News Highlights:
- Palestinian foreign minister says Israel’s redeployment from Gaza will not mark the end of occupation, as Israel will still control all air, water and land crossings.
- Israeli army tanks fire on Khan Younis, hitting a Palestinian cemetery and causing damage to the gravesites.
- Palestinian Authority wants to open Gaza to unlimited foreign investment after Israeli redeployment, allowing foreign companies 100% ownership and privatizing all government enterprises.
- Aug. 6th – Presbyterian Church U.S.A. is beginning its process of challenging those companies that are complicit in maintaining the Israeli occupation, possibly leading to divestment.
Feature:
An interview with Professor Jim Graff from Toronto about the upcoming conference in Toronto in later October on the divestment campaign against Israel (details at www.sabeel.ca). Jim, president of the Near East Cultural and Educational Foundation, one of the organizers of the conference, talked about how they wanted to address and discuss many issues regarding economic and other pressures that can be brought to bear on Israel. He explained that many church, social justice and community groups felt that the time had come, especially after the refusal of Israel and the Western powers to implement the International Court of Justice ruling on the wall, to develop new strategies to help push for genuine peace in the region. Jim also updated us on the Patrick Newton Memorial Scholarship Fund, which has already collected enough for two scholarships to send Palestinian students from refugee camps to Bir Zeit University.
Focus on Zionism:
Uri Avnery, the leading peace activist from Gush Shalom, wrote an essay pointing out the failure of the Israeli military and police in preventing the rampage of the AWOL Israeli soldier who killed four Palestinian Israelis in the Galilee. In stark contrast, Haaretz on August 7th, 2005 carried the story that the only investigation launched by Israeli police was to determine who had killed the murderer when an angry crowd managed to stop and disarm him.
Here is an audio file of this show: