News Highlights:
- Israeli government grants “legal and permanent” status to wildcat settlement outposts, thus providing education and security services – Palestinian analysts state this will create new demographical and geographical facts on the ground.
- Israeli forces shot and killed Palestinian worker Jamal Ismail Qados, 39, near Nablus.
- Palestinian leaders denounce the new Israeli decision to extend the apartheid wall into the Jordan Valley.
- Israeli troops shoot an Australian peace activist in both legs – Joshua Taaffe was working with the International Solidarity Movement.
- Two Palestinians in Gaza die from wounds suffered in last week’s Israeli air strikes.
- Israeli PM Ariel Sharon defends the apartheid wall to European parliamentarians and adds that it will bar Palestinians from “marrying into Arab Israeli” families and becoming Israeli citizens.
- Arab newspaper editors criticize the U.S. occupation of Iraq and compare the Iraqi resistance to the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation.
Media Literacy:
An analysis on the biased (usually by neglect) coverage in our local media regarding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Coverage of the devastating destruction in Rafah was followed for several days last week in the B.C. media and was found to be largely ignored, despite the massive damage and Palestinian deaths. The need for alternative media like Voice of Palestine was highlighted.
Feature:
Our feature interview with Melissa live from the West Bank had to be postponed, due to technical difficulties with the phone lines. We will be trying to interview her about her work in assisting Palestinian civilians on Nov. 4th. Rather, we had a brief in studio discussion about the current developments in the West Bank and Gaza, the deadly Israeli airstrikes, the international and Arab response, and the mounting criticism against Ariel Sharon, even within his own government.
Focus on Zionism:
Excerpts of an article in The Guardian, Oct. 27, about the damage in Rafah, entitled Death of a Town. One family’s experience under bombardment is detailed and the writer also notes that the destruction in Rafah is actually worse than what was done in the Jenin refugee camp. Furthermore, an Israeli colonel is quoted from a year ago saying the home demolitions were a policy in themselves, to achieve a new border with Egypt.