News Highlights:

• International delegations come to Nilin to learn more about the escalating Israeli arrest campaign against human rights activists.
• Israeli settlers, and then soldiers, attack Palestinian villagers near Nablus.
• Israeli government upgrades Ariel College to university status, which is located in an illegal settlement deep inside the occupied West Bank.
• EU says it will no longer pay for fuel shipments to Gaza and is waiting for the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah to draft a new agreement.

Feature:

An interview with Rev. Robert Assali from Montreal about the Canadian government’s de-funding of NGO’s such as Kairos and Sabeel, both faith-based organizations. He also detailed efforts of some MPs, led by Jason Kenney, to criminalize any and all criticism of the Israeli government by claiming it is anti-Semitic. Rev. Assali also talked about the Kairos Palestine document, which was issued jointly by all the major Palestinian churches, and calls for international support to end the Israeli occupation.

Focus on Zionism:

Highlights of a report from the Applied Research Institute in Jerusalem about the detrimental effects of the Israeli occupation on the environmental systems, including the damage from unexploded Israeli ordinances, both mines and white phosphorous shells.

Here is an audio file of this show:

News Highlights:

• Amnesty International calls on the Israeli government to release 3 leading Palestinian human rights activists or bring them to trial; the 3 are all being held without charge, and are prisoners of conscience.
• An international activist with the International Solidarity movement is seized by Israeli soldiers in Ramallah and deported.
• Some Gazan families are given temporary clay houses by UN agencies, a year after Israel’s deadly offensive; rebuilding has been made impossible by the siege on Gaza.
• Israeli PM Netanyahu says that his “temporary freeze” on settlement activities ends in eight months, and construction will immediately resume.

Feature

An interview from Cairo with Abdu Mihirig, a UBC student who went to Cairo to be part of the Gaza Freedom March. Abdu detailed the frustrations the marchers had experienced with Egyptian authorities and police that had resulted in the vast majority of them never being able to reach Gaza. He also told us of his personal visits to leading religious figures at Azhar University, as he attempted to get their support for the March and also called on them to drop their endorsement of Egypt’s steel wall on the Gazan border. Abdu concluded by saying that despite these difficulties, he felt the experience had been worthwhile due to the connections made amongst the activists at the march.

Focus on Zionism:
Highlights of a Jan. 12th, 2010 report from the Christian Peacemaker Team in Hebron about a Palestinian shepherd that was tortured and beaten up for 5 hours by Israeli soldiers, before being dumped at the side of a road.

Here is an audio file of this show:

News Highlights:

• An Israeli court extends the detention of Palestinian human rights activist Jamal Juma despite no charges being brought against him after 20 days of incarceration.
• Egyptian authorities try to block the Viva Palestina aid convoy after stopping international delegates from going to the Gaza Freedom March the week prior.
• Protestors in Jordan hold a sit-in near the Egyptian embassy to condemn Egypt’s plan to build a steel wall on its border with Gaza.
• Israeli military officers delay an official visit to Britain over fears they may be arrested on war crimes charges.

Feature:

A live interview from Cairo with Ehab Lotayef, an Egyptian Canadian poet, activist and engineer who was part of the Gaza Freedom March Coordinating Committee. Ehab told us about how Egyptian authorities had stopped the 1400 delegates from being able to participate in the March and the various protest actions delegates had taken around Cairo. He also explained the difficulties for the organizers in trying to handle the situation and also take care of the delegates who found themselves stranded in Cairo. He commented on the Final Declaration issued just a few days earlier that stressed support for the Gazan people and for the global Boycott Israel movement, and noted that the event had succeeded in solidifying an international support network.

Focus on Zionism:

Highlights of a January 3rd, 2010 report from the International Solidarity Movement about the collapse of part of a main road in the Palestinian neighbourhood of Silwan due to settler excavation under the road.

Here is an audio file of this show:

News Highlights:

• Egyptian government refuses to allow 1400 international delegates to leave Cairo and reach Gaza on the first anniversary of the Israeli assault; the delegates were all part of the Gaza Freedom March and are from 42 countries.
• On December 26th, Israeli forces killed 6 Palestinians in two separate attacks in the West Bank and Gaza.
• Israeli government announces tenders for another 700 settler houses on occupied Palestinian land.

Feature:

Voice of Palestine commemorated the first anniversary of the Israeli aggression on Gaza with a very special cultural presentation, the play “Seven Days from a Gaza Diary”. The play, which is almost 40 minutes long, incorporates the vivid minute-by-minute account of the first seven days of the Israeli attacks written by Khulood Ghanem, a young Palestinian woman who lived under the constant and horrific bombing. Ed Mast adapted the first part of her diary for this reading performance and it was presented on our show with his permission.

Focus on Zionism:

Due to the length of the feature, Focus was postponed.

Here is an audio file of this show: