Following the recent massacre in Beit Hanoun, a group of citizens, united by sense of outrage at the silence of western and Arab governments, will be engaging in a four day hunger strike, outside of the UNIFIL office in Tyre in solidarity with the besieged people of Gaza. Nationalities participating include Lebanese, Palestinian, US, and Irish activists. The participants have worked for the past months in humanitarian and community projects in villages in the South. This symbolic hunger strike will take place from Tuesday 14th November till Friday 18th November 2006. We are choosing to be hungry in solidarity with those who have no choice. As a result of continual economic and military siege the majority of Palestinians now live in extreme poverty. Read more about Lebanese activists: UN past time to disarm Israel
MONTREAL: As Israeli continues its brutal assault on the Gaza Strip, Montrealers took the streets to voice solidarity with the Palestinian people. Hundreds of demonstrators marched through the heart of Montreal reflecting growing international outrage toward the latest attack on Gaza. “Intifada! Intifada! Long Live the Intifada!” shouted demonstrators marching under rainy skies, in contrast to the silence of Canadian politicians in response to Israeli war crimes committed in the Gaza town of Beit Hanoun. Read more about Montreal in Solidarity with Beit Hanoun
As part of the International Week of Action Against the Apartheid Wall, Australians for Palestine took part in a Stop the Wall rally today and contributed an amazing mock wall. The wall was assembled before the rally began and attracted many curious onlookers who soon learned that this wall was only a third of the height of the actual wall being illegally built by Israel in the West Bank. The 3 metre-high wall had been designed and constructed by three Palestinian brothers - Nasser, Moammar and Kamahl Mashni and then re-assembled with the help of Amin Abbas, Joe Lui and Robert Martin. Read more about Photostory: Australians protest Apartheid Wall
Palestine mourns yet another 23 martyrs killed during the night. Massacres in Palestine far from over while the world continues to maintain silence. Last night, Occupation Forces attacked the people of Beit Hanoun in their sleep, shelling indiscriminately at houses, killing 18 Palestinians and leaving many more injured, most of them women and children. It comes just 24 hours after Occupation Forces had ended another invasion which led to the killings of over 50 people in the Gaza strip and almost 200 injured.
In Beit Hanoun, two doctors were killed as ambulances were sent to treat those injured during the invasion. People were left bleeding to death as Palestinians were prevented from reaching hospitals. Read more about Stand up and Stop the Massacres in Palestine!
“We are willing to talk to any Israeli academic at any time about the boycott and the Israeli policies that have generated it. What we are not willing to do is to continue with ‘business as usual’. They need to see that not only complicity but also silence have their consequences.” Jonathan Rosenhead has been a member of the British Committee for Universities of Palestine for the past two years. He has been a member of staff at the London School of Economics since 1967 and Professor of Operational Research from 1987. Birgit Althaler speaks with him about recent developments in the academic boycott. Read more about Academic Boycott: "We do not want to continue business as usual"
EI co-founder Ali Abunimah writes to the Swiss foreign minister: “I am not an ambassador, a minister, or an elected official. I have no standing to appeal to your conscience except as a human being. I do so now with all the will I can muster to urge your government immediately to reconvene the Conference of the High Contracting Parties of the Fourth Geneva Convention urgently to consider measures to enforce this Convention and end the grave and mounting breaches being perpetrated by Israel, the Occupying Power, in the Gaza Strip.” The letter followed the morning of an Israeli massacre in Beit Hanoun which killed 19 civilians, including 11 from a single family. Read more about Letter: Switzerland must act on Gaza even as others choose silence
The Palestine Children’s Welfare Fund is pleased to announce that it was able to sponsor a party for the children of Jayyous to celebrate the Eid during the month of October 2006. The party was held in the center of the Jayyous Charitable Society where more than 100 children received bags that contained toys, crayons, children’s books and candy. Most of the children belonged to the English program that PCWF sponsors in Jayyous and funds the salaries of the teachers, books and computer equipment for the last three years. Funding of the program comes from generous sponsors such as Antar and Abla from Palestine and Lebanon and Dubai Women’s College and private donors who want to see an end for the suffering of the children in Palestine. Read more about Palestine Children's Welfare Fund announces Jayyous support efforts
As a Palestinian organisation dedicated to the protection and promotion of human rights, Al-Haq is extremely alarmed by the current intensification of Israeli military operations in Gaza. This operation, codenamed “Autumn Clouds”, which is exerting a heavy toll on the civilian population of Gaza, is disturbingly reminiscent of operation “Defensive Shield” of 2002. Further, the ongoing military assault is effectively contributing to the destabilisation of the entire region. We hereby call upon you and the international community as a whole to take immediate and concrete steps to halt the indiscriminate attacks being carried out in Gaza. Read more about Open Letter to the U.S. Ambassador to Israel on the Israeli Incursion into Gaza
Standing at 6’1, with strong build, a full beard, and long dark hair, Yehuda Shaul seems like an unassuming young man. Wearing dark cargo pants, and a long-sleeved blue shirt, he paces back and forth taking in the whole room. It’s hard to notice at first but his blue velvet kippa (skull cap) rests easily on his head. His voice is mellow and calm. He has a disarming smile that lights up his entire face when he’s happy and talking about the things he loves (one of which is football). But behind the smiles and the passion for the world’s most popular sport is a young man who has seen and done things no young person should ever have to endure. Read more about Interview: Yehuda Shaul of Breaking the Silence
Omri Evron, a 19-year-old from Tel-Aviv, is weeks away from earning his B.A. in ethical philosophy from the Tel-Aviv University. Omri is considered a criminal by Israeli authorities because he refused to enlist to the Israeli military, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). National military service is compulsory for all Jewish citizens of Israel, which means every Jewish Israeli must enlist in the IDF at the age of 18. But Omri Evron decided early on at the age of 16 that he would not become “a soldier in the forces of the occupation”. He reached this decision after many visits to the occupied Palestinian territories (OPT). Read more about Refusenik Omri Evron: "Why I can't become a soldier in the IDF"
