News Highlights:

• 10 more Palestinian detainees are transferred to hospital, as the hunger strike against administrative detention and other severe restrictions continues and grows, with over 2000 Palestinian prisoners now involved in the strike.
• The Int’l Committee of the Red Cross warns that 6 of the hunger-strikers are in “imminent danger of dying”.
• Israeli officials issue an eviction notice to a home in the Sheik Jarrah neighbourhood in occupied East Jerusalem, as settlers take over another Palestinian property in nearby Beit Hanina.

Feature:

The feature was the speech given by Ilan Pappe, the noted Israeli historian, to a Vancouver audience on May 5, 2012. The full presentation, entitled The False Paradigm of Peace, can be listened to in a special high quality download as part of our May 8, 2012 show downloads.

Focus on Zionism:

Highlights of a May 8, 2012 alert from the Israeli Committee against Home Demolitions about imminent displacement of Palestinian Bedouin communities in the Jerusalem periphery.

Here is an audio file of this show:

News Highlights:

• After over 60 days of hunger strike, two more Palestinian detainees are at risk of death and have been transferred to an Israeli hospital; 4 more prisoners are also currently hospitalized in an Israeli prison medical facility, including Ahmad Saadat, the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
• Israeli government officials ask for a further delay in evacuating an illegal settlement outpost, deep within the occupied West Bank.
• Israel plans to build 9 hotels in a settlement in occupied East Jerusalem, in a bid to undermine Palestinian tourism in Bethlehem according to a Palestinian researcher and settlement expert.

Feature:

A live interview with Khaled Almudallal, the operations coordinator for UFree, the European Network to Support the Rights of Palestinian Prisoners. Khaled, who joined us from the UK, detailed how the group started a year ago in Oslo, Norway and is now working in many places across Europe. He gave us an update on the Palestinian hunger strikers, and noted that almost 2000 detainees have joined the strike. Khaled talked about the demands of the prisoners, which include both improvements to basic living conditions, as well as an end to the practices of administrative detention without charge or trial and extended solitary confinement.

Here is an audio file of this show:

News Highlights:

• Israel confirms it legalizes 3 settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank; meanwhile, the Palestinian Bedouin village of al Arraqib is demolished for the 37th time in the Negev.
• Israel takes punitive measures against the 1200 political detainees on hunger strike; today, activist Bassem Tamimi from Nabi Saleh is finally released after 13 months imprisonment but under very restrictive conditions.
• The last section of the news was dedicated to a look-back at Israeli Apartheid Week 2012, the activities that took place and the significance of the global campaign.

Feature:

A live interview with Barbara Lubin from the Middle East Childrens Alliance about her recent visit to Vancouver and the “Childs View from Gaza” art exhibit. Barbara explained how she got involved in Palestinian support work and the founding of the MECA. She then detailed how the childrens’ art exhibit, based on drawings to help Palestinian children in Gaza express their traumatic experiences during the 2008-9 Israeli attacks, came into being and the support the exhibit has received in the venues and cities where it has toured so far.

Focus on Zionism:

Highlights of an April 18, 2012 press release about how the Univ. of Mass Boston student senate passed a resolution calling for divestment from Boeing and other companies profiting from war crimes.

Here is an audio file of this show:

News Highlights:

• Around 1600 Palestinian political detainees go on hunger strike, to protest administrative detention and solitary confinement; solidarity activities go on around the world to mark the Global Day for Palestinian Prisoners.
• Welcome To Palestine organizers note that Israeli authorities are not only stopping and deporting visitors at Ben Gurion airport, but have pressured foreign governments and airlines to not even allow people to board planes in other countries.
• Israeli officer is suspended after a video of him hitting an international with his rifle butt goes viral on the internet; however, soldiers who served under him issue a public statement defending their “moral and ethical commander”.

Feature:

A live interview with Yafa Jarrar from Ottawa about the Global Day of Action for Palestinian Prisoners and the activities happening around it. Ms. Jarrar, a Palestinian activist who is a member of the Coalition against Israeli Apartheid CAIA-Ottawa and involved in organizing prisoner solidarity work, detailed actions around the world including here in Canada to highlight the horrific practices employed by Israeli authorities, including administrative detention and long-term solitary confinement. She also talked about the hunger strikes that are escalating and what people here can do to help bring justice to all Palestinian political detainees.

Focus on Zionism:

Highlights of an April 16th, 2012 report from the Maan news agency about how a Gaza man seeking family reunification with his disabled children had been detained by Israeli security officials at the Erez crossing.

Here is an audio file of this show:

News Highlights:

• Israeli navy fires at Gaza fishing boats, to force them to adhere to Israel’s arbitrary 3 nautical mile limit off Gaza, despite the Oslo Accords dictating a 20 mile limit.
• Israeli prison authorities transfer another Palestinian hunger striker to hospital after 33 days; meanwhile, other statistics show that Israel still detains nearly 190 Palestinian children, most of whom are subjected to some form of psychological or physical torture.
• Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi expresses concern about the assault on journalists and free speech by the Palestinian Authority.

Feature:

A live interview with Dr. Nidal Abu Na’ase from Jenin refugee camp was scheduled to mark the 10th anniversary of the Israeli massacre and attack on the camp in 2002, but we were unable to connect due to difficulties with the phone lines. Two reports were highlighted documenting the Israeli attack on the Jenin camp (and other Palestinian civilian centres), one from Amnesty International and the other from Human Rights Watch. Both concluded there was strong evidence of war crimes and called for an international investigation, which was repeatedly blocked by the Israeli government and never occurred.

Focus on Zionism:

Highlights of an April 6th, 2012 report from Al Akhbar news about a Palestinian journalist wounded by Israeli forces in the
West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, with eyewitness reports from internationals on the scene.

Here is an audio file of this show: