News Highlights:
- Fateh and Hamas will form a Palestinian national unity government.
- Israeli PM Ehud Olmert rules out any negotiations over release of an Israeli soldier held by Palestinian fighters; soldier was taken in a pre-dawn attack on an Israeli tank.
- Palestinian groups are calling for soldier to be exchanged for Palestinian female and under-age prisoners.
- Hundreds of Israeli soldiers and vehicles are amassed on Gaza’s border, while diplomatic efforts continue.
- Lutheran vocational centre in Beit Hanina (Jerusalem), opened in 1949, is being strangled by apartheid wall, which runs just 150 metres in front of the school; most students and staff cannot reach the school because they now lack the correct permits.
Feature:
Two special guests were live in the studio, Dr. Nurit Peled-Elhanan and Miko Peled. Nurit, an Israeli education professor, was in town for the World Peace Forum and made two presentations, one at a public meeting and the other the keynote speech to the Educators Forum. She spoke about the racism in the Israeli educational system, and how it is impacting young Israelis. Nurit had been the focus of an outrageous attack in the Vancouver Sun, the local CanWest paper notorious for its pro-Israeli views. Miko, an activist in San Diego, spoke about how there must be equality between Palestinians and Israelis, and that his experiences had brought him to support a single, democratic secular state.
Focus on Zionism:
Highlights of a press release from the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza about the complete land and sea closure of the Gaza Strip and how this collective punishment is affecting the Palestinian civilians there.
Here is an audio file of this show: