News Highlights:

• Oct. 21st – surgery rooms in Gazan hospitals are closed due to lack of anaesthetic as a result of Israeli restrictions; Palestinian human rights groups call on international community to pressure Israel to allow medicine and medical supplies into Gaza.
• Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails go on one-day hunger strike after Israeli authorities kill one prisoner and wound 30 others in the infamous Ketziot “Ansar” prison.
• 8-year-old Palestinian girl dies from wounds sustained during an Israeli attack on Tulkarem.
• PLO official Yasser Abed Rabbo says indirect talks have started between Hamas and Israel and calls for a specific agenda for the upcoming U.S. sponsored summit.
• Arab Israeli MK launches campaign to counter racist bill that will allow the Jewish National Fund to continue to allocate land to Jews only and exclude Arab Israeli citizens.

Feature:

A live interview from Palestine with Huweida Araf, a long-time activist and co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement. Huweida first talked about the grassroots group “Another Voice” that had been part of the opposition to the One Voice program. OneVoice (which included settler parties) had been attempting to organize public concerts in Jericho and TelAviv to supposedly promote “moderate” trends. Huweida explained that it was basically another whitewash of the realities of occupation, and that Palestinians did not need any more simplistic high-profile events that produce nothing. She also updated us on the work of ISM, particularly in regards to the olive harvest now underway.

Focus on Zionism:

Due to the length of the feature and Coop Radio’s fall marathon, Focus was not carried this week.

Here is an audio file of this show:

News Highlights:

• Israeli soldiers kill two Palestinians, including a 70-year-old man, in Nablus.
• U.N. official, John Dugard, says the UN should pull out of the Quartet if the group doesn’t start to take Palestinian human rights seriously; this is the second high-ranking UN official to take this position.
• Israeli settlers attack Palestinian farmer as the olive harvest begins near Nablus.
• U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice plays down any possible breakthrough ahead of the U.S. sponsored summit after meeting with Israeli leaders; Israeli PM Olmert refuses to set any clear timetable.
• Israel launches campaign to try to boost sagging immigration and encourage the Israelis living abroad to return with economic incentives.

Feature:

An interview with American activist and author Lenni Brenner about the new petition campaign calling on the U.S. government to stop selling weapons to both Israel and Saudi Arabia. Brenner pointed out that U.S. policy in the Middle East has always relied on supporting anti-egalitarian and usually religious regimes, with disastrous consequences. He detailed the discrimination against women in Saudi Arabia and Israel, as well as discussing Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians. This new weapons deal involves $50 billion over 10 years and Brenner called on people to support the petition by contacting him at [email protected]

Focus on Zionism:

Due to the length of the feature, Focus was not carried. Also, this show highlighted Coop Radio’s fall fund raising marathon, which people can contribute to at www.coopradio.org.

Here is an audio file of this show:

News Highlights:

• Israel will expropriate more Palestinian land near East Jerusalem, from four Palestinian villages; experts say the move advances Israel’s plan to join Jerusalem with the settlement of Maaleh Adumim, effectively cutting the West Bank into two and severing the northern and southern regions.
• Israeli forces overrun Al Bureij refugee camp in Gaza; earlier, Israeli soldiers assassinated a young Palestinian man near the border crossing.
• Israeli PM Ehud Olmert says an accord with the Palestinians is a long way off and refuses to commit to any timeline.
• Several Palestinian groups say the upcoming U.S. sponsored summit will achieve little, and warned of the underlying U.S.-Israeli agenda.

Feature:

An in-studio discussion about the diplomatic maneuvers currently happening in advance of the U.S. sponsored summit next month. The panel talked about how the Israeli government is refusing to make any substantial commitments and is attempting to play the “Jordanian option”, which has long been a not-so-hidden objective of successive Israeli leaderships. There was also discussion of the recent letter from Dr. Abu Sitta, a renowned Palestinian expert on the right of return, who had warned Mahmoud Abbas against compromising more Palestinian rights, especially any move to recognize Israel as an exclusive national state for Jews.

Focus on Zionism:

Highlights of an Oct. 9th, 2007 press release from the Israeli peace group Gush Shalom, criticizing the insincerity of the Israeli government’s intentions towards any peace negotiations, especially following the new land confiscation around Jerusalem.

Here is an audio file of this show:

News Highlights:

• Israel releases 29 Palestinian prisoners from Gaza, a day after releasing 57 from the West Bank; Israeli soldiers shoot and wound a teen and a Reuters photographer when they fire at the crowd waiting to greet the released detainees.
• New report shows that Israel has changed the route of its apartheid wall to annex even more Palestinian land, especially in the Dead Sea area.
• Palestinian resistance groups criticize Mahmoud Abbas’ meetings with Israeli leaders after Israel kills 12 Palestinians in 24 hours.
• 72% of Israelis support the use of nuclear weapons in certain circumstances according to a new poll; the same number say Israel should not participate in disarmament treaties.

Feature:

An interview with Mustafa Habib, the coordinator for Marcel Khalife’s North American concert tour. Marcel is the well-known progressive Lebanese singer, who often puts the poems of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darweesh to music. Mustafa talked about Marcel’s music, how he was recently honoured as the UNESCO Artist for Peace, and also how reactionary forces in the Arab world have tried to harass and delegitimize him. Marcel is in Vancouver on Oct. 6th and Voice of Palestine drew two free tickets to his concert at the end of the show.

Focus on Zionism:

Highlights of an Oct. 1st, 2007 Haaretz article about an official complaint by a Palestinian Israeli member of Knesset regarding the humiliating treatment at Israel’s airport based solely on ethnicity.

Here is an audio file of this show:

News Highlights:

• U.N. leader warns Israel that its decision to declare all of Gaza as an “enemy entity” and cut off vital utility supplies violates international law; the Israeli move is backed by the U.S. and was announced just hours following a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Rice.
• Palestinian prisoners group says Israel has kidnapped nearly 3500 Palestinians since recent talks started with the appointed Palestinian Ramallah government.
• Israeli court delays ruling on whether the Jewish National Fund should be obligated to end its discriminatory practices of not selling land to non-Jews.
• Prominent Palestinian secular leader, Dr. Haidar Abdul Shafi, dies in a Gaza hospital at age 88 after a long battle with cancer.

Feature:

An Eyewitness Palestine, Eyewitness Gaza, with two reports about the deteriorating situation in Gaza and the latest Israeli move to punish the civilian population there in even more oppressive ways. Amnesty International issued a press release on Sept. 21st, 2007, criticizing the Israeli government decision to tighten the blockade on Gaza and termed it “collective punishment”, illegal under international law. The second report was by Palestinian American Saree Makdisi, entitled “The war on Gaza’s children”.

Focus on Zionism:

Excerpts of a report from the International Middle East Media Center, “A bankrupt Ramadan in Gaza”, detailing some of the difficulties ordinary Gazans were facing during the Moslem holiday season.

Here is an audio file of this show: