Voice of Palestine Exits Coop Radio after 25 Years

Voice of Palestine Exits Coop Radio after 25 Years
Plans for Internet-only Show
August 15, 2012

Dear Friends:

On September 4, 2012, Voice of Palestine VOP radio show in Vancouver, Canada will mark a quarter century of broadcasting at Vancouver Coop Radio, 102.7 FM. We are extremely proud of the show’s history and our long contribution in bringing the Palestinian narrative to a broader audience. However, after difficult deliberations, the VOP collective has decided that this is the correct historical moment for the show to wrap up its 25 years at the station. Our decision was not taken lightly and is based mainly on two factors.

1) 25 years is well … 25 years and over 1290 shows since September 1987. We feel it is time for a change both in our focus and format. Technologies have evolved, the support movement for Palestine has developed and we want to adapt accordingly. Already, through our website http://www.voiceofpalestine.ca/, our internet listenership has steadily increased and has surpassed our “real-time” listenership on Tuesday nights. Therefore, after a brief hiatus to regroup, we hope to be relaunching VOP in October, 2012 as a strictly web-based show with mainly in-depth feature interviews, and a focus on advancing the Palestinian liberation movement. There have been so many times over the last few years that we have felt our 20 minute interviews have only scratched the surface of what can and should be covered with our guests and hopefully our new format will resolve that. Although we regret that we will no longer be able to reach those listeners who are not yet internet-capable, we feel it is the right time to take on this new challenge and offer a different kind of programming.

2) Over the last year and a half, our collective has had serious political differences with the station, mainly over the new frequency swap/sell-out with The Jim Pattison Broadcast Group and the station’s refusal to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions BDS movement against the state of Israel. All of this has been well-documented on our website’s homepage and we encourage anyone not yet familiar with these issues to check out our two position papers written after the last AGM. We tried our best to reach out and convince station members that not only was the frequency swap/sell-out bad for the station but also that the non-disclosure agreement/secrecy with which it was conducted (which meant no membership vote on the issue took place) was undemocratic and against all of our cooperative principles. However, our efforts were not successful and in fact, the new frequency goes into effect on September 10, 2012. Likewise, our attempts so far to have station members realize that they are on the wrong side of history by not endorsing the BDS movement were also to no avail. Accordingly, it is with a heavy heart that we felt this was not the Coop Radio we knew and supported over the years; this was no longer the type of cooperative that we could be part of and felt our political energies and passions were better utilized in other ways.

Accordingly we are asking our dedicated listeners to help us financially as we adjust to our web-based format, as we will need updated equipment for this new phase to be successful. If you value the programming VOP has offered for the last 25 years, please consider making a donation directly to the show (unfortunately not tax-deductible). Cheques should be made out to our partner organization Canada Palestine Association, with VOP clearly indicated in the memo note and mailed to 930-12th St., New Westminster, BC V3M 4K6.

So tune in on September 4, 2012, where we will be doing not only our 25th anniversary show but also our last show at Coop Radio. And stay tuned to our website for the details of when we will be launching our new internet-only Voice of Palestine. The future belongs to the people of Palestine and all the oppressed people of the world!!

The struggle continues!!
Voice of Palestine Collective

Picket the Jewish National Fund, Vancouver, Canada

On May 31, 2012, the Jewish National Fund JNF Pacific Region will be holding… Read more

On May 31, 2012, the Jewish National Fund JNF Pacific Region will be holding an evening to support their 2012 project – the “Arava Peace Route”. Similar to the mockery that is Canada Park, the JNF is publicly claiming to be enhancing the environment and supporting a “peace route”, while ethnically cleansing the Palestinian Bedouins from the same Negev region where their “peace route” will “enhance access to and from farmers fields .. (and) will improve security”. The Bedouin village of Al Araqib in the Negev has been destroyed 37 times by Israeli and JNF paramilitary forces, but the Palestinians of the village refuse to surrender, many of them returning time and time again to rebuild (more info at Stop the JNF Campaign).
The JNF uses language like “pioneering” and “security” and “100% Israel” in its publicity for the event. And equally fitting is the guest speaker that JNF Pacific Region is highlighting for the evening:- Dennis Prager from the U.S., who is a close associate of Christian Zionist leader John Hagee and his organization, Christians United for Israel.
Canada Palestine Association is calling on all our supporters to join us and add their voices in telling the JNF that green-washing apartheid is no longer acceptable.
Gather across the street from Schara Tzedeck Synagogue, 3476 Oak St., Vancouver at 6:30 pm on May 31, 2012.

Please join the Facebook page event
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In a recent interview, Dennis Prager (from the U.S.) seems to feel we need his input on our democratic rights here in B.C. to picket this JNF event. He also describes Israel as “one of the most humane, open and civilized countries on earth”, the same Israel that commits war crimes and ethnic cleansing.
See the article “Dedicated lobbyist for Israel” in the local Zionist paper the “Jewish Independent”:
“Prager has a simple message for those JNF critics who may picket his Vancouver talk, as they have previous JNF and other Israel-related events: ‘You live in a free country, so If you are peaceful, welcome,’ he offered. ‘Having said that, I regard those who protest against Israel or the JNF and other supporters of Israel – one of the most humane, open and civilized countries on earth – as having broken moral compasses. The world is filled [with] barbarism, and they protest against Israel!’.”
Watch You Tube video for the event

Peretz Centre, Vancouver Supports the Continuing Palestinian Nakba

This year, the Zionist organizations in Vancouver celebrated “Israel’s… Read more

This year, the Zionist organizations in Vancouver celebrated “Israel’s 64th Independence Day, Yom Ha’atzmaut” on April 25, 2012 at “The Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts”. The event was presented by the “Jewish Federation” of Greater Vancouver, sponsored by the “Jewish National Fund”, Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, ”Jewish Independent” and the Executive Hotel Vintage Park, along with 55 “Community Partners” including the “Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture”.
We know that many social justice and pro-Palestinian organizations have held some of their public meetings at the Peretz Centre, believing that the Centre is “secular” and progressive. We believe at this crucial junction in Palestinian history that all those who support the Palestinian struggle should be aware of whom they are dealing with; and further, if they support the Palestinian civil society call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions BDS against Israeli Apartheid, they must also boycott all those who support the settler colonialist project in Palestine.
When we learnt of their most recent “Partnering”, we wrote the following letter to the Peretz Centre.
“It has come to our attention that your name was one of many organizations that are “Community Partners” in the “Celebrate Israel’s 64th Independence Day, Yom Ha’atzmaut” (see Jewish Independent March 23, 2012, page 16, the back page). This is not the first time that your “secular” organization celebrates Israel’s “independence day”. We have been boycotting your centre and all events that were held in it since your first such endorsement of our Nakba (forced dispossession), although we have refrained from taking a public position.
Recently, leading Palestinian activists in the diaspora (of which I was one) issued a statement criticizing Gilad Atzmon for both his actions and statements on “Jewish identity”. The debate that has opened up around this issue requires us to also be critical of people of Jewish background who refuse to openly condemn Israel’s Apartheid policies towards the Palestinians and/or those supporting these Zionist policies. The time is now for all people of good conscience, especially those who identify as being of Jewish faith, to publicly distance themselves from these racist and discriminatory practices. In so doing, they will also further the struggle against anti-Jewish sentiment and prove, especially to the Palestinians, that many Jewish people are not willing to blindly follow “tribal loyalties”. Silence at this crucial point in history is complicity and can only be viewed as such.
We intend now to go public. Please respond to this email with any information that might clarify your position.
Thanks for your attention.”
We then received two emails from Richard Rosenberg, the president of the “Peretz Centre”. He told us in the first email dated April 6, 2012 that: “if we were to withdraw from the ‘Community Partners’ we would once again be marginalized in the Jewish community” and “On Thursday, April 19th, we will be having an executive meeting of the Peretz Centre, and your concerns will be discussed”. In his second email on May 1, 2012, he reiterated what he said previously and added that “Recognizing the Independence Day of Israel does not at all commit us to endorse current Israeli policies”…and that “the Peretz Centre is essentially not a political nor a lobby group.”
We believe that Mr. Rosenberg and his executive preferred to ignore our points and bury their heads in the sand. We regret to tell them that “recognizing the Independence Day of Israel” is a political stand that denies the Palestinian people their rights and their existence. Furthermore, by recognizing the pro-Israeli Zionist organizations as “the Jewish community”, the Peretz Centre is also contributing to promoting anti-Semitism and hurting the wellbeing and interests of all Jews by attributing to them the war crimes that Israel commits. We wish that all of the Peretz executive and membership attended the meeting that was held in Vancouver for the Israel historian Ilan Pappe on May 5, 2012, or that they have read Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi’s book the Original Sins.
As we said in our original letter to them, it is incumbent on Jewish people all over the world, including in Israel, to disassociate themselves from the Zionist settler colonialist project, a project that is directly responsible not only for denying the Palestinian their rights and humanity, but also for promoting anti-Semitism against Jews. We believe that Jews who claim to support the Palestinian people and still claim loyalty to the Israeli state (the Zionist settler colonialist project) are not helping the struggle to combat anti-Semitism. One recent example of this “tribal” loyalty is the recent position of Norman Finkelstein on the objectives of the BDS movement.
Progressive Palestinians can NOT carry this anti-racist struggle on their own and they should not be asked to nor expected to; now is the time for Jewish people (to quote Ilan Pappe) to focus on what is just, not simply what seems possible or convenient at this current juncture in time. They have to reclaim their humanity and stop patronizing those who are partnering with Israeli Apartheid, war crimes and the continued ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians.
Hanna Kawas, Chairperson
Canada Palestine Association