Audio highlights from the Montreal BDS Conference.
More than 600 activists from Quebec, Canada, and the United States gathered in Montreal from 22-24 October for a weekend-long conference on growing the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement. The opening public panel at the conference offered reflections on the five years since the unified Palestinian call for BDS was first made, including views from Palestine and South Africa. Much of the weekend drew participants together in sector-oriented working groups and on Sunday the final session offered a report back to a crowd of hundreds.
This audio report by Gretchen King features keynote speakers Areej Ja’fari (Palestine Freedom Project), Stephen Faulkner (Congress of South African Trade Unions) and Omar Barghouti (Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel and the Boycott National Committee). The audio report includes highlights from the final session, such as the conclusions of Judy Da Silva, an indigenous activist who traveled from Grassy Narrows in northwestern Ontario to participate in the conference.
Gretchen King has been creating independent media productions since 1998. She has produced programming on Palestine for nearly a decade, including co-coordinating an award-winning international 18-hour audio commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the Nakba in 2008. In Montreal, Gretchen has served as Community News and Production Coordinator at CKUT Radio 90.3 FM since 2001. This report was produced by CKUT Radio (www.ckut.ca) for The Electronic Intifada.
Posted by psnedmonton 
Progressive Canadians Must Challenge JNF’s Charitable Status
November 1, 2010Progressive Canadians must challenge JNF’s charitable status
Yves Engler, The Electronic Intifada, 1 November 2010
Last month, Greg Selinger, the New Democratic Party (NDP) Premier of the Province of Manitoba, and two of his ministers visited Israel. Among other things, the official delegation strengthened the longtime “progressive” government’s ties to the Jewish National Fund (JNF). The trip was a sad spectacle that should embarrass every Canadian who opposes racism. Indeed, J.S. Woodsworth, the Winnipeg-based founder of Canada’s social democratic party, must be turning in his grave.
The province and JNF signed an accord to jointly develop two bird conservation sites while Manitoba water stewardship Minister Christine Melnick spoke at the opening ceremony for a park built in Jaffa by the JNF, Tel Aviv Foundation and Manitoba-Israel Shared Values Roundtable. During the trip Mel Lazerek, a regional JNF president, was also appointed Manitoba’s special representative to Israel for Economic and Community Relations.
Manitoba’s ties to this openly racist institution are shocking, but also part of a decades-old pro-Israel policy of the NDP that must be challenged by real progressives.
Read the rest of this entry »
Share this:
Like this: