-world-you-wont-find-any-lessons-in-unity-in-the-dead-sea-scrolls-1741943.html

Lea Kaplan (Jerusalem Post): Toronto Jews rally around museum taking flak over
Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443820292&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter&FORM=ZZNR3

*Picket Call-out – Please Post Widely*

ROM Exhibiting Stolen Artifacts – Picket this Friday (July 17)

Dead Sea Scrolls Illegally Removed from Occupied Palestinian Territories

^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^
Date: Friday July 17
Time: 6:00 pm
Place: Royal Ontario Museum
100 Queen’s Park
^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^

Join the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) and Women in Solidarity with Palestine for a picket of the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) this coming Friday July 17. Help us protest the ROM’s failure to comply with international law and its ethical obligations by:

- Demanding the ROM recognize the Scrolls are looted Palestinian artifacts.
- Demanding the ROM dissociate itself from the Israeli Antiquities Authority which has systematically looted millions of Palestinian artifacts.

We have tried every avenue to avoid a picket – representatives from the Palestinian community and other organizations have attempted dialogue with the ROM – but none of the concerns have been addressed. We are left no choice but to publicly protest, as the ROM has refused to make public the documents it claims prove the legality of the exhibit. It has also refused to seek a UNESCO opinion on the matter.

Please join us for this important picket! Bring noise makers!

Background
----------

Since Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967, millions of artifacts have been systematically removed, looted and excavated from Palestinian territory, endangering Palestinian cultural and archaeological heritage.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are one of the most significant archaeological discoveries of the 20th century. The bulk of the artifacts were excavated from Qumran in the West Bank, between 1947 and 1956 by the Palestine Archaeological Museum in a joint expedition with the Department of Antiquities of Jordan and the Ecole Biblique Française. The Scrolls were displayed at the Palestine Archaeological Museum (the Rockefeller Museum) in East Jerusalem until 1967.

In 1967, the Scrolls were confiscated and illegally removed by Israel when the Israeli military occupied East Jerusalem. Since 1967, additional excavations and findings by the Israel Antiquities Authority took place in Qumran and the surrounding area. Those artifacts have also been illegally removed from Palestinian territory. Today the ROM, in cooperation with the Israel Antiquities Authority, is importing and exhibiting artifacts illegally removed from the occupied Palestinian territory.

Under international law and in accordance with Israel's obligations as a signatory to the 1954 UNESCO convention and protocol for the "Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict", Israel is not entitled to these artifacts. The repatriation of the Scrolls and millions of other artifacts to Palestine remains a key issue for those seeking peace and justice in the Middle East.

In 2005, Canada signed on to several UNESCO conventions and protocols aimed at preventing the removal and the exhibition of illegally removed artifacts from occupied territories. It adopted its international obligations as part of domestic Canadian legislation in the Cultural Property Export and Import Act, which makes it a criminal offense, for example, to import cultural property in violation of the conventions.

By exhibiting the Dead Sea Scrolls the ROM is complicit in the theft of Palestine’s cultural heritage that continues to take place regularly through Israel’s military occupation and apartheid system with the unlawful removal of approximately 200,000 artifacts annually from the occupied territory since 1967.

For more information please contact Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid at
endapartheid@riseup.net or Women in Solidarity with Palestine at wsp.toronto@gmail.com.

ROM Exhibiting Stolen Artifacts – Picket July 10th

2009-07-06T17:30:00.003-04:00

*Please Forward Widely*

ROM Exhibiting Stolen Artifacts – Picket this Friday (July 10)

Dead Sea Scrolls Illegally Removed from Occupied Palestinian Territories

^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^
Date: Friday July 10
Time: 6:00 pm
Place: Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen’s Park
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Join the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) and Women in Solidarity with Palestine for a picket of the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) this coming Friday July 10. Help us protest the ROM’s failure to comply with international law and its ethical obligations by:

- Demanding the ROM recognize the Scrolls are looted Palestinian artifacts.
- Demanding the ROM dissociate itself from the Israeli Antiquities Authority which has systematically looted millions of Palestinian artifacts.

We have tried every avenue to avoid a picket – representatives from the Palestinian community and other organizations have attempted dialogue with the ROM – but none of the concerns have been addressed. We are left no choice but to publicly protest, as the ROM has refused to make public the documents it claims prove the legality of the exhibit. It has also refused to seek a UNESCO opinion on the matter.

Please join us for this important picket! Bring noise makers!

Background
----------

Since Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967, millions of artifacts have been systematically removed, looted and excavated from Palestinian territory, endangering Palestinian cultural and archaeological heritage.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are one the most significant archaeological discoveries of the 20th century. The bulk of the artifacts were excavated from Qumran in the West Bank, between 1947 and 1956 by the Palestine Archaeological Museum in a joint expedition with the Department of Antiquities of Jordan and the Ecole Biblique Française. The Scrolls were displayed at the Palestine Archaeological Museum (the Rockefeller Museum) in East Jerusalem until 1967.

In 1967, the Scrolls were confiscated and illegally removed by Israel when the Israeli military occupied East Jerusalem. Since 1967, additional excavations and findings by the Israel Antiquities Authority took place in Qumran and the surrounding area. Those artifacts have also been illegally removed from Palestinian territory. Today the ROM, in cooperation with the Israel Antiquities Authority, is importing and exhibiting artifacts illegally removed from the occupied Palestinian territory.

Under international law and in accordance with Israel's obligations as a signatory to the 1954 UNESCO convention and protocol for the "Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict", Israel is not entitled to these artifacts. The repatriation of the Scrolls and millions of other artifacts to Palestine remains a key issue for those seeking peace and justice in the Middle East.

In 2005, Canada signed on to several UNESCO conventions and protocols aimed at preventing the removal and the exhibition of illegally removed artifacts from occupied territories. It adopted its international obligations as part of domestic Canadian legislation in the Cultural Property Export and Import Act, which makes it a criminal offence, for example, to import cultural property in violation of the conventions.

By exhibiting the Dead Sea Scrolls the ROM is complicit in the theft of Palestine’s cultural heritage that continues to take place regularly through Israel’s military occupation and apartheid system with the unlawful removal of approximately 200,000 artifacts annually from the occupied territory since 1967.

For more information please contact Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid at endapartheid@riseup.net or Women in Solidarity with Palestine at wsp.toronto@gmail.com.

Stop the Wall Campaign: Open Letter to Palestine solidarity activists

2009-06-29T16:14:00.003-04:00

Ramallah, June 23, 2009
Open Letter to Palestine solidarity activists and human rights defenders

Dear Friends,

The fifth anniversary of the decision of the International Court of Justice calling for the dismantling of the Wall is less than three weeks away. That construction of the Wall continues five years later is glaring proof of the impunity the international community grants to Israel. On this anniversary we call for human rights defenders worldwide to renew their efforts to fight against the Apartheid Wall.

As Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign and the popular committees against the Wall and the settlements, we have been resisting the Wall since the beginning. Today, the people who mobilize in weekly protests to defend their land against the Wall face rapidly increasing repression by Israeli forces, and we call on you to stand with us against the arrests, injuries and killings of our people.

Five years ago, the ICJ seemed to reinforce our struggle. On July 9 2004, the ICJ ruled that:
- the construction of the Wall in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is illegal and that Israel must cease construction, dismantle the Wall and to make reparations for the damage caused
- no state may aid or assist the maintenance of the Wall and its regime and all states parties to the IV Geneva Convention are obliged to ensure compliance by Israel with international humanitarian law

Despite the clarity of this ruling, neither Israel nor the international community have indicated that they respect their obligations under international law. Instead, the Wall has simply disappeared from the agenda of international diplomacy. Yet, on the ground the destruction it causes continues unabated. In the first four months of this year, Israeli forces have already constructed more segments of the Wall than during the entire year of 2008. As a result of this project, a staggering 266,422 Palestinians living in communities up and down the West Bank have been surrounded, isolated and face displacement.

The United Nations has taken no action to implement the ICJ decision and, with the exception of a few principled governments, states have put no pressure or sanctions on Israel. International business continues to finance and provide material support to the Wall and the settlements. If the Obama Administration and the European governments are serious about their position against the settlements, then they must first force the implementation of the ICJ decision, which stresses the illegality of the Wall, settlements and the associated regime. In this way, political leaders can both implement international law and give the people confidence in peace and the future.

Left alone to defend our rights and the rule of international law, the popular committees have continued their mobilization with the support of human rights defenders from all over the world. They have slowed down the Wall's construction and won back land – yet the ultimate aim to tear down the Wall is still far away. Palestinian villages continue to pay a high price for their steadfastness: 16 people, half of them children, have already been killed by Israeli forces during protests, while hundreds more have been wounded or arrested. Entire villages endure curfews and closures of Wall gates as collective punishment. The regular use of live bullets against the people on their own land is only the latest of a long series of repressive measures that violate our political rights.

We ask you to stand with us on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the ICJ decision and to help protect the popular committees, return the Wall to the agenda and pressure your governments and the UN to comply with their obligation to ensure the implementation of the ICJ decision and to stop international business from profiting from Israeli crimes.

You can do so by:
- Organizing awareness raising events for July 9
- Contacting your media, urging them to cover the Wall and the struggle against it
- Writing to your consulates and MPs asking them to protest the repression of the popular committees and to work for the implementation of the ICJ decision
- Including the Wall in your campaigning and lobbying efforts

Thank you for your support.

Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign
www.stopthewall.org

***

Sample Letter to political representatives

Dear insert name of Member of Parliament

On July 9, 2004, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) called for the dismantling of the Wall that was being constructing by the Israeli Government throughout the the Occupied West Bank. Today marks the fifth anniversary of that historic decision. For the past five years, Israel has continued construction of the Wall, in defiance of international law and the ICJ ruling.

Back in 2004, the ICJ ruling stated:

- the construction of the Wall in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is illegal and that Israel must cease construction, dismantle the Wall and to make reparations for the damage caused
- no state may aid or assist the maintenance of the Wall and its regime and all states parties to the IV Geneva Convention are obliged to ensure compliance by Israel with international humanitarian law

Despite the clarity of this ruling, neither Israel nor the international community have respected their obligations under international law. Instead, it seems that the Wall has simply disappeared from the agenda of international diplomacy. Yet, on the ground, the destruction it causes continues unabated. In the first four months of this year, the Israeli government has already constructed more segments of the Wall than during all of 2008. As a result of this project, a staggering 266,422 Palestinians living in communities up and down the West Bank have been surrounded, isolated and face displacement.

Despite the silence of the international community, Palestinian people, with the support of human rights activists around the world, continue their struggle to defend their rights and demand that Israel comply with international law. Today, the people who mobilize in weekly protests to defend their land against the Wall face rapidly increasing repression by Israeli forces, including the use of tear gas, rubber-coated bullets and live ammunition. To date, 16 people, half of them children, have already been killed by the Israeli army during protests, while hundreds more have been wounded or arrested. Entire villages continue to endure curfews and arbitrary closures of Wall gates as collective punishment for these demonstrations.

The United Nations has taken no action to implement the ICJ decision and, with the exception of a few principled governments, states have put no pressure or sanctions on Israel. International business continues to finance and provide material support to the Wall and the settlements.

On the fifth anniversary of the ICJ decision, Palestinian people and their supporters call on governments around the world to force the implementation of the ICJ decision, which stresses the illegality of the Wall, settlements and the associated regime. In this way, political leaders can both implement international law and help create the conditions necessary for a lasting peace.
I therefore ask you, as my representative, to force our government to put pressure on the Israeli government to comply with international law and the ICJ ruling. Our government and the rest of the international community can no longer stand silently as construction of the illegal Wall continues and as more Palestinians lose their land and face military repression for protesting against these human rights violations.

Sincerely,

insert your name

CLICK HERE to find the contact info for your Member of Parliament

Palestine House calls to boycott the Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibition at The ROM

2009-06-25T17:16:00.001-04:00

June 25. 09

Press Release
Subject : The Dead Scrolls, Exhibition
Palestine House calls to boycott the Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibition at The ROM

It is of deep concern to Palestine House that the ROM has shown no interest in establishing to Palestine House and to the public that the ROM’s involvement with the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit is consistent with the highest of ethical and legal standards. Indeed, the ROM’s reticence to release its legal opinion document, tends to confirm Palestine House’s suspicion that it only presents contortions of law leading to a suggestion that the ROM can probably get away with displaying the artifacts looted by Israel from the Palestine Archaeological Museum. This is not the ethical or legal standard Canadians expect of the ROM.

Palestine House understands that the ROM hopes to profit from the increase in attendance, revenue and profile associated with the exhibit. So does the State of Israel. The Israeli Consul General in Toronto has stated that the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit is part of Israel’s attempt to “rebrand” itself. As such, Israel seeks to improve its image in the wake of its massive violations of international conventions and law through the exhibition of artifacts it looted in violation of international conventions and law. Israel’s public relations project is made possible with the ROM’s complicity and collaboration.

Palestine House believes that the ROM’s suggestion of convening a Palestinian cultural event is one that should be discussed further. However, Palestine House does not support the convening of any Palestinian cultural event at or in association with the ROM during the period in which the Dead Sea Scrolls are on display at the ROM. This is to ensure that no one can draw a mistaken impression that the Palestinian Canadian community is complicit in or has consented to the display of these looted artifacts.

There remains an unfortunate impression that the ROM is profiting from its involvement with a collection of archeological artifacts acquired by Israel in violation of international conventions and law. As such, and to address this issue, Palestine House boycotts the exhibition unless that ROM admits the factual history, that these scrolls are Palestinain property.

For Further information please contact: Palestine House Media Office: 905 270 3622 Ext 221.

DEMONSTRATION AT THE OFFICES OF GARY GOODYEAR - PROTEST ATTACKS ON ACADEMIC FREEDOM

2009-06-17T15:54:00.002-04:00

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Thursday, June 18, 2009
11:00-11:45am
Gary Goodyear's constituency office
1425 Bishop Street N, Unit 3, Cambridge Ontario
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Van leaves downtown Hamilton 9:30am and returns 12:30pm - please email for details.

-Against political interference by government in the legitimate autonomy of SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council)
-Against McCarthyist silencing of critical voices on Palestine/Israel
-Against the Conservative Party's attack on Canada's critical and artistic communities and institutions
-For academic freedom, and freedom of speech around Palestinian rights
-For fully funded post-secondary education
-For Goodyear's immediate resignation

The Political Action Committee of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, local 3906 (representing over 2,400 precarious academic workers at McMaster University) as well as Faculty4Palestine, a pan-Canadian network with over 400 members in over 40 universities and 10 colleges, is asking concerned members of the academic, labour and social justice communities in Southern Ontario to join us in demanding the immediate resignation of Minister of State for Science and Technology Gary Goodyear at his Cambridge, ON constituency office at 11am on
June 18th.

This protest comes in response to the minister's unprecedented interference in academic freedom last week when he personally called the president of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) (the main funding body for academic research in Canada) and demanded they reconsider their funding of a peer-reviewed conference at York University titled "Israel/Palestine: Mapping models of statehood and paths to peace," a demand to which the SSHRC president, in part, acquiesced.

SSHRC's funding of projects like this conference are the result of a rigorous and well-established "blind" peer-review process in which at least two highly qualified specialists examine and evaluate each funding application (without knowing who submitted the application) to ensure the highest degree of quality. This peer-review meets or exceeds all global standards for academic integrity and has helped Canadian researchers gain international recognition.

While there are significant problems with the individualist "academic capitalism" approach the SSHRC funding system tends to promote, the principle of academic freedom that this system represents is a central pillar of the Canadian democracy that the Conservative Party claims to be exporting (militarily) around the world.

This interference by a federal minister in the peer-reviewed process is an unacceptable threat to the principle and practice of academic freedom and to the democratic project of the university as a space for critical reflection on society, immune from political intimidation.

It comes hot on the heels of other Conservative measures to undermine freedom of expression in Canada, especially on issues related to policies of the state of Israel which are clear violations of international law (eg. settlements in occupied territories, the apartheid wall). These include the arbitrary and unilateral stripping of funding from the Canadian Arab Federation for their
stance against Israeli war crimes in Gaza and the refusal to allow British MP and outspoken advocate of Palestinian human rights George Galloway to enter the country.

It is clear that Harper's contempt for democratic dialogue in Canada, and the Conservatives' targeting of critical voices on Israel and in defense of Palestinian rights, must be challenged.

Indeed, the Conservative agenda to silence free expression on issues of contemporary importance, and to submit all critical expression to the hypocritical and arbitrary scrutiny of a fundamentalist interpretation of "Canadian values," is intimately linked with the same party's commitment to the outdated and globally discredited neoliberal agenda that aims to drastically reduce federal funding to the arts and university sectors or to use federal funding and policy to shape these sectors to serve corporate, rather than public interests.

The Harper Conservative's ideological crusade to submit every aspect of Canadian society to the dictates of the free market necessitate the silencing of the critical voices which would challenge this backwards vision of the future. Harper's attacks on academic freedom cannot be separated from his attacks on public sector workers, his eagerness to gut medicare and other aspects of the social safety net, his drive to deregulate telecommunications and other industries, his pathological addiction to the ecologically catastrophic oil sands project, his moves to privatize water and other "natural resources," his internationally condemned free-market cowboy approach to indigenous rights, his sneering antagonism towards efforts to address systemic racism, sexism and homophobia in Canadian society, his unconstitutional abuse of the Security Certificate program and tolerance for secret trials, his reprehensible attacks on immigrants, refugees and those without status, his complete acquiescence to the worst aspects of the Bush doctrine of racist continental "security," and the zeal with which he cuts social programs to fund an increasingly deadly and imperialistic Canadian foreign policy.

Join us, then, in demanding Goodyear's resignation.

For more information on Goodyear's McCarthyist approach, please see the following Globe and Mail article:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/goodyear-questions-mideast-forum-funds/article1175909/

For more information about the planned demonstration, please contact Max Haiven at the Political Action Committee of CUPE local 3906: 905-865-3075, politicalaction@cupe3906.org or Mary-Jo Nadeau at Faculty4Palestine: faculty@caiaweb.org.

CALL FOR ACTION: Support academic freedom! Challenge these attacks on academic conference!

Write to Minister Goodyear. Tell him that you object to a second peer review, and ask him to account for his actions.

Tell him you support the call for his resignation
(see http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/June2009/10/c4859.html)
He can be reached at GOODYG@PARL.GC.CA

PICKET INDIGO SHAREHOLDERS MEETING

2009-06-16T11:35:00.000-04:00

**********************************

When: Thursday, June 25th @ 9:30 a.m.

Where: MaRS Centre, 101 College St, Toronto (College and University SE corner)

TTC: Queens Park Subway or College streetcar

***********************************

Come out on Thursday, June 25th - Indigo Books and Music Inc. will be holding its annual shareholders’ meeting at the MaRS Centre in downtown Toronto. The Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) invites its friends, supporters and allies to join us in protest to send a clear message to majority shareholders Heather Reisman and Gerry Schwartz that their continuing support of the Israeli military through the HESEG Foundation for Lone Soldiers is unacceptable! HESEG provides scholarships and other support to young people who go to Israel to join the Israeli military.

In December 2008 and January 2009 the Israeli military bombarded and invaded Gaza in a brutal attack which killed 1,400 Palestinians and wounded 5,000. Four thousand buildings were destroyed and 20,000 severely damaged – 50,000 Gazans were left homeless.

CAIA picketed Indigo book launches for Michael Ignatieff and Larry King in April and May of this year and will continue to build the campaign to boycott Chapters/Indigo until their majority shareholders publicly announce that they are cutting all financial ties to HESEG.

If you have drums or noisemakers bring them along to make sure that Indigo Books and Music Inc. shareholders hear our message!

For more information please see www.caiaweb.org or email us at endapartheid@riseup.net

CAIA APPLAUDS TORONTO PRIDE’S DECISION NOT TO BAN ANTI-APARTHEID QUEER GROUP FROM PARADE

2009-06-02T17:16:00.012-04:00

Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA)

Statement for Immediate Release

2 June 2009

**CAIA APPLAUDS TORONTO PRIDE COMMITTEE’S DECISION NOT TO BAN ANTI-APARTHEID QUEER GROUP FROM CITY’S ANNUAL PRIDE PARADE**

Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QUAIA) attacked by pro-Israel B’nai Brith; Toronto’s Pride Committee stands up to political pressure to exclude QUAIA from city’s annual celebration of LGBTQ pride.

On May 27, a National Post article by Joseph Brean incorrectly reported that Queers Against Israeli Apartheid “has been banned this year” from Toronto’s annual Pride parade. In response, Pride Toronto has issued a public statement which makes absolutely clear that “it has no intention of banning any participants from the Dyke March and the Parade because of their political agenda”. CAIA applauds Pride Toronto for standing up to attempts to discipline this year’s Pride parade grand marshal, El-Farouk Khaki, for speaking at a recent public event organized by Queers Against Israeli Apartheid.

CAIA stands with Pride Toronto in its refusal to cave in to pressure tactics from B’nai Brith and other groups that aim to silence well-founded criticism of the Israeli state for its ongoing violations of international law. Violations include Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territories; its settlement-building and construction of an apartheid wall on occupied land; its refusal to respect the right of Palestinian refugees to return; and its recent attacks on Gaza which resulted in 1400 Palestinian deaths and over 500 injuries in 23 short days.

Despite boisterous and persistent claims by B’Nai Brith, criticism of the Israeli state is not anti-semitic or “hateful and divisive propaganda”.

B’nai Brith has issued several press releases recently, each aimed at silencing critics of Israeli policy, including queer community activists and artists. B’nai Brith has, for example, tried without success to shut down a reading of Seven Jewish Children: A Play for Gaza, featuring the acclaimed writer and theatre artist, Anne-Marie MacDonald. Queer Jewish artist Reena Katz has also been attacked for her support of the Palestinian cause. At the same time, B’nai Brith chooses to ally itself with Christian fundamentalist homophobes.

As an organization committed to ending racism and homophobia, CAIA recognizes Queers Against Israeli Apartheid as a vital and legitimate LGBTQ group in the tradition of the Simon Nkoli Anti-Apartheid Committee (SNAAC). SNAAC was active for many years in Toronto and organized the city’s LGBTQ community against South African apartheid. Comparisons between Israeli apartheid and South African apartheid have been made by a number of well-known figures including former US President Jimmy Carter and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

In the face of growing support and understanding of the Palestinian plight, including that faced by Palestinian queers, the Zionist movement is responding with intimidation and repression. We are fully convinced these actions will fail and be seen for what they are: a desperate attempt by a failing movement to shut down free speech and the right to organize.

CAIA fully supports Pride Toronto’s refusal to exclude QUAIA and stands in solidarity with queer activists and artists and all those who refuse to remain silent in the face of silencing and intimidation.

Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) statement, also endorsed by:

Students Against Israeli Apartheid (University of Toronto)

Students Against Israeli Apartheid (York University)

Faculty4Palestine

Labour4Palestine

Teachers4Palestine

Educators for Peace and Justice

To contact, send e-mail to endapartheid@riseup.net

LABOUR FOR PALESTINE: SECOND ISSUE OF JAFA NOW AVAILABLE!

2009-05-31T18:57:00.006-04:00

Labour for Palestine is pleased to announce the second issue of Jafa - Labour Bulletin in Solidarity with Palestine.

This second issue has a special focus on Israel's war on Gaza. We reprint a range of solidarity resolutions that were passed by unions around the world, analysis of the aftermath, and discussion around next steps for labour solidarity. We also launch a new section, *Histadrut Watch*, which will monitor the activities of Israel's racist trade union federation.

We encourage you to order a bundle for your workplace and trade union office or to download the first two issues at http://www.caiaweb.org/labourcommittee

We would also love to receive your opinions, stories and contributions for the next issue!

For more information or to order a bundle of Jafa, please contact labour@caiaweb.org

Call Your MPP: Queens Park Motion Against Israeli Apartheid Week

2009-05-21T16:18:00.002-04:00

In yet another desperate move to curtail freedom of expression, on May 11, Thornhill MPP Peter Shurman filed a motion in the Ontario legislature condemning the use of the term “Israeli Apartheid Week”. The motion is coming to a vote on Monday May 25. Motion #93 (a private members motion) reads:

“In the opinion of this House the term Israel Apartheid Week is condemned as it serves to incite hatred against Israel, a democratic state that respects the rule of law and human rights, and the use of the word ‘apartheid’ in this context diminishes the suffering of those who were victims of a true apartheid regime in South Africa.”

A vote for this resolution is a vote against freedom of expression. In a supposedly ‘free society’ people have a right to factually argue about whether Israel is an Apartheid state or not. People also have a right to organize Israeli Apartheid Week and other events that are critical of Israel or
any other nation-state. The job of MPPs is not to ban events and terms simply because they disagree with them.

Supporters of Israel have many opportunities to engage in debates about the use of the term Israeli Apartheid. Attempting to suppress discussion of the issue through motions such as the one before the house clearly illustrates that they are all too aware of the weakness of their position and are very afraid of this debate.

** Call or Email YOUR MPP TODAY – ASK THEM TO VOTE AGAINST THIS MOTION **

Contact info for your MPP is available at this link:
http://www.ontla.on.ca/web/members/members_current.do?locale=en

Sample Letter to Email / Talking Points:

Dear (Name of Your MPP):

I’m writing to ask you to vote against Motion #93, to be discussed on Monday May 25, 2009 that calls for the condemnation of Israeli Apartheid Week. This motion was filed by Thornhill MPP Peter Shurman.

Israeli Apartheid Week is an annual series of lectures held on university campuses in Toronto and many cities around the world.

Attempting to suppress discussion of Israel through motions such as the one before the house is not consistent with a society which respects freedom of expression. Supporters of Israel have many opportunities to put forward their facts and arguments to dispute the use of the term Israeli apartheid. If Israel is not an Apartheid state, the facts should stand for themselves and there is no need for the provincial government to suppress the use of the term Israeli Apartheid.

There are very specific political, legal and moral arguments about whether Israel is an apartheid state or not. You may agree or disagree with them, but MPP’s should not be in the business of curtailing debate and banning discussion. You have an obligation to protect freedom of expression, even if the views put forward are ones you disagree with. On that note, I ask you to
vote against this motion and encourage you to set a meeting with organizers of Israeli Apartheid Week to hear their views and understand the issues they raise.

Yours Sincerely,

May 15the Event: Israel and Canada Military and Political Connections

2009-05-12T16:10:00.002-04:00

"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."

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)

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

May 11th: Academic Boycott Debate - York University

2009-04-29T16:10:00.004-04:00

Hosted by the York Centre for International and Security Studies

Academic Boycotts and Contemporary Conflict

Boycotts have emerged in recent decades as a favoured means of grassroots opposition to certain politics and practices. Often these boycotts are directed at firms or industries in the name of environmental or humanitarian goals. In the past few months, framed as an attempt to build on the successes of a similarly structured campaign against historic South African apartheid, calls for boycotts have been raised in response to Israeli action in Gaza. These calls have included a request for the boycotting of Israeli academic institutions. Boycotts raise fundamental issues for universities and other academic institutions: how do boycotts affect the university's commitments to free speech and inquiry, which are central to our functions? To what degree are public universities state institutions, and so appropriate targets for boycotts which oppose state policy? Are boycotts sustainable and peaceful ways for intellectuals to intervene in conflicts, or are they counter-productive? With this series, YCISS invites the community to explore these and other issues by presenting a range of perspectives for consideration and discussion.

Having now featured separate seminars by both Omar Barghouti and Edward Beck, YCISS invites the community to come together for a respectful yet rigorous debate about issues that the boycott raises for Canadian Universities.

A Debate on the Academic Boycott of Israel

This panel-style debate will explore themes of academic freedom and repression in relation to calls for an academic boycott of Israel, with an emphasis on the role and responsibilities of Canadian universities.

Dr. Abigail Bakan
Dr. Costanza Musu
Dr. Clive Seligman
Dr. Alan Sears

Monday, 11 May 2009
4:30-6:30pm
Moot Court, Osgoode Hall
York University

May 5th: Medecine, War and Occupation: The Case of Gaza

2009-04-27T15:34:00.003-04:00

"Medicine, War and Occupation: The Case of Gaza" with Dr. Ghada Karmi

May 5th 2009 at 7:00PM – Free

University College Rm. 161
15 Kings College Circle, University of Toronto

Dr. Karmi is a physician, academic and author based at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter.

Sponsored by: NECEF, Health Studies Program (UofT), Canadian Arab Federation, Canadian Friends of Sabeel, Science for Peace

UCSB Professor Faces Bogus Charge of Anti-Semitism

2009-04-23T15:54:00.004-04:00

SOLIDARITY ACTIONS REQUESTED:

* Email the UCSB Chancellor and responsible authorities on campus to express your outrage and register your protest (see sample letter and email addresses below)

* Sign the petition http://www.petitiononline.com/cdafsb/petition.html

*************************************************

PROFESSOR WILLIAM I. ROBINSON, UC CALIFORNIA (from Committee to Defend Academic Freedom at UC Santa Barbara)

Dear colleagues,

UCSB has become the latest front in the war against Academic Freedom.

Professor William I. Robinson, a Sociology and Global Studies professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, has been attacked by the Anti-Defamation League and two of his former students. In January of this year, he forwarded an email condemning the Israeli attacks on Gaza. The email contained an editorial by a Jewish journalist condemning Israel's actions in Gaza as well as juxtaposed images of Nazi atrocities with congruent images of Israeli atrocities against Palestinians. The email was an optional read for students, intended to spark conversation by relating contemporary events to conceptual ideas discussed in class.

One week later, the ADL wrote him a letter charging him with anti-Semitism and sundry violations of the Faculty Code of Conduct (none of which were coherent claims). Another week passed, and the Academic Senate Charges Officer then notified him that two of the students in the class to which he circulated the email had filed complaints against him.

The complaints are that 1) critique of Israel is evidence of anti-Semitism and 2) the Israeli-Palestinian issue should not be discussed in a class on Globalization.

This case has already escalated way too far. Throughout the process, the Charges Officer violated several elements of the charges procedure, shirked his responsibilities, and ultimately acted as a co-complainant by fabricating charges that were not raised by the students. The charges have reached the Committee on Committees, which is now in the process of convening an ad hoc Charges Committee to assess the complaints against Professor Robinson.

Based on patently absurd and malicious claims, the charges should have been dismissed out of hand from the beginning. Further consideration of the charges by the Academic Senate serves only to sanction politically-motivated attacks on academic freedom. The longer this case is pursued, the worse its chilling effect; it will spread fear among those who wish to present controversial and critical subjects. Even though the original complaint is regarding Israel/Palestine, the rights at stake extend beyond this specific topic. Academic freedom is a right that enables scholars to express diverse perspectives over contentious topics, free from the intimidation of political repression campaigns. If the case against Professor Robinson continues to go forward, it will lead down a slippery slope that may expose academics to repression tactics for addressing controversial issues such as stem cell research, evolution, feminism, LGBT rights, etc. It is incumbent upon members of the UCSB campus and the broader academy to roundly oppose this silencing campaign.

This is an obvious attack on Professor Robinson’s academic freedom, one that ominously recalls similar campaigns against other critics of Israel across the nation. This is part of a broader campaign to automatically vilify and attack any and all critiques of Israel’s policies and practices through unfounded use of the term “anti-Semitic.” A critique of the Israeli state, its policies, and the leaders responsible is not and should not be considered an affront to Jewish people as a collective, the Jewish religion, or Jewish heritage. In fact, conflating the state of Israel with the Jewish people essentializes the assorted political opinions of a diverse religious group by reducing them to the set of policies espoused by the prevailing regime.

For more information on the case, including continuing updates, http://sb4af.wordpress.com.

If you wish to contact the student campaign, please email: cdaf.ucsb@gmail.com.

Thank you for your time,
Committee to Defend Academic Freedom at UC Santa Barbara

***

Send an Email:
The e-mail should be addressed to UCSB Chancellor Henry Yang and cc’d to the following faculty and administrators involved in the case. Please copy and paste the addresses.

To: henry.yang@chancellor.ucsb.edu

CC: mgscharl@math.ucsb.edu, gene.lucas@evc.ucsb.edu, moliver@ltsc.ucsb.edu, mazer@lifesci.ucsb.edu, joel@geog.ucsb.edu, joel.michaelsen@senate.ucsb.edu,sarah@isber.ucsb.edu, butler@chem.ucsb.edu, scott@theaterdance.ucsb.edu, hcallus@music.ucsb.edu, gaulin@anth.ucsb.edu, spieker@gss.ucsb.edu,stemmer@mrl.ucsb.edu, caselle@lifesci.ucsb.edu, goulias@geog.ucsb.edu, amar@lawso.ucsb.edu, Stephanie.smagala@senate.ucsb.edu, ettenberg@psych.ucsb.edu,hualee@ece.ucsb.edu, mithun@linguistics.ucsb.edu, zok@engineering.ucsb.edu, helen.henry@ucr.edu, cdaf.ucsb@gmail.com

To Whom It May Concern,

I am a dismayed [undergraduate/graduate/alumna/faculty member] at [your university] writing you to express support for Sociology and Global Studies Professor William I. Robinson. As you may know, Professor Robinson and academic freedom have come under recent attack on the UCSB campus. Toward the end of February 2009, Professor Robinson received notice from the Academic Senate’s Charges Committee that two of his students had filed charges against him. The students alleged that an email forward he’d circulated to his class, criticizing Israel’s then-ongoing siege on Gaza, comprised anti-Semitism. These charges are patently absurd and should be dismissed out of hand before further damage is done to the university’s purpose and reputation.

I demand the immediate dismissal of all of the charges against Professor Robinson as frivolous, unfounded, and malicious. Any further consideration of these baseless attacks is unacceptable. I join other students and faculty in pledging that we will not accept any resolution of this matter that is unfavorable to Professor Robinson and academic freedom.

I also insist that the attack on Professor Robinson’s academic freedom, one that ominously recalls similar campaigns against other critical academics across the nation, be publicly condemned. This condemnation is essential to preserve full and fair discussion within the most important of the U.S.’s civic institutions. Any genuine consideration of these absurd attacks will have a severe chilling effect on the production and dissemination of scholarly research in all disciplines. Further, the attacks must be condemned to protect faculty and students from wasting valuable time and energy defending themselves against frivolous allegations and political repression.

In fact, a critique of the Israeli state, its policies, and the leaders responsible is not and should not be considered an affront to Jewish people as a collective, the Jewish religion, or Jewish heritage. Conflating the state of Israel with the Jewish people essentializes the assorted political opinions of a diverse religious group by reducing them to the set of policies espoused by the prevailing regime. The charge of anti-Semitism is made in bad faith; its real purpose is to automatically vilify and stifle any honest critiques of the state of Israel’s policies and practices.

[Insert personal message]

Sincerely,

[your name and contact information]

U of O Professor Dismissed: Administration opposes his views on Palestine - Israel

2009-04-19T16:59:00.005-04:00

To read Prof. Rancourt's statement and to sign the petition in support of him CLICK HERE

For further information, updates, and access the petition link, please go to the newly updated website: http://rancourt.academicfreedom.ca/

The following excerpt (and endnote) from Prof. Rancourt's statement is particularly important for grasping the links to Palestine:

It appears that among the real reasons for the university’s attempts to discipline me since September 2005 and for its recent most harsh actions against me under President Allan Rock’s mandate might be the administration’s opposition to my political views about the Palestine-Israel conflict, which, starting in 2005, I have expressed in articles, on radio, in my blog postings, at public venues, and in my classes. In September 2005 the dean cancelled my Physics and the Environment course following a complaint (regarding an email comment about Zionism), channelled through the university’s Canadian Studies Institute director Pierre Anctil to the VP-Academic. A complaint against an invited speaker in the course, Professor Michel Chossudovsky – who spoke about Middle East geopolitics, from the Jewish Student Association then gave rise to a sustained but failed attempt to discipline me. In 2006 I invited two Canadian-Palestinian speakers to address the class in my Science in Society course. This was followed by a damning January-2007 editorial in The Ottawa Citizen and I was subsequently removed from teaching all the first-year courses that I had developed. The Ottawa Citizen is a CanWest newspaper and its director is a member of the university’s Board of Governors. CanWest Global Communications Corporation is a staunch advocate and supporter of Israeli policy. In 2007 I criticized the university’s official position on the academic boycott of Israel on my UofOWatch.blogspot.com blog. The repression against me intensified when new university president Allan Rock, a staunch supporter of Israeli policy, arrived on the scene in July 2008. I was disciplined for the UofOWatch blog with an unpaid suspension in September 2008, by a decision of the Executive Committee of the Board of Governors (EBOG). The latter suspension was followed by many more severe actions against me (see below) and is being used by the university as an argument in my dismissal.

[ENDNOTE 3]: Allan Rock’s ardent support for Israeli policy is evidenced both in his political career and in his actions on campus as president at the University of Ottawa: In 2004, under Martin’s Liberal government and as Canada’s Ambassador to the UN, Allan Rock changed Canada’s longstanding foreign policy on Israel from abstaining on human rights resolutions for Palestine to being one of the few countries in the World that vote with the US and Israel against UN human rights resolutions for Palestine. In July 2008 the media reported that Allan Rock participated in a trip to Israel “partly financed by the Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy (CIJA)”, along with five other Canadian university presidents. The media reported that Mr. Rock’s visit “yielded immediate results” as “the University of Ottawa agreed to launch an exchange program in law.” After a few months in office, President Allan Rock announced his plan in October 2008 for the University of Ottawa. This plan included what he calls putting “Canada’s University in the service of the World”. In explaining it to students on October 24, 2008, he talked about exchange programs. When one student asked if Palestinian students would be allowed to participate in the exchange programs with Israel, Mr. Rock stated that he could not answer that. In the fall of 2008, the University of Ottawa chapter of the independent student-run Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG) took a principled stand in line with its mission statement and refused to sponsor a Hillel event due to that organization's stated unqualified support for Israeli policy. Allan Rock responded by pressuring the student union (SFUO) president to write a letter condemning OPIRG. A letter from the SFUO president delineated the administrative relationships between the SFUO and OPIRG and this letter was made public by Allan Rock on his president’s “Rock Talk” blog. Allan Rock also publicly stated that he would look for an “administrative” mechanism to deny OPIRG student-levy funding (which has been approved by a student referendum). In 2009 the Rock administration banned a student poster announcing Israeli Apartheid Week – a move widely criticized in some media such as the CBC and in the student media. This type of interventions by a president of the University of Ottawa in the affairs of student groups and associations was unprecedented. It is consistent with the increased political influences in recent years from pro-Israel-policy groups on Canadian campuses – documented in the media, such as in this CBC-Ottawa radio report: http://cbc.ca/ottawa/media/audio/allinaday/20090220carleton.ram

International Appeal in Solidarity with Palestinian Arab Railway Workers in Israel

2009-04-18T18:36:00.004-04:00

Support Arab railway workers in Israel in their struggle to keep their jobs! Call on Israel Railways to revise its new policy requiring army service as an employment condition!

This policy is clearly discriminatory: it disqualifies Arab workers because Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel are exempt from service in the Israeli army. The appeal was developed in cooperation with Arab railway workers who have been sacked as a result of this policy.

This appeal has been endorsed by the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU) and many others.

To read a brief and informative Backgrounder on the issue, and to Download and endorse the appeal, go to:

http://www.laborers-voice.org/article_details.aspx?TopID=964&catid=46

Write a protest letter to Israel Railways
Copy-paste the sample letter below or write your own message to:

Yitzhak Harel, CEO

Israel Railways

Fax: +972 (0)3 6937480

Email: pniyot@rail.co.il

CC your email/fax to Sawt el-Amel:

Sawt el-Amel

Email: laborers@laborers-voice.org

Fax: +972 (0)4 6080917

Sample letter to Israel Railways:

Dear Mr. Yitzhak Harel,

I am concerned about Israel Railways’ new policy requiring army service and weapons training as an employment condition for guards at level crossings. Since Arab citizens of Israel are exempt from obligatory army service, it can be assumed that all or most Arab crossing guards will be laid off as a consequence of this policy decision.

This contradicts the fundamental right of workers to equality and non-discrimination in employment, and consequently, the policy should be revised.

I would much appreciate to hear your position on this issue.

Sincerely,

Protest ROM decision to display stolen antiquities

2009-04-10T17:57:00.002-04:00

Dead Sea Scrolls stir storm at ROM
http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/616059

SEE BELOW FOR ACTION ITEMS!

The Dead Sea scrolls, confiscated from East Jerusalem during Israel's 1967 military invasion and occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, are coming to Toronto. The move is part of Israel consul general Amir Gissin's official "Brand Israel" campaign that attempts to 'rebrand' apartheid Israel beyond its systematic repression of the Palestinian people.

Since 1967, hundreds of thousands of precious artifacts have been illegally removed by the Israeli Antiquities Authority, Israeli soldiers, and illegally operating antiquities dealers from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. These removals of the joint cultural heritage of the region are in direct contravention of at least four international conventions or protocols on the
treatment of illegally obtained cultural goods.

Please stand up and let the ROM know that you do not accept the right of museums to display illegally obtained artifacts stolen from occupied territories. The history of such theft and dispossession is a sad legacy of colonial history that Canada and its museums have also been complicit in. It is time to begin reversing this legacy by canceling the current exhibit in accordance with the precepts of international law and refusing to allow the ROM to be politicized for the rebranding of an apartheid state.

For more information please contact the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid at:
endapartheid@riseup.net

SUGGESTED LETTER:

Dear Mr. William Thorsell:

I am writing to express my concern about the ROM's decision to host the Dead Sea scrolls in cooperation with the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA). Since its foundation, the IAA has repeatedly contravened international agreements, protocols and conventions on the proper and ethical handling of cultural artifacts and has been complicit in the systematic dispossession of the Palestinian people.

As you are certainly aware, the transfer of the Dead Sea scrolls from the occupied West Bank into the custodianship of the IAA was effected under military duress and violates international legal norms regulating the handling of cultural goods that are the heritage of humanity. Such removals are part and parcel of a longstanding stripping and transfer of cultural goods from the
occupied territories by the IAA, Israel Defense Forces (IDF), and independent and illegally operating local antiquities dealers.

I am also concerned that the ROM's Distinguished Lecture Series is hosting a number of scholars that have been complicit in the IAA's aformentioned violations of international law. Such violations have been committed in the interest of forwarding a narrow nationalistic agenda and do nothing towards fostering an environment for a just and lasting peace in the region. This
Lecture Series is being organized without the input of prominent Palestinian scholars in the region or of scholars critical of the ways in which the IAA has mishandled the joint cultural heritage of the region.

Finally, the Canadian Jewish News has noted that Israeli consul general in Toronto Amir Gissin's "Brand Israel attack arsenal" includes the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition. The aim of the Israeli Foreign Ministry's Brand Israel campaign, is to shift the attention away from Israel's systematic violations of international humanitarian law by presenting a more 'benign' vision of Israel to a Canadian public increasingly wary of Israel's war-crimes and apartheid policies towards the Palestinians.

I urge you to stand in solidarity with the growing boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement internationally - launched by Palestinian civil society in the summer of 2005 - that seeks to peacefully put pressure on the Israeli government to end its abuses of international law. Taking a clear and principled position that emphasizes the ROM's commitment to international law and to the fostering of consensual methods of international cooperation can only strengthen your institutions standing. Anything else would be an abdication of responsibility to the Palestinian communities most adversely affected by Israeli policies of dispossession, occupation and racial discrimination - policies exemplified in the recent history of the Dead Sea Scrolls themselves.

Sincerely,

________________

SEND PROTEST LETTERS TO:

Fill out the form at: http://www.rom.on.ca/about/contact.php

Or mail your letters to:
Visitor Services Department
Royal Ontario Museum
100 Queen's Park
Toronto, Ontario
M5S 2C6
Canada

Visitor Services, Switchboard
416.586.8000

April 15th: Launch of the Freedom of Expression Campaign!

2009-04-02T16:21:00.002-04:00

Defend the right to speak, educate and organize for Palestinian solidarity and human rights!

Join us ..

Wednesday, April 15
7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
The Bahen Centre, Room 1160
40 St. George Street (north of College Street)
University of Toronto

What's going on ... ?

BANNED FROM CANADA ... George Galloway's Canadian speaking tour on "Resisting war from Gaza to Kandahar"!
CUT ... funding for settlement programs and language services at Canadian Arab Federation!
REMOVED ... Israeli Apartheid Week posters at Ontario universities!
ATTACKED ... union leaders and members for supporting research and education on boycott of academic institutions!
TARGETED ... students and faculty doing public education on campuses!
THREATENED ... discussion of Israel/Palestine at Toronto District School Board!

What can you do about it ...?

Attend this launch ... hear testimonials, support the campaign, and learn how to get active in your organization or community

Moderator: Sherene Razack (SESE)
Speakers: Canadian Arab Federation, Canadian Union of Public Employees, Faculty4Palestine, Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid

... and teachers, students, workers, community activists

Sponsored by:
* Canadian Arab Federation
* Department of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education (OISE-University of Toronto)

April 6th: Health Crisis in Palestine: A Panel of Canadian Health Care Professionals give First Hand Accounts

2009-04-01T17:50:00.004-04:00

Presented by Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East Right to Health Taskforce presents

Monday, April 06, 7:00 p.m.
Leslie Dan Pharmacy Building
Room B250
144 College Street, Toronto
Free admission.

Dr. Harry Shannon, Epidemiologist in Hamilton, spent one week in Gaza and has written provocative articles for the Hamilton Spectator.
Dr. Miriam Garfinkle, Family Physician in Toronto, is a strong and long time peace activist on health issues in Palestine.
Dr. Jim Deutsch, Psychiatrist in Toronto, has visited and worked in the West Bank in the area of mental health.
Judy Deutsch, Social Worker in Toronto, President of Science for Peace visited the West Bank and presented a paper on mental health.
Dr. Abdel Rahman Lawendy, Orthopedic Surgery Resident in London, traveled to Gaza as part of the international medical team and worked in a hospital in Gaza during this latest crisis in January, 2009.

For countless years now, world-renowned organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, UNICEF and others have documented the effects of occupation on the physical and mental health of Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. As the years pass, the health violations only continue to escalate, both in the West Bank, where access to health care is difficult at best and especially in Gaza, where a brutal blockade imposed as collective punishment by the Israeli government has denied Palestinians even basic supplies such as food and water, let alone health care. This blockade has been directly blamed and condemned by various health groups such as the International Red Cross, Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) and many more. Health is a human right - one that an occupying power is obligated to provide for the civilian population according to the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Come and learn about the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and hear first-hand accounts from Canadian health care professionals and researchers of all backgrounds who have traveled to Palestine -- one since the recent war -- and seen the damaging effects that this occupation has on the Palestinian civilians. We will be having a panel discussion and encourage participation from health care professionals and other citizens alike. To learn more, please see the five part series published in the Lancet (a prominent UK medical journal) being released this month entitled Health In the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

For more info please see the CJPME Website: http://www.cjpme.org/

March 30th Global Day of Action for BDS / April 4th Anti-War Demo

2009-03-30T16:33:00.005-04:00

March 30th, 2009

Global Day of Action in Solidarity with the Palestinian people and for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel www.bdsmovement.net

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

In commemoration of Palestinian Land Day, and in support of the Global Day of Action for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) re-affirms its commitment to the BDS movement. We call upon all sectors of Canadian society to join us in Boycotting, Divesting and Sanctioning Israeli Apartheid.

Over the past year, the Canadian BDS movement has made tremendous gains across a variety of sectors. We would like to once again congratulate the Canadian Union of Postal Workers and the Canadian Union of Public Employees – Ontario Division for their leadership in the labour movement and commitment to researching and implementing BDS.

Canadian campuses continue to be central to BDS – in March, Israeli Apartheid Week was held in 14 cities across Canada and over 45 cities internationally. Canadian student unions have commited firm support for the Palestinian Right to Education campaign, the Federation Autonome du Collegial in Quebec (FAC) have adopted a resolution joining the BDS campaign, and Faculty for Palestine issued a statement condemning the Israeli massacres in Gaza and calling on the Canadian government to issue sanctions on Israel.

The Israeli assault on Gaza has once again exposed the brutal violence and atrocities committed by the Israeli state against the Palestinian people. The Canadian government has shamefully played a key role in supporting Israel and championing the Israeli apartheid cause at home, at the U.N and around the world. Canada was the only country to vote against condemnation of Israeli war crimes in Gaza in the U.N Human rights council.

This year we have seen unprecedented attacks on Palestine solidarity organizing from Zionist groups, University administrations and the Canadian government itself. Despite the backlash and attempts at repression, the BDS movement in Canada which is working to put an end to the Israeli military aggression and occupation, for full equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel and for the Right of Return for Palestinian refugees – is growing and stronger than ever.

From the blockade of South African dockworkers against Israeli goods, to the governments of Bolivia and Venezuela that have cut official ties with Israeli Apartheid, we are inspired, gain strength and are proud to be part of the growing International BDS movement

Given the unrelenting and unapologetic Canadian political and economic support for Israel, and given the escalating violence of the Israeli state especially in Gaza – we see that now more than ever we must stand up and hold the Israeli state accountable and challenge Canadian complicity with apartheid. Now, more than ever, we must join and build the Boycott, Divestment and
Sanctions movement against Israeli apartheid!

JOIN US:

Monday, March 30th: The four-city speaking tour GEORGE GALLOWAY: RESISTING WAR
FROM GAZA TO KANDAHAR is going ahead as planned. The ban on Galloway's trip to Canada is being challenged. If, in the end, Galloway is not permitted into the country, all events will go on as planned. A live broadcast of Galloway's banned speech will be shown. For more information about the campaign to get Galloway into Canada, visit www.defendfreespeech.ca.

Saturday, April 4th: Anti-War Demonstration:
JOIN THE BOYCOTT ISRAELI APARTHEID CONTINGENT
The Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid supports the Global Week against War and the Toronto Coalition to Stop the War demonstration: 1 PM @ Younge and Dundas Square

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GET INVOLVED!
The Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid
endapartheid@riseup.net / www.caiaweb.org

More on the Global Day of Action for BDS:
bdsmovement.net

April 2nd and 3rd: Symposium on Violent Contradictions and Feminist Responsesto the War on Gaza

2009-03-30T16:29:00.003-04:00

A Women and Gender Studies Institute event at the University of Toronto
Co-sponsored by Faculty4Palestine

Violent Contradictions and Feminist Responses to the War on Gaza, April 2 & 3, 2009.

Program for Symposium:

Thursday April 2, 2009

5 -7pm Reception featuring artist talks and video installations
by b.h. Yael and Vicky Moufawad-Paul.

7-8:30. Keynote: The Political Absurd: The War on Terror in 'Post-Racial' America, Jasbir Puar, Professor of Women's and Gender Studies at Rutger's University.

******************
Friday April 3rd, 2009

1-2:30 pm Local Panel: Reflections on Violent Contradictions
Abbie Bakan (Queen's University)
Shahrzad Mojab (OISE, University of Toronto)
Dana Olwan (Queen's University)
b.h. Yael (OCAD)

2:30 - 3pm Poetry reading by Trish Salah

3 - 3:30pm Coffee break

3:30 - 5pm Closing Plenary. Gaza as a Metaphor: Victims and Perpetrators, Yosefa Loshitzky, Professor of Film, Media, and Cultural Studies, University of East London.

For full details, please visit the symposium website
http://www.utoronto.ca/wgsi/vcwg

Action Alert: British MP George Galloway Banned from Entering Canada

2009-03-22T08:44:00.005-04:00

ITEMS IN THIS POST:
1) Call to action to defend free speech
2) Statement by George Galloway MP on Jason Kenney's ban
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1) Call to action to defend free speech

Defend free speech. Let George Galloway into Canada. Stop Jason Kenney¹s attack on civil liberties.

Dear friends:

By now you will have heard that Jason Kenney, Canada's Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, has banned British MP George Galloway from entering Canada. Galloway is scheduled to speak in four cities during a pan-Canadian speaking tour from March 30 to April 2.

Kenney's decision to ban Galloway is an unprecedented attack on free speech and on the right to criticize our own government's foreign policy. Kenney's office has publicly stated that Galloway will be banned because of his views on the war in Afghanistan and because he represents a "threat to national security".

The ban follows Kenney's recent attacks on Canadian Arab and Muslim organizations and on Palestine solidarity campaigners for their criticism of Israel's war on Gaza and its treatment of Palestinians. In the last few days, Kenney unilaterally cut funding to the Canadian Arab Federation for its immigrant settlement program. Kenney also recently attacked students organizing Israeli Apartheid Week on campuses across Canada.

Kenney has attempted to silence their voices by accusing them of anti-Semitism, despite the wide range of support and participation of Jewish organizations and individuals in these Palestine solidarity events.

The organizers of Galloway's speaking tour the Toronto Coalition to Stop the War, the Ottawa Peace Assembly, and Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights - condemn in the strongest terms Kenney's attack on free speech and our right to criticize our government's foreign policy. We call on all supporters of civil liberties to join us in challenging these attacks and in reversing Kenney's ban.

In the next few days, we will launch a pan-Canadian campaign to defend free speech in Canada and to reverse Kenney's ban. We call on you to join in this campaign to ensure Galloway's entry into Canada. We must organize now to ensure that all events where Galloway is scheduled to speak will proceed as planned.

Supporters should continue to buy tickets for these events and to promote them widely.

To that end, we urge you to take the following steps:

1) Contact Jason Kenney's office to condemn the ban and to demand its immediate reversal:

E-mail: minister@cic.gc.ca; kennej@parl.gc.ca
Phone: 613-992-2235 (Ottawa office); 403-225-3480 (Calgary office)
Fax: 613-992-1920 (Ottawa office); 403-225-3504 (Calgary office)

2) Join an emergency city-wide organizing meeting in Toronto to defend free speech and to reverse the ban:

Sunday, March 22
3:00pm to 5:00pm
Ryerson Student Centre
55 Gould Street
Ryerson University

This organizing meeting will take place during the closing session of the Student Assembly against War and Racism, scheduled to take place from Friday, March 20 to Sunday, March 22 in the same location (www.unitedagainstwar.ca). Anti-war delegates from across the country will be present to participate in developing a pan-Canadian campaign to defend free speech and to reverse the ban on Galloway.

3) Are you on facebook? Join the facebook group: Let Him Speak: Allow George Galloway to Speak in Canada:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=62965075809

4) Buy tickets for the Galloway events in Toronto, Mississauga, Montreal and Ottawa.

