Our illustrious Minister of Censorship and Deportation is at it again – attacking freedom of expression and those who defend the rights of Palestinians. This time his target is Palestine House, a Palestinian cultural and educational organization based in Mississauga, for its highly successful settlement program. Last week, Palestine House
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Art Threat: Palestinian Sesame Street victim of politics – Shara’a Simsim loses its funding from USAID
Palestine’s Sesame Street – in Arabic known as Shara’a Simsim – will not go into production this season. The US Congress is to blame. In October, when Palestine was admitted membership in UNESCO, the US withheld some $200 million in retaliation. Hospitals, communications, education, government programs in Palestine have all
Continue readingwmtc: now blogging, david heap
My friend and comrade David Heap is now blogging. Among other things, David will be writing about his experiences on the Tahrir, the Canadian Boat to Gaza, including his arrest and imprisonment. I am very much looking forward to reading that story and whatever else David writes. You can find
Continue readingRed Tory v.3.0.3: “Invented People”
Some may be familiar by now with controversial remarks made to an obscure Jewish cable TV channel last week by current Republican frontrunner Newt Gringrich while desperately trolling for the wingnut evangelical vote in Iowa, declaring that Palestinians are “an invented people” – essentially, nothing but a deceitful, illegitimate fabrication
Continue readingLest we forget: today is The International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People
The International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, a United Nations sponsored event, has been observed every year on November 29th since 1977, 30 years to the day after the partition of Palestine. The UN General Assembly has requested that the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights
Continue readingwmtc: human rights activists back in canada, speaking out
Press conference with David Heap and Ehab Lotayef, on their abduction, kidnapping and detention by Israeli forces: here.And a message from the Irish boat:
Continue readingwmtc: "no amount of violence, oppression and bullying can kill an idea whose time has come"
David Heap and Ehab Lotayef, writing at Rabble, now in an Israeli prison. * * * *Keeping the Canadian Boat to Gaza’s promise: Freedom Waves are just beginningDavid Heap and Ehab Lotayef, November 4, 2011A few months ago, the Greek government acted at…
Continue readingwmtc: canadian human rights activist tasered, beaten, held in israeli prison
David Heap, a Canadian professor and activist, and my friend and comrade, is being held in an Israeli prison. David was removed from the Canadian boat Tahrir, in the latest attempt to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza. He has been tasered and beaten. …
Continue readingThe UNESCO vote and the decline of American influence
Following the vote Monday to admit Palestine into UNESCO, Hamas official Ahmed Yousef said it “shows that Israel and America are not dictating politics to the world anymore.” Hamas’s view carries its own bias, nonetheless Mr. Yousef has a point. U.S. o…
Continue readingLeDaro: Canadian Boats Seized by Israel
Gaza situation is one of the worst injustices in the world. Why Harper and other western leaders are not speaking out. They were fast to intervene in case of Libya. What happened to democracy and justice in case of Palestinians and Gaza? Israel is one …
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: US, Israel and Canada’s response to Palestine’s UNESCO membership
When Palestine overwhelmingly got approved to be a member state in UNESCO, a long standing congressional trigger was activated which entirely defunds the US contribution to UNESCO (about a fifth of its total contributions). This comes on the back of f…
Continue readingPaul S. Graham: Video: Israeli privilege is unsustainable – Amira Hass
“Inhuman, immoral and unsustainable” are the words used by Amira Hass to describe what she terms “the State of Israel and the privileges it endows to Jews only, at the expense of Palestinians.” Hass was at the University of Winnipeg Sept. 30, to provide a unique perspective on the Palestinian struggle, that of an Israeli […]
Driving The Porcelain Bus: Aid blackmail in Palestine
Aid blackmail in Palestine – Opinion – Al Jazeera EnglishExcerpt:Once again, Palestinians are being punished for daring to exercise a choice.It happened before in 2006, when they took part in what was deemed to be the wrong kind of democracy and picked…
Continue readingwmtc: random notes: amira hass, ry cooder, planned parenthood, and more
Time to collect some of the scraps of paper scribbled all over my desk… Amira Hass will be speaking at the University of Toronto tomorrow night. Hass is an Israeli journalist based in Ramallah, and the only Israeli journalist to live in the occupied …
Continue readingThe Happy Wanderer: Survival of Israel is Dependent on Palestine
Firstly, I would like to thank my co-blogger, Vanillaman for having reposted the Avaaz video. This will help us bring our message of hope to the world. I will now proceed to criticize a few parts of vanillaman’s post.
In his post, he mentions t…
Continue readingRedBedHead: Nobody Says "F*** You" Like Israel
As vile and racist as the regime is, you have to give them points for sheer chutzpah. Having denounced the Palestinians at the UN for not being serious about peace, Israeli PM Netanyahu has agreed two days later to build another 1,100 illegal buildings…
Continue readingRedBedHead: Baird’s UN Rant Is A Museum Piece
Baird was the attack dog for the Harper government at the UN yesterday with his meandering rant that read like it was written by the Israeli ministry of international propaganda. Claiming people and nations who didn’t support Israel were akin to appeas…
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: How Far Will Obama Grovel?
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is said to be weighing “punitive” measures against the Palestinian Authority for having the temerity to seek statehood from the United Nations.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he is evaluating Israel’s n…
Continue readingPalestine and the churlish U.S. veto
It seems so little to ask. A people, already recognized as a nation by most other nations, requests full membership in the UN. It should be a shoo-in. Palestine is recognized by 65 per cent of the world’s states representing 75 per cent of the world’s …
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: Democracy for me but not for thee
Barack Obama ‘will veto’ Palestinian UN bid Barack Obama has told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas he will veto his bid for UN membership… The position being taken by Obama — and by our own government — is that Palestinian statehood can only occur as a result of successful negotiations with Israel. Details aside, this effectively puts Israel entirely in control. As long as the Israeli government wanted to drag its feet, change the rules or otherwise prevent that successful negotiation from ever concluding then Palestinians would remain stateless. The future of Palestinians is entirely under the control of a government for which they have never had, and will never have, the opportunity to vote. How is it again that Israel is the only real democracy in the Middle East when it claims control over the fate of people who have no vote and no voice? And how is it again that the United States and Canada are the countries who promote democracy? Update: And Israelis say: A joint poll by the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in the Occupied Palestinian…
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