CKUT Radio

EI’s Ali Abunimah spoke at McGill this week as part of Social Justice Days, a series of student-organized events that encourage activism. Abunimah is the co-founder of Electronic Intifada, a Web site devoted to covering the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The writer and commentator discussed media coverage and the future of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict at a tea on Friday at 3 p.m. at First Peoples’ House, 3505 Peel. Under the Olive Tree is a weekly Palestinian affairs radio program on CKUT 90.3fm providing an alternative focus on events, issues, arts and current affairs in the Palestinian communities in Montreal, Canada and beyond.

Listen to an interview with Al-Jazeera’s English Gaza correspondent Laila El-Haddad, who has been reporting from Jabaliya refugee camp throughout the recent Israeli incursions. The interview provides a first hand account on the current crisis in Jabaliya, while also focusing on the growing movement throughout the world to introduce an economic boycott toward Israel. Interviewer: Stefan Christoff. Format: MP3, 16:27 minutes.

Listen to an interview with Mahmoud Ziadi, spokes person of the Committee for the Families of Political Prisoners and Detainees in the West Bank. The interview focuses on the current hunger strike of more than 7,000 Palestinian political prisoners throughout Occupied Palestine, while also drawing the links between the current hunger strike and the ongoing Palestinian struggle for liberation from the deadly and illegal Israeli occupation. Interviewer: Stefan Christoff. Format: MP3, 12:15 minutes.

Listen to an interview with Mohamed Omar, an independent Palestinian journalist from Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. Mohamed is the creator of the independent news website Rafah Today, which documents life and death in the Gaza Strip. Mohamed, who’s home was recently demolished by the Israeli military, speaks about the importance of an independent media movement in Palestine to document and uncover the often hidden realities of the Israeli occupation. The interview outlines the current situation in Rafah, focusing on the constant Israeli Occupation Forces incursions into Rafah refugee camp, while also exploring the aftermath of the massive Israeli military incursion dubbed “Operation Rainbow” in late May 2004.

“Peace Under Fire” is a recently published collection of written accounts, drawn from the web-logs and diaries of International Solidarity Movement (ISM) activists, news articles, press releases and reflections of ISM members engaged in confronting the Israeli occupation on the ground in Palestine. During the past 2 years ago the ISM has brought hundreds of international activists to work in the occupied territories in campaigns of non-violent direct action targeting the daily workings of the Israeli occupation. Listen to an interview with Radhika Sainath ISM organizer and an editor of the recently published book.

Listen to an interview with Mohamed, an independent journalist from Rafah Palestine, who posts daily reports and photos about Rafah at the website - http://rafahtoday.org. This interview is a powerful and direct testimony, as to the acts of collective punishment, which have been unleashed on the Palestinian population of Rafah refugee camp. The interview was recorded on Tuesday May 28th, as Israeli troops continued to raid homes in Rafah, confining its 90,000 residents without electricity, water or phones.

An MP3 interview with S’ra DeSantis, a social justice activist and organic farmer in Burlington Vermont. S’ra is currently in Budrus, Palestine, a rural village in the West Bank fighting for its existence against the Israeli military and the planned construction path of the Apartheid Wall. The wall, deemed a “security measure” by the Israeli state, is clearly an effort to steal more Palestinian land. The Palestinian Environmental NGO Network has estimated that upwards of 50 per cent of the West Bank land will be plundered by the completion of the wall, which is not being built on or near the 1967 Green Line and at points reaches 16km deep into the heart of the West Bank.