News Highlights:
- Sep 3th – World Bank report recommends Palestinian Authority use Rafah border crossing for its exports, due to Israeli closures on Karni.
- Jan Egeland, UN humanitarian representative, warns of economic disaster in Gaza and says it’s a “ticking time bomb”.
- Dr. Mustafa Bargouthi holds Israel responsible for the economic crisis in the occupied territories and calls for a Palestinian unity government.
- Sep 1st – Israel officially takes over northern Bethlehem; Bethlehem’s mayor criticizes international silence as Israel confiscates 14% of Bethlehem.
- Israel PM Ehud Olmert claims he didn’t know about the new tenders for building 700 settler units in the West Bank.
Feature:
Voice of Palestine marks its 19th year of being on the air at Coop Radio with a special anniversary show that looks back at what first motivated the show to start and what is different now. Programmers explained how, in 1987, the on-going siege on Shatila camp in Beirut and the international silence around it had helped to convince the founding members that the Palestinian voice needed to be heard. Comparisons were made with the current siege on Gaza and international inaction, and there was also discussion of how the mainstream media had not changed, had perhaps even worsened, in 19 years. A VOP editorial from September, 1987 was read that was in answer to the Zionist attacks on the show when it first started. The panel noted how public opinion in Canada had become more informed and more supportive of the Palestinian struggle and concluded by thanking listeners and the production team that have kept the show going all these years.
Focus on Zionism:
Highlights of a September 3rd, 2006 article in the Israeli Haaretz newspaper entitled “Gaza’s Darkness”, that says Israeli forces are rampaging through Gaza and that it has basically been reoccupied.
Here is an audio file of this show: