News Highlights:

• Palestinian Central Election Commission confirmed the election of Mahmoud Abbas, with 62% of the vote in the Jan. 9th presidential elections, and with Mustafa Bargouthi receiving almost 20%; only 46.9% of eligible voters in the occupied territories cast a ballot.
• Israel says Abbas must show his “seriousness” and they have already prepared steps they will demand he take against resistance groups.
• Stopwar.ca, Vancouver’s anti-war coalition, plans to protest the Jan. 11th visit of new Israeli ambassador to Canada Alan Baker.
• The number of Israeli settlers in the West Bank and Gaza increased by 6% in 2004, with an 11% increase in Gaza alone; largest part of increase in Gaza occurred after “disengagement plan” announced.

Feature:

A live interview with Ali Abunimah from Chicago, the cofounder of Electronic Intifada about the Palestinian elections and what the results mean. Ali challenged the concept of elections under occupation and also discussed how these elections would not change any of the core issues in the Palestinian struggle.

Focus on Zionism:

Part of a Jan. 9th report from Znet about how Israeli officials blocked
Palestinian voters in East Jerusalem.

Here is an audio file of this show:

News Highlights:

• Israeli forces kill at least 7 Palestinians, six of them children, after firing on a Gaza family farm; most were from the same family, with the
  youngest victim just 11 years old.
• Palestinian presidential candidate Mahmoud Abbas says he will achieve unity through dialogue.
• Jan. 4th – Israeli chief of staff comments on the killing of a wounded and unarmed Palestinian by Israeli naval commandos; Moshe Yaalon found no
  ethical failings, but some “gaps” in procedure due to the use of Palestinian
  civilians as human shields.

Feature:

A special Eyewitness Elections Palestine, highlighting excerpts of two
statements. The first was an analysis by a Palestinian-American, Haithem El
Zabri, contrasting the two main contenders in the upcoming Jan. 9th
presidential elections, Mahmoud Abbas and Dr. Mustafa Bargouthi
(www.alaqsaintifada.org ). The second was part of the statement released by
the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, explaining why they were
endorsing Mustafa Bargouthi’s candidacy.

Focus on Zionism:

Highlights of a Jan. 3rd, 2005 press release from the Palestinian Centre for
Human Rights, condemning the shooting of a Palestinian journalist by Israeli
forces: www.pchrgaza.org.

News Highlights:

• Dec. 27th – 159 Palestinian prisoners released by Israel, but most had almost completed their sentences and none of the children prisoners were included.
• Israel planning to establish large crossing terminals at points along the apartheid wall, creating a new defacto border; World Bank refuses to help fund such a project.
• Two-week election campaign kicks off Dec. 26th, as seven candidates in the running to succeed Yasser Arafat; two frontrunners are Mahmoud Abbas and Dr. Mustafa Bargouthi.
• Dec. 27 – Palestinian groups denounce British PM’s plan to turn London peace conference into meeting on Palestinian reform; Israel had said it would not attend conference.

Feature:

The Voice of Palestine collective did its annual year in review for 2004 and
a look ahead at 2005. The apartheid wall and the death of Yasser Arafat
were two of the top stories for 2004 and the impact of both were discussed.
The upcoming presidential elections on January 9th, 2005 were also analyzed in detail.

Focus on Zionism:

Highlights of a Dec. 27th press statement by three NGO’s about the conditions under which 350 Palestinian minors are being held in Israeli jails. None of the children prisoners, or female Palestinian political prisoners, were included in the recent prisoner release.

News Highlights:

• Israeli raid into Khan Younis refugee camp leaves 12 Palestinians dead and 40 injured, with 40 homes destroyed and the electricity grid damaged.
• Palestinian presidential frontrunner Mahmoud Abbas dismisses Ariel Sharon’s Gaza plans as “nothing new”; Abbas says he will never concede the right of return.
• Israeli soldier on trial for killing British peace activist Tom Hurndall admits he was lying when he said Tom was carrying a weapon; says he was under orders to fire on unarmed people.
• British PM Tony Blair arrives for talks with Israeli and Palestinian
  leaders, after trip to Iraq; January “peace conference” in Britain has
  become a “reform meeting” for Palestinians as Israel will not attend.
• Final section of news was two Christmas messages, one from Sabeel, the
  Jerusalem ecumenical group www.sabeel.org and the second a message sent to
  Paul Martin by the chairperson of the Canada Palestine Association.

Feature:

An interview with Fatima, a South African peace volunteer, with the
International Womens Peace Service. Fatima talked about her experiences in
the West Bank village of Bilin, near Ramallah, and about the arrest and
detention of another IWPS member by Israeli forces.

Focus on Zionism:

Highlights of a new UN report on Bethlehem, about the effects of Israeli
policies on the spiritual, cultural and economic life of the town.

News Highlights:

• Dec. 11th – 7 year old Palestinian girl killed by Israeli fire as she was
  eating lunch with her family.
• Palestinian resistance blows up Israeli military post, killing 5 soldiers.
• Dec. 12th – Marwan Bargouthi, the West Bank Fateh leader jailed by Israel,
  pulls out of January 9th Palestinian elections; wants to reinforce
  Palestinian unity.
• Dec. 13th – leading presidential candidate Mahmoud Abbas calls on Palestinians
  to drop armed struggle.
• Dec. 10th – Israeli forces harass and detain a Palestinian candidate at a
  checkpoint near Jerusalem.
• Dec. 8th – another candidate Dr. Mustafa Bargouthi also beaten and briefly
  detained near Jenin; says, “This is deliberate sabotage against the
  elections”.

Feature:

A live interview with Sid Shniad, a member of the Trade Union Committee for
Justice in the Middle East, TUCJME. Sid talked about the recent resolution
passed at the B.C. Federation of Labour convention, which called on the
Canadian government to help dismantle the separation wall Israeli is
building in the West Bank. TUCJME had played an important role in getting
the resolution onto the floor at the convention. Sid also talked about the
increasingly supportive attitudes towards the Palestinian struggle in many
sectors of Canadian society and then updated listeners on Stopwar’s
activities.

Focus on Zionism:

Highlights of a commentary written by a Palestinian American activist on the
International Day of Human Rights. The author, Haithem el-Zabri, focused on
the forgotten children of Palestine, and the daily abuse of their most basic
rights by the Israeli occupation.