News Highlights:

• Nilin village hold their weekly anti-wall protest and call for the release of political activists arrested by the Israeli military.
• Bilin committee gives details of the killing of a Palestinian teen by Israeli forces outside Yabad village on September 30th, 2009.
• Israeli authorities are stepping up their military repression in occupied East Jerusalem, in what some correspondents say is reminiscent of 1967.
• Israeli officials are calling off their visits to Britain, fearing arrest on suspicion of committing war crimes.
• Palestinian anger grows over the decision of the Palestinian Authority to delay the endorsement of the Goldstone report on possible Israeli war crimes in Gaza.

Feature:

An interview with British journalist Ben White about his cross-Canada tour to present his new book, Israeli Apartheid: A Beginners Guide. Ben talked about how he had been visiting Palestine for the last 6 years, mostly in the Bethlehem region, and what he had experienced and witnessed during those trips. He also detailed the stops on his current tour, hosted by Solidarity with Palestinian Human Rights SPHR, including two in B.C., and explained how his new book is intended to present information about the nature of Israel’s apartheid system in a easy-to-read and concise format.

Focus on Zionism:

Excerpts of a report from Defence for Children International – Palestine, indicating that the number of Palestinian minors detained in Israeli prison facilities at the end of September, 2009 was 326, and the number of children detainees aged 12-15 increased sharply over 2008.

Here is an audio file of this show:

News Highlights:

• Palestinian human rights groups condemn Israel’s provocative actions in the alAqsa Mosque in occupied east Jerusalem, which resulted in more than 20 Palestinian civilians being wounded by rubber-coated bullets or beatings.
• Palestinian archbishop Atallah Hanna criticizes Israel’s actions in Jerusalem.
• Israel threatens to withhold permission for a second Palestinian cellphone network if the Palestinian Authority doesn’t drop its call for The Hague to investigate allegations of Israeli war crimes in Gaza.
• Palestinian fishermen in Gaza are calling for protection against daily Israeli aggression both at sea and on shore; boats and nets are destroyed and fishermen often arrested.
• Major Egyptian media group Al Ahram will boycott Israel and Israeli officials.

Feature:

A live instudio interview with Jane Power from Vancouver, who holds a PhD in history and is well versed in the Arab region’s history and politics. She just returned from a visit to Lebanon, where she had gone to see the Shatila and Nahr el Bared refugee camps and explained that she had been part of an Italian delegation that has been going every year on the anniversary of the Sabra-Shatila massacre. Jane talked about the conditions in the camps, the daily living environment for the children, and the lack of re-construction especially in the Nahr el Bared camp in the north that was almost completely destroyed a few years ago by the Lebanese military. She concluded by calling on listeners to pressure the Canadian government to be more accountable and also urged people to become as informed as possible.

Focus on Zionism:

Excerpts of a September 28th, 2009 National story about a Palestinian Israeli in Jaffa who is imprisoned in his own home for protesting the Israeli military attacks on Gaza.

Here is an audio file of this show:

News Highlights:

• Israeli forces invade the village of Bilin again, attacking several homes and trying to arrest activists.
• Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian motorist, claiming he failed to stop at a border checkpoint.
• Mahmoud Abbas agrees to meet with Israeli PM Netanyahu and U.S. President Obama in New York, despite Israel’s refusal to freeze settlement building.
• Jimmy Carter says Israel must stop building settlements if peace is ever to be achieved
  Spanish Housing Ministry disqualifies Ariel University Center from an international competition because the Israeli university is “located in occupied territories”.

Feature:

The feature was highlights of a speech given by Hanna Kawas to the second annual Palestine Lives Conference at McMaster University on the subject of “Canadian Policy on Palestine”. The conference in April 2006 was organized by the Solidarity with Palestinian Human Rights group at the campus and brought together many Palestinian academics and activists for a full day of workshops and talks on Palestinian solidarity issues. Hanna spoke about Canadian complicity in Palestinian dispossession, both historically and in current terms.

Focus on Zionism:

Highlights of a September, 18th, 2009 Electronic Intifada article about how the global Boycott Israel movement is derailing the construction of a new Jerusalem transit system, due to the withdrawal of the French company Veolia.

Here is an audio file of this show:

News Highlights:

• Israeli officials give demolition orders for 6 Palestinian homes near al-Tuwani in the south Hebron Hills.
• Israeli settlers vow to continue building and insist the Israeli government has no real desire to halt settlement expansion.
• Brazilian parliamentary commission recommends not ratifying the Free Trade Agreement with Israel.
• American pension fund TIAA-CREF no longer invests in Africa Israel, which helps build illegal Israeli settlement homes.
• Palestinian artists call on Arab directors to withdraw their films from the Toronto Film Festival, to support the protest over the Tel Aviv spotlight at the Festival.

Feature:

The feature was a live interview with bhYael from Toronto about the protest against the Toronto Int’l Film Festival Spotlight on Tel Aviv. Yael, herself a film and video-maker, is a member of the committee that initiated the protest letter to TIFF, and she updated us on the numerous signatories to the letter. She explained that the action was not a boycott of the event, but rather people protesting TIFF’s being “complicit in the Israeli propaganda machine” and its part in the Rebrand Israel PR campaign. There was also discussion of the events around the protest, including a press conference and a lively public meeting with various filmmakers and artists on hand.

Focus on Zionism:

Excerpts of a Sept. 10th, 2009 open letter from the Popular Committee in Bilin to Sweden, calling on the Swedish pension fund to divest from companies supporting Israeli human rights abuses, in particular Israel Discount Bank.

Here is an audio file of this show: