News Highlights:

• Amnesty Int’l. says Israel’s separation wall should be torn down and it has caused death and suffering for Palestinians.
• Bethlehem residents protest at an Israeli checkpoint, as part of a week of activities to mark the 40th anniversary of Israel’s occupation of Arab lands.
• Israel sends ground troops and tanks about a kilometre into Gaza.
• Israeli snipers kill two Palestinian children who were scavenging building materials in a former Israeli settlement; the 12-year-old boys wanted to get food for their families.
• Israeli Peace Now group demonstrates in Hebron/Alkhalil and calls for the removal of all Jewish settlers.
• Palestinian government endorses plan for ceasefire with Israel but Israeli PM rejects it.

Feature:

An interview with Palestinian writer and intellectual, Dr. Nasser Aruri, about the 1967 war and the subsequent occupation by Israel of Palestinian and Arab land. Dr. Aruri talked about the historical context of the war and what were the future prospects for peace. Dr. Aruri was scheduled to speak at a public meeting in Vancouver as part of a week of local activities marking the 40th anniversary of the Israeli occupation.

Focus on Zionism:

Highlights of an article by Palestinian American writer Ali Abunimah about recent racist statements by Israel’s former Sephardic Chief Rabbi, who had said there was “no moral prohibition against the indiscriminate killing of civilians…”.

Here is an audio file of this show:

News Highlights:

• May 21st – Israeli forces have killed 36 Palestinians, including 18 civilians in six days of aerial attacks; Palestinian Centre for Human Rights exposes Israeli policy of retaliations against the Palestinian civilian population.
• Israeli cabinet decides to “intensify its operations” in Gaza, just hours before its assassination attempt on a Palestinian MP that kills seven members of his family, including his 60-year-old father.
• May 20th – Israeli forces destroy a Palestinian orchard near Bethlehem, arresting 4 Israeli activists and roughing up the Palestinian Minister of Information.
• Palestinian groups adhere to the latest ceasefire to end internal clashes but many analysts say the solution is only temporary.
• Thousands flee a refugee camp in northern Lebanon as Lebanese troops bombard the camp in their fight with a little-known militant group

Feature:

An instudio discussion featuring analysis about the internal Palestinian clashes in Gaza, the latest Israeli attacks on Gaza and the developing crisis in the Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. The collective discussed how the latest “internal ceasefire” in Gaza was tenuous at best and how external forces were exploiting the situation. It was pointed out that the ongoing economic siege on Gaza had contributed to the deteriorating situation. The panel also talked about the bombardment of the camp in Lebanon and how Palestinian refugees are in a vulnerable position in various Arab countries, and this is why they insist on the right of return and an independent Palestinian state.

Focus on Zionism:

Highlights of a May 22nd, 2007 Reporters Without Borders release, condemning Israeli army raids on Palestinian TV and radio stations in Nablus.

Here is an audio file of this show:

News Highlights:

• 20 Palestinians have died in Gaza in 3 days, most of them in factional clashes, as Palestinian Interior Minister resigns.
• 13 Palestinians killed on May 15 alone, as the clashes escalate and Israel briefly opens the Rafah crossing to allow 450 Presidential Guard members into Gaza.
• International Cmte. of the Red Cross, in a confidential document, says Israel is violating int’l. law in East Jerusalem and isolating Palestinians from the city.
• A report by two Israeli civil rights groups states that Palestinians have had to leave more than 1000 homes in the center of Hebron/AlKhalil due to Israeli military and settler harassment.

Feature:

An interview with Dr. Ismail Zayid, a Palestinian Canadian scholar and activist from Halifax, about the 59th commemoration of AlNakba, the dispossession of the Palestinian people. Dr. Zayid, who was taped earlier in the day, spoke about the horrific events of 1948 and his own experiences as a young teenager at the time. There was also discussion of the current situation, especially the shameful internal clashes going on in Gaza, regrettably on the same day as the AlNakba anniversary.

Focus on Zionism:

Excerpts of a May 10th, 2007 article in The Economist about how increasing numbers of Palestinians in East Jerusalem are being stripped of their residency rights by Israel.

Here is an audio file of this show:

News Highlights:

• Israeli human rights groups confirm that Palestinian detainees are tortured by Israel, in defiance of rulings by the Israeli Supreme Court.
• Israeli soldiers are smashing down doors to homes and harassing school children in the Qalqiya area, all without making any arrests.
• S. African cabinet minister, Ronnie Kasrils, himself Jewish, denounces critics of his invitation to Palestinian PM to visit S. Africa.
• York University settles with Daniel Freeman-Malloy, the pro-Palestinian student activist barred from campus for his role in two protests.

Feature:

The feature was a special Eyewitness Palestine, with excerpts of the article by well-known Israeli journalist Gideon Levy about the brutal killing of a Palestinian teenage girl in Jenin refugee camp by an Israeli sniper. The article, carried in the May 6th, 2007 Haaretz newspaper, and entitled “Bushra’s final exam”, told the story of Bushra Bargis who was shot to death in her own home while studying for one of her matriculation exams. The story movingly recreated the last hours of her life and also shared the horrors of her mother who was the one to find Bushra in a pool of blood on the floor.

Feature:

The feature was a special Eyewitness Palestine, with excerpts of the article by well-known Israeli journalist Gideon Levy about the brutal killing of a Palestinian teenage girl in Jenin refugee camp by an Israeli sniper. The article, carried in the May 6/07 Haaretz newspaper, and entitled “Bushra’s final exam”, told the story of Bushra Bargis who was shot to death in her own home while studying for one of her matriculation exams. The story movingly recreated the last hours of her life and also shared the horrors of her mother who was the one to find Bushra in a pool of blood on the floor.

Focus on Zionism:

Highlights of a May 8th, 2007 story in the Israeli Haaretz newspaper about the visit of U.S. airport directors to study Israeli airline passenger screening i.e. racial profiling.

Here is an audio file of this show:

News Highlights:

• Thousands protest in Nazareth in support of Azmi Bishara, the Israeli Palestinian political leader and former Knesset member being persecuted by the Israeli establishment.
• Israel seizes more Palestinian land near Jericho to build the separation wall.
• A recent UN report shows that the humanitarian situation in the occupied Palestinian territories is deteriorating rapidly; in Gaza, 80% of households earn less than $1US/day.
• Israeli PM Olmert under pressure to resign after critical report is released on Israel’s handling of its 2006 war on Lebanon.
• Quartet members plan to meet with Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia to discuss the 2002 Arab peace initiative; U.S. reportedly wants Saudi Arabia to deal publicly now with Israel before any agreement is reached.

Feature:

The feature was a cultural one, highlighting the music of famous Egyptian nationalist singer Abdul Halim Hafez. Several of Abdul Halim’s songs were played and some of the lyrics translated. There was also discussion of what he had meant to his generation in the 1960s as a voice for the nationalist aspirations of the long-colonized Arab people.

Focus on Zionism:

Highlights of an April 28th, 2007 report from International Solidarity Movement Hebron about the Israeli settler and military harassment of human rights workers.

Here is an audio file of this show: