This week …

News Highlights:

  • Jimmy Carter says Israel has nuclear arsenal of 150 or more during a literary festival in Wales; he also states that Gaza blockade is a “human rights crime”.
  • 163 Palestinian patients have now died in Gaza due to the Israeli siege that severely limits access to medical treatment.
  • Israel has arrested more than 2700 Palestinians so far this year, mostly in the West Bank; there are now 1100 Palestinians in administrative detention, without charge or trial.
  • Activists in the village of Bilin try to halt construction of an illegal settlement outpost.
  • Archbishop Desmond Tutu will finally enter Gaza to conduct a U.N. investigation into the killing of 19 Palestinians, almost all from the same family by Israeli forces; after 18 months of being denied a visa by Israel, Tutu will cross the border at Rafah via Egypt.

Feature:

An Eyewitness Palestine/Eyewitness Gaza that highlighted the daily suffering of Palestinian women and children in Gaza as they attempt to keep their families intact against overwhelming obstacles. The first report from the International Committee of the Red Cross spoke about the trials of one woman whose husband had been in an Israeli jail for 23 years, and whom she can no longer even visit due to the Israeli suspension of all family visits for almost a year. The second report detailed how the Israeli siege is leading to soaring anaemia in Gaza newborns and the population in general, as the Int’l. Middle East Media Centre interviewed leading medical personnel in Gaza hospitals.

Focus on Zionism:

Excerpts of a “Narrative under Siege” from the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (www.pchrgaza.org) about the Israeli military destruction of a family farm in Gaza, which Palestinian officials say is happening at an increasing rate especially in border areas.

Here is an audio file of this show: