News Highlights:
- July 12th – an elderly disabled Palestinian man crushed to death when Israeli troops demolish his home on top of him in Gaza.
- U.S. and Israeli officials begin talks on defining boundaries in the West Bank within which Israel can continue settlement expansion; U.S. says Palestinian state in 2005 “increasingly unlikely”.
- July 12th – Israeli PM Ariel Sharon orders construction on the West Bank apartheid wall to continue and vows to reject ruling by International Court of Justice ICJ that stated the barrier is illegal and should be dismantled.
- July 9th – U.S. Democratic presidential candidate and Senator John Kerry criticizes ICJ ruling, claiming apartheid wall is a “legitimate response to terror”.
- U.N. General Assembly to consider resolution to implement ICJ ruling.
- Ariel Sharon and Labor leader Shimon Peres have talks on new governing coalition in Israeli Knesset.
Feature:
An interview with the new president of the Canadian Arab Federation, Omar AlGhabra, about the activities of CAF, especially its recent press release on the apartheid wall. CAF had called on the Canadian government to heed the ICJ ruling and work to implement it, rather than claim the ICJ doesn’t have jurisdiction. There was discussion about world opinion on the ICJ ruling, which is overwhelmingly in favour outside of North America and Europe. Omar also spoke about CAF’s objectives as the major umbrella group in Canada for Arab-Canadians.
Focus on Zionism:
Highlights of a July 13th press release by Amnesty International criticizing an Israeli law that forbids Israelis married to Palestinians from the occupied territories from living together in Israel.