Here in Montreal Egyptian activists spoke to those at occupy montreal about the need to continue the revolution and support the struggle of Egyptian activists to defend the revolution from the military junta. After a warm response,  songs and chants that showed the solidarity in a common struggle against neo-liberalism, and our capitalist system.  Egyptian activists led the weekly march of Occupy Montreal chanting “Ca suffit, ca suffit Harper Harper C’est Fini”, and stopping in front of the  Egyptian consulate to denounce the military trials, and to show we are one struggle from Tahrir to Montreal!

In front of Egyptian Consulatenext generation of revolutionaries

@ people’s square

Opening panel BDS Conference Montreal Friday Oct 22nd

by Mostafa Henaway for Rabble.ca , Oct. 20th 2010

Palestine solidarity organizations from communities and movements across Quebec and elsewhere in Canada will be meeting in Montreal for a historic conference this weekend, Friday October 22 to Sunday October 24.

Carrying Forward the Moment Against Isreali Apartheid will map the future of the growing anti-Israeli apartheid movement by bringing together activists from across the country, as well as from the U.K., France, the U.S., and, most significantly, South Africa and Palestine. The intention is to assess and advance the global campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions of the Israeli State until there is full justice, equality, and dignity for all Palestinians.

This international campaign is based on the July 2005 call put forth by over 170 Palestinian civil society organizations, which demands that Israel respect the right of return for all Palestinian refugees, that Israel dismantle the wall and put an end to its colonization of East Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank, and that Israel grant full equality to Palestinian citizens of Israel. The aim is to assess and advance a comprehensive global campaign for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions until there is full justice, equality and dignity for all Palestinians.

The conference opens on Friday evening with a panel titled “From Sharpeville to Gaza: five years since the Palestinian call for BDS,” in which the Steve Faulkner, Omar Barghouti, and Areej Ja’afari will compare the experiences of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement in South Africa and Palestine.

Steve Faulkner is a member of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), as well as the South African Municipal Workers Union which is campaigning to make every one of the 283 South African municipalities Israeli-apartheid-free zones. Omar Barghouti is one of the founders of the Palestinian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) and the Boycott National Committee. Areej Ja’afari is the West Bank co-ordinator for the Palestine Freedom Project. A Palestinian refugee herself, Ja’afari has been working with other Palestinian refugees and women to engage in the BDS movement in the West Bank

Many different elements of this movement are going to be in attendance at this historic conference. This is a rare opportunity, and it is the first time since the BDS call more than five years ago that the different individuals, collectives, and organizations mobilizing for Palestinian justice, equality, and dignity have come together to strategize.

The different realms of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement are represented in the seven sectors of the conference, namely: cultural, academic, consumer, queer, labour, community, and government

Trade Unions that are engaged in BDS and participating in the conference include the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario, Conseil central du Montréal métropolitain of the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CCMM-CSN), a labour council that represents over 80,000 members in 12 federations and more than 600 unions from various sectors and CSN federations, including construction, education, health, and communications, and (FNEEQ) Federation Nationale des Enseignantes et des Enseignants du Quebec representing 20,000 college level teachers.
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Queer activists from Queers Against Israeli Apartheid and Q-Team in Montreal are attending the conference. Artists and film makers such as John Greyson, Malcom Guy, Marie Botie, Detroit hip-hop artist Invincible, as well as other artists engaged in the cultural boycott will be participating in the cultural sector of the conference. Invincible will be performing at a Saturday night as part of Artists Against Apartheid series — a Montreal initiative that worked on the historic letter signed by 500 artists in Montreal who support BDS.

The Academic sector will bring together faculty from across the province and country, as well as those working for academic boycott in France and England. Students from Hampshire College in the United States, as well as Carleton University in Canada will also be speaking about their divestment campaigns on campus. Within the government sector, Amir Khadir, who represents Quebec Solidaire — a progressive Quebec political party that has adopted BDS, will speak as well.

More than 60 different organizations have endorsed this conference, such as Fédération des femmes du Québec, Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (ASSÉ), Canadian Arab Federation, US Palestinian Community Network, Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from within (Israel). Their participation, as well as the participation of individual speakers is evidence to the strength of the movement, and of the conference.

Hopes and aims

The conference takes place at a very contradictory moment. Canadian support for the brutal regime of apartheid in Israel is growing, and Canada has made every effort to support Israel’s siege on Gaza, the 2008/2009 war on Gaza, and the war on Lebanon. Not only has the Canadian government supported these crimes, but has celebrated them. In fact ,this year, Canada bolstered its bi-lateral trade with Israel, “since the Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement came into force, two-way merchandise trade has more than doubled, reaching $1.3 billion last year,” stated by Peter Van Loan, Canadian Minister of International Trade.

Nonetheless, we know that there is a growing shift on the ground in support of our movement. And we hope that this conference will be a space for strategizing, co-ordinating, and consolidating the work that has been done over the course of the last five years, in order to expand the BDS movement from a place of education and support, towards one moving into action. In order to do so this, the conference hopes to facilitate a focus and intensification of our efforts on building a campaign that can truly shift public consciousness and sever the links to Israeli apartheid. Even though this movement might take years, it is such gatherings and conferences that help set the path towards eradicating Israeli apartheid and ensuring Palestinian freedom.

Those who are interested in ending Israeli apartheid, and who wish to one day see a Free Palestine, should join us this October 22-24.

Mostafa Henaway is one of the organizers of the BDS Conference in Montreal. More information on the movement can be found here.

 Listen to audio from IAW pressconference

On Tuesday February 17th, a coalition of student groups, palestine solidarity organizations and faculty launched Israeli Apatheid Week in Montreal. 

Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) marks its fifth anniversary in the wake of Israel’s horrific attacks and continued siege on Gaza. IAW is an annual international series of educational and cultural events held in cities and campuses across the globe. Its aim is to broaden public awareness about the nature of Israel as an apartheid state and to build a worldwide movement of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against the Israeli regime, similar to those undertaken against Apartheid South Africa in the 1980s.

Israeli Apartheid Week Montreal is organized by a number of diverse groups across campuses citywide and endorsed by over 35 organizations.

Speakers include
Abby Lippman-Member of College and University Workers United
Meg Leitold-member of Tadamon! Montreal and Israeli Apartheid Week

French Audio!
Nina Amrov, Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR)
Hubert Gendron-Blais Un membre de l’Association pour une solidaritÈ syndicale Ètudiante (ASSE)
For more information about Israeli Apartheid week you can go to =>http://www.iawmontreal.org ,
This was produced by Mostafa Henaway for CKUT 90.3 FM

Download interview mp3

An Interview with Martin Lucaks of Barriere Lake Solidarity and Russell Diabo Policy Advisor to Barriere Lake.

For twenty difficult years, the small Algonquin community of Barriere Lake, 5 hours north of Montreal, has been struggling to hold the government to their word. In 1991, they signed a pioneering resource co-management and sustainable development agreement with Canada and Quebec to protect Algonquin land uses, to conserve the forest and wildlife, and to give them a share in the resource revenue from the logging and hydro projects on their traditional territories.]

The Canadian government walked away from the agreement in 2001. And the Quebec government has sat on recommendations for implementing its side of the agreement since 2006. Instead of fulfilling their obligations, the Federal Department of Indian Affairs, with the support of the Quebec government, has been playing divide and rule in Barriere Lake, wreaking havoc in the community by ousting the Customary Chief and Council and illegally appointing a small faction as the leadership.

For more information contact: http://barrierelakesolidarity.blogspot.com

For more information about the tuesday morning after contact:

news@ckut.ca

photo: Hossam El-Hamalawy

2 Part Interview to Listen click here

In this two part interview on the current political and economic situation in Egypt. Hossam el-Hamalawy is a journalist and blogger from Cairo who has been active in the struggles for social and economic justice in egypt and in the labor movement.

Eygypt over the past 3 years has now begun to see its own intifada, the systemic repression of Mubaraks regime of over the past 26 years, has no longer been able to contain Egypt’s social movements. With the riots and pro-democracy demonstrations that began during the supposed presidential elections. Where Kifeya an umbrella pro-democracy movement has emerged. Or the defiance of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest opposition party, took seats in the parliament and also protested widely against Egypt’s Security and Emergency laws. Which has led to a police state
“par-excellance” But also the Egyptian workers have began to take to the streets, in the delta and in the factories. Egyptian workers have been fighting for not just immediate demands but an end to Mubarak’s rule, and to an economic system that has abandoned them with not enough income to survive.

The peak of this has been at the Ghazl Mahalla Textile factory the second largest in Egypt. Where this wave of workers actions began that spread through the country. Demanding an increase in their wages to a living income, a release of the Mahalla 5 strike leaders, now to demands for a raise in the minimum wage and an end to Mubarak’s regime. These workers are now at the forefront a movement that stems all across Egypt, for basic dignity and rights.

The second issue of Egyptian Workers and Social Resistance put the number of industrial actions from January to July 2007 alone at 368: 100 Sit-ins, 109 Strikes, 33 Demonstrations, 126 illegal assemblies accompanied by a short-period work stoppages.

Where the average textile worker makes only 30 us dollars a month meaning the poverty line. Almost 22 % of Egyptians live on that poverty line.

Egypt being under authoritarian rule under Hosni Mubarak since 1981, has led to massive repression of over 25,000 political prisoners, systematic torture and the creation of a privatized economy that has put the majority of Egyptians under poverty. Egypt has seen the most disenfranchised take to the streets in 2006 and in 2007,

For more information about Social Movements in Egypt
www.arabist.net/arabawy

For more information about this interview
www.ckut.ca
mostafah(at)riseup.net

Audio Link for Interview with Azra Sayeed

General Musharaf took power in a coup d’état on October 12, 1999, had declared emergency rule and imposed strict security measures on November 3^rd 2007, 2 months before a scheduled election in Pakistan.

The line that was carried by the Pakistani government was the growing threat of terror. Yet the days following those most targeted were the judges, the lawyers, human rights activists, and the political opposition. Yet many western states did not express vocal concern, as Pakistan has become one of the largest recipients of Western military aid, approximately more than 16 billion dollars in the past 6 years. In order to fight the war on terror and ally itself with US interests in the region and in particular the occupation of Afghanistan.

Yet Pakistan’s poor and peasants, who make up 70% of the population, have seen entrenched privatization and no economic relief as most of that foreign aid has gone into the military, which Musharaf was the chief commander of Pakistan’s military until two weeks ago.

This interview with Azra Sayeed, a grassroots activist who has fought for years for the economic rights of landless peasants, and women’s rights in Pakistan, we discuss the root causes behind the imposing of emergency rule. Also in the interview Azra discusses the economic and political support of the US, which has led to growing discontent in Pakistan and the need to support political prisoners in Pakistan. Azra is a spokesperson for Roots for Equity, a peasant based organization that struggles for food sovereignty, and against corporate globalization.

This report was produced by Mostafa Henaway for CKUT 90.3FM for the Tuesday Morning After.

Articles written by Azra Sayeed
http://www.labournet.de/internationales/pk/frauen.html

For more information about Roots For Equity

roots@super.net.pk

Stay tuned to the Tuesday Morning After on CKUT 90.3FM
7-9AM every Tuesday morning on the dial in Montreal 90.3fm
On the web:: www.ckut.ca ::

For more information contact
Mostafah(at)riseup(dot)net

Adil Charkaoui who remains under a security certificate

An interview with Yavar Hameed, on the Conservative governments attempt to rush in new security certificate Legislation, after it being deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Canada in February of 2007.

On Monday October 21st the conservative government introduced bill c-3, which would amend the Immigration and Refugee Protection act in which the security certificate process falls under. Yavar discussed the proposed changes to the law and the attempts to sugar coat the previous security certificate measures by introducing a “special advocate” appointed by the court through a pre approved list of advocates from the ministry of justice.

Yavar also speaks about the deportation process of Mohommed Harakat as a form of rendition to torture, and the complete unconstitutionality of the entire process regardless of what is tweaked.

Yavar Hameed is the lawyer-founder of Hameed Farrokhzad St-Pierre
Chambers. He workers primarily in the area of rights and liberties. His
practice responds to the many examples of direct and indirect profiling of Arab-Muslim communities since 11 September. He works for the rights of the non-status, homeless and low-income while representing them in the context of civil recourse against police brutality. He was the Ottawa Agent of Johanne Doyon, Charkaoui’s lawyer, during the appeal to the Supreme Court on the question of the constitutionality of the security certificate.

He teaches part-time at Carleton University’s Law Department and is regularly involved in public debate on the issues of racial profiling, the security certificate, and the Anti Terrorism Act.

This interview was produced and conducted by Mostafa Henaway for CKUT 90.3FM

For more information about Security Certificates and the fight to abolish them
www.adilinfo.org
justiceforadil(at)riseup(dot)net
514-859-9023

Stay tuned to the Tuesday Morning After on CKUT 90.3FM
7-9AM every Tuesday morning on the dial in Montreal
90.3fm
On the web :: www.ckut.ca ::

For more information contact
Mostafah(at)riseup(dot)net

Photo Stefan Christoff: for more of the photos from the exhibit

In the context of historical political events occurring in Lebanon and throughout the Middle East, photojournalist Stefan Christoff is currently touring a photo exhibition entitled Lebanon: Open Skies of Struggle. Christoff, who is a regular contributor to The Electronic Intifada, was interviewed by Montreal-based independent journalist Mostafa Heneway on the current Lebanon exhibition traveling across Canadian galleries.

Mostafa Heneway: Can you explain the context that led you to travel from Canada to the Middle East and specifically to Lebanon on three different occasions in the past five years?

Stefan Christoff: Over the past five years I have been traveling between Montreal and the Middle East as a social justice activist. My implication in social justice struggles in Canada pertaining to the Middle East, from Lebanon to Palestine both brought about and rooted my travels to the region in multiple ways.

My travels to the Middle East have always occurred within the context of political initiatives that have emerged in Montreal, in solidarity with liberation struggles in the Middle East. Montreal is of course an international city, where you have a major presence of the Arab Diaspora, from both Lebanon and Palestine. As a social justice activist I have worked heavily within these Middle East Diaspora communities and it is this community work that first lead me to the region.

I first traveled to the Middle East in 2003, arriving in Amman, Jordan as a member of the International Solidarity Movement. After being refused entry into Palestine by Israeli authorities, on the grounds that I posed a treat to the “national security” of the state of Israel, I eventually found myself in Beirut, Lebanon.

My first trip to Lebanon focused on building ties within the Palestinian refugee camps of Lebanon, where an estimated 400,000 refugees live in conditions throughout Lebanon, without citizenship, only with UN-issued identity documents. Thousands of Palestinian refugees reside in the surrounding areas of Beirut and on my first trip to Lebanon I spent most of my time in Beirut’s largest Palestinian camp, Bourj al-Barajneh.

On my first trip to Lebanon, for example, I visited many families in the camps of Bourj al-Barajneh, Burj al-Shemali and Ein al-Hilweh, who have family members that migrated to Canada, many to Montreal. I had developed political and personal relationships with Palestinians who had migrated from the camps in Lebanon to Canada within the context of their struggle against deportation from Canada and for refugee status, a struggle that many within the Palestinian solidarity movement in Canada deeply supported.

I started taking serious photographs on this first trip to Lebanon, photos not taken to represent some Orientalist vision of Lebanon or the Middle East but photos attempting to depict the intense history and current struggles of the Palestinian refugee camps of Lebanon.

On that first trip I visited the camps with basic factual ideas concerning the refugee camps of Lebanon but no idea on the intricacies of Palestinian life in Lebanon, details that you can only learn after spending time in the camps in Lebanon. This knowledge I developed as a visitor to the refugee camps of Lebanon, deeply informed my photographic efforts on the camps.

MH: There is a photo from a Palestinian refugee camp of a series of flags woven into electricity wires crisscrossing between buildings. How does this photo for you convey the reality of the Palestinian camps inside Lebanon?

SC: The picture you are referring to is from Ein al-Hilweh refugee camp. I took this photo in 2005 on a visit to the camp in which I met with Ahmed Abdel-Majeed, a Palestinian from Lebanon who I had first met in Montreal. On my first trip to Lebanon in 2003, Ahmed was in Montreal, but on my second trip to Lebanon in 2005 Ahmed had been deported from Canada to the camp, after being denied refugee status by the Canadian government. During the 2005 visit to Lebanon I spent a lot of time with Ahmed in Ein al-Hilweh.

Concerning the photo of the wires in the sky over Ein al-Hilweh refugee camp, such self-styled electricity wires are I suppose a trademark of the overcrowded Palestinian camps in Lebanon. In the case of Ein al-Hilweh almost 100,000 people live in a couple of square kilometers, crammed together without basic social and civil rights. Given that the Lebanese government doesn’t allow certain forms of construction or development within the deteriorating camps, the crisscross of electricity wires in the sky is an example of the informal or community-based methods for survival amongst the Palestinians, as the electricity is jacked from local Lebanese power supplies.

The electricity wires crisscrossing over the street with Palestinian flags woven into the wires, I like to think depicts that despite the hardships and repressive conditions for Palestinians in Lebanon, in a very physical sense, there is still hope for a brighter future and sense of struggle. Still there is optimism, a willingness to stand with dignity looking into the future to fight for basic civil rights and social dignity in Lebanon and for the right of return to Palestine.

The skies or a future of possibility may seem not obvious to the international community, which implicitly continues to deny Palestinian basic rights, yet for the Palestinians in the camps the skies are open for the right of return, open for struggle, open to the dream of obtaining the goals expressed by the Palestinian movement for decades.

MH: There is another picture within the Lebanon exhibition from the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, a photo of a stencil of Yasser Arafat. I’m wondering why you chose this photo given all of the debate and divergent views on Arafat’s role in the Palestinian struggle.

SC: This photo you mention was taken in Bourj al-Barajneh camp in Beirut. The camps in Lebanon are filled with artistic graffiti, stencils and political posters articulating the various social vision and political ideals of the Palestinians. The walls of the camps have become artistic murals for the Palestinians, who are officially the largest refugee population in the world.

Many people will tell you that the streets of Lebanon are haunted. That the refugee camps are filled with ghosts, not mystical ghosts, but very real depictions of the dead, the walls filled with pictures or images of those who died in the conflicts or battles that have ripped through Lebanon during the past 50 years since the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.

Beirut and the refugee camps are brushed with symbols of political struggle against Israel and I featured a photograph of a stencil of Arafat, a historical leader, omnipresent in Middle East politics, because I wanted to convey that Arafat’s almost mystical presence in Lebanese or Palestinian politics is still alive today despite Arafat’s many failures, including the Oslo Accords.

Within the photo exhibition I also included a political poster of former Egyptian President Nasser. I included these images not necessarily for the individual leaders in question, to illustrate the role of such iconic images or figures, like that of Arafat or Nasser, in the popular political history in the Middle East. Importantly, such leaders are not popularly remembered for their collusion with imperialist powers but for their acts of defiance against imperial or colonial powers.

MH: In 2005, during your second trip to Lebanon, the politics of the country began to drastically shift. A wave of assassinations of Lebanese politicians took place, while major international pressure on the Palestinians and resistance movements in Lebanon was being applied. It was in the 2005 context in which Tadamon!, the Middle East solidarity collective in which you are currently involved, was formed. Can you speak about how Tadamon! played a role in your second trip to Lebanon and the photos you took?

SC: All the photos I took in Lebanon were taken within the context of my work as a social justice activist working to build ties with the Middle East. In Lebanon I had many discussions with activists, writers, journalists, artists on the role that international solidarity work can play in Lebanon. I spoke with political organizers in Beirut about difficult questions surrounding international solidarity work, including how to build bridges between struggles in the Middle East and North America despite the totally different political climates and histories of each region.

Tadamon! was formed in the context of these difficult discussions on how to build meaningful solidarity. Until today our work in Tadamon! is fueled through collaboration with people in Lebanon and the Arab Diaspora in Canada. In early 2006 Tadamon! was officially launched in Montreal and has become a central vessel for Middle East solidarity organizing in Quebec.

MH: You were also in Lebanon in 2005 when tensions between the governments of Syria and Lebanon were running high in the aftermath of the assassination of Hariri. Can you talk about this period?

SC: Some of the photos in the exhibition document this volatile period in Lebanon. At a certain point the borders between Syria and Lebanon were shutdown in 2005. I found one underreported result of the border shut-down extremely compelling, the story of the thousands of Middle East transport truck drivers stranded at the border regions. For six weeks hundreds of Syrian and Lebanese truck drivers were sleeping on the highways of Lebanon as the borders were closed to economic traffic from Lebanon to Syria, in Akkar and the outer regions of the Beqqa valley.

As the Syria-Lebanon border shutdown was happening, myself and other members of the Beirut Independent Media Center traveled to the border regions to speak with truck drivers — we did interviews, documented their inability to cross the borders. The photos from these trips to the Lebanese-Syrian border region depicted the conditions faced by the drivers on the highways.

Personally the situation facing the truck drivers inspired anti-authoritarian ideas on the political situation in the Middle East, which was that one cannot have faith in political leaders to solve the injustices or conflicts of the region.

In 2005 while a diplomatic dispute was taking place between air-conditioned office towers in Beirut and Damascus, the popular people, the workers, the truck drivers in this case, were left to burn on hot highways along the borders under the summer sun. It illustrated to me strongly that people cannot and should not rely on governments to meet the popular needs of the people, either the Lebanese or Syrian governments.

The very existence of authoritarian, religious or feudal political power in both countries, Syria and Lebanon, means that there will always people cut short, Lebanese and Syrians. Real politics is a struggle between the powerful, attempting to retain existing social norms and the powerless, attempting to change existing social structures that don’t benefit the vast majority in most societies. This simple equation can apply in the Middle East and internationally.

MH: Can you describe the photo of six Syrian-Lebanese truck drivers looking agitated and sad? What were these driven feeling towards the conflict Syria-Lebanon conflict of 2005?

SC: There is a popular political skit or cartoon in Beirut that has been used in multiple contexts, in which one Lebanese asks another, “Are you a Christian or a Muslim?” In the Lebanese rendition the second person responds, “Christian or Muslim, I am hungry!” This is an anti-sectarian statement in Lebanon but also a critique of the national political system that hasn’t benefited the poor majority, which is rooted in sectarian divisions of political power.

An altered rendition of this political narrative can apply in the case of the stranded Syrian truck drivers of 2005. In this case the question would be, “Are you Syrian or Lebanese?” to which the response would be, “Syrian or Lebanese, I am hungry!” For the truck drivers stranded at the border in 2005 nationality didn’t matter; for both the Syrian and Lebanese drivers, the political dispute between the leaders of each respective country was undermining their ability to survive.

Five minutes after taking the photo of the Lebanese and Syrian truck drivers stranded in the border region, a Syrian intelligence officer drove down to our location and the truckers who had assembled to answer questions quickly retreated. The presence of the Syrian intelligence officers illustrated that the Syrian government is always attempting to monitor the situation on the ground, especially as relating to delicate Syrian-Lebanese political relations.

My photos attempt to depict a popular perspective on life in the Middle East. I feel that many photojournalists who work in the Middle East, even those who feel sympathy with the Palestinian or Lebanese cause, don’t have that basic critique of state power as central to oppression, Arab state power or western state power. Fundamental change in the Middle East won’t happen until the entire colonial nation state structure that currently defines the region is fundamentally altered.

MH: When you traveled to Lebanon a third time you arrived shortly before a critical moment in Lebanon’s history, the 2006 Israeli attack. Can you speak about the experience of being in Lebanon during the Israeli bombardment?

SC: In reality the devastating impacts of the Israeli war on Lebanon was very well documented and projected on television networks around the world. However, just because the world was watching the war on Lebanon, as covered by journalists, it didn’t necessarily mean that those same people watching the war were educated on how to take action to stop the bombing of Lebanon.

Perhaps this point marks the importance of educating people not only about the suffering experienced by the Lebanese people but also on ways to act against the political powers that created the human suffering, like the governments of Canada and the US who openly blocked a ceasefire resolution at the United Nations admit the intense bombing of Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Honestly, my experience during the Israeli attack of 2006 did fundamentally change my perspective on life and seriously deepened my ability to understand the history of the Middle East and the struggle against Israeli apartheid, as I lived a through a critical moment of this struggle in recent history. While in Beirut as the bombs were falling, I along with the majority of Lebanon felt pride for the Lebanese resistance, which against incredible odds was able to fend of the Israeli military.

MH: I am wondering where you aim to impact people by showing these photos from Lebanon?

SC: These photographs are an attempt to open a dialogue on Lebanon and the Middle East. Also, these photos aim to open a discussion on the fundamental political structure of the Middle East, rooted in national borders created by colonial powers, from Lebanon, to Jordan, to Egypt, to Palestine. This photo exhibition aims to address the blurry lines of nationality in the Middle East within a present and historical colonial context.

In terms of Lebanon, it’s clear that the Lebanese national identity overlaps with other national identities and is deeply connected to the collective identity of the Middle East. Lebanon, like all other countries in the region, is not isolated from the social, political or cultural influences of other nations in the region, influences that can’t be stopped by state border agents.

This photo exhibition attempts to illustrate that all major political events in the Middle East are interrelated. When we address or act in solidarity with the Palestinian cause, it is essential in my mind that we understand that fundamental justice for Palestine and the Palestinians will only ever be achieved through radically changing the fundamental political and national structure of the Middle East region.

Mostafa Henaway is a freelance journalist based in Montreal, who works with CKUT 90.3FM, Radio Canada International, and an organizer for the Immigrant Workers Centre.

Stefan Christoff is an independent journalist and social justice organizer based in Montreal. Christoff has traveled to Lebanon on three occasions, the most recent in 2006 during the Israeli invasion. Christoff is a regular contributor to The Electronic Intifada and is active with the Montreal based Middle East solidarity collective Tadamon!.

Photos: Tatiana Gomez

To listen to interview click here

Deportation the latest project of LAL, was shown to an audience in downtown montreal this past April 14^TH. The project, which takes its name from the Toronto band’s upcoming album,  also incorporates the works of new-media artist and filmmaker Faisal Anwar.

LAL’s music is the outcome of a collaboration between vocalist Rosina Kazi, electronic music composer and producer Nick Murray(a.k.a. “Murr”), bassist Ian DeSouza, percussionist Rakesh Tewari.

The multi-arts installation “Deportation” explored the suffocating role technology plays in our day-to-day lives. Galvanized by their audience’s participation, LAL, their guests, and hi-tech partners raised awareness about the global state of surveillance and its ramifications, artfully opening up debates that are traditionally confined to academic circles alone.

LAL’s latest project deportation builds upon their own activism and life experiences, as finding them selves in a world after September 11^th and its aftermath. From project threadbare a campaign to stop the deportation of 24 Pakistani men in Toronto due to racist immigration and national security policies, to the deportation of Wendy Maxwell. An artist, activist who was deported to Costa Rica on International Women’s day in Toronto in 2004.

This was report was produced by Mostafa Henaway for ckut 90.3fm in Montreal

For more information about LAL
www.lalforest.com
www.trytodeportusall.com

For more information about struggles for migrant Justice

Solidarity Across Borders
www.solidarityacrossborders.org

No One Is Illegal
www.nooneisillegal.org

for more info about the photos by Tatiana Gomez
Tatiana(at)resist.ca

For more information about this report
Mostafah.wordpress.com
Ckutnews.wordpress.com
News(at)ckut.ca