Pressure mounts on companies involved with illegal tramway
2 Apr 2008
rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rRecently the French engineering and consulting company Egis Rail joined European companies Veolia Transport and Alstom in their tramway project being built on Palestinian land in Jerusalem. Alstom won the construction bid in 2000 and two years later Veolia Transport obtained the operating rights. Adri Nieuwhof reports.

“When I’m big will I go to jail like Daddy?”
2 Apr 2008
rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr r”Momma, when I’m big will I go to jail like Daddy?” That was little Adam’s question for his mother when I came to visit their house, just before leaving the village of al-Tuwani for a brief trip home to the United States. Adam is three years old. His mother tells me that he wants his father to come home from jail and bring him ice cream. “Adam is upset,” she says. Looking at her eyes, I can tell that she is too. So am I. Joy Ellison writes from al-Tuwani.

Gaza patients die as Israel denies treatment
2 Apr 2008
rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rJERUSALEM, 1 April (IRIN) – “Tragedies that could and should have been avoided,” was how Ambrogio Manenti, head of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Jerusalem, described the cases of Palestinian patients who died while awaiting medical treatment outside the Gaza Strip. A new report by the WHO on 1 April describes in detail five cases of patients who died either while awaiting an Israeli permit to exit the enclave or after having been denied one.

Photostory: The month in pictures, March 2008
1 Apr 2008
rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rThis slideshow is a selection of images from the month of March 2008. The month in pictures is an ongoing feature of the Electronic Intifada. If you have images documenting Palestine, Palestinian life, politics and culture, or of solidarity with Palestine, please email images and captions to photos AT electronicintifada DOT net.

This ‘bombshell’ took a year falling
1 Apr 2008
rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rCAIRO, 2 April (IPS) – A recent article in Vanity Fair magazine “exposing” a US-planned coup attempt against Palestinian resistance movement Hamas last year has ignited a storm of debate about Washington’s Middle East policies. Yet for more than nine months, details of the plot were reported in the independent Arabic press—and elsewhere—leading some observers to ask: where was the mainstream media?

Returning to Nablus: Collateral damage
1 Apr 2008
rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rFedaa recounted that three days ago her husband woke her at 1:15 am and told her, ”’There’s Jewish in our area and I am afraid about Lara alone in her room. Go to her room.’ I said, ‘Nomair, I want to sleep.’ He come back angry and said, ‘Fedaa, wake up.’ Suddenly they shoot at us. I get out and go quickly to Lara’s room. They shoot us again in Lara’s room. Nomair started shouting at them, ‘Go! What do you want? Why do you shoot us? There is a baby here.’” Alice Rothchild writes from Nablus.

Another Arab tea party ends
31 Mar 2008
rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rCAIRO, 1 April (IPS) – The 20th Arab League summit, convened earlier this week in the Syrian capital Damascus, drew relatively few heads of state, with both Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Saudi King Abdullah bin Abd al-Aziz choosing to stay at home. According to local commentators, the low level of diplomatic representation served to show up Syria’s isolation within the otherwise US-dominated Arab fold.

The senator, his pastor and the Israel lobby
30 Mar 2008
rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rFor months, even before most Americans had heard of Senator Barack Obama’s pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, prominent pro-Israel activists were hounding Obama over Wright’s views on Israel and ties to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. In January, Abraham Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League, demanded that Obama denounce Farrakhan as an anti-Semite. The senator duly did so, but that was not enough. EI co-founder Ali Abunimah comments.

Palestinian orgs: Israel’s anniversary nothing to celebrate
30 Mar 2008
rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rHow can you celebrate? The establishment of the state of Israel 60 years ago was a settler- colonial project that systematically and violently uprooted more than 750,000 Palestinian Arabs from their lands and homes. Sixty years ago, Zionist militias and gangs ransacked Palestinian properties and destroyed hundreds of Palestinian villages. How can people of conscience celebrate this catastrophe?

Crossing the Line interviews journalist Jonathan Cook
30 Mar 2008
rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rThis week on Crossing the Line: According to much of the international media, Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai was apparently “misunderstood” when he said that Gaza faced a “shoah,” the Hebrew word for “holocaust.” But was his comment really misunderstood? Host Naji Ali speaks with Nazareth-based journalist Jonathan Cook about Vilnai’s remarks and the Israeli government’s longer-term strategy for Palestinians in the occupied territories.

Bjork, cancel your Tel Aviv concert!
29 Mar 2008
rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rYou uttered one word [“Tibet”] in a concert in Shanghai that sent ripples across many disapproving seas. This time, say it louder, and support another just cause: that of the Palestinian people. Do not sing in Israel, so that your silence will prove to be more deafening. The concert you plan to give in July in Israel will coincide with the celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of this state over the ruins of another country, Palestine.

Anti-Arab racism and incitement in Israel
29 Mar 2008
rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rIsraeli society is in the grip of a wave of unchecked racism and incitement that seriously threatens Israel’s Palestinian community and the long-term prospects for regional peace. This Palestine Center briefing by Ali Abunimah examines societal and institutional racism and incitement by public figures against Israel’s Arab population and considers some policy implications.

The stones of Suhmata
29 Mar 2008
rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rUnlike the majority of Palestinian refugees dispersed across the Middle East and beyond, Wagih Semaan can drive a few kilometers from his house, cross a ditch and a fence and sit in the stones of the village he was driven out of at the age of 11. But despite his Israeli “citizenship,” he is no more able to return to live on his land than the Palestinian sitting in Ein al-Hilwe camp across the Lebanese border. Isabelle Humphries writes from Suhmata.

