This week …

News Highlights:

  • Al Masara near Bethlehem holds its weekly anti-wall protest and also commemorates the assassinations of Palestinian leader Abu Ali Mustafa and cartoonist Naji al-Ali.
  • Palestinian lawmaker Mustafa Bargouthi calls on Mahmoud Abbas to reconsider engaging in “direct talks” and noted the continuation of illegal settlement construction despite Israel’s partial freeze.
  • Palestinian father holds hunger strike in Berlin, Germany protesting Israel’s decision to prevent his daughter from being registered as a Jerusalem resident, as Israel refuses to lift the ban on family unification.
  • New reports from Gaza about Palestinian families taking over abandoned apartment blocks due to the lack of reconstruction despite the siege “easing”.

Feature:

The show marked The Voice of Palestine’s 23rd anniversary of being on the air at Coop Radio. The feature talked about how the show began, the opposition from pro-Israel forces at that time, and how current campaigns by the Israel lobby reflect the same false accusations and arguments as 23 years ago. Messages of support from listeners were read as well as phoned in. The panel also took time to look at the upcoming “direct talks” between Israeli and Palestinians leaders about to start in Washington D.C. and the increasing Palestinian opposition to these sham negotiations, both in Palestine and in the diaspora.

Focus on Zionism:

Highlights of a Maan news stories about a Palestinian father living near Hebron/AlKhalil with a 3-year-old daughter suffering from cerebral atrophy who is appealing to Israeli authorities to allow the rest of his family to be able to leave Gaza and return home, after they went there for a visit.

Here is an audio file of this show: