News Highlights:
- Tulkarem begins its Land Day demos, a national Palestinian event held every March 30th to commemorate the killing of 7 Palestinian citizens of Israel by Israeli soldiers in 1976.
- Palestinian Israeli leaders gather to mark the 32nd Land Day to protest Israeli government discrimination and the “rising fascism of Israeli society”.
- Israel announces plans to build more illegal settler housing, just after U.S. Secretary of State finishes her meetings with Israeli officials.
- Palestinian man killed by Israeli settler gunfire near Ramallah.
- Israeli army raids Palestinian orphanage in Hebron/Alkhalil.
- Palestinians NGOs organize collective boycott in the occupied West Bank, calling on people to buy local products, in an effort to thwart the Israeli government policies that are destroying Palestiniain agriculture.
Feature:
The feature was a conversation with Jef Keighley, co-chair of the newly formed Seriously Free Speech Committee, that is challenging the legitimacy of the CanWest lawsuit against long-time activist Mordecai Briemberg. Jef explained how the lawsuit originated over a satirical edition of the Vancouver Sun in June 2007, critical of CanWest’s biased reporting on the Middle East. Even though CanWest’s lawyers were not able to produce any evidence against Mordecai to link him with the production of the parody edition, they were still insisting on proceeding with their lawsuit against him. There was discussion about the context in which this is happening and the intended chill on both pro-Palestinian activities and more open debate on the Israel/Palestinian issue. (For further info, see www.seriouslyfreespeech.ca)
Focus on Zionism:
Excerpts of a March 31st, 2008 Amnesty International release that criticizes the expansion of illegal settlement in the occupied Palestinian territories and says they are in violation of international law.
Here is an audio file of this show: