Espace SD and xanadu* present Nafas Beirut, a multimedia venue for artists bearing witness. The aim is to create a platform for artists, poets, writers and filmmakers to share their work produced during or in reaction to the Israeli siege of Lebanon of Summer 2006. Believing it crucial to highlight these works, Nafas Beirut documents the emotions and experiences, and brings artists and viewers together, historicizing the moment. Nafas Beirut is a platform for these immediate responses through a multimedia exhibition and a month long series of events including, video screenings curated by various organizations and collectives, concerts, an open mike poetry jam, and a lecture on the oil spill. Read more about "Nafas Beirut": A platform for artists bearing witness
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination (ADC) has noted increased reports which indicate Israel is discriminating against US citizens and other foreign nationals by denying them entry or re-entry into the West Bank, Gaza, and Israel. In late September, the US Consul General in Jerusalem also acknowledged a noticeable change in the number of Israeli refusals or denial of entry cases. More than 120,000 Arab Americans are believed to be impacted by this latest Israeli policy and the Consulate is urging people to document this information. Additionally, on October 11, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said, “I will continue to do everything in my power … to ensure that all American travelers receive fair and equal treatment.” Read more about ADC documenting Americans denied entry to Israel and OPT
Over 600 people attended the landmark conference, Boycotting Israeli Apartheid: The Struggle Continues, held from 6-8 October in Toronto, Canada. The conference represents a watershed moment in the Palestinian solidarity movement, with leading anti-apartheid activists from Palestine, South Africa, Canada and England addressing the way forward in the global campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions. The conference was organized by the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA), a broad movement formed in response to the call by 171 Palestinian civil-society organizations in July 2005 for the international community to implement a comprehensive boycott, divestment and sanctions strategy against apartheid Israel as the focal point of solidarity efforts with the Palestinian people. Read more about 600 Attend Landmark BDS Conference in Toronto
On September 8, 2006, the offices of Ansar Al-Sajeen in Majd El-Kurum (Galilee) were raided and shut down by the police and the Israeli Shin Bet (General Security Service) in the early morning. The administrative order issued by the Israeli Defense Minister declared Ansar al Sajeen as an illegal organisation. The police also confiscated the organisation’s assets, including 14,000 shekels (around 2,555 euros) dedicated to prisoners and their families, hundreds of legal files and documents, phones, photocopying machines and computers. The closure occurred soon after the association launched a campaign to include the cases of 1948 Palestinian prisoners, citizens of Israel, in the current talks for the exchange of prisoners. Read more about Prisoners' association shut down in Israel and West Bank
Education plays a big part in Barbara Lubin’s life. In fact it was a broad-based education that made her realize that she was getting a distorted view of what went on in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. Lubin was born into a conservative Zionist family. She had been taught that the Jews needed to establish a state of their own; that what had happened to her relatives during WWII; when their land was occupied, and family members murdered in camps, should never happen again. For much of her life Barbara Lubin felt that the Zionist ideal was the right thing. However, in 1982 her eyes were open to a new horror. Read more about "You never know what's next": An interview with activist Barbara Lubin
The Arab American Institute (AAI) is encouraging Arab Americans who have encountered problems or been turned away when entering Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories to report details to the State Department and AAI. AAI believes that firsthand accounts from Arab Americans about difficulties in entering the region - believed to be as many as 120,000 - will help prompt the State Department to recognize the widespread, discriminatory and adverse effects of the policy and advocate for its change. AAI is also actively working with the Consulate General in order to assist Arab Americans who have been detained, turned away or harassed upon entry. Read more about Arab-Americans denied entry into Israel and Palestine
As non-governmental human rights organisations based in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), we are gravely concerned by the recent internal clashes between forces loyal to Fateh and forces loyal to Hamas. Six people were killed in Gaza on Sunday 2 October 2006, in the worst internal fighting for months, as striking government employees demanded the back payment of outstanding salaries. The following day gunmen forced businesses to shut their doors in several towns throughout the West Bank. The hardship created by Israel’s retention of tax revenues collected on behalf of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and the cessation of international aid has brought the OPT to the brink of a civil war. Read more about The International Community Must End the Collective Punishment of the Palestinian People
Calling to the international community to get mobilised and bring the Israeli occupation to an end, Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights has launched an international campaign to demonstrate that the Gaza Strip remains under Israeli effective control despite its claims otherwise. The campaign comes one year after the completion of the Israeli Unilateral Disengagement from Gaza in September 2005. It aims to bring about more effective international public and government involvement in the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) in an effort to repair the consequences of prolonged infringements of international law. Read more about Gaza Still Occupied
A two-day United Nations International Conference of Civil Society in Support of the Palestinian People adopted a Plan of Action that commits civil society organizations to ending the Israeli occupation and to achieving the rights of self-determination and return of the Palestinian people. The plan includes marking the 40-year anniversary of the occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. The Plan also commits them to expanding the global campaign of boycotts, divestment and sanctions to ever broader sectors of countries and regions, including an urgent campaign to end the sanctions against the democratically-elected Palestinian Authority. Read more about UN conference adopts action plan to support Palestinians
Shops and supermarkets across Ireland were picketed on Saturday as the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) commemorated the anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila massacres with a National Boycott Israel Day. IPSC members targetted retail outlets in Dublin, Belfast, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Sligo, to send a message to Irish retailers that continuing to trade with Israel while it obliterates Palestine is grossly unethical and gives both financial support, succour and legitimacy to Israel’s escalating and unchecked violations of Palestinian human rights. The National Boycott Day was also intended to educate consumers as to the extent of Israeli goods in their shops. Read more about National boycott action targets Irish stores selling Israeli goods