Help us promote these events. Spread the word widely. Ticket information for
each city is available at www.nowar.ca and www.acp-cpa.ca.

5) Forward this e-mail across all your lists to build the biggest response possible.

If Kenney does not reverse his ban, a delegation of Canadian MPs, lawyers, peace campaigners, and civil liberties advocates will travel to the US to escort Galloway across the border on the day of his scheduled arrival to Canada.

We will join with Galloway in publicly defying Kenney's attack on free speech, civil liberties and the peace movement.

Please spread the word about Sunday's meeting. If you are outside Toronto and would like to get involved, please contact us:

Email: stopthewar@sympatico.ca
Web: www.nowar.ca or www.acp-cpa.ca

Campaign materials will be ready following Sunday's organizing meeting in Toronto for local organizers to distribute across the country.

Together, we will defend free speech and civil liberties.

And one way or another, we will bring George Galloway to Canada!

Thank you for your ongoing support.

In peace,
Toronto Coalition to Stop the War
Ottawa Peace Coalition
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights
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2) Statement by George Galloway MP on Jason Kenney's ban

March 20, 2009

The Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney gazetted in Rupert Murdoch's Sun yesterday morning that I was to be excluded from his country because of my views on Afghanistan. That's the way the right-wing last-ditch dead-enders of Bushism in Ottawa conduct their business. At least for now. The upcoming elections in the country look set to follow the trend set by their neighbour to the south.

Kenney is quite a card almost a joker in fact. A quick trawl establishes he's a gay-baiter, gung-ho armchair warrior, with an odd habit of exceeding his immigration brief. Three years ago he attacked the pro-Western prime minister of Lebanon Fuad Saniora for being ungrateful to Canada for its support of Israeli bombardment of his country. Most curiously of all in 2006 he addressed a rally of the so called People's Mujahideen of Iran, a Waco-style cult, banned in the European Union as a terrorist organization with a penchant for encouraging impressionable young members to self-immolate in public places.

While on one level being banned by such a man is like being told to sit up straight by the hunchback of Notre Dame or being lectured on due diligence by Lord Conrad Black a Kenney ally, now breaking stones in the hot sun. On another, and personal, note for a Scotsman to be excluded from Canada is like being turned away from the family home.

But what are my views on Afghanistan which the Canadian government (for we must assume cabinet responsibility) does not want its people to hear?

I've never been to Afghanistan, nor have I ever met a Taliban, but my first impression into the parliamentary vellum on the subject was more than two decades ago. At the time the fathers of the Taliban were "freedom fighters" paraded at US Republican and British Tory party conferences. Who knows, maybe even the Canadian right extolled these god-fearing opponents of Communism. I did not however.

On the eve of their storming of Kabul I told Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher that she "had opened the gates to the barbarians" and that "a long, dark night would now descend upon the people of Afghanistan". How long and how dark, as George Bush might have put it, I misunderestimated.

But with the same conviction I say to the Canadian and other NATO governments today that your current policy is equally a profound mistake. From time to time and with increased regularity it is a crime. Like the bombardment of wedding parties and even funerals or the presiding over a record opium crop which under our noses finds its way coursing through the veins of young people from Nova Scotia to Newcastle upon Tyne. But it is worse than a crime, as Tallyrand said, it's a blunder.

The Afghans have never succumbed to foreign occupation, heaven knows the British Empire tried, tried and failed again. Not even Alexander the Great succeeded, and whoever else he is, minister Kenney is no Alexander the Great. Young Canadian soldiers are dying in significant numbers on Afghanistan's plains. Their families are entitled to know how many of us believe this
adventure to be similarly doomed and that genuine support for the troops - British, Canadian and other means bringing them home, changing course and that an alternative policy exists, the debate around which they above all deserve to hear and judge for themselves.

For a G7 government to ban a five times elected British parliamentarian from addressing public events or keeping my appointment with some of their flagship television and radio programmes is quite a serious matter. Few would have guessed that the kinder, gentler Canada of Jonie Mitchell's lyricism would have been the villain of such a piece. Canada's conservatives have certainly paved free speech and put up a parody of liberty.

Minister Kenney's "spokesman" says in his gazette, otherwise known as the Sun, "Galloway's not coming in - end of story."

Alas for him, it's not. Canada remains a free country governed by law and my friends are even now seeking a judicial review of his decision. The Canadian people will speak soon about the whole conduct of the war and the economy by the neo-con administration he graces. And above all there are other ways I can address those Canadians who wish to hear me greater in number now and including those who positively disagree with what I have to say.

More than half a century ago Paul Robeson, one of the greatest men who ever lived, was forbidden to enter Canada not by Ottawa but by Washington, which had taken away his passport. But he was still able to transfix a vast crowd of Vancouver's mill hands and miners with a 17 minute telephone concert culminating in a rendition of the Ballad of Joe Hill.

Technology has moved on since then. And so from coast to coast, minister Kenney notwithstanding, I will be heard one way or another.

George Galloway MP

Action Alert: Harper Government Cuts CAF Funding

2009-03-22T08:40:00.002-04:00

Canadian Arab Federation / La Fédération Canado-Arabe

ACTION ALERT

March 20, 2009

Harper Government Cuts Funding to CAF

The Harper government has cut funding to the Settlement Service of the Canadian Arab Federation alleging CAF promotes terror. In doing so, immigrants and newcomers will lose the opportunity to gain the necessary skills to successfully integrate into Canadian society. This arbitrary decision made by the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, Jason Kenney, under the Harper leadership is an attempt to silence any dissenting voice and is being used as disciplinary action for CAF’s political stand which is contrary to their own. Furthermore, this is a warning to other non-profit, anti-racist organizations not to criticize members of the Canadian government or they may face a similar fate. This decision sets a dangerous precedence for a minister’s political posturing and attacks on a community, and its organizations, already subjected to Islamophobia and other negative stereotypes.

CAF urges you to call, fax and e-mail Minister Kenney in addition to e-mailing your local MP to express outrage of this unprecedented decision to cut funding to the Canadian Arab Federation.

Contact Jason Kenney:

Constituency Office:
1168 137 Ave SE
Calgary , AB
T2J 6T6
P. 403-225-3480
F. 403-225-3504

Ottawa Office:
325 East Block
House of Commons
Ottawa , ON K1A 0A6
P. 613-992-2235
F. 613-992-1920

Email:
kennej@parl.gc.ca

Contact your MP:

You can find your local MP and their contact information by entering your Postal Code in the link provided below: http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Parlinfo/Compilations/HouseOfCommons/MemberByPostalCode.aspx?Menu=HOC

www.caf.ca
Established in 1967, the Canadian Arab Federation is a national, non-partisan, non profit and membership-based organization. CAF represents Canadian Arabs on issues relating to public policy.

An Open Letter from Trent Faculty Regarding the Removal of Israeli Apartheid Posters

2009-03-17T19:13:00.003-04:00

http://www.trentarthur.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1334&Itemid=1

Robert F. Clarke, Head Librarian
Dr. Robin Lathangue, Head of Colleges
Meri Kim Oliver, Sr. Director of Community Affairs and Senior Partnerships
Don Cumming, Sr. Director of Public Affairs

Dear Mr. Clarke, Dr. Lathangue, Ms. Oliver and Mr. Cumming,

We are writing to raise concerns and questions about your decision to have the Israeli Apartheid Week poster removed (or its Latuff image replaced) from the Bata library showcase by the end of the day on March 4. Mr. Clarke’s e-mail to the Peterborough Coalition for Palestinian Solidarity states that your decision was made on the grounds that the Latuff image “communicates an inflammatory message”. Yet you provided no explanation to accompany this highly charged accusation.

We are also deeply troubled about the level of intimidation implicit in your “request” that the students of PCPS “voluntarily remove or replace the other copies of the poster containing the Latuff image”. We find it extremely irresponsible, and possibly actionable as harassment, for the university Administration to deliver such a “request” without a) citing the policy grounds for it, and b) informing the students about the penalties they face for non-compliance.

As faculty members of the Trent University community, we take freedom of expression on campus very seriously and are demanding that you provide the university community with the following information about your decision:

1) What do you mean by “inflammatory message”? What message, in particular, do you consider “inflammatory”? How is it “inflammatory”? Why was this explanation not provided to the students, in writing, at the time your decision was issued to them?

2) What university policy was used as the basis for your decision? What specific policy identifies “inflammatory message” as a violation, and what is the penalty for not conforming to it?

3) Your letter states that “the University is committed to working with all parties involved in this issue to promote a dialogue”. Which “parties”, specifically, are you referring to as being “involved in this issue”? We consider faculty to be a signifcant party in our university administration’s decision to ban a poster from campus, and yet we have not been consulted or invited into the dialogue. Who, then, is in this “dialogue”? What requests are other “parties” making, and what demands are you imposing on “parties” other than the PCPS? We are asking that you provide a full account of the actions, parties and processes that led up to this decision.

Finally, we want you to bring to your attention an Open Letter to defend freedom of speech, particularly as it regards Palestinian rights at Canadian universities. This letter has been signed by over 370 faculty from over 40 Canadian universities. Many of us are members of Faculty 4 Palestine network, and we can assure you that Trent Administration’s actions will be given due attention as we move ahead with this national campaign.

You can view the Letter and the signatures at the following link:

http://www.caiaweb.org/node/1148

Sincerely,

A. Haroon Akram-Lodhi, International Development Studies
Feyzi Baban, Politics Department
Chris Beyers, International Development Studies
Davina Bhandar, Canadian Studies
Marion Boulby, Department of History
Paula Butler, Women’s Studies
Nadine Changfoot, Politics Department
Sally Chivers, Canadian Studies
Gavin Fridell, Department of Politics
Margaret Hobbs, Women’s Studies
Chris Huxley, International Development Studies/Sociology
Paul Kellogg, International Development Studies
Winnie Lem, International Development Studies
Paul Manning, Anthropology
Barbara Marshall, Department of Sociology
Anne Meneley, Anthropology
Mary-Jo Nadeau, Department of Sociology
Michael Neumann, Department of Philosophy
Colleen O’Manique, Women’s Studies
Bryan Palmer, Canadian Studies
James Penney, Cultural Studies
Paul Shaffer, International Development Studies
Jacqueline Solway, International Development Studies/Anthropology
Carol Williams, Women’s Studies

Toronto Universities must reject false claims that IAW is "hate" and condemn disruption and harassment at IAW events

2009-03-17T19:10:00.000-04:00

Wednesday March 11, 2009

Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) - York
Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) -University of Toronto
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) - Ryerson

Israeli Apartheid Week 2009 is a series of lectures and film screenings on various campuses and communities (now 40 cities) across the world whose intent is to educate people about the nature of Israel as an apartheid system. In its fifth year, Toronto's Israeli Apartheid Week has seen an alarming increase in harassment, intimidation and physical violence against its organizers and guests. While people who seem to be affiliated with the Jewish Defense League (JDL) are the primary organizers of the attacks, unfortunately, the student groups Hasbara and Hillel have also joined in, using cameras, physical proximity, and threatening language to intimidate activists, especially women students, calling them "terrorists" and repeating the accusations of "incitement" and "hate speech". When these incidents of harassment and intimidation are reported to campus police, the police have taken no action.

Prior to the start of IAW, several pro-Israel organizations, including B’nai Brith, the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) and the Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre (FSWC) made false allegations that IAW was a "hate-fest" and, in the name of the safety of Jewish students, they encouraged community members and students to take action to prevent the week from happening. Several Federal Members of Parliament, Peter Kent (Conservative), Jason Kenney (Conservative), and Michael Ignatieff (Liberal) have joined in this campaign of false accusation and innuendo, implying falsely that IAW educational events are threatening to the safety of Jewish students on campuses. While Kent, Kenney, and Ignatieff have not attended any IAW events, several high profile university administrators, including Nouman Ashraf, the Anti-Racism and Cultural Diversity Officer at the University of Toronto, have attended this year. At a meeting with Ashraf, called by organizers to express their concerns over the violence at IAW, they asked him if he had witnessed any hate speech at the events. When he confirmed that he had not, organizers asked him to make a public statement to that effect. Ashraf refused and to date, no members of the senior administration have done so.

We demand the freedom to hold public debates and events on campuses without fear or intimidation. We do not want our events to be militarized, or for lecture series and film screenings to take place behind lines of police. Nor do we want the hiring of security to become a requirement for future Palestinian solidarity events. Imposing prohibitive security fees on volunteer-based activist organizations, would be a de facto shutting down of the right to free expression on campuses, and would be a reward to those organizations who come to our events to disrupt them.

Instead, we believe the freedom to hold IAW events could relatively easily be guaranteed by a public statement from University administrations stating that free expression on campuses will be protected and that the University rejects the false claim that IAW events constitute "hate speech". We therefore demand:

1. That York University, the University of Toronto, and Ryerson University all make official statements distancing themselves from the false allegation that IAW is incitement and hate speech.

2. That these Universities make a public statement that IAW events are protected on grounds of free expression and condemning disruptions and harassment at these events.

If Universities refuse to do this, their claims to protect free expression cannot be taken seriously. They will be engaging in a very dangerous game, entertaining false claims and tolerating physical disruptions of university events. It is within their power to de-escalate the situation, and it is their responsibility to do so immediately, rather than encouraging fear and engaging in campaigns of smear, false accusation, and innuendo against their own students. It is past time that Universities stopped looking for ways to prevent discussion from happening and look for ways to make such discussion productive and educational.

Suppression of Palestine Solidarity Activism in Ontario Universities

2009-03-17T18:49:00.009-04:00

Israeli Apartheid Week Beats Back Attacks on Free Speech By John Riddell
http://www.rabble.ca/news/israeli-apartheid-week-beats-back-attacks-free-speech

'Academic Freedom Threatened in Ontario Universities' By Margaret Aziza Pappano
http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/bullet187.html

Faculty 4 Palestine Open Letter defending free speech
http://www.caiaweb.org/faculty (and CLICK on the red "Open Letter" icon)

'Why We Should All Support Israeli Apartheid Week' By Shourideh Molavi
http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/bullet190.html

'Israeli apartheid week no 'hate-fest'' By Judy Rebick and Alan Sears
http://auto_sol.tao.ca/node/3249

Jewish Canadians Concerned About Suppression of Criticism of Israel
http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/344

'Exposed: University of Toronto suppresses pro-Palestinian activism' By Liisa Schofield
http://www.rabble.ca/news/exposed-university-toronto-suppressed-pro-palestinian-activism

The Israel Advocacy Push to 'Reclaim' York University: Putting Current Events in Context By Dan Freeman-Maloy
http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/bullet191.html

SAIA York condemns smears, harassment and administrative repression: York admin should reverse course, distance itself from intimidation tactics

2009-03-17T18:10:00.001-04:00

March 13, 2009

Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) at York University condemns the intensifying efforts to shut down Palestine solidarity activism on campus. In recent weeks, SAIA and its allies have organized numerous successful events, many coordinated with the international Israeli Apartheid Week 2009 (March 1-8), which took place in over forty cities across the world. In the process, we have faced defamation, physical intimidation and harassment. The decision by the York University administration (finalized on March 5) to fine and suspend our organization is disgraceful, part of a pattern of administrative repression faced by Palestine solidarity groups on university campuses.

SAIA Condemns Violations of Human Rights

In its recent attack on the population of Gaza Israel killed 1300 people, including some 430 children. Israel continues to besiege and starve the population of Gaza, to imprison thousands of Palestinians without trial, to subject Palestinians to torture, and to commit a host of other violations of international law, all with the support of all too many Canadian politicians and institutions.

SAIA agrees with the majority of world opinion, expressed through repeated United Nations resolutions, in opposition to these atrocities. We endorse with the call from 2005 by a broad coalition of Palestinian civil society groups and more recently by UN General Assembly President Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, for a campaign of boycott, divestments and sanctions (BDS) against Israel to force it to comply with international law. We join many from academic institutions around the world, including the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT), in condemning Israeli attacks on Palestinian educational institutions in Gaza.

The February 12, 2009 Rally

On February 12, 2009, we organized a rally and march at York University to demand that York University president Mamdouh Shoukri issue a statement condemning targeted Israeli attacks on Palestinian schools. Since York University, like many other Canadian universities, condemned the call for an academic boycott as a violation of academic freedom, we felt that the outright blowing up of universities and schools with students still in them would constitute a greater violation of academic freedom, worthy of perhaps even stronger condemnation. Rather than respond thoughtfully to this reasonable demand, the Shoukri administration chose to suspend our organization for a month and fine us $1,250. Note: this is approximately $1,250 more than our volunteer organization presently has.

At our February 12 demonstration, we were confronted with an aggressive counter demonstration organized by York-based “Israel advocacy” groups and off-campus political figures and groups who have been harassing us at our tables and circulating defamatory lies about us in the media. The counter-demonstration explicitly sought to drown out our speeches with chants, megaphones and drums. We tried to have our speeches heard, and as this became difficult, we terminated the stand-off by proceeding on our march. It was not until after they began drowning our speeches out that we used “sound amplification” equipment. The fact that we are now being punished for this is a preposterous insult.

A coordinated Sabotage of our Activities

Our membership, in trying to distribute critical political literature on our campus, has faced persistent harassment, slurs and abuse. At our tables, campus clubs including Hillel and the Hasbara Fellowships, backed by their parent organizations, have harassed us in direct conjunction with middle-aged thugs from such off-campus hate groups as the Jewish Defense League (JDL).

On Wednesday, March 4th, One female organizer was physically attacked (pushed by a JDL member). Another member was called ‘a filthy Arab’ and told: ‘Your womb is only good for producing suicide bombers.’ Another participant was told: ‘If I were one of your parents, I would
f**cking kill you.’ Many have been called ‘terrorists’ and told ‘to go blow yourself up.’ Members have been persistently harassed on campus day-to-day even when not participating in any political activity. Though it is not our strategy to file complaints with security and police services, when police were notified of these incidents, no action was taken.

Israel advocates and the York administration are working hand-in-glove to try to sabotage our rallies and activities, making them disruptive through aggressive counter-demonstrations and then using the disruption as a justification to shut us down.

False Smears Against our Activists

The York administration and Israel advocacy push to shut us down includes attempts to smear us with baseless, unsubstantiated charges of ‘anti-Semitism’ through a campaign of distortion, innuendo and outright lies.

We oppose Israel’s policies of occupation, denial of the right of return, and denial of equality to its Palestinian citizens. To suggest that this is ‘anti-Semitic’ is false and reprehensible. To fabricate false statements and attribute them to our organization without evidence, as has been done by some of our political opponents, is still worse. Some of those responsible, especially those who have published the most extreme smears (e.g., the Calgary Herald), have opened themselves to litigation and we are considering our legal options.

We continue to demand:

1. That President Shoukri uphold basic principles of academic freedom and political decency by condemning the Israeli bombing of Palestinian educational facilities.
2. That York University publicly distance itself from claims that SAIA and IAW activities constitute ‘hate’ or ‘incitement’
3. That York University make a public statement that SAIA’s activities are protected on grounds of free expression and condemning disruptions and harassment of SAIA activists.

Students have the right to political assembly on campus. We also have the right to speak freely at rallies, and where our voices are being drowned out, to try our best to allow participants in our rally to hear our speakers. We will continue to assert our rights to organize, distribute political literature and demonstrate on campus as our work requires.

Students Against Israeli Apartheid (York) Suspended and Fined

2009-03-17T18:08:00.000-04:00

February 26, 2009

On 24 February, Students Against Israeli Apartheid at York University (SAIA York) received notice of a 30-day suspension, a $1000 fine and an individual fine of $250 for the student signatory for the group. In explaining these measures, York University administration cites a demonstration organized in solidarity with students in Gaza, stating that “your club actively
participated in a rally in Vari Hall on February 12, using various sound amplification devices and other noise making instruments.”

The University alleges that 'sound amplification' disrupted classes but fails to note that SAIA York quickly moved the rally away from Vari Hall in order to deliver a letter to the University administration. It should also be noted that the maximum monetary penalty has been imposed by the administration without following the verification process outlined in the university’s “Student Code of Conduct”. In doing so, the administration has violated its own procedures. Furthermore, the university has repeatedly failed to respond numerous complaints filed by SAIA members and their community allies over racist and sexist commentary directed at them by members of pro-Israel advocacy organizations present on that day

These discriminatory and punitive measures come a week prior to the scheduled launch of Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) at York University on March 3-8 (www.apartheidweek.org). Pro-Israel organizations have applied immense, coordinated and nation-wide pressure to shut down IAW, including placing full-page advertisements in national newspapers calling on universities to prevent IAW from occurring. The repressive activities of the York
administration must be clearly seen in this light.

It is shocking to see university administrations respond to these racist calls to stifle free speech and student organizing around Israeli Apartheid. At Carleton University and the University of Ottawa, university administrations have banned the IAW poster. At the University of Toronto, University President David Naylor has recently been exposed through a Freedom of Information Request to have personally been involved in shutting down a Palestine solidarity event on campus.

The attempt by the pro Israel organizations to prevent IAW from occurring is full confirmation that the debate against Israeli Apartheid has been won. In the wake of Israel’s massacres in Gaza, student and public opinion is clearly on the side of justice. Israel is now understood as an apartheid state and the only response of pro-Israel organizations is to harass and repress student organizing. They will fail.

** Please email and phone the following individuals in protest against these repressive measures.

Robert J. Tiffin (Vice President Students)
rjtiffin@yorku.ca
416 736 5955

Mamdouh Shoukri (University President)
mshoukri@yorku.ca
416 736 5200

*********

Sample letter to send to York University administration (mshoukri@yorku.ca,
rjtiffin@yorku.ca):

President Mamdouh Shoukri,
Vice President Robert Tiffin,

I was shocked and appalled to learn that the student group, Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) was penalized for holding a demonstration on campus in solidarity with the students in Gaza. One would expect that an academic institution like York University would condemn the destruction of Palestinian academic institutions by the Israeli army. Instead, York University is banning protest, and penalizing students for demonstrating against such crimes.

It is a shame that an institution which is built on the principle of freedom of expression, and that the senior administration which is entrusted with upholding freedom of speech, are restricting speech and penalizing students engaged in legitimate protest. This reflects badly on York University’s reputation.

It seems that York University is bowing under the pressure by external pro-Israel advocacy groups who are working hard to silence any voice that supports the Palestinian cause. It is sad to see that the administration is not providing protection to the students expressing their views and feelings against Israel’s crimes.

I strongly urge you to reconsider your problematic position and cancel the fines. I also strongly urge you to uphold the principles of freedom of expression and academic freedom, and to allow students to express themselves freely without the influence of external pro-Israel lobbying groups. This is your duty even if you do not agree with views expressed.

Sincerely yours,

University of Ottawa Bans Israeli Apartheid Week Poster - Call to Action

2009-03-17T18:02:00.003-04:00

February 21, 2009

On February 20, 2009, the University of Ottawa became the second Ottawa administration to ban the posters of Israeli Apartheid Week 2009, following the lead of Carleton University in a blatant violation of free expression for students speaking out on human rights. Like Carleton
University's administration, the University of Ottawa's Communications Office used spurious "human rights" claims to ban the poster. The Communications Office's short communique to Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights reads:

"A poster from the campus group Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights has recently come to the attention of the Communications Office. All posters approved by the Communications Office must promote a campus culture where all members of the community can play a part in a
declaration of human rights recognizing the inherent dignity and equal rights of all students. Consequently, we will not place this particular poster on our campus billboards."

Please view the poster here:
http://www.apartheidweek.org/sites/apartheidweek.org/files/Israeli%20Apartheid%20Week%202009%20poster.jpg

This curt note notably fails to explain how the poster by noted cartoonist Carlos Latuff, depicting an Israeli attack helicopter (labeled "Israel") firing a missile at a Palestinian child (labeled
"Gaza"), does not "recognize the inherent dignity and equal rights of all students". In fact, the banning of the poster is a failure to recognize the dignity and equal rights of Palestinian students and those who seek to expose the violations of human rights of Palestinians.

The poster is symbolic but it also depicts a factual situation. 430 children were killed by the Israeli military in its latest attack on Gaza. It seems that according to a growing number of campus administrations, depicting these killings on a poster is some kind of human rights violation, while the killings themselves, or the bombing of a University in Gaza, are not (neither campus administration condemned the killings of civilians or the bombing of the Islamic University in Gaza).

In contrast to these campus administrations, the movement for Palestinian human rights is at the forefront of the struggle to recognize the inherent dignity and equal rights of all students, and indeed, all people. As the students at Carleton wrote when the poster was banned on their campus, "the campaign is proudly anti-racist, and founded on the principles of opposition to all forms of racism, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. It draws its inspiration from the global
campaign to end South African apartheid and is led by many of the same individuals who were at the forefront of that earlier struggle."

We present the same demands to the University of Ottawa as the students at Carleton University demanded of their administration:

1. Immediately lift the ban on the Israeli Apartheid Week poster and publicly apologize for the banning.
2. Explain, publicly and precisely, how the profound error of banning the poster was made and address how to prevent such violations from occurring in future.
3. Sponsor a full public debate--ensuring generous access to the entire university community--on the University of Ottawa's position on the proposed institutional boycott of Israeli academic institutions.
4. Appoint a university/community Commission to investigate the record of the University in relation to democratic discourse and equity around issues of Palestine solidarity.

We call on student organizations, social justice groups and concerned individuals around the world to support students at the University of Ottawa and the broader fight for freedom of expression.

Please take the following actions:
* Email/Fax/Call the President of the University of Ottawa, Allan Rock, demanding that he immediately restore the Charter rights of students and send a copy of your message of support to the Director of the Communications Office, Andree Dumulon. Please send a copy of your letter to sphr.uofo@gmail.com

Allan Rock: email president@uOttawa.ca, fax (613)562-5103, phone (613)562-5809
Director of communications: email adumulon@uOttawa.ca, phone
(613)562-5800 ext. 3150

Carleton U Administration Bans IAW Posters

2009-03-17T17:55:00.003-04:00

* Carleton University Administration violates free expression - bans and confiscates posters
* Write to Carleton University president to demand the restoration of student rights

February 18, 2009

On February 8, Students Against Israeli Apartheid at Carleton University put up 100 posters for "Israeli Apartheid Week", a series of lectures and public events that will occur on campuses in over 40 cities around the world. On February 9, these posters were taken down at the request of Carleton's Equity Services, under the rationale that the posters "could be seen to incite others
to infringe rights protected in the Ontario Human Rights code" and are "insensitive to the norms of civil discourse in a free and democratic society"

The poster was created by noted cartoonist Carlos Latuff and depicts a situation - a child being killed by aerial bombardment – that occurred over 430 times in Israel's latest attack on Gaza according to United Nations reports. We encourage everyone to view the poster: http://www.apartheidweek.org/sites/apartheidweek.org/files/Israeli%20Apartheid%20Week%202009%20poster.jpg.
Since it depicts a situation that has a factual basis and its intention is clearly to invite people to a lecture series, the notion that it is an incitement or a violation to norms of civil discourse is preposterous.

This is part of a wider pattern of repression of academic freedom and rights to free expression, especially on Israel/Palestine, on Canadian campuses, including Carleton University. It is accompanied by double standards. When 56 Carleton professors asked President Roseanne Runte to condemn Israel's bombardment of the Islamic University of Gaza, the President refused. Neither the direct killing of hundreds of children nor the direct bombing of a campus
are enough to elicit condemnation, but her administration has decided that a poster inviting people to discuss the conflict ought to be banned. Instead of being lauded by their university, students affirming the humanity of all peoples and the universality of international law have been threatened by Carleton University's Provost with expulsion.

The Carleton administration had already taken a biased political stand on the Israel-Palestine conflict, and is now violating free expression to prevent alternative views. Both the current and former Carleton Presidents have taken very clear positions on the Israel-Palestine conflict by condemning the academic boycott of Israel out of hand, offering no alternative to this justice-oriented civil-society initiative. Students and faculty at Carleton have requested that the administration hold a public debate on the issue, to allow the Carleton community to determine the most responsible course of action, yet have been repeatedly rebuffed.

Far from defending human rights, the Carleton administration is treating them with contempt. In a memo to students on February 12, the Provost wrote that "all reported incidents of racial or religious intolerance will be investigated vigorously and addressed regardless of the persons or groups involved." The administration should begin a vigorous investigation of its own behaviour,
including its discrimination against students who seek an open debate on a political issue but are being silenced because they happen to disagree with the president's stand.

That Carleton's administration is using human rights grounds to violate free expression on its campus is a double insult. Internationally, the movement against Israeli apartheid has been endorsed by hundreds of universities, unions, religious groups and social justice organizations. This campaign is proudly anti-racist, and founded on the principles of opposition to all forms
of racism, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. It draws its inspiration from the global campaign to end South African apartheid and is led by many of the same individuals who were at the forefront of that earlier struggle. By contrast, the administration that banned the poster could not summon enough concern for human rights or the right to education to speak against the bombing of a Gazan university.

SAIA Carleton demands that the Carleton University administration:

1. Immediately lift the ban on the Israeli Apartheid Week poster and publicly apologize for the banning.

2. Explain, publicly and precisely, how the profound error of banning the poster was made and address how to prevent such violations from occurring in future.

3. Sponsor a full public debate-- ensuring generous access to the entire university community-- on Carleton's position on the proposed institutional boycott of Israeli academic institutions.

4. Appoint a university/community Commission to investigate the record of the University in relation to democratic discourse and equity around issues of Palestine solidarity.

This attempt to repress free expression will ultimately fail. The Carleton University administration should understand that debates on campuses on some of the most important human rights questions of our times cannot be silenced by administrative rulings.

We call on student organizations, social justice groups and concerned individuals around the world to support students at Carleton and the broader fight for freedom of expression.

Please take the following actions:

* Immediately email the Carleton University President, Roseanne Runte, at presidents_office@carleton.ca demanding that she immediately restore the Charter rights of Carleton students and send a copy of your message of support to Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA Carleton) at saia.carleton@gmail.com

* Call or fax Carleton University President, Roseanne Runte, at 613 520-3801(phone) or 613 520-4474 (fax) demanding that she immediately restore the Charter rights of Carleton students.

Arab Canadians Call Upon Prime Minister Harper to Restrain Minister Jason Kenney

2009-03-17T17:01:00.003-04:00

Delegates of Arab organizations from across Canada meeting in Toronto on Sunday March 8 2009 stand in solidarity with, and express their support for, the Canadian Arab Federation and its leadership. The delegates categorically reject the baseless accusations against the Canadian Arab Federation (CAF) made by the Canadian Jewish Congress, B’nai Birth, the National Post and Jason Kenney; Minister of Citizenship and Immigration.

Arab Canadians are Semites and hail from various faiths, including Islam, Christianity, Judaism and other faiths. We oppose all forms of racism, including Islamophobia and anti-Semitism and enjoy strong allies in both the Muslim, Christian and Jewish communities. We are apprehensive about the threats made by Minister Kenney to withhold funds from CAF’s settlement services. We are deeply concerned that the inflammatory remarks made by Mr. Jason Kenney, both in Canada and overseas, are creating a wedge in Canadian society and have inflamed a campaign to marginalize and demonize the already targeted Arab and Muslim Canadian communities. These stereotypes against the Arab and Muslim communities is being propagated on several websites and through countless media outlets on a daily basis.

These escalating campaigns cannot be simply in response to an unfortunate use of language by CAF’s President who quoted Jewish American author Dr. Norman Finkelstein and described the Minister as a “professional whore who supports war.” The campaign of intimidation launched by the Israeli lobby and their supporters is seeking to delegitimize Arab Canadian institutions, services, access to public funds and to silence all critics of Israel - following its war on Gaza that resulted in the death of 418 children and 108 women - by equating such criticism with anti-Semitism being anti-Semitic. Besides CAF, the campaign has targeted prominent Jewish Canadians such as Naomi Klein and Judy Rebick, and CUPE Ontario, CUPW, the Canadian Federation of Students of Ontario and student organizations on campuses across Canada. We are dismayed by:

• attacks against unions who have a history of democratic practice;
• threats to withhold private donor funds from those academic institutions that uphold the principles of open political debate and freedom of expression for all their students
• the rise in racist attacks against Arab and Muslim students and other racialized groups on campuses.

We call upon Prime Minister Harper to restrain his Minister of Citizenship and Immigration and to put an end to his dangerous campaign of attacking CAF with slanderous and damaging accusations for which he has provided no evidence. It is time that we put this incident behind us and unite in serving those in need, which CAF has done and continues to do, and safeguarding the rights of all communities to live in a safe and non-discriminatory environment.

• Ahlul Bayt Centre – Ottawa
• Al-Huda Lebanese Muslim Society
• Al-Nahda Social and Cultural Club
• Association of Palestinian Arab Canadians – Ottawa
• Canada Palestine Association – Vancouver
• Canadian Algerian Foundation of Quebec
• Canadian Arab Society of London
• Canadian Druze Society – Toronto
• Canadian Lebanese for Dialogue
• Canadian Muslim Forum – Montreal
• Canadian Palestinian Foundation of Quebec
• Centre R D International Blossom
• Coalition of Canadian Arab Professional and Community Associations - Ottawa
• El-Hidaya Association – Montreal
• Hamilton Palestinian Association
• Iraqi Canadian Society of Ontario
• Moroccan Association of Ontario
• Moroccan Association of Toronto
• Niagara Palestinian Association
• Palestine House
• Palestinian Association of Brantford
• Palestinian Solidarity – Montreal
• Somali Canadian Diaspora Alliance

 For more information, please contact:
Mohamed Boudjenane at 416-889-6764

Click HERE for a CAF Backgrounder on Jason Kenney

Click HERE for 'Memo to Minister Kenney: Criticism of Israel is not anti-Semitism'
By Judy Rebick and Alan Sears

CUPE Ontario Passes Historic Academic Boycott Resolution

2009-03-17T16:47:00.002-04:00

Subject: *URGENT* CUPE ON needs your support!

CUPE Needs Your Solidarity for Bravely Standing in Support of Palestinian Academics

Find below:
* Text of the two historic resolutions;
* Concrete ways to show your support.

Toronto, February 23, 2009 - The Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) congratulates CUPE-Ontario’s University Workers Coordinating Committee (OUWCC) conference in Windsor for passing a historic resolution in support of the Palestinian civil society call for an academic institutional boycott of Israel. The resolution calls for education and research into institutional
links between Israeli and Canadian Universities that serve to perpetuate apartheid.

An additional emergency resolution was adopted by the OUWCC to protest the violation of free speech and forms of bureaucratic repression that are increasingly targeting Palestine-solidarity organizations and student advocates at several University campuses in Ontario.

Both motions are enormously important as they offer concrete support for academic freedom in Palestine and in Canada. As expected, supporters of Israeli apartheid and militarism are incensed by these resolutions.

Despite the mounting campaign of intimidation launched by pro-apartheid organizations and individuals against CUPE Ontario as a response to these resolutions - including death threats against CUPE Ontario members and their families - the union has stood firm in its commitment to freedom of expression and international solidarity.

Now it is time to show your support for CUPE! Here’s how:

(1) Please send letters of support to CUPE ON president Sid Ryan and the OUWCC committee Chair, Janice Folk-Dawson to cupeont@web.net or fax to 416 299 3480 thanking them for their strong stand in support of Palestinian Human rights (see form letter below for a template you can use to write these letters, though we always like to see people use their creativity and write
their own!).

(2) Write to your local paper in support of CUPE-Ontario’s position. You can use Google News to track the story: http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=CUPE+boycott&btnG=Search+News. Also be sure to post online comments in support of CUPE-Ontario wherever the opportunity arises.

(3) Familiarize yourself with the resolutions pasted below and with CUPE-Ontario’s positions. Forward this message and the following link to co-workers, colleagues, friends, allies, partners, relatives, family, and community members: http://www.cupe.on.ca/doc.php?subject_id=152&lang=en and urge them to write in support of CUPE-Ontario.

(4) Write to the administrations of Carleton University (contact information at bottom of
http://www2.carleton.ca/about/administrative/president.php), York University (http://vpacademic.yorku.ca/directory/findadm.php?id=1001) and the University of Toronto
(http://www.president.utoronto.ca/officeofthepresident.htm) to register your disagreement with their systematic silencing of pro-Palestinian, pro-human-rights and anti-apartheid voices in Ontario. For specific information on the Free Speech Campaign, visit: http://www.caiaweb.org/.

SAMPLE LETTER TO CUPE-ONTARIO:

Dear Sid and Janice:

I am writing to express my gratitude to the both of you for the incredibly important position you’ve taken in support of human rights in the Middle East. I am especially thankful that you have done so in support of academic freedom for Palestinians and their supporters in both Israel/Palestine and here in Canada as well.

As you know, the Palestinian people are facing an unprecedented attack on their ability to learn and teach. In short, their fundamental rights to education are being violated on a daily basis by Israel’s racist apartheid regime. By affiliating to the Right to Education Campaign, CUPE-Ontario has taken an important step forward in ensuring that Palestinian children have hope for the future – that perhaps someday soon they will be able to go to school without
fear of checkpoints, arrests, beatings, or worse.

Furthermore, Israeli academic institutions are often complicit in the oppression of Palestinians. They are deeply integrated into Israel’s military-industrial complex and in the production of studies central to the perpetuation of apartheid over Palestinians. It is important to recognize that brave voices within Israel –both Jewish and Palestinian – have supported the call for a boycott. This is because these voices, those most committed to peace in the region, understand that war and occupation will not end until the institutions complicit in violations of international law are held to account.

Once again, I would like to applaud you for taking the lead in promoting a peaceful way forward in ensuring that justice in the region is achieved. CUPE-Ontario does not stand alone, as the recent global wave of actions in support of the Palestinian campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israeli apartheid demonstrates. Keep up the amazing work. Millions are
standing with you.

Regards,

______________________

*** TEXT OF THE TWO RESOLUTIONS THAT PASSED ***

MOTION 1

The OUWCC will:
1. Affiliate to the RIGHT TO EDUCATION campaign at Birzeit University to defend the right of Palestinian students to have access to education and educational institutions in the Palestinian territory, and seek to raise awareness about the issues facing Palestinian education, students and
teachers under Israeli military occupation, and further that it will encourage member locals to affiliate to the Right to Education campaign

2. Encourage its member locals to hold public forums to discuss an academic boycott of Israeli academic institutions, and

3. Ask campus representatives to work with locals to investigate both research and investment links between Ontario Universities and the state of Israel's military, and

4. Mobilize campus allies to pressure universities from engaging in acts of cooperation that assist and aid military research at the institutional level with Israeli universities;

5. Work with campus and community allies to pressure Ontario universities to refuse collaborations, corporate partnerships and investments that would benefit, either directly or indirectly, military research or the Israeli state military;

6. Request funding and support from CUPE Ontario to conduct an education campaign on the academic boycott, coordinate education sessions and assist in the implementation of resolution 50 as passed in 2006

Because, in response to a call from Palestinian civil society and trade unions, CUPE Ontario's Resolution 50 (in 2006) calls upon the Union and its locals to support boycotts, divestments and sanctions (BDS) of the state of Israel, so long as that state continues to occupy Palestinian
territory and refuses to respect and uphold international law and covenants, and

Because the latest Israeli attack on Gaza killed over 1300 people, wounded thousands, and destroyed hospitals, schools, roads, power plants, sewage and water infrastructure, and thousands of civilian homes, and as a direct consequence of the attacks by the Israeli military, the Gazan education system has been unable to function, and

Because Israel's direct bombing of universities and schools and its years-long blockade forbidding educational supplies, fuel and other basic necessities, or movement of people including students and teachers, has brought about the collapse of the education system in Gaza, and Because all three major Palestinian trade union federations are signatories of the Palestinian Civil Society for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions call including: The General Union of Palestinian Workers, PGFTU, and the Federation of Independent Unions.

MOTION 2

Because campus administrators have taken actions that seek to limit free speech and repress public discussions and campus dialogue about the occupation of Palestine.

Because students, staff and faculty members have been threatened with punitive measures for speaking out or organizing events against the state of Israel and have placed obstacles that prevent/limit public debate on campus.

The OUWCC shall;

1. Issue a public statement about our support for free speech on campus and the right of students and campus workers to speak out and organize events that support Palestine and bring awareness to the occupation.

2. Locals of the OUWCC be encouraged to write letters to the administrations of Carleton, Ottawa, York and the University of Toronto to protest the silencing and repression of public debate on campus.

Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario Affiliates to Right to Education Campaign

2009-03-17T16:38:00.003-04:00

January 2009

The Canadian Federation of Students (Ontario Division) passed the following motion, affiliating the CFS-Ontario to the Right to Education Campaign.

The R2E campaign raises awareness about the conditions that students and academic workers learn and teach under in Palestine. You can learn more about it at http://right2edu.birzeit.edu

MOTION

Local 68/Local 24

Whereas the Federation works to defend the basic human right to an accessible system of post secondary education for all, regardless of race, colour, creed, sexual orientation, ability, class status, nationality, place of origin , or personal or political beliefs

Whereas on the 27th of December, 2008, the Israeli state launched a massive military attack against Gaza, code-named "Operation Cast Lead," and as of January 19, 2009, over 1200 Palestinians had been killed and infrastructure including hospitals, schools and civilian homes had been destroyed; and

Whereas the state of Israel's military has attacked educational institutions in Gaza including:

- on December 27, 2008 an air missile hit the Gaza Training Centre in downtown Gaza City killing 8 students and wounding 19;

- on December 29, 2008 an F-16 fighter plane bombed the Science Laboratory and Library of the Islamic University in Gaza, just a few hours before some of its 20,000 students were to enter the campus to conduct exams;

- on January 3, 2009 a jet levelled the private 'progressive' American school in Gaza, killing its security guard and denying some 200 students their education for the foreseeable future;

- Later the same day, the Agricultural School in Beit Hanoun was damaged by 4 artillery shells; and

- 4 more schools were damaged throughout the Strip; and

Whereas as a direct consequence of the ongoing attacks by the Israeli military, the Gazan education system has been unable to function for the last three weeks; and

Whereas 27 of UNRWA's installations - almost all of which are schools - are being used to shelter 45,000 desperate Gazans who have fled their homes in response to ultimatums by the Israeli army; and

Whereas this recent attack is the single largest massacre in Gaza since Israel illegally occupied the area in 1967, and despite the current cease fire, Israel's current occupation of Palestine and siege on Gaza has dramatic negative implications on how Palestinian youth and their families
access basic human rights including, but not limited to, clean water, food, health care and education; and

Whereas this humanitarian crisis requires an international call from students to demand that we work towards building an environment free of systemic societal oppression including one that is free of military occupation and war; therefore

Be it resolved that a public statement be issued by the Federation condemning the Israeli attacks on civilian and humanitarian targets in Gaza that have lead to the bombing and mass destruction of educational institutions and caused over 1,200 civilian deaths, over 4,000 casualties and the severe erosion of infrastructure; and

Be it further resolved that member locals be encouraged to do the same; and

Be it further resolved that the Canadian government be called upon to pressure the government of Israel to adhere to its international legal obligations to end attacks on civilian infrastructure and to allow unimpeded access for all Palestinians to their educational institutions; and

Be it further resolved that member locals be encouraged to do the same; and

Be it further resolved that Human Rights Watch's call for an unbiased, independent investigation of human rights violations and any violations of the Geneva conventions occurring during the conflict be supported; and

Be it further resolved that the Federation affiliate to the RIGHT TO EDUCATION campaign to defend the right of Palestinian students to access education and educational institutions in the Palestinian territory, and seek to raise awareness about the issues facing Palestinian education, students and teachers under Israeli military occupation; and

Be it further resolved that undertake campaign efforts around the RIGHT TO EDUCATION which should include information on the need to protect and ensure access to education for all students in Palestine and such things as: a reprinting of the education not occupation button and /or a sticker design, fact sheets and/or information on the need to protect and ensure access to
education for all students in Palestine and any student living under war and/or occupation.

Hampshire College Divests from Israeli Apartheid

2009-03-17T16:30:00.005-04:00

From: http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/301

Hampshire College in Amherst, MA, has become the first of any college or university in the U.S. to divest from companies on the grounds of their involvement in the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

This landmark move is a direct result of a two-year intensive campaign by the campus group, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). The group pressured Hampshire College's Board of Trustees to divest from six specific companies due to human rights concerns in occupied Palestine. Over 800 students, professors, and alumni have signed SJP's 'institutional statement' calling for the divestment.

The proposal put forth by SJP was approved on Saturday, 7 Feb 2009 by the Board. By divesting from these companies, SJP believes that Hampshire has distanced itself from complicity in the illegal occupation and war crimes of Israel.

Meeting minutes from a committee of Hampshire's Board of Trustees confirm that 'President Hexter acknowledged that it was the good work of SJP that brought this issue to the attention of the committee.' This groundbreaking decision follows in Hampshire's history of being the first college in the country to divest from apartheid South Africa thirty-two years ago, a decision based on similar human rights concerns. This divestment was also a direct result of student pressure.

The divestment has so far been endorsed by Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Rashid Khalidi, Vice President of the EU Parliament Luisa Morganitini, Cynthia McKinney, former member of the African National Congress Ronnie Kasrils, Mustafa Barghouti, Israeli historian Ilan Pappe, John Berger, Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire, and Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, among others.

The six corporations, all of which provide the Israeli military with equipment and services in the Occupied West Bank and Gaza are: Caterpillar, United Technologies, General Electric, ITT Corporation, Motorola, and Terex (see attached info sheet for more information on these corporations.) Furthermore, our policy prevents the reinvestment in any company involved in the illegal occupation.

SJP is responding to a call from Palestinian civil society for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) as a way of bringing non-violent pressure to bear on the state of Israel to end its violations of international law. SJP is following in the footsteps of many noted groups and institutions such as the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education in the UK, the Israeli group Gush Shalom, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, and the American Friends Service Committee.

As well as voicing our opposition to the illegal occupation and the consistent human rights violations of the Palestinian people, we as members of an institute of higher education see it as our moral responsibility to express our solidarity with Palestinian students whose access to education is severely inhibited by the Israeli occupation.

SJP has proven that student groups can organize, rally and pressure their schools to divest from the illegal occupation. The group hopes that this decision will pave the way for other institutions of higher learning in the U.S. to take similar stands.

For More Information:

http://bdsmovement.net/files/PressKit-Hampshire_College_Divestment.pdf

http://www.hsjp.org/

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/641/t/2439/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26737

South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU) Refuses to offload a ship coming from Israel to South Africa

2009-03-17T16:22:00.002-04:00

CAIA Message of Support and Solidarity
To: South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU)
For: Refusing to offload a ship coming from Israel to South Africa carrying Israeli Goods.

The Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) in Canada commends the members of the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU) in Durban for making history by being the first group of workers to refuse to offload a ship coming from Israel and carrying Israeli goods (statement from union and South African Solidarity Organizations below). This act is not surprising. As workers who have lived under apartheid in South Africa, they understand the miseries of apartheid and the importance of international solidarity work in the struggle against apartheid regimes. In doing so, the workers are taking a strong position, refusing to accept racism, oppression and apartheid as acceptable norms. Today, South Africa is leading the world in the struggle against Israeli apartheid, and giving a clear message, that unless Israel ends
the apartheid system it imposes on the Palestinian people, it will be boycotted by the rest of the world.

This act comes at a time when Israel has increased the level and intensity of its crimes against the Palestinian people in Gaza. The brave South African workers are showing the world that Israel should, and could be held accountable for its crimes. At the time when the UN and the “international community” have repeatedly letdown the Palestinians, the South African workers have shown everyone that it is not only up to the governments, but also individuals, groups and unions and have the power to hold Israel to account.

This act is part of the growing Boycotts Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel that was called for by 171 Palestinian civil society organizations in 2005. This campaign was inspired by the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, and today, South Africans are inspiring the world again by making breakthroughs in the Palestinian BDS campaign. Members of SATAWU are not alone in this struggle. In the past month alone, a number of unions from different parts of the world, including Australia, New Zealand and Norway joined the struggle against Israeli apartheid by adopting the BDS campaign. In Canada, two major labour unions have joined the BDS campaign. In 2006 the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario decided to adopt the campaign, and in 2008 the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) joined the campaign.

The Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) is a Palestine solidarity organization based in Toronto (Canada) and is part of a growing global movement against Israeli apartheid. CAIA was formed in January 2006 and is active in different levels including among students, faculty, labor unions and high schools. For more details, please visit the website www.caiaweb.org or send an
email to endapartheid@riseup.net.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Statement from South Africa

FREE PALESTINE! ISOLATE APARTHEID ISRAEL!

COSATU and PSC launch Week of Action for Palestine supported by YCL and other progressive organisations

Media Conference, COSATU House, 3 February 2009, 11am

In a historic development for South Africa, South African dock workers have announced their determination not to offload a ship from Israel that is scheduled to dock in Durban on Sunday, 8 February 2009. This follows the decision by COSATU to strengthen the campaign in South Africa for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Apartheid Israel.

The pledge by SATAWU members in Durban reflects the commitment by South African workers to refuse to support oppression and exploitation across the globe. Last year, Durban dock workers had refused to offload a shipment of arms that had arrived from China and was destined for Zimbabwe to prop up the Mugabe regime and to intensify the repression against the Zimbabwean people. Now, says SATAWU’s General Secretary Randall Howard, the union’s members are committing themselves to not handling Israeli goods.

SATAWU’s action on Sunday will be part of a proud history of worker resistance against apartheid. In 1963, just four years after the Anti-Apartheid Movement was formed, Danish dock workers refused to offload a ship with South African goods. When the ship docked in Sweden, Swedish workers followed suit. Dock workers in Liverpool and, later, in the San Francisco Bay Area also refused to offload South African goods. South Africans, and the South African working class in particular, will remain forever grateful to those workers who determinedly opposed apartheid and decided that they would support the anti-apartheid struggle with their actions.

Last week, Western Australian members of the Maritime Union of Australia resolved to support the campaign for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel, and have called for a boycott of all Israeli vessels and all vessels bearing goods arriving from or going to Israel.

This is the legacy and the tradition that South African dock workers have inherited, and it is a legacy they are determined to honour, by ensuring that South African ports of entry will not be used as transit points for goods bound for or emanating from certain dictatorial and oppressive states such as Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Israel.

COSATU, the Palestine Solidarity Committee, the Young Communist League and a range of other organisations salute the principled position taken by these workers. We also take this opportunity to salute the millions of workers all over the world who have openly condemned and taken decisive steps to isolate apartheid Israel, a step that should send shockwaves to its arrogant patrons in the United States who foot the bill for Israel’s killing machine. We call on
other workers and unions to follow suit and to do all that is necessary to ensure that they boycott all goods to and from Israel until Palestine is free.

We also welcome statements by various South African Jews of conscience who have dissociated themselves from the genocide in Gaza. We call on all South Africans to ensure that none of our family members are allowed to join the Israeli Occupation Forces’ killing machine.

In celebration of the actions of SATAWU members with regard to the ship from Israel, and in pursuance of the campaign for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel, and our call on the South African government to sever diplomatic and trade relations with Israel, this coalition of organisations has declared a week of action beginning on Friday, 6 February 2009. The actions will be organised under the theme:

FREE PALESTINE! ISOLATE APARTHEID ISRAEL!

Jewish Women Occupy Israeli Consulate in Toronto

2009-03-17T16:00:00.003-04:00

January 7, 2009 - Toronto, ON

A group of 8 Jewish–Canadian women successfully occupied the Israeli Consulate in Toronto today. They were arrested, held in a police wagon for about an hour and then released with no charges. Despite some physical violence on the part of the Israeli Consulate security staff, the protesters left uninjured. At least 50 supporters rallied outside the consulate in a show of solidarity. The action was in protest against the on-going Israeli assault on the people of Gaza.

Most of the women had never been arrested before. "We felt so strongly about protesting this terrible violence against the Palestinian people" said Smadar Carmon, "that we decided to take extraordinary action. We hope others, Jews and non-Jews will follow our lead and speak out against the Israeli massacres, the on-going siege and in solidarity with the people of Gaza."

The group carried out this occupation in solidarity with the 1.5 million people of Gaza and to ensure that Jewish voices against the massacre in Gaza are being heard. They entered the consulate to demand that Israel end its military assault and lift the 18-month siege on the Gaza Strip to allow humanitarian aid into the territory. The occupation was peaceful, but disrupted the work of the consul for the day.

Israel has been carrying out a full-scale military assault on the Gaza Strip since December 27, 2008. At least 700 people have been killed and over 3000 injured in the air strikes and ground invasion that began on January 3, 2009. Yesterday, the Israeli army attacked a UN school, killing at least 30 people, including several children. Israel has ignored international calls for a ceasefire and is refusing to allow food, medical supplies and other necessities of life into the Gaza Strip.

Protesters and their supporters are outraged at Israel's latest assault on the Palestinian people and by the Canadian government's refusal to condemn these massacres. They are deeply concerned that Canadians are hearing the views of pro-Israel groups who are being represented as the only voice of Jewish Canadians. The protesters occupied the consulate to send a clear statement that many Jewish-Canadians do not support Israel and its violence and apartheid policies. They join with people of conscience across the world who are demanding an end to Israeli aggression and justice for the Palestinian people.

'Jafa - A Bulletin in Solidarity with Palestinian Workers and Unions'

2009-03-17T15:55:00.002-04:00

Labour for Palestine is proud to launch:

-------------------------------------------------------
'Jafa - A Bulletin in Solidarity with Palestinian Workers and Unions'
--------------------------------------------------------

** available for download at www.caiaweb.org/labourcommittee **

As an initiative coming out of the first Labour for Palestine conference, held in Toronto May-June 2008, we are pleased to bring you the first issue of 'Jafa: A Bulletin in Solidarity with Palestinian Workers and Unions'.

Jafa will be published quarterly and aims to bring together news and analysis on the situation of Palestinian workers and unions wherever they are - in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, citizens of Israel, refugee camps and across the diaspora.

We stand in solidarity with the 2005 call from Palestine for a campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israeli Apartheid. This call was signed by all major Palestinian trade union
federations, including the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions.

Jafa takes its name from the Arabic acronym for the Palestinian Arab Workers Society (Jame'yat Alomal Al Falestiniya Alarabiya), the first Palestinian labour federation founded in Haifa in on March 21, 1925. As part of our mandate, we hope to help in the rediscovery of the history of Palestinian trade unionism and workers struggles in the region.

The first issue includes articles on the deaths and harassment of Palestinian workers in the West Bank, Palestinian date-pickers in the Jordan Valley, the Palestinian Reform and Development Plan, and updates on solidarity initiatives globally.

We encourage you to download Jafa at www.caiaweb.org and take copies to labour events, union offices and your workplace. Bulk hard copies can be ordered for a small cost from labour@caiaweb.org

We also encourage submissions, letters from rank-and-file workers and unionists across the globe.

In solidarity
Labour for Palestine, Toronto
labour@caiaweb.org

Petition for the Creation of a Special Tribunal to try Israeli War Criminals

2009-01-22T11:39:00.001-05:00

Please Sign Petition for the Creation of a Special Tribunal to try Israeli War Criminals

http://www.petitiononline.com:80/EAFORD09/petition.html

THE INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR THE ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION (EAFORD)

5 route des Morillons, CP 2100. 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland

Telephone: (022) 788.62.33 Fax: (022) 788.62.45 e-mail: info@eaford.org

www.eaford.org

PLEASE SIGN PETITION

To President and Member States of UN General Assembly

The Creation of a Special Tribunal to try Israeli War Criminals

Israeli TV Broadcast

2009-01-22T11:23:00.006-05:00

The videos posted, show the effects of indiscriminate firing by the Israeli Defense Forces. The home of a doctor, working in the Gaza Strip as medical aid and informant/reporter for an Israeli Television station, was bombed, killing his daughters and fatally injuring other family members. This was aired on Israeli Television.

Here are two links to the story:

Letter to President Patterson

2009-01-16T15:59:00.003-05:00

Below is a letter addressed to Trent University President, Bonnie Patterson, asking her to take an active stance against the hostilities in Gaza. We urge you to sign and forward this petition to President Patterson.

Sincerely,
Peterborough Coalition for Palestinian Solidarity (PCPS)

President Bonnie M. Patterson
Trent University
Suite 107, Bata Library
1600 West Bank Drive
Peterborough, ON, K9J 7B8

Dear President Patterson,

On Monday 29 December 2008, the Israeli Air Force bombed the Gaza City Islamic University in the Gaza Strip, as part of its ongoing assault on the Palestinian people. The death toll has reached over one thousand with over four thousand wounded. This comes in addition to the killing of 40 students in an UNRWA run school in the Gaza Strip. Before the beginning of this offensive, Israel kept the Gaza Strip under siege since March 2006. As part of this siege, many Palestinian students were not allowed to leave the Gaza Strip to pursue higher education in academic institutions. They were not even allowed to travel to the West Bank, which is also part of the Palestinian territory under Israeli occupation since 1967.

Israel's deliberate attack on the Gaza City Islamic University is a violation of International Humanitarian Law and should be condemned as a war crime. The destruction of the university punishes students in Gaza by infringing on their right to freely pursue a higher education. The administration at Trent University has remained silent in light of these Israeli attacks against students. The university claims that it stands for academic freedom and the pursuit of a higher education, and therefore we demand that Trent University condemn the Israeli attacks against Palestinian academic institutions.

The autonomy of the university and academic freedom are values that Trent University cherishes most and stands behind unequivocally. Due to the systematic targeting of Palestinian students and universities by the Israeli army, the Trent Community calls on the university to join them in publicly condemning the attacks on universities and students, and issue a statement upholding the principles that Trent University stands behind with regard to Palestinian students and Palestinian academic institutions.

We also call on Trent University to show its solidarity with Gaza by respecting the call from the Palestinian Association of University Teachers in Gaza to sever institutional ties with Israeli academic institutions. Answering this call, which comes from behind the Israeli imposed siege, and from the ruins of the Islamic University, is the most symbolic act of solidarity that any university that values human life and that stands behind universal principles of peace and human dignity, could do.

Sincerely,

Letter to Local MP

2009-01-16T15:54:00.005-05:00

Here is a copy of a letter drafted by PCPS. We would like you to sign and forward this letter to your MP, asking him and the Canadian Government to take an active stance against the atrocities in Gaza.

Sincerely,
Peterborough Coalition for Palestinian Solidarity (PCPS)

Dean Del Mastro
1840 Lansdowne Street West
P.O. Box 21030
Peterborough, Ontario
K9J 8M7
Canada

Dear Mr. Del Mastro,
As a member of the Peterborough community, I would like to express my condemnation of Israel's attack on Gaza. With over one thousand Palestinians dead, including over 300 children, and over 5000 wounded, your constituency calls on the Canadian government to demand an immediate cessation of Israeli hostilities.

As per the position of UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Palestine, Richard Falk, the attack constitutes a war crime in that it is completely disproportionate to the threat posed, and violates international humanitarian law on at least three grounds: Collective punishment, Targeting Civilians, Disproportionate military response. Israel's latest assault on Gaza has been devastating and it is now facing a “full-blown humanitarian crisis,” according to the International Red Cross - in stark contrast to repeated Israeli claims to the contrary and this government’s endorsement of that position. In recent days, a UN-run elementary school where civilians had been sheltering, Red Cross ambulances, and a UN aid convey have all come under Israeli fire. As a result of the repeated Israeli attacks, John Ging, the head of the U.N. mission has been forced to stop all further aid deliveries in Gaza and stated "we are abandoning 750,000 people. We need the world to do something."

We call on the Canadian government to implement sanctions against the
Israeli government until it ceases its attack against the people of Gaza and fully complies with international law. As our elected federal representative, we demand that you take this position to your governing party.

Sincerely,

Demonstrate Against the Israeli Assault on Gaza! LIFT THE SEIGE!

2009-01-12T12:59:00.001-05:00

Demonstrate Against the Israeli Assault on Gaza! LIFT THE SEIGE!

When: Saturday, January 17, 2009 Time: 12:00 p.m.
Where: City Hall, 500 George Street, Peterborough

As the Israeli ground, air and sea assault continues on the civilian population
of Gaza – we need to continue mobilizing against these war crimes. At least
800 Palestinians have been killed and thousands injured in the single largest
massacre in Gaza since Israel illegally occupied the area in 1967.

These latest war crimes occur in the context of official Canadian complicity
with Israel 's illegal siege, bombardment and starvation of the civilian
population in Gaza . We must denounce this on-going support - including the
intensification of bilateral military, political and economic links between
Canada and Israel . Palestinian civil society continues to urge solidarity in
the form of a boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign until Israel complies
with international law. This is the time for people of conscience to take up
this call from Palestine.

On January 3rd, over 10,000 people rallied in Toronto in the largest Palestine
solidarity demonstration in decades. This coming Saturday, millions of people
across the globe will return to the streets in internationally coordinated
demonstrations against the Israeli onslaught.

Join us this Saturday to demand that the Canadian government call for an
immediate halt to Israel 's attacks and an end to the siege of Gaza!

Demonstration Endorsed By:
Peterborough Coalition for Palestinian Solidarity (PCPS)
Peterborough Coalition Against Poverty (PCAP)
Decolonization & Anti-Racism Coalition (DARC)
Trent Active Minds
Transmission
Ontario Public Interest Research Group - Peterborough (OPIRG)
Trent University Native Association (TUNA)
Trent Women's Centre
Trent Queer Collective (TQC)
Zatoun
CUPE Local 3908

For more information, contact:
peterboroughcps@gmail.com
darcpeterborough@riseup.net

This Saturday in Toronto: Demonstration and Teach-In

2009-01-06T12:39:00.001-05:00

**please forward far and wide**

1) DEMONSTRATE AGAINST THE ISRAELI ASSAULT ON GAZA! LIFT THE SIEGE!

*WHEN: 11am Saturday January 10, 2009
*WHERE: Israeli Consulate, 180 Bloor St West, Toronto.

As the Israeli ground, air and sea assault continues on the civilian population
of Gaza – we need to continue mobilizing against these war crimes.

At least 540 Palestinians have been killed and thousands injured in the single
largest massacre in Gaza since Israel illegally occupied the area in 1967.

These latest war crimes occur in the context of official Canadian complicity
with Israel's illegal siege, bombardment and starvation of the civilian
population in Gaza. We must denounce this on-going support - including the
intensification of bilateral military, political and economic links between
Canada and Israel. Palestinian civil society continues to urge solidarity in
the form of a boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign until Israel complies
with international law. This is the time for people of conscience to take up
this call from Palestine.

Last Saturday, over 10,000 people rallied in Toronto in the largest Palestine
solidarity demonstration in decades. This coming Saturday, millions of people
across the globe will return to the streets in internationally coordinated
demonstrations against the Israeli onslaught.

Join us this Saturday to demand that the Canadian government call for an
immediate halt to Israel's attacks and an end to the siege of Gaza!

CONTACT:
Palestine House
info@palestinehouse.com

Demonstration Organized By:

Palestine House
Canadian Arab Federation
Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid
Canadian Union of Public Employee (Ontario)
Canadian Union of Postal Workers
Steel Workers – Toronto Area Council
Canadian Peace Alliance
Toronto Coalition to Stop the War
Not in Our Name – Jewish Voices Opposing Zionism
International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network Toronto
Indpendent Jewish Voices
Yosher – Jewish Social Justice Network
Women In Solidarity with Palestine
Muslim Unity
Educators for Peace and Justice
Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East
Near East Cultural and Educational Foundation
Canadian Forum for Justice and Peace in Sri Lanka
Muslim Association of Hamilton
Canadian Druze Society
Canadian Syrian Cultural Club
Al Huda
Canadian Shia Muslims Organization
Worker to Worker Canada Cuba Solidarity Network
Somali Canadian Diaspora Alliance
Science for Peace
Bayan – Canada
Bengali Student Association
McMaster Muslims for Peace and Justice
Arab Students Association at Ryerson University

Please send further organizational endorsements to: info@palestinehouse.com

********************************************************************************
Followed by:

Free Gaza: A Teach-In
Saturday, January 10
1:00-5:30 pm
United Steelworkers Hall

25 Cecil Street (1 block south of College, 2 blocks east of Spadina)

1:30-2:30 Workshops: The Crisis in Gaza - History and Context
· Israel, Gaza and the War on Terror
· Gaza, Israeli Apartheid and the Political Economy of the Middle East
· Canada's Complicity, Zionism and Islamophobia
· Media Mythology: "Rebranding" Israel, and Covering the War

3:00-4:00 Gaza: the Humanitarian Crisis

4:15-5:30 Building Solidarity: Next Steps
Register Now: E-mail your name, with subject "Free Gaza Teach-in", to:
faculty@caiaweb.org

(Pay what you can at the door - $5-50 suggested)
Followed by Free Gaza Fundraiser, with DJ No Capitalista
Venue: TBA 8:00 pm

Organized by Palestine House, Canadian Arab Federation and the Coalition Against
Israeli Apartheid

Info: www.palestinehouse.com

Two new statements from Palestine calling for BDS

2009-01-06T12:37:00.000-05:00

WE ARE ALL GAZANS:
A message from
The Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions

Sisters and brothers:

The PGFTU has been working at all levels in Palestine and in its
international relations to mobilize international support for peace in the
region. This is the ultimate goal for our working families in Palestine,
who labored in every way possible to bring about an end to the Israeli
occupation of all Palestinian territories. This occupation is the longest
and worst in the modern history.

Over the years and even at this moment, these efforts have been met only
with terrorism against our people by the Israeli army of occupation, which
has indiscriminately destroyed homes and worksites, slaughtered our
people, confiscated our land, established and expanded illegal
settlements, and limited the movement of workers who are only trying to
feed their families. These measures have affected every member of the
Palestinian society.

The recent construction of the Apartheid Wall stands as a symbol of the
extent of Israel's brutal aggression against the Palestinian people and
denial of their legitimate rights, dignity and human needs.

We call upon all peace-loving people in the world:

You are now witness to the criminal aggression by the Israeli army in its
offensive in the Gaza Strip, bringing a new wave of killings and massacres
against the Palestinian people by Israel as the occupying state. These are
war crimes according to international humanitarian law and the Geneva
Conventions.

As our families in Gaza (the poorest in the middle East) are being
slaughtered nonstop for a week now, many of us are reliving what occurred
in the summer of 2006 during the Israeli aggression against the people of
Lebanon.

We witnessed then as we experience now waves of support and solidarity and
similar anger and energy against this brutal injustice. We cannot afford
to let this surge of support pass us by without utilizing the moment to
build our movement to face future challenges. The most important thing is
to be aware and equipped.

· We urgently ask you and your sister labor organizations to help us
spread the message that " WE ARE ALL GAZA" – that this war is against all
poor workers and families of the world. These are not just crimes against
the people of Palestine. They are crimes against humanity.

· Help us create a strong voice for the working families of Gaza by
building coalitions with unions, faith groups, antiwar movements and all
social justice organizations.

· We join you in the hope that in the election of Barack Obama, he will
fulfill his reputation as a pro-union antiwar candidate, and that he
understands that the CHANGE he spoke about during the campaign must
include a fundamental change in U.S foreign policy so that "FREE GAZA.
…FREE PALESTINE" becomes more than just a slogan.

We support and encourage your Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS)
efforts against Israel around the world, but especially in Europe and most
particularly in the United States as a response to the harsh economic
conditions, violations of labor and human rights, and other forms of
oppression imposed by the illegal and immoral Israeli Apartheid
occupation.

We ask you to stop U.S aid to Israel. This becomes not only necessary but
also a duty of international solidarity among labor unions around the
world. It is U.S. government aid that provides Israel with the weapons of
oppression and U.S. government support that enables them to use those
weapons against our people.

We ask you to be an active player in raising funds to meet the bare
necessities of food, medicine and medical supplies for the people of Gaza.

With your solidarity with our struggle for human rights and justice, we
can transform this moment of crisis into a turning point for an end to the
brutal occupation and a step toward the liberation of the people of
Palestine.

With the will and determination of all the people, we can say "FREE
PALESTINE … YES WE CAN.

Manawell Abdel Al
Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU)
"The Palestine General Federation of Trade Union" is an independent
democratic labor union Federation. It enjoys the full rights according to
the valid national legislation. It has been established in 1965 as an
extension to the Palestinian labor movement struggle that started in 1921
in "Haifa", it was known as the Arab laborers' society during the British
mandate in Palestine who licensed it.

------------------------------

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http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=34568

Association of University Teachers in Gaza calls for help
Date: 04 / 01 / 2009 Time: 10:27

Bethlehem - Ma an - The Palestinian Association of University Teachers in
Gaza calls upon all peace-loving, freedom-loving nations, NGOs,
universities, intellectuals, cultural and academic institutions, trade
unions and syndicates, as well as human rights organizations all over the
world to:

1. Immediately impose boycotts, sanctions and divestments on the Apartheid
Israeli state.

2. Try the Israeli generals for their on-going crimes against the
Palestinian people.

3. Demand a halt to Israel s savage aggression, end its brutal occupation
and lift its suffocating and lethal siege on the Gaza Strip.

4. Implement all UN resolutions related to the inalienable national
rights, particularly UN resolution 194 calling for the right of return for
the Palestinian refugees to their homes and their property from which they
were uprooted by the terrorist Zionist gangs in 1948.

5. Comply with 4th article of the Geneva Convention, the international
human rights law, the international humanitarian law, and the universal
declaration of human rights as well as all other related agreements.

6. Lift the draconian blockade against Gaza as stipulated by the 1948
convention on Genocide, and consider anyone participating as a war
criminal who must be tried for crimes against humanity.

Israel is a rogue state that is a threat and danger to world peace and
security; therefore she must be banished and punished by the international
community, before it is too late for the people of Palestine, the people
of Israel and the people in the surrounding countries.

Is the UN complicit in Israel's massacre in Gaza?

2009-01-01T19:52:00.000-05:00

Omar Barghouti, The Electronic Intifada, 1 January 2009

Who will be held accountable for complicity in the massacring? (Wissam Nassar/MaanImages)

A friend forwarded to me the most original greeting for the New Year: "I wish in 2009 a horrible year for all war criminals and their accomplices." I could not but think of whether some United Nations officials can be counted among such "accomplices."

Over the last two days, various UN officials stated that the percentage of civilians among those Palestinians killed in the current Israeli war of aggression on Gaza is about "25 percent" and is "likely to increase." Assuming the best of intentions, stating such a painfully low figure reflects shabby research or scandalous incompetence. At worst, it reveals intentional deception and misinformation that can only benefit the already massive and well-oiled Israeli public relations machine.

The UN's complicity in Israel's propaganda war is the latest, albeit hardly ever mentioned, dimension of the international organization's utter failure in defending its principles, foremost among which are the prevention of war and the promotion of peace, when performing such a duty is expected to stir the wrath of the US master and the uniquely influential Israel lobby. Not only has the UN Secretary-General betrayed the very Charter of the UN and all relevant international law principles by failing to even condemn Israel's massacre of civilians and targeting of civilian institutions and residential neighborhoods; the entire UN system has so far dealt with it as a "war" between two relatively symmetric forces, where the mightier side has sufficient justification to "defend itself," but should do so more proportionately, while the weaker side is chiefly responsible for triggering the "armed conflict."

Now, senior UN officials, excluding the particularly courageous and principled UN Special Rapporteur for human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, Richard Falk, and a few others, are only focusing on "women and children" victims of the massacre, implying, even if unintentionally, that all Palestinian men in Gaza are fair game for the Israeli killing machine. The tens of Palestinian civilian policemen that were butchered in the opening hours of the massive Israeli attack by dozens of fighter jets were, thus, conveniently dismissed by such irresponsible UN figures of casualties as Hamas "fighters," more or less, that may be targeted with impunity. This is not to mention the scores of male teachers, doctors, workers, farmers and unemployed who were killed by Israel's indiscriminate bombing in their workplaces, public offices, homes or streets and were not accounted for as civilian victims of Israel's belligerent murder spree.

Above everything else, this UN discourse not only reduces close to half a million Palestinian men in that wretched, tormented and occupied coastal strip to "militants," radical "fighters," or whatever other nouns in currency nowadays in the astoundingly, but characteristically, biased western media coverage of the Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, as some international law experts have described them; it also treats them as already condemned criminals that deserve the capital punishment Israel has meted out on them. I am not an expert on the history of the UN, but I suspect this sets a new low, a precedent in dehumanizing an entire adult male population in a region of "conflict," thereby justifying their fatal targeting or, at least, silently condoning it. But this should surprise no one as the same UN leaders have for 18 months watched in eerie silence or even indirectly justified, one way or another, Israel's siege of Gaza which was described by Falk as a "prelude to genocide" and compared by him to Nazi crimes.

If one wants to be truly magnanimous and give those UN officials the benefit of the doubt -- not something I would recommend at all, given the scale of the massacre and their verifiable complicity -- one has to assume that they are quite confused as to how best to categorize the thousands of Palestinian victims of Israel's war on Gaza, whether those injured or killed. A casual overview of Israeli army press statements and human rights organizations' reports, however, will immediately dismiss the possibility that the UN figure of 25 percent was the product of clinical incompetence or technical ineptness, widely recognized trademarks of the organization.

A recent article published in The Washington Post, for instance, quoted a senior Israeli military official saying: "There are many aspects to Hamas, and we are trying to hit the whole spectrum, because everything is connected and everything supports terrorism against Israel." An Israeli army spokeswoman went further, stating "Anything affiliated with Hamas is a legitimate target." Given that, in the ghetto of Gaza, Hamas is effectively the "ruling" party -- it was democratically elected, after all -- and its network of social and charitable organizations are the largest provider of social services to the impoverished and besieged population, all of Gaza's civilian infrastructure, public schools, hospitals, universities, law and order organs, traffic police, sewage treatment and water purification stations, ministries providing vital services to the public, mosques, public theaters and many non-governmental institutions can technically be considered "affiliated" with Hamas.

Lest the reader feel that this is an exaggeration, today, in the first hours of the first day of the new year, the Israeli air force already bombed the following "targets" in Gaza: the Palestinian Legislative Council, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Justice. Earlier, several mosques were pulverized to the ground. So were main buildings in the Islamic University of Gaza, which serves 20,000 students. Ambulances and private homes were not spared either.

Even B'Tselem, Israel's leading human rights organization that often issues sanitized, "balanced" or selective reports focusing on Israel's less criminal behavior in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, was compelled to conclude that the Israeli army was intentionally targeting "what appear to be clear civilian objects" that are not "engaged in military action against Israel," without making the distinction between male and female civilians. A statement from the organization on 31 December said:

For example, the military bombed the main police building in Gaza and killed, according to reports, 42 Palestinians who were in a training course and were standing in formation at the time of the bombing. Participants in the course study first-aid, handling of public disturbances, human rights, public-safety exercises, and so forth. Following the course, the police officers are assigned to various arms of the police force in Gaza responsible for maintaining public order.

Another example is yesterday's bombing of the government offices. These offices included the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Labor, Construction and Housing. An announcement made by the [Israeli army] Spokesperson's Office regarding this attack stated that, 'the attack was carried out in response to the ongoing rocket and mortar-shell fire carried out by Hamas over Israeli territory, and in the framework of [Israeli army] operations to strike at Hamas governmental infrastructure and members active in the organization.'

Just to drive the point closer to home for an average western reader who may have internalized over the years a perception of Israelis -- inaccurately and quite deliberately depicted by Israeli and western propaganda as part of the "west" -- as full humans and Palestinians, along with almost all global southerners, as relative humans, perhaps the following mirroring exercise is necessary.

Imagine if the Palestinian resistance, in exercising its otherwise perfectly legitimate, UN-sanctioned right to fight Israel's occupation and apartheid, were to regard all institutions "affiliated" with the Israeli government as legitimate targets, justifying the bombing of universities, hospitals, civilian ministries, publicly-run synagogues, neighborhoods where government or army officials live or work, and other civilian "targets," killing in five days only 1,600 Israelis and wounding 8,000 (four times the current toll in Gaza, given that Israel's population is four times as large). What would the UN do? Would UN officials only count Israeli women and children victims? Would they call on both parties to "exercise restraint" or to end "the violence"? Morally, and even legally, this is not even a fair reversal of roles, for Israel, no matter what, remains the occupier and settler-colonial oppressor, while the indigenous Palestinians remain the colonized and oppressed.

The truth is the UN leadership, in the unipolar world that we are still living in and is perhaps on its way to be transformed to more multipolar space, has effectively turned into a rubber stamp bureau for US dictates. Ban Ki-moon will go down in history as the most subservient and morally unqualified Secretary-General to ever lead the international organization. The only question remaining is whether one day he and his senior staff will stand trial for being accomplices in Israel's war crimes, together with leaders of the US, the EU and many Arab regimes. In a more just world, governed by the rule of law, not the US-dominated rule of the jungle, they should.

Omar Barghouti is a Palestinian human rights activist and commentator.

Israeli Slaughter, International Culpability

2009-01-01T19:51:00.001-05:00

Gaza massacre points to urgent need for viable sanctions

Dan Freeman-Maloy

There is every reason to be outraged. But despite the severity of
Israeli atrocities in Gaza, we have little right to act surprised.
Whatever else can be said, Israel has made it abundantly clear that
until its actions are met with credible international sanctions, it
will subject Palestinians (and very likely others in the region) to
massive, recurring waves of violence.

This was clear when the Obama-Biden campaign helped to lay the
political foundation for this assault. It was clear when, amidst
threats of such an operation and ongoing colonization in the West
Bank, the European Union voted to upgrade relations with Israel
earlier this month. For those of us in Canada, it has been clear as
the Harper government has sharpened its alignment with Israel in the
absence of any sustained parliamentary opposition.

Still, although "Operation Cast Lead" (as the Israeli regime has
dubbed its latest assault) extends more or less naturally from
longstanding Israeli policies, it is many ways especially despicable.
The most obvious issue is its scale. Beginning on the morning of
Saturday the 27th, approximately 110 Israeli Air Force (IAF) fighter
jets and helicopters bombarded the densely populated Gaza Strip with
more than 100 tons of explosives, initiating what may well evolve into
an even broader onslaught. By the end of the day, more than 230
Palestinians had been killed, an additional 780+ wounded.

As the death toll from air strikes continues to climb, hundreds of
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) infantry and armored corps troops have
been deployed on the border with Gaza along with IDF artillery
batteries, and several thousands reservists have been called up in
preparation for a potential ground invasion.

The assault has been characterized by brazen contempt for civilian
life and by crass, cynical diplomacy.

The Israeli daily Haaretz reports that the IDF, long planning for such
an operation, received final authorization the morning of Friday the
26th. That day, Major General Amiram Levin (res.) spoke on IDF Radio
and conveyed the flavour of Israeli military doctrine regarding the
then impending attack: "The whole issue of fighting against and
bringing down the Hamas regime is a mistake and very difficult to
achieve. What we have to do is act systematically with the aim of
punishing all the organizations that are firing the rockets and
mortars, as well as the civilians who are enabling them to fire and
hide." Yoav Galant, the head of Israeli Southern Command and a key
commander in the attack, has since stated that a key operational goal
is pursuing "the maximum number of enemy casualties keeping Israel
Defense Force casualties at a minimum." Recall that Israel has
designated the Gaza Strip as a whole an "enemy entity."

Continue reading:
www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/bullet171.html#daily

Why would Israel bomb a university?

2008-12-30T13:29:00.001-05:00

Dr. Akram Habeeb writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Live from Palestine, 29 December 2008

The Islamic University of Gaza, February 2007. (Wesam Saleh/MaanImages)

As a Fulbright scholar and professor of American literature at the Islamic University of Gaza (IUG), I have always preferred to keep silent about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I always felt that it was my mission to preach love and peaceful coexistence. However, Israel's massive offensive against the Gaza Strip has spurred me to speak out.

Last night, during the second night of Israel's unprecedented attack on Gaza, I was awakened by the deafening sound of intensive bombardment. When I learned that Israel had bombed my university with American-made F-16s, I realized that its "target bank" had gone bankrupt. Of course Israeli politicians and generals would claim that IUG is a Hamas stronghold and that it preaches terrorism.

As an independent professor, not affiliated with any political party, I can say that IUG is an academic institution which embraces a wide spectrum of political affinities. I see it as prestigious university which encourages liberalism and free thought. This personal point view might seem to be biased; therefore, I would invite anyone who would doubt about my assertions to browse IUG's website and research its history. They would learn about its membership in various international academic institutions, the active role its professors play in scholarly research as well as prizes and research grants they have received.

Why would Israel bomb a university? Israel did not only target my university last night. It also bombed mosques, pharmacies and homes. In Jabaliya refugee camp Israeli bombs killed four little girls, sisters from the Balousha family. In Rafah they killed three brothers, aged 6, 12 and 14. They also killed a mother, along with her one-year-old child from the Kishko family in Gaza City.

These acts made me reflect on some of the commandments given by God to the "Chosen People:" Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house. No one could be chosen by God to annex the land of other people and kill them. Israel made these ethical choices by itself. Israel itself chose to wage its wars to eliminate the indigenous people of Palestine.

Dr. Akram Habeeb is Assistant Professor of American Literature at the Islamic University of Gaza.

The time for Canada to condemn Israeli violence against Palestinians is NOW!

2008-12-30T11:36:00.002-05:00

Gaza massacres must spur us to action

2008-12-29T17:31:00.000-05:00

Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 27 December 2008

Palestinians carry the body of a victim of an Israeli air strike in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, 27 December 2008. (Hatem Omar/MaanImages)

"I will play music and celebrate what the Israeli air force is doing." Those were the words, spoken on Al Jazeera today by Ofer Shmerling, an Israeli civil defense official in the Sderot area adjacent to Gaza, as images of Israel's latest massacres were broadcast around the world.

A short time earlier, US-supplied Israeli F-16 warplanes and Apache helicopters dropped over 100 bombs on dozens of locations in the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip killing at least 195 persons and injuring hundreds more. Many of these locations were police stations located, like police stations the world over, in the middle of civilian areas. The US government was one of the first to offer its support for Israel's attacks, and others will follow.

Reports said that many of the dead were Palestinian police officers. Among those Israel labels "terrorists" were more than a dozen traffic police officers undergoing training. An as yet unknown number of civilians were killed and injured; Al Jazeera showed images of several dead children, and the Israeli attacks came at the time thousands of Palestinian children were in the streets on their way home from school.

Shmerling's joy has been echoed by Israelis and their supporters around the world; their violence is righteous violence. It is "self-defense" against "terrorists" and therefore justified. Israeli bombing -- like American and NATO bombing in Iraq and Afghanistan -- is bombing for freedom, peace and democracy.

The rationalization for Israel's massacres, already being faithfully transmitted by the English-language media, is that Israel is acting in "retaliation" for Palestinian rockets fired with increasing intensity ever since the six-month truce expired on 19 December (until today, no Israeli had been killed or injured by these recent rocket attacks).

But today's horrific attacks mark only a change in Israel's method of killing Palestinians recently. In recent months they died mostly silent deaths, the elderly and sick especially, deprived of food and necessary medicine by the two year-old Israeli blockade calculated and intended to cause suffering and deprivation to 1.5 million Palestinians, the vast majority refugees and children, caged into the Gaza Strip. In Gaza, Palestinians died silently, for want of basic medications: insulin, cancer treatment, products for dialysis prohibited from reaching them by Israel.

What the media never question is Israel's idea of a truce. It is very simple. Under an Israeli-style truce, Palestinians have the right to remain silent while Israel starves them, kills them and continues to violently colonize their land. Israel has not only banned food and medicine to sustain Palestinian bodies in Gaza but it is also intent on starving minds: due to the blockade, there is not even ink, paper and glue to print textbooks for schoolchildren.

As John Ging, the head of operations of the United Nations agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA), told The Electronic Intifada in November: "there was five months of a ceasefire in the last couple of months, where the people of Gaza did not benefit; they did not have any restoration of a dignified existence. We in fact at the UN, our supplies were also restricted during the period of the ceasefire, to the point where we were left in a very vulnerable and precarious position and with a few days of closure we ran out of food."

That is an Israeli truce. Any response to Israeli attacks -- whether peaceful protests against the apartheid wall in Bilin and Nilin in the West Bank is met with bullets and bombs. There are no rockets launched at Israel from the West Bank, and yet Israel's attacks, killings, land theft, settler pogroms and kidnappings never ceased for one single day during the truce. The Palestinian Authority in Ramallah has acceded to all of Israel's demands, even assembling "security forces" to fight the resistance on Israel's behalf. None of that has spared a single Palestinian or her property or livelihood from Israel's relentless violent colonization. It did not save, for instance, the al-Kurd family from seeing their home of 50 years in occupied East Jerusalem demolished on 9 November, so the land it sits on could be taken by settlers.

Once again we are watching massacres in Gaza, as we did last March when 110 Palestinians, including dozens of children, were killed by Israel in just a few days. Once again people everywhere feel rage, anger and despair that this outlaw state carries out such crimes with impunity.

But all over the Arab media and internet today the rage being expressed is not directed solely at Israel. Notably, it is directed more sharply than ever at Arab states. The images that stick are of Israel's foreign minister Tzipi Livni in Cairo on Christmas day. There she sat smiling with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Then there are the pictures of Livni and Egypt's foreign minister smiling and slapping their palms together.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported today that last wednesday the Israeli "cabinet authorized the prime minister, the defense minister, and the foreign minister to determine the timing and the method" of Israel's attacks on Gaza. Everywhere people ask, what did Livni tell the Egyptians and more importantly what did they tell her? Did Israel get a green light to turn Gaza's streets red once again? Few are ready to give Egypt the benefit of the doubt after it has helped Israel besiege Gaza by keeping the Rafah border crossing closed for more than a year.

On top of the intense anger and sadness so many people feel at Israel's renewed mass killings in Gaza is a sense of frustration that there seem to be so few ways to channel it into a political response that can change the course of events, end the suffering, and bring justice.

But there are ways, and this is a moment to focus on them. Already I have received notices of demonstrations and solidarity actions being planned in cities all over the world. That is important. But what will happen after the demonstrations disperse and the anger dies down? Will we continue to let Palestinians in Gaza die in silence?

Palestinians everywhere are asking for solidarity, real solidarity, in the form of sustained, determined political action. The Gaza-based One Democratic State Group reaffirmed this today as it "called upon all civil society organizations and freedom loving people to act immediately in any possible way to put pressure on their governments to end diplomatic ties with Apartheid Israel and institute sanctions against it."

The global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement for Palestine (http://www.bdsmovement.net/) provides the framework for this. Now is the time to channel our raw emotions into a long-term commitment to make sure we do not wake up to "another Gaza" ever again.

Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada, Ali Abunimah is author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse (Metropolitan Books, 2006).

Eyewitness account of Gaza strikes - university students killed

2008-12-29T17:29:00.000-05:00

Safa, Palestinian living in Gaza, Posted on facebook and asked to circulate, 28 December 2008

It was just before noon when I heard the first explosion. I rushed to my window, barely did I get there and look out when I was pushed back by the force and air pressure of another explosion. For a few moments I didn't understand, then I realized that Israeli promises of a wide-scale offensive against the Gaza Strip had materialized. Israeli Foreign Minister, Tzpi Livni's statements following a meeting with Egyptian President Hussni Mubarak the day before yesterday had not been empty threats after all.

What followed seems pretty much surreal at this point. Never had we imagined anything like this. It all happened so fast but the amount of death and destruction is inconceivable, even to me and I'm in the middle of it and a few hours have passed already passed.

6 locations were hit during the air raid on Gaza city. The images are probably not broadcasted in US media. There are piles and piles of bodies in the locations that were hit. As you look at them you can see that a few of the young men are still alive, someone lifts a hand here, and another raise his head there. They probably died within moments because their bodies are burned, most have lost limbs, some have their guts hanging out and they're all lying in pools of blood. Outside my home, (which is close to the 2 largest universities in Gaza) a missile fell on a large group of young men, university students, they'd been warned not to stand in groups, it makes them an easy target, but they were waiting for buses to take them home. 7 were killed, 4 students and 3 of our neighbors kids, young men who were from the same family (Rayes) and were best friends. As I'm writing this I can hear a funeral procession go by outside, I looked out the window a moment ago and it was the 3 Rayes boys, They spent all their time together when they were alive, they died together and now their sharing the same funeral together. Nothing could stop my 14 year old brother from rushing out to see the bodies of his friends laying in the street after they were killed. He hasn't spoken a word since.

What did Olmert mean when he stated that WE the people of Gaza weren't the enemy, that it was Hamas and the Islamic Jihad who were being targeted? Was that statement made to infuriate us out of out state of shock, to pacify any feelings of rage and revenge? To mock us?? Were the scores of children on their way home from school and who are now among the dead and the injured Hamas militants? A little further down my street about half an hour after the first strike 3 schoolgirls happened to be passing by one of the locations when a missile struck the Preventative Security Headquarters building. The girls bodies were torn into pieces and covered the street from one side to the other.

In all the locations people are going through the dead terrified of recognizing a family member among them. The streets are strewn with their bodies, their arms, legs, feet, some with shoes and some without. The city is in a state of alarm, panic and confusion, cell phones aren't working, hospitals and morgues are backed up and some of the dead are still lying in the streets with their families gathered around them, kissing their faces, holding on to them. Outside the destroyed buildings old men are kneeling on the floor weeping. Their slim hopes of finding their sons still alive vanished after taking one look at what had become of their office buildings.

And even after the dead are identified, doctors are having a hard time gathering the right body parts in order to hand them over to their families. The hospital hallways look like a slaughterhouse. It's truly worse than any horror movie you could ever imagine. The floor is filled with blood, the injured are propped up against the walls or laid down on the floor side by side with the dead. Doctors are working frantically and people with injuries that aren't life threatening are sent home. A relative of mine was injured by a flying piece of glass from her living room window, she had deep cut right down the middle of her face. She was sent home, too many people needed medical attention more urgently. Her husband, a dentist, took her to his clinic and sewed up her face using local anesthesia

200 people dead in today's air raid. That means 200 funeral processions, a few today, most of them tomorrow probably. To think that yesterday these families were worried about food and heat and electricity. At this point I think they -actually all of us- would gladly have Hamas sign off every last basic right we've been calling for the last few months forever if it could have stopped this from ever having happened.

The bombing was very close to my home. Most of my extended family live in the area. My family is ok, but 2 of my uncles' homes were damaged,

We can rest easy, Gazans can mourn tonight. Israel is said to have promised not to wage any more air raids for now. People suspect that the next step will be targeted killings, which will inevitably means scores more of innocent bystanders whose fate has already been sealed.

This doesn't even begin to tell the story on any level. Just flashes of thing that happened today that are going through my head