This week …

News Highlights:

  • Sections of the historic Shepherd Hotel in occupied East Jerusalem are demolished to make way for more Jewish settlements
  • International human rights groups call for a criminal investigation into the death of a 20 year old Palestinian patient denied a permit by Israeli authorities to leave Gaza for urgent medical attention
  • Advisors to the late Yasser Arafat say there is new forensic evidence proving he was poisoned
  • Canadian defence minister Peter Mackay meets with Israeli officials and thanks them for helping Canada with its “ongoing efforts in Afghanistan”

Feature:

A live interview with Stefan Christoff, an activist and journalist from Montreal, about the recent World Education Forum WEF and the experiences of the global Boycott Israel movement. Stefan started off by explaining the importance of the commitment to universal education and the WEF and then detailed how Israeli authorities deported him at the border so he could not attend the sessions. A large delegation from Quebec and Canada did manage to be part of the WEF, which resulted in valuable networking. Stefan also talked about the harassment of activists in Canada by security agencies here, and his own experiences with CSIS. He concluded by calling on listeners to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement as an effective means to change Israeli policies and as action that everyone can participate in at some level.

Focus on Zionism:

Highlights of a January 11th, 2011 IPS article about how traumatized Palestinian children in Gaza still dare to dream of a better future.
Here is an audio file of this show: