A Palestine summer -- a Winnipeg activist shares his conversations with people in Israeli occupied territories

David Kattenburg is a tireless advocate calling for the end of the Israeli occupation of Palestine. He's a Winnipeg based university science instructor and web publisher of The Green Planet Monitor. And he also works for social justice on matters related to environment, sustainability and the wide variety of subjects under that big tent.

(A side note – he's also seeking a judicial review of a July 2017 decision by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, permitting illegal Jewish settlement wines to be labeled 'Product of Israel'. The Federal Court of Canada is expected to rule on his application in the Fall.)

He goes to the Middle East whenever he can and spends a lot of his time in Palestine, bringing along his recorder and camera to gather material for The Green Planet Monitor. On the site, you can find his writings, audio interviews and photos from his explorations which back several years.

What is compelling about his site is that it does a good job of explaining the complexities of this region. Like any good university prof, he explains the background in a way that people who don't have a comprehensive knowledge of the dynamics can understand. And he also does stories about daily life in Palestine – demonstrating how the occupation affects people's lives.

Today we have a sampling of stories from David Kattenburg's explorations in June and early July this year.

1.) Protestors at a roadblock in the village of Kufr Qaddum which has been blocked by the Israeli military since since 2003. The people interviewed are residents of the village , talking about how the roadblock affects their economy and their lives.

2.) No Right to a Home – Jeff Halper is founder of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD). House demolitions are routinely carried out in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank, in Gaza and even in Israel's internationally recognized borders, but only to Palestinian homes.

3.) When people protest their living conditions, the result is often jail. Khalida Jarrar is a Palestinian politician who has been jailed for her political action. She talks to David Kattenburg about her times in prison and her efforts to make a difference in the lives of women and girls in the prison where she was locked up.

Image: Israeli soldiers advance on protesting Palestinians, Kufr Qaddum. Photo by David Kattenburg. Used with permission.