Listen to an interview with Mohamed Omar, an independent Palestinian journalist based in Rafah refugee camp of the southern Gaza Strip. The interview focuses on the Canadian government's relationship to the internationally condemned Israeli military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

On December 1st 2004, at the United Nations General Assembly, the Canadian government voted "No" for the first time on a resolution supporting the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, singling a symbolic shift in Canadian foreign policy toward diplomatic support for Israeli Apartheid. The UN vote was issued one day after the Canadian Ambassador to the UN, publicly criticized the UN General Assembly for delivering "one-sided condemnations" of Israel.

The interview also provides a Palestinian perspective regarding Ariel Sharon's so-called "withdrawal plan" for the Gaza Strip, introduced in February 2004. As the Gaza Strip "withdrawal plan" is supported by the Canadian government as an Israeli effort towards peace, the reality of Israeli military occupation in the Gaza Strip continues, with ongoing "Settlement" construction, countless house demolitions and extraordinarily high Palestinian death-tolls.

-> To listen to the interview with Mohamed Omar visit:
 http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2004/12/3079.php

-> To view Mohamed Omar's website Rafah Today visit:
 http://www.rafahtoday.org

This interview was produced for CKUT Radio in Montreal by Stefan Christoff, who is a member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a Palestinian-led movement of Palestinian and International activists working to raise awareness of the struggle for Palestinian freedom and an end to Israeli occupation. For more info:  http://www.palsolidarity.org