This week …

News Highlights:

  • Families of Palestinian prisoners call on the Pope to visit them, as he did with the family of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit; the relatives wanted the Pope to not ignore the over 11,000 Palestinian political prisoners held by Israel.
  • Israeli PM Netanyahu will tell Barack Obama that Israel will keep building in existing settlements.
  • Israeli peace groups say the Israeli government is extending its control over occupied East Jerusalem in collaboration with extremist settler groups.
  • Palestinian advisor on Jerusalem says his office will take legal action to stop Israel from expanding the West Bank settlement Maale Adumim.

Feature:

A live interview with Fatemah Meghji, the new national Chapters Coordinator for Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights, SPHR, the leading pro-Palestinian student group in Canada. Fatemah, who is also past president of SPHR-UBC, talked about the goals of the group in trying to educate the student population about the Palestinian people’s suffering. She further explained about the aggressive Israel lobby on campuses and how it has harassed their members and tried unsuccessfully to censor their work.

Focus on Zionism:

Highlights of a May 12th, 2009 IPS report about the lack of any rebuilding in Gaza and the continuing psychological effects of the Israeli occupation on the Palestinian civilian population, especially the children.

Here is an audio file of this show: