This week …

News Highlights:

  • Fateh members pressure their group’s leadership to resign after the Hamas victory in the Palestinian legislative elections.
  • Qalqilya municipal councillor is arrested along with many other activists, as Israel conducts arrest raids in the West Bank; Mustafa Sabri calls on human rights groups to protest the inhumane conditions of their incarceration.
  • Israeli officials drum up international support for a boycott of a Hamas-led government.
  • Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar says long-term truce with Israel is possible if it withdraws to pre-1967 borders and releases prisoners.
  • Hamas official says group was having secret talks with the U.S., but prefers direct communication; adds that group will continue its resistance as long as there is occupation.

Feature:

A live interview with Prof. Mazin Qumsiyeh from Yale University, a Palestinian-American author and activist. Mazin talked first about his article Boycott Israel that was carried in the World Economics Forum Global Agenda Magazine and the reaction to it, including pulling the magazine off the shelves. He explained how the call for boycott and other non-violent action is being heavily repressed and what message this sends to the Palestinians. He also talked about the recent Palestinian elections and analyzed what the results meant and what is next for the Palestinian struggle.

Focus on Zionism:

Highlights of a Jan. 30th, 2006 Guardian article about Israel’s shooting of two Palestinian children in the week Hamas was elected, and the international hypocrisy in responding to both.

Here is an audio file of this show: