Israeli Apartheid – Haseena Manek

Interview with an HRD: Shawan Jabarin

A Profile segment from Rights on the Line, a podcast I created and produced for Irish human rights NGO Front Line Defenders.

While in town to meet with legislators on the potential Occupied Territories Bill, Palestinian human rights defender Shawan Jabarin sat down with Rights on the Line to discuss his work defending human rights in Palestine as well as responsibility of the international community to intervene and advocate on behalf of those subject to actions that violate international human rights law.

#Nakba70: Human rights in Palestine

Feature Episode 4 of Rights on the Line, a podcast I created and produced for Irish human rights NGO Front Line Defenders.

On the 70th anniversary of the creation of the state of Israel, known as al Nakba, or the catatrsophe, as it resulted in the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian people. Today marks 70 years of the existence of this state and it’s apartheid regime that routinely violates the human rights of Palestinian people, international law and United Nations conventions. To mark this day, Rights on the Line brings you three interviews with advocates of human rights in Palestine:

Sahar Francis the Director of Adammeer, a prisoner’s rights organization
Jamal Juma, Coordinator of the Stop the Wall campaign
Omar Barghouti, the co-founder of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement

Moderate Islam and Palestine solidarity: A response to Aliya Manjee

April 13, 2015

As I read through Aliya Manjee’s editorial ‘I’m Muslim, Pro-Palestine and Visited Israel’, I couldn’t help but feel that despite first-hand experience, her comments about Israel and Palestine were remarkably reductive.

Manjee is candid about her political position (identifying as Pro-Palestine as early as the headline) and her personal identity (Shia-Ismaili-Muslim). She writes that being the only Muslim on her trip set her apart from her peers and that she does not think her identity — specifically her faith — should dictate her views on Israel and Palestine.

Read the full Op-Ed on the rabble.ca website.

Toronto activists intensify campaign against SodaStream

On Sunday, August 31st, the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) gathered to share information with members of the Toronto community about the current campaign to boycott SodaStream, a carbonated beverage company whose main production facility is in Ma’ale Adumim, an illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied Palestinian West Bank.

As part of the international campaign to Boycott SodaStream, CAIA launched a its own campaign in October of 2013 asking homewares company Bed Bath and Beyond to stop carrying SodaStream products.

Read the full article on Mondoweiss.

Book review: The Almond Tree

January 25, 2013

Michelle Cohen Corasanti’s The Almond Tree is the fictional memoir of Ichmad Hamid, a Palestinian man who is forced to the head of the family at the age of twelve when his father is arrested for terrorism.

I am of two minds when it comes to this book. On the one hand, I appreciate the author’s effort to tell a comprehensive story about Palestine that illustrates the hardship experienced by so many throughout the last 63 years.

On the other hand, I had a lot of problems with the way she went about it.

Read the full review on rabble.ca.

Nakba Day in Palestine: A time to remember and resist

May 15, 2012

May 15 marks the anniversary of the “Nakba” (Arabic for “catastrophe”), the dispossession of the Palestinian people that came with the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.

This year is the 64th anniversary. The day is acknowledged with protests throughout the Middle East. Last year, in Egypt, hundreds of protestors were arrested or injured, while a number of poeple were killed by Israeli forces when protesters marched on the borders of Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, including at the Lebanese and Syrian borders.

May 15, 1948 is known as the Nakba because hundreds of thousands of Palestinian people were forced from their homes, or chose to leave to protect themselves and their families from violence. Some Palestinian people still carry the keys to the houses they had to leave, which are now being lived in by Israelis. This has made the image of a key an important symbol for protesting Palestinians.

But what does it mean, 64 years later, to have a Nakba Day?

Read the full article on rabble.ca.

Photo Essay: From Turtle Island to Palestine

From Turtle Island to Palestine: Occupation is a Crime is a photo essay project inspired by the international protests on May 15th, 2011, the 63rd anniversary of the Nakba, (Arabic for catastrophe). It is a date to commemorate the violent displacement of Palestinian people to make way for the new Israeli state. The goal of the project is to create an international message of solidarity with the Palestinian people that continue to rally and resist Israeli occupation. In every photograph the Palestinian flag is being held up in front of landmarks or popular spots in Toronto, demonstrating the support for Palestinian people that exists in the city.

View the full photo essay here.