New Yorkers protest Leviev’s Israeli settlements on Land Day
28 Mar 2008
rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rForty New Yorkers commemorated the Palestinian national holiday Land Day today with the eighth protest at the Madison Avenue jewelry store of Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev. The protest included songs, theater and testimonials from villages threatened by Leviev’s settlements. Land Day marks Palestinians’ ties to their land, in defiance of Israeli efforts to displace them.

Arab summit boycott of Syria threatens regional conflict
28 Mar 2008
rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rBEIRUT, 28 March 2008 (IRIN) – A boycott by Lebanon and major Arab powers of the Arab summit in Damascus (29-30 March) has dashed hopes for a last-ditch settlement of the Lebanese presidential crisis, raising fears of a descent into violence after it passes. Political turmoil in Lebanon has often been the precursor to regional conflict and serious humanitarian problems in the past.

The high road to freedom
27 Mar 2008
rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rLast week, Fatah and Hamas officials held direct talks for the first time since Hamas’ June takeover of Gaza. Mediated by Yemeni officials in the capital, the talks led to the recently announced “Sana’a Declaration.” However, it is unclear whether these talks, like those that preceded the Gaza takeover, will result in reconciliation and national unity. Ziyaad Lunat comments for EI.

Normality in the West Bank
26 Mar 2008
rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rIt is the constant reminder that every aspect of people’s lives here is affected by the occupation. My Palestinian friends who have lived their whole lives in this context tell me that one of the worst things of existing under such conditions is that after a while it becomes normal. One comes to expect everything. One has to endure everything. One has to remain hopeful that life will become easier one day. Maria York’s words and photographs tell about daily life in the occupied West Bank.

Nazareth, the neglected city of Jesus
26 Mar 2008
rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rLast weekend, Catholics in Nazareth and around the world celebrated the most holy and significant events to Christianity, Good Friday and Easter Sunday, marking the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, a man in Biblical times known simply as “Jesus of Nazareth.” However, today Nazareth faces a slow and painful death in the face of land theft and colonization. Christine Bro writes for EI.

Food prices double in besieged Gaza
26 Mar 2008
rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr r”There have been rapid price increases over the last few months because of the closure. Three months ago, for instance, a liter of corn oil cost 19 shekels [the equivalent of $4.50]. Now it costs 29 shekels [$7]. The price of flour has also doubled; three months ago a kilo of flour was two shekels. Now our customers have to pay four shekels.” PCHR reports on how the siege has affected business owners like Anwar Abu al-Kass and the availability of food in Gaza.

A devastated town recovers, in a way
25 Mar 2008
rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rSIDDIQINE, Lebanon, 26 March (IPS) – Ali Mohanna lives in a two-room cinderblock structure with his wife and brain-damaged son. By the side is a small, freshly plowed tobacco field and the plot of rubble he once called home. Mohanna’s house was bombed by Israel during the 34-day conflict in 2006, as were houses of most residents of Siddiqine—an impoverished village of 6,000, about 10km inland from the coastal town Tyre.

Gaza’s sewage system in crisis
25 Mar 2008
rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rJERUSALEM/GAZA, 25 March (IRIN) – Design errors, a fast growing population, the halting in recent years of development projects, and Israeli restrictions on imports have rendered the Gaza Strip’s sewage system incapable of handling the enclave’s waste, experts said. The result is the pumping of partially treated or untreated sewage directly into the sea, and the seepage of dirty water into the ground and groundwater.

Deaths of four “terrorists”
25 Mar 2008
rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rFew other words shut down critical thought as completely as the word “terrorist.” Few other labels are so morally loaded, so totalizing, so antithetical to reasoned, measured debate. Almost no other term evokes such facile, muddled thinking. Thus, when a local leader of Islamic Jihad and three other Palestinian “terrorists” were killed by Israeli special forces in Bethlehem on Wednesday night, few outside of Palestine will mourn their deaths. JR Malsin writes from Bethlehem.

Transforming Israel
24 Mar 2008
rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rNow that Kosovo is the newest independent state to emerge out of the ruins of the former Yugoslavia parallels are being drawn between the Balkans and the Middle East. One response to this development came from Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni who said that as she does not mind if the Palestinians follow the Kosovars and declare statehood; what worries her is that Palestinians will demand equal rights with Israelis. Miko Peled comments for EI.

Renewed Egyptian ceasfire attempts undermined by Israel
23 Mar 2008
rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rIn the wake of a series of deadly Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip early this month, Egypt has stepped up efforts aimed at brokering a ceasefire between Palestinian resistance groups and Tel Aviv. “Egypt is talking to representatives from [Palestinian resistance factions] Hamas and Islamic Jihad and Israel in order to arrive at a tacit easing of hostilities,” Mohamed Basyouni, head of the Shura (upper parliamentary) Council’s committee for Arab affairs, and former Egyptian ambassador to Israel, told IPS.

Towards a viable academic boycott campaign
23 Mar 2008
rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rFor the past few years student and academic groups in North America and Europe have been openly campaigning for the boycott of Israeli academia. Some actions produced results (even if not long lasting) and some were unsuccessful. It is important for us working towards the defense of Palestinians’ human rights to learn from these experiences so we may meet our goals in the future. Laith Marouf comments for EI.