News Highlights:
- Ramadan in Gaza is no longer a time for celebration, as the scars and impact of the recent Israeli military onslaught are still visible.
- Palestinian village of Beit Iksa in the occupied West Bank is becoming completely encircled by Israeli settlements are checkpoints, and access to health and education services in larger centres is threatened.
- 3 Palestinian labor unions demand a meeting with Salam Fayyad, the appointed Palestinian PM, after the firing of one of their leaders; health workers say their rights are being violated and union activists targeted.
- Boycott of Israeli products gains momentum in the UK, as many call for settlement products to be labelled as such, including a prominent British chef and food journalist.
Feature:
The feature was a tribute to the Free Gaza movement (http://www.freegaza.org as it marked its one year anniversary of breaking the siege on Gaza. A statement from Free Gaza was presented, as well as a rebroadcast of our interview last year with Israeli activist Jeff Halper who had been on that historic first voyage to actually land on Gaza shores. The segment concluded with the reading of a poem dedicated to Gaza by the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, who passed away in August 2008.
Focus on Zionism:
Highlights of an Aug. 14th, 2009 article by British writer Jonathan Cook, based in Nazareth, about a new Israeli land reform law that will allow the Israeli government to start selling off the properties of Palestinian refugees.
Here is an audio file of this show: