Friday, March 25, 2016
www.mondoweiss.net
As the world celebrates World Water Day this week, Palestinians in
refugee camps across the occupied West Bank are preparing for the
summer, when water becomes scarce.
MK Oren Hazan at the Knesset, Israel's apartheid parliament. March 16th, 2016. MK Ahmad Tibi is chairing the session.
"Tibi is sitting here, telling us fairy tales about wanting to become the Prime Minister.
You are saying that 'this is ours.'
Habibi, I think they should start giving away popcorn back there, for the movie that you live in.
This is not yours! It is ours!
It was always ours! Always! And will always remain ours."
"The land of Israel is for the people of Israel. Not for Ishmael.
What can we do?"
"Hi, my name is Hala. The Canadian parliament recently passed a motion
to formally condemn the BDS movement - the boycott, divestment and
sanctions movement. The problem is that it is our freedom of speech and
our freedom of choice that we are touching.
Countries that do not
respect human rights and international law need to be condemned, not the
BDS movement. Countries like Saudi Arabia that do not respect women's
liberty. Where Raif Badawi is condemned to a thousand lashes for
criticizing radical Islam. Countries like Israel, that still in 2016
colonize, bomb and treat Palestinians like third class citizens."
- Hala Yassin, endorses BDS during Miss Canada contest
==
“If
I win, I will proudly wear my crown on a boat to Gaza, in protests for
social justice and against austerity,” says Hala, Miss Canada finalist, a
civil engineer and board member of PAJU (Palestinian & Jewish
Unity).
When assessing her chances of winning on March 5, she asks:
“Does Miss Canada want that kind of publicity? Miss Canada calling for a boycott of Israel? I don’t think so.”
Whether
they want this kind of publicity or not, they probably will get some of
it since the Canadian Parliament overwhelmingly voted in favor of a
motion condemning the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS)
last week. Apart from her desire to promote the rights of indigenous
people from Turtle Island, as they used to call Canada, defending the
rights of the Palestinians and calling for the boycott of Israel happen
to be the main reasons why Hala is part of the Miss Canada contest. “I’m
using the platform to spread my message of peace. I don’t really care
about winning,” she says, casually.
In the wake of last week’s
vote, will the organisation come under fire for having a contestant who
actively protests against Israel’s lack of respect for human rights, war
crimes and apartheid policies and is actively engaged in promoting the
BDS campaign?
As a counter to the annual AIPAC meeting, anti-Occupation activists hold a conference.
Conference on Israel's influence: Philip Weiss
https://youtu.be/mnvlGNo4GKY
Conference on Israel's influence: Philip Weiss
https://youtu.be/mnvlGNo4GKY
Short video of the police execution of Bashar Massalha, 21, after being
captured and 'neutralized' following a suspected attack on March 8th,
2016. Bashar seems to no longer pose any threat to his surrounding,
while at the same time it is possible to hear the encouragement or
incitement by the nearby civilians to kill him off.
Friday 18.3.2016 protest by the village of Nabi Saleh in the occupied
West Bank against the theft of their land and their spring by the
neighboring settlement Halamish, against the Israeli occupation and
against apartheid. New long-range gas projectiles call the "saruch" were
used by the army,. as they have been recently
Friday, March 18, 2016
from Mondoweiss
KUFR QADDUM, West Bank -- During the past six month, Israeli forces have
injured more than 2,177 Palestinian children in direct conflict,
according to documentation by the United Nations.
On March 13,
11-year-old Khalid Ishtawy joined the thousands of other children
injured by Israeli forces, when he was shot in the thigh in the northern
occupied West Bank village of Kufr Qaddum.
The bullet exploded and embedded itself inside Khalid’s leg, causing a full fracture, according to the boy’s doctor.
Kufr
Qaddum’s popular movement, known for its rather intense weekly Friday
protests against Israel’s blockade of the village’s main road, which
leads to the economic hub of Nablus, is a leader in the West Bank’s
popular resistance.
Khalid’s father, Murad, is a community
leader in Kufr Qaddum and spokesperson for the Fatah movement in
Qalqiliya. Murad showed Mondoweiss around the protest, and introduced us
to other children his son’s age who participate.
Murad said
that while children are encouraged to come to the weekly demonstrations,
they are not allowed at the front of the protest.
Murad also
added that he knows the international community criticize’s and
question’s the role of children at such demonstrations, but stressed
that Palestinians in the occupied territory are trying hard to balance
keeping their children safe, without teaching them to live in fear of
the occupying power that surrounds their lives.
“We don’t push
our children to face this ‘very strong army’ as the Israelis consider
themselves,” he said. “When we feel danger, we push our children behind
us to keep them safe.”
“We want them to have all rights as any
of the children around the world. They are the same children. The child
in Palestine, or the child in Israel, all the children in the world are
the same children,” he said.
Video: Abed Al Qaisi and Sheren Khalel
Friday, March 11, 2016
At an International Women's Day event at Ben Gurion University of the
Negev in Be'er Sheva, African Hebrew Israelite community member She'efah
Baht Israel questions Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely
about the the Israeli army's response to the mysterious death of Toveet
Radcliffe, the first African-American to die while serving in the
Israeli army. Camera: Ahmahlyah Elyahshuv
From Mondoweiss
Eight months after the firebombing that killed five-year-old Ahmad
Dawabshe’s baby brother and parents in the occupied West Bank village of
Duma, he is still undergoing treatment in the Sheba Medical Center in
Ramat Gan.
Ahmad is energetic and enthralled with car-racing
video games, like any child his age. “People see that he’s coming and
going and playing and laughing. But his health situation now – he has
serious injuries and will need a long time to heal,” his maternal
grandfather and caretaker Hussein Dawabshe tells Mondoweiss's Dan Cohen.
Ahmad
and his grandfather rarely leave the hospital. In front of a Ramat Gan
supermarket last month, Dawabshe tells Cohen, Israeli children
recognized Ahmad and threw metal cans at them before he chased them
away. “There are good Israelis, but there are also bad ones. Sometimes
it’s not easy to tell which is which,” he said.
Friday, March 4, 2016
Elementary school children from the Bedouin village of Abu Nuwar in the
Occupied West Bank were left to study outside after Israel demolished
their school. The village is located in an area known as E-1, a zone
demarcated for the planned expansion of the nearby illegal Israeli
settlement of Maale Adumim.
An emotional reunion took place after Mohammed al-Qiq's family visited
him in the first time in more than 90 days after he ended his 94-day
hunger strike last week. The 33-year-old journalist and father of two
ended his protest as part of a compromise deal with Israel to free him
from detention without charge or trial.
On Wednesday evening, 24th February 2015, a commemoration for the
victims of the 1994 Ibrahimi Mosque massacre in occupied al-Khalil
(Hebron), was interrupted by infamous settlers attacking the group of
Palestinians and internationals peacefully remembering the killed and
the implications of this massacre on basic Palestinians rights.
Today in 1994, Jewish extremist settler Baruch Goldstein massacred 29
Palestinians as they prayed inside Hebron's Ibrahimi Mosque. In
response, the Israeli military shut down the city's main commercial
street for Palestinians, Shuhada Street. 22 years later, Shuhada Street
remains closed and freedom of movement in Hebron is more restricted than
ever for its Palestinian residents. Issa Amro and his organization,
Youth Against Settlements, have launched the #OpenShuhadaSt campaign to
bring attention to what is happening in Hebron.
“We are being treated as if we were criminals”, said Ayed Al Azzeh,
shaking his head. A schoolteacher from Bethlehem, Ayed is one of
thousands of public-sector teachers across the West Bank who have been
striking since February 10th.
The strike comes after teachers
claim the Palestinian Authority (PA) failed to follow through with wage
increases, promised after strikes in 2013. Teachers’ salaries have been
frozen for the past few years, despite rising living costs.
Approximately
20,000 protestors demonstrated in Ramallah upon the launch of the
strike in the largest gathering since Arafat’s death in 2004, initiating
a government crackdown on any further attempts of mass mobilization.
Despite
the efforts of the Palestinian police and army, an estimated 15,000
protestors gathered in Ramallah for a second time on Tuesday, demanding
the government meets their demands.
In an exclusive video for
Mondoweiss, teachers at Tuesday’s protest reveal the obstacles they had
to overcome merely to be present, and why they are resolute to continue
the strike until the government concedes.
Video: Megan Hanna and Maya al-Orzza
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