News Highlights:
- U.N. report says Israeli roadblocks and checkpoints in the West Bank have increased in the last 6 months; total closure for the Jewish New Year has placed even further restrictions on Palestinians right at the end of Ramadan, when family visits are important.
- Attacks by extremist Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank are escalating, as settlers state they are implementing their “price tag” campaign; the most recent victim was a Palestinian shepherd who was executed and shot over 20 times.
- Israeli settlement sewage is contaminating Palestinian water supply, according to the Applied Research Institute in Jerusalem.
Feature:
Two members of Jews for a Just Peace JJP were in the studio, in what will be a regular and recurring segment on Voice of Palestine by JJP. In this first special, they talked about the group (www.jewsforajustpeace.com and then about the film, Waltz with Bashir, that they were sponsoring at the Vancouver Int’l. Film Festival. The film, which is an animated feature, deals with the buried memories of Israeli soldiers who were in Lebanon in 1982 and the atrocities that happened there. There was also discussion of a trend in Israeli film, which focuses on the feelings of the Israeli soldiers perpetrating violence against Palestinians, rather than the situation of the Palestinians themselves.
Focus on Zionism:
Excerpts of a September 30th, 2008 report from the Christian Science Monitor about the increased violence by Israeli settlers, in particular the pipe bomb attack against an Israeli professor, who is critical of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and a member of Peace Now.