News Highlights:

• 63-year-old Palestinian American man dies of a heart attack at Israeli checkpoint after suffering repeated abuse from the Israeli soldiers stationed there.
• Palestinians in Gaza face daily hardships due to the Israeli siege, including lining up to fill a few containers with fresh water to serious environmental damage due to the use of dangerous fuels, especially cooking oil in cars.
• Student organization in Quebec votes to support the boycott Israeli apartheid movement.
• Israeli authorities continue to target Palestinian villages near the Separation Wall, or its planned path, most recently Beit Awa and Husan, west of Hebron/AlKhalil.

Feature:

A live interview from Palestine with Wael Elasady, from the Popular Committee in Bilin. Wael spoke about the third annual Bilin conference that just ended, and the Israeli military’s violent attack on the June 6th peaceful demo at the conclusion of the conference that resulted in the injury of an Italian judge. Bilin is the Palestinian village that has for 3 years been carrying on non-violent actions against the apartheid wall, which is destroying the village’s livelihood and way of life. Wael also informed us about the resolutions passed at the conference, including support for the global boycott Israel movement.

Focus on Zionism:

Highlights of a June 9th, 2008 article by Palestinian writer Omar Bargouthi, carried in the Electronic Intifada, which outlined why the boycott Israel movement is the most effective and moral way to support the Palestinians and peace in the entire region.

Here is an audio file of this show:

News Highlights:

• 12 Palestinians wounded and five taken prisoner by the Israeli army during a non-violent protest at the separation barrier in Bilin village.
• Palestinian NGOs welcome the decision of the British University and College Union to take steps to hold Israel accountable for its violations of international law and to send a delegation to Gaza.
• U.N. is “concerned” over new settlement expansion in occupied Jerusalem, after Israeli housing ministry announces 884 more settlement units to be built.
• Israeli human rights group Peace Now criticizes the construction and says it pre-empts any final peace deal.
• Hamas officials welcome moves towards possible reconciliation with Fateh, after Mahmoud Abbas says in a press conference he will consider any efforts towards unity.

Feature:

A live interview with Jewish American folk singer David Rovics, who was coming to BC for several performances on June 5th and 6th. David talked about how he got involved with progressive politics and his commitment to struggles around the world, even though some of his family had shunned him because of his pro-Palestinian activities. There was also discussion of the effectiveness of the anti-war movement in North America, and the role of popular culture in mobilizing people. David concluded by giving details of his events in Victoria and Vancouver, and explained how people can download his music or buy his CD’s from his website, www.davidrovics.com

Focus on Zionism:

Excerpts of a U.N. report about how a water project in a West Bank village will help those 22,000 people, but was only a “drop in the ocean” for the 200,000 West Bank Palestinians not connected to water networks.

Here is an audio file of this show:

News Highlights:

• Jimmy Carter says Israel has nuclear arsenal of 150 or more during a literary festival in Wales; he also states that Gaza blockade is a “human rights crime”.
• 163 Palestinian patients have now died in Gaza due to the Israeli siege that severely limits access to medical treatment.
• Israel has arrested more than 2700 Palestinians so far this year, mostly in the West Bank; there are now 1100 Palestinians in administrative detention, without charge or trial.
• Activists in the village of Bilin try to halt construction of an illegal settlement outpost.
• Archbishop Desmond Tutu will finally enter Gaza to conduct a U.N. investigation into the killing of 19 Palestinians, almost all from the same family by Israeli forces; after 18 months of being denied a visa by Israel, Tutu will cross the border at Rafah via Egypt.

Feature:

An Eyewitness Palestine/Eyewitness Gaza that highlighted the daily suffering of Palestinian women and children in Gaza as they attempt to keep their families intact against overwhelming obstacles. The first report from the International Committee of the Red Cross spoke about the trials of one woman whose husband had been in an Israeli jail for 23 years, and whom she can no longer even visit due to the Israeli suspension of all family visits for almost a year. The second report detailed how the Israeli siege is leading to soaring anaemia in Gaza newborns and the population in general, as the Int’l. Middle East Media Centre interviewed leading medical personnel in Gaza hospitals.

Focus on Zionism:

Excerpts of a “Narrative under Siege” from the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (www.pchrgaza.org) about the Israeli military destruction of a family farm in Gaza, which Palestinian officials say is happening at an increasing rate especially in border areas.

Here is an audio file of this show:

News Highlights:

• Palestinian NGO, Al Haq, calls for investigation into the Israeli settler killing of a young Palestinian man near Ramallah on May 9th.
• International investors arrive in Bethlehem for investment conference, as Tony Blair promises easing of checkpoints in West Bank; many Palestinian NGOs are sceptical and say the conference is just another attempt at “normalizing the occupation”.
• Two groups representing Palestinian citizens of Israel will sue the Israeli government for attacking an alNakba rally.
• Arab media reports that PA officials criticize speech of George Bush to the Israeli Knesset and Mahmoud Abbas concludes peace talks have failed, after receiving European reports that the U.S. government would not exert pressure on Israel.
• Israeli officials are holding talks with Hamas, as France also confirms its has had indirect talks with the Palestinian group.

Feature:

A live interview with Carolle Charlebois Nakleh from Montreal about the Palestinian Child Sponsorship Program she is involved with. Carolle spoke about the Canadian Palestinian Foundation of Quebec, the organization that runs the program, who the partner groups in Palestine are, including Inash al Usra near Ramallah, and how the Palestinian children and their families are helped. Carolle concluded by telling us about her trip to Palestine with her family in 2006 and calling on listeners to go to the CPFQ website if they would like to sponsor a child.

Focus on Zionism:

Highlights of a May 20th, 2008 release from the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights documenting the continued practice of Israeli extra-judicial executions of Palestinians.

Here is an audio file of this show:

News Highlights:

• UN demands an investigation into the killing of one of its Palestinian teachers by the Israeli military; Israeli soldiers blasted down the front door of an UNRWA teacher’s home with explosives, killing her immediately in the presence of her 3 children.
• Israeli police interrogate advisors to Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Fayyad in Jerusalem.
• Al Nakba commemorations take place around the world, and all over Palestine; 1500 people march in Hebron to mark the 60 years of dispossession by Israel and also to criticize the appointed Palestinian Authority in the West Bank for food shortages.
• In Vancouver and many other cities, progressive Jews join the Nakba protests; in Seattle and Los Angeles, many are arrested or physically escorted out of Israel at 60 events.
• A new winery is being built by Israeli settlers in an illegal settlement outpost that the Israeli government previously promised to dismantle.

Feature:

A live interview from Palestine with Muhammed Jaradat, the Coordinator of Badil Refugee Rights Campaign, headquartered in Bethlehem. Muhammed talked about his organization Badil and its work advocating for Palestinian refugees (www.badil.org). He also detailed events of the Nakba and how the dispossession of the Palestinians began long before the state of Israel was officially created. Muhammed concluded by calling on people to support the growing boycott Israel movement.

Focus on Zionism:

Highlights of a May 11th, 2008 report from the Arab Association for Human Rights, entitled Ethnic Cleansing Continues in Jaffa, that was carried on the Electronic Intifada.

Here is an audio file of this show:

News Highlights:

• Israeli military continues attacks in the Gaza Strip, killing one and injuring five on May 4 in Khan Younis, as Israel rejects Egyptian-sponsored ceasefire.
• 3 more Gazan patients die due to the Israeli blockade and lack of access to medical care.
• Dubai refuses to allow Lev Leviev jewellery stores to open after protest campaigns point out his companies’ settlement construction in the occupied West Bank.
• Israeli government recommends granting “city status” to settlement of Modi’in Illit, which has been involved in “illegal construction” (along with a Leviev company) in Mattityahu East on stolen Palestinian land from the village of Bilin.
• Vancouver activists picket the Israeli Wine Festival on May 4, which was held at and cosponsored by the Four Seasons Hotel, now owned by Bill Gates and Saudi Prince al Waleed bin Talal; Canada Palestine Association has called for a boycott of Israeli wines now being carried in some BC liquor stores and for a boycott of the Four Seasons (see www.cpavancouver.org ).

Feature:

An interview with Dr. Salman Abu Sitta, a Palestinian scholar and recognized expert on the right of return. Dr. Abu Sitta, himself a Palestinian refugee, is a member of the Palestine National Council and founder of the Palestine Land Society in London. He talked in detail about the unfolding of the 1948 al Nakba, how it actually began before May 1948, and how the U.N. Partition Plan had never envisaged an exclusive Jewish state. Dr. Abu Sitta also explained the legal basis of the Palestinian right of return, how Israel’s acceptance to the U.N. had been conditional upon implementing it, and finally emphasized that no official body (Palestinian or otherwise) was empowered to relinquish such inalienable rights.

Focus on Zionism:

Highlights of a May 6th, 2008 press release from the Maan news agency in Bethlehem, talking about a report from the Hebron Prisoners Society that said 93 Palestinians were arrested in April by Israeli forces, including 9 children.

Here is an audio file of this show:

News Highlights:

• Human Rights Watch says Palestinian cameraman killed by Israeli tank fire may have been deliberately targeted.
• Hamas sends Egyptian mediators a draft proposal for a limited ceasefire with Israel.
• Hamas MPs call for Arab intervention to lift the blockade on Gaza.
• U.S. officials say they warned Jimmy Carter not to meet with Hamas leaders.
• United Arab Emirates is allowing Lev Leviev, whose companies are constructing illegal Israeli settlements, to open jewellery stores in Dubai.
• Israeli government will compensate the family of British filmmaker James Miller, who was killed by Israeli troops in Rafah.

Feature:

An interview with Dr. Assad Abu Sharkh from Al-Azhar University in Gaza. Dr. Abu Sharkh spoke about the horrific conditions Gazans are currently suffering under, due to the Israeli blockade. He detailed how hospitals couldn’t function properly, how sewage can’t be properly treated, how public transport cannot operate and all the other daily hardships being imposed upon the Palestinian population as collective punishment. Dr. Abu Sharkh also criticized the inaction and silence of the Arab regimes over the siege on Gaza, and highlighted the importance of the global Boycott Israeli movement as a way to achieve peace with justice.

Focus on Zionism:

Due to the length and importance of the interview, Focus was not presented.

Here is an audio file of this show:

News Highlights:

• On April 11th, Israeli military forces invade Bureij refugee camp in northern Gaza and kill 7 Palestinians, 6 of whom were children and teenagers.
• Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza issues urgent report that the Israeli ban on fuel supplies is paralysing all aspects of daily life, in the educational, health and other sectors.
• Israeli security services, Shin Bet, admits to arresting or pretending to arrest relatives of detainees to extract confessions.
• Former U.S. President Carter visits Middle East, and plans to visit with leaders of Hamas; although Carter is attacked and shunned by U.S. and Israeli government officials, the father of captured soldier Gilad Shalit meets with Carter and praises his efforts.

Feature:

We were unable to reach Dr. Assad AbuSharkh from the One Democratic State Group in Gaza by phone (see followup interview April 22nd, 2008). Two on the ground reports from Gaza were presented in his absence, the first more of the report from the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights on the deteriorating daily living conditions in Gaza, and the second, a report from the Electronic Intifada about how local radio stations in Gaza are broadcasting live appeals in an attempt to help the sick and injured when Palestinian ambulances can’t reach them because they are fired upon by invading Israeli troops.

Focus on Zionism:

Highlights of an April 15th, 2008 report from the International Media Centre IMEMC about the attacks by Israeli soldiers on the Islamic Charitable Society in Hebron/Alkhalil that has been ordered closed by the Israeli government. The society serves thousands of families and children, 300 of who live in its orphanages.

Here is an audio file of this show:

News Highlights:

• Palestinian shepherd boy killed in hit and run by Israeli settler who left the boy to die on the road.
• Israeli Shin Bet leader says Israel must not remove any of its over 700 roadblocks in the West Bank until the apartheid wall is finished.
• Israeli police release 7 peace radio staffers from detention, a day after shutting down the station in Jerusalem, a move criticized by the Foreign Press Association.
• U.S. security is helping to train new elite Palestinian Authority unit in Jordan, that will be sent to the West Bank to enforce “law and order”.

Feature:

The feature was an interview with Diana Ralph, the spokesperson for the Association of Concerned Jewish Canadians ACJC. Diana explained how they had just held their founding conference in Toronto and had brought together many progressive Jewish Canadians that have criticisms of Israeli government policy. The conference was critical of the Israeli occupation and the blockade of Gaza as well as expressing support for universal human rights and compliance with international law. ACJC also calls to question the mainstream Canadian Zionist groups that support Israeli actions unconditionally.

Focus on Zionism:

Highlights of an April 6th, 2008 Haaretz article about how Israeli police allowed settlers to return to an illegal outpost. This was the tenth time the settlers were evacuated and then return, something that attorney Michael Sfard of Yesh Din human rights group said has been used to inflate Israeli claims of outpost evacuations.

Here is an audio file of this show: