PREPARATIONS FOR ISRAELI APARTHEID WEEK IN OVER 200 CITIES 

Preparations for Israeli Apartheid Week in over 200 cities in a bid to raise awareness on Tel Aviv’s atrocities against Palestinians. (Photo : Press TV)

Tel Aviv, 11 Jumadal Awwal 1436/2 March 2015 (MINA) – Tens of cities across the globe are holding events to mark the 11th Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) in a bid to raise awareness on Tel Aviv’s atrocities against Palestinians.

The Apartheid Week is a series of annual international events including rallies, lectures, cultural performances, film screenings, multimedia displays along with activities related to the growing Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against the regime.

Since their beginning in the Canadian city of Toronto in 2005, the annual events, held in February or March, have been spread to at least 200 cities across the globe,  Press TV quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

Among the events on Sunday, were gatherings and lectures in South Africa and the occupied Gaza Strip, where Palestinians kicked off a series of activities to commemorate the IAW.

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In South Africa, the descendants of anti-apartheid icons, along with over 85 organizations, trade unions, and political parties endorsed the IAW and urged citizens to join the campaign.

“We know all too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians,” one of the participants quoted a famous phrase by South Africa’s iconic anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela.

According to the IAW official website, this year’s events are scheduled to be held from February 26 to March 12 in the US and from March 9 to 14 in Canada.

The website also  listed the events along with guidelines on steps that anti-Apartheid activists could take to mark the day. It also called on those who are engaged in the IAW events to contact it for promotion.

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The apartheid regime of Israel denies about 1.7 million people in Gaza their basic rights, such as freedom of movement, jobs that pay proper wages, and adequate healthcare and education.

The Israeli regime also maintains a defiant stand on the issue of illegal settlements on Palestinian land as it refuses to freeze settlement expansion. Tel Aviv has come under repeated and widespread international condemnation over the issue.

More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds (Jerusalem). (T/P010/P3)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)

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