News Highlights:
- Amnesty International calls on the Israeli government to release 3 leading Palestinian human rights activists or bring them to trial; the 3 are all being held without charge, and are prisoners of conscience.
- An international activist with the International Solidarity movement is seized by Israeli soldiers in Ramallah and deported.
- Some Gazan families are given temporary clay houses by UN agencies, a year after Israel’s deadly offensive; rebuilding has been made impossible by the siege on Gaza.
- Israeli PM Netanyahu says that his “temporary freeze” on settlement activities ends in eight months, and construction will immediately resume.
Feature
An interview from Cairo with Abdu Mihirig, a UBC student who went to Cairo to be part of the Gaza Freedom March. Abdu detailed the frustrations the marchers had experienced with Egyptian authorities and police that had resulted in the vast majority of them never being able to reach Gaza. He also told us of his personal visits to leading religious figures at Azhar University, as he attempted to get their support for the March and also called on them to drop their endorsement of Egypt’s steel wall on the Gazan border. Abdu concluded by saying that despite these difficulties, he felt the experience had been worthwhile due to the connections made amongst the activists at the march.
Focus on Zionism:
Highlights of a Jan. 12th, 2010 report from the Christian Peacemaker Team in Hebron about a Palestinian shepherd that was tortured and beaten up for 5 hours by Israeli soldiers, before being dumped at the side of a road.
Here is an audio file of this show: