rabble.ca - Gaza Related Stories

Gaza's Ark: Building hope in Palestine

CanadianBoatToGaza — Thu, 17 May 2012 14:00:14 -0400

The Canadian Boat to Gaza, in cooperation with international initiatives in the US, Australia and other countries, is launching a new initiative to challenge the illegal and inhumane Israeli blockade of Gaza, the only Mediterranean port closed to shipping.

This new initiative: Gaza's Ark, will build a boat in Gaza, using existing resources. A crew of internationals and Palestinians will sail it out of Gaza carrying Palestinian products to fulfill trade deals with international buyers.

Gaza's Ark will be constructed in Gaza by Palestinian hands and expertise, with international assistance.

Canadian abducted by Israel to address Prairie audiences

CanadianBoatToGaza — Tue, 15 May 2012 14:05:53 -0400

A Canadian who was forcibly abducted by Israeli forces from the Canadian ship Tahrir and detained without charge last fall continues to demand that the Conservative government press Israel to immediately return the boat and its contents, and is taking that message on a Prairies speaking tour.

London, Ontario activist David Heap, who was on board the Tahrir when it was boarded in international waters, will be speaking in Saskatoon on May 17 and Winnipeg on May 22, and will also address the campaign's ongoing plans to challenge the illegal blockade of Gaza.

The false paradigm of peace: Revisiting the Palestine question

redeye — Fri, 11 May 2012 22:33:55 -0400

Ilan Pappe is an Israeli historian and activist currently teaching at the University of Exeter in Britain. In May 2012, he toured Canada speaking about his current research. Redeye spoke with him in advance of his talk in Vancouver. Ilan Pappe is author of The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.

To find out more about Redeye, check out our website.

Israel opens fire on the Global March to Jerusalem

M.Gregus — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 09:12:14 -0400

On March 30, 2012, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) opened fire on marchers as they headed towards Jerusalem marking Palestinian Land Day.

The Global March to Jerusalem is an initiative taking place across the world, with hundreds of thousands of people involved. Marches were organized within Palestine, 1948 territories and Gaza, as well as all surrounding countries and parts of Asia, North America, and Europe. Among other things, the march was calling for an end to the ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem and Palestine at large, the right of return for all refugees, and the protection of Jerusalem's non-Jewish holy sites, which are currently at risk. At least 200 people were injured by the IOF in protests across Palestine, and one young man was killed in Gaza.

Help Camps Breakerz of Gaza build a new home

M.Gregus — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 07:30:02 -0400

For those of us internationals who care deeply about Palestine, it is hard to know just how to make a real difference. Probably the most significant way we can help is to change the foreign policy of our government (particularly if we are American). But while I keep trying on this front, I have come close to despair. I do sense some (too gradual for my taste) shifts in public opinion, but judging by all the political posturing at the AIPAC meeting this year, I feel fairly certain that the U.S. administration and -- especially -- Congress will be the last to change, and a loooong time from now.

Indigenous Resistance to Tar Sands, Solidarity in Gaza, and Hip-Hop for health!

dan kellar — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 00:42:02 -0400

This podcast focuses on Indigenous resistance to tar sands destruction in alberta featuring an interview from CKUT radio: Gitz Crazyboy indigenous critique on tar sands | posted on Coop média de Montréal. We also look into the http://reztorepride.com hip hop album from the Southern Ontario Aboriginal Diabetes Initiative, and a piece on Standing in Solidarity with Palestinians | posted on Toronto Media Co-op.

No pretense of an excuse for continued Israeli attacks on Gaza

M.Gregus — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 07:52:33 -0400

In August 2011, when the Israeli army bombed the Gaza Strip for nearly a week, killing 26 and injuring 89 more Palestinians, they at least had a pretext, no matter how transparently false -- one which was immediately proven bogus by both their own Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) spokeswoman and subsequent investigations.

Support from Israel lobby for Mulcair NDP leadership bid raises serious concerns

IJV — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 16:20:43 -0400

With voting underway to elect the new leader of Canada's New Democratic Party and just two weeks until the leadership convention, Independent Jewish Voices Canada (IJV) has discovered information indicating that key players at the highest levels in Canada's Israel Lobby are backing the candidacy of Thomas Mulcair.

IJV is a non-partisan organization and is not endorsing any candidate in the NDP leadership race. But IJV has a responsibility to highlight the fact that the positions of leadership candidate Thomas Mulcair stand out as more closely aligned with those of Stephen Harper than with the NDP on the issue of the ongoing crisis in Israel/Palestine.

Exhibition: A Child's View from Gaza

redeye — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 20:50:59 -0500

Barbara Lubin started the Middle East Children's Alliance in 1988. She has just returned from her latest visit to Gaza, a trip she describes as the most difficult she has ever taken. Barbara Lubin is bringing an exhibition of children's art in Gaza to Vancouver in March. She talks about children's responses to the violence they experience in their daily lives. She also talks about an unsuccessful attempt to censor the same exhibition in California.

To find out more about Redeye, check out our website.

Ask Harper to demand Israel return the Tahrir

CanadianBoatToGaza — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 22:03:02 -0500

During Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Ottawa this weekend, Stephen Harper should take the opportunity and ask for the prompt return of the Canadian Boat to Gaza, the Tahrir.

Running the Gaza blockade: An interview with Karen DeVito

rabble staff — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:06:55 -0500

Back in October 2011 rabble.ca ran an interview I conducted with Karen DeVito, a Canadian activist and participant in that summer's Freedom Waves to Gaza. Freedom Waves is an international effort by activists to break the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza. Since 2010 the activists have launched three flotillas carrying humanitarian aid. The first met with tragedy when Israeli forces stormed the ship called the Mavi Mamara on May 31, 2010, killing nine activists and wounding dozens more. Karen DeVito joined the following year's flotilla, which was scheduled to sail from Greece.

Iran, the issue of nuclear weapons, and the Netanyahu government's underlying agenda

M.Gregus — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 13:56:13 -0500

Contrary to the announcements emanating from the governments of Israel and Canada, Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) believes there is no evidence that Iran is on the verge of producing nuclear weapons. By way of contrast, it is widely known that Israel has been building such weapons since the late 1960s and is now estimated to possess hundreds of them in its arsenal, which is far and away the largest in the Middle East.

Declaration to the Canadian government: Stop granting Israel impunity

CanadianBoatToGaza — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 02:59:22 -0500

Canadian government abandons human rights at sea: Release the Canadian Boat to Gaza

November 4, last year, the Canadian ship Tahrir and its cargo of medical supplies, along with everyone onboard, were forcibly taken by the Israeli navy while peacefully sailing in international waters towards the blockaded* Gaza Strip.

The Canadian government expressed no concern to the government of Israel over this serious international incident involving Canadians. Despite multiple requests, the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs under Minister John Baird is refusing to ask Israel to release the Tahrir and its cargo of desperately-needed medical aid, saying that this is a purely private matter. Canadians expect more from their government.

Take action: Defend Palestine House and free speech in Canada

CanadianBoatToGaza — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 19:22:55 -0500

We are sharing this appeal for action from the Campaign to Defend Free Speech which outlines the series of attacks on free speech and Palestine solidarity organizing in Canada.

Speaking tour addresses Canada's role in the blockade of Gaza: Full schedule of events

CanadianBoatToGaza — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 17:06:59 -0500

This Wednesday, the Canadian Boat to Gaza is kicking off a nine city speaking tour to address Canada’s role in the blockade of Gaza and give their firsthand account of the capture at sea of the Tahrir.

Canada's role in the blockade of Gaza

Anita Krajnc — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 23:09:52 -0500

Canada's pro-Zionist government is complicit in the blockade of Gaza. The Canada Boat to Gaza challenges the blockade in November 2011.

Palestinian citizens of Israel face systematic discrimination

redeye — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 20:35:48 -0500

Most people think that the struggle between Israel and Palestinians began in 1967 with the occupation of Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem. Ali Abunimah says that leaves out the 1.4 million Palestinians who are citizens of Israel proper. He says they face discrimination on par with that experienced by African-Americans prior to the civil rights movement. Ali Abunimah is author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse.

To find out more about Redeye, check out our website.

An interview with Norman Finkelstein: Israel 'has lost a lot of ground'

M.Gregus — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 07:02:45 -0500

Controversial Jewish American scholar Norman Finkelstein does not feel like a pariah anymore.

Visiting Canada again this week on a tour of campuses to deliver lectures and answer questions about the seemingly intractable situation in the Middle East, he reports receiving more invitations to speak than ever these days.

"It is much more difficult in public life to defend Israel than to criticize it," Finkelstein explains in a telephone interview with rabble.ca. "I've gotten more invitations from more mainstream places."

Norman Finkelstein: There was no war in Gaza, it was a massacre

Anita Krajnc — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 18:21:12 -0500

What happened in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead was not a war but a massacre, a massacre of a defenceless, imprisoned and besieged civilian population. The IOF air assault (in the first of 3 weeks) dropped bombs around the clock hitting homes, hospitals, ambulances, UN and Red Cross outposts and compounds, schools, universities and government buildings, with the borders closed and no where in Gaza to seek refuge, "it was like shooting fish in a barrel." One thousand four hundred murdered with kill ratios of four-fifths being civilians (mostly women and children). For every Israeli citizen killed 100 Palestinian civilians were murdered.

Izzeldin Abuelaish's book gives new perspective on Middle East policy

gerry caplan — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 11:38:01 -0500

Exactly three years ago, Israel attacked the Gaza Strip. It is of course quite impossible to write anything about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict without being accused of bias by someone, and the Gaza war is no exception. But here are what I believe to be agreed facts.

Israel stated the attack was to stop rockets being fired from Gaza into Israel. Since 2001, thousands had been launched resulting in 28 Israeli deaths and hundreds of casualties. The Gazans responsible said they were justified in attacking Israel as an occupying power.

'Ghetto Palestine': Challenges and possibilities for resistance, with Jon Elmer

Peoples Health Radio — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 23:48:27 -0500

Today on People's Health Radio we bring you a lecture on "Ghetto Palestine" delivered by Canadian writer and photojournalist Jon Elmer at UBC on December 2, 2011. Jon's perspective is based on 10 years of reporting from the West Bank and Gaza. His on-the-ground experience of events such as the second intifada and the Fatah-Hamas clashes in Gaza inform an analysis absent from mainstream media narratives.

Next Israel will ban oxygen from Gaza

Eva Bartlett In Gaza — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 13:30:27 -0500

(some days ago...)

A low rumble mutes the car honks and the cries of children playing on the lane outside our house in Deir al Balah, central Gaza. The vaguely furnace-like sound distinguishes itself as an Israeli warplane flying over our skies, poisoning the mid-morning tranquility.

I'd been lost in typing my thoughts, almost oblivious to my surroundings: the Gaza Strip, where at any moment such a warplane's roar erupts and where likewise any moment the deafening thud of its bomb vibrates through towns and cities and farmland.

But the rumble of the circling Israeli warplane snaps me back into reality, making the trivial all the more trivial, and the possible all the more possible.

(last night)

Seventy delegates including parliamentarians from 11 countries issue appeal for the end of the siege of Gaza

gazadelegation — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 13:12:43 -0500

Seventy delegates from 20 countries, including Parliamentarians from 11 countries, last week saw the disastrous effects of the 22-day Israeli attack on Gaza two years ago and the five-year naval and land blockade on Gaza. The trip was organized by the Council for European Palestinian Relations.

Rafeef Ziadah: 'We teach life, sir'

Anita Krajnc — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 13:18:29 -0500

London, November 12, 2011: Rafeef Ziadah is a Canadian-Palestinian spoken word artist and activist. Her debut CD Hadeel is dedicated to Palestinian youth, who still fly kites in the face of F16 bombers, who still remember the names of their villages in Palestine and still hear the sound of Hadeel (cooing of doves) over Gaza.

After the Tahrir is stopped: A day of state piracy, hijacking and kidnapping

rabble staff — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 03:03:50 -0500

The following 24-hour chronology was compiled by David Heap, from London, Ontario, one of the delegates on board the Canadian Boat to Gaza, The Tahrir, which set sail from Turkey at the beginning of November with the aim of penetrating the longstanding Israeli blockade around Gaza.

Friday, Nov. 4, at approximately 8:00 a.m.

The Tahrir and the Saoirse enter Israel's unilaterally declared 100 nautical mile military exclusion zone. We are in fact in international waters up until and after we are boarded.

12:30 p.m.

First spotted large military vessels (frigates?), one to port two to starboard.

12:30 p.m. to 13:00 p.m.