Towards a viable academic boycott campaign23 Mar 2008rr 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.
Trapped in no man’s land20 Mar 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rIn 2006, as Iraq descended into new depths of civil conflict, 350 Palestinian refugees were driven out of Baghdad by targeted violence. They arrived in the desert no man’s land between the Iraqi and Syrian border crossings at al-Tanf. The Syrian authorities denied the Palestinians access into Syria, while also preventing any more Palestinians arriving into the no man’s land. James Denselow reports for EI.
See no evil: Canadian government denies torture in Israel20 Mar 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rAccording to Canadian foreign affairs minister Maxime Bernier and the Harper government Israel does not practice torture. After it was exposed that Canada had Israel and the United States listed as offenders in a training manual for diplomats about torture, the two countries were promptly dropped on 19 January with Bernier’s expression of regret and embarrassment. EI contributor Jesse Rosenfeld reports.
Gaza’s situation: frustration and determination19 Mar 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rA few kilometers from where the Israeli army attacked Gaza’s coast, a coalition of 27 women’s organizations held a festival marking International Women’s Day. Organized by the Women’s Affairs Center based in Gaza City, the event titled, “Gaza women defy the Israeli siege,” was held at the Beach Hotel along the coast. Rami Almeghari writes from Gaza.
Scapegoat upon scapegoat: Angela Merkel addresses the Knesset19 Mar 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel’s speech to the Israeli Knesset was lauded as historic, as she spoke of her country’s “shame” for the Holocaust. EI Contributor Raymond Deane subjects Merkel’s words and German reactions to them to a searing analysis. Deane argues that with her distortions, omissions and indifference to their plight, Merkel covers up the reality that it is the Palestinians who are paying the penance for Germany’s past crimes.
Rachel Corrie’s case for justice19 Mar 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rAs their plane touched down in Tel Aviv recently, Cindy and Craig Corrie marked five years since their daughter’s death. On March 16, 2003, Rachel Corrie, 23, was crushed to death beneath an armored Israeli bulldozer. The Corries are a short distance from Gaza, where Rachel was killed, and where in the past few weeks, an Israeli military incursion killed over 100 Palestinians. Tom Wright and Therese Saliba comment.
Crossing the Line interviews daughter of Sami Al-Arian18 Mar 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rThis week on Crossing The Line: As the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip continues, the world listens with a deaf ear as Israel continues its siege and incursions into the coastal territory. Host Naji Ali speaks with physician and human rights activist, Dr. Laila Al Marayati, about the physical and emotional effects of occupation.
In prison, who knows why?18 Mar 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rGAZA CITY, 19 March (IPS) – You would think the baby boy named Yousef has his life ahead of him. But who knows, with a child born to Palestinian parents from Gaza. What’s more, Yousef was born in an Israeli prison. He is the only one of Fatima al-Zeq’s nine children who is with her for that reason—she was arrested nine months ago. But these days the baby is not with her.
Sisters killed in Gaza “reborn” through cousins18 Mar 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rThree young Palestinian sisters; Shahd Okal, eight months old, Maria Okal, five years old and Somaia Okal, 15 years old, and their mother were killed when an Israeli rocket hit their house on 26 July 2006 while they were swinging inside their house. But on 18 March 2008, Shahd, Maria and Somaia were born in the same Izbet Abed Rabbu neighborhood of Jabaliya town in the northern Gaza Strip. Sami Abu Salem writes from the occupied Gaza Strip.
Far from Palestine’s sea18 Mar 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rAs a lawyer for the Palestinian peace negotiating team, I met presidents, prime ministers, Nobel laureates, secretaries of state and other important figures. But none of these individuals hit me with the same emotional wallop as a young woman named Majda. Diana Buttu writes from occupied Ramallah.
Farmers struggle to stay on their land17 Mar 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rTYRE, Lebanon, 17 March (IPS) – “I think the biggest challenge is to stay in the village,” says Ibrahim Sayyed, a 28-year-old municipality accountant from the beleaguered farming town of Aitaroun, situated barely a mile from the heavily patrolled Blue Line and Israel beyond. “My father and grandparents told me stories going back to 1948. All this time there has been war.”
Book Review: “An Israeli In Palestine Resisting Dispossession, Redeeming Israel”16 Mar 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rJeff Halper’s new book is, in part, the story of the evolution of a “white moderate” peace campaigner to a radical Israeli campaigner for justice for the Palestinians. En route, he maps his development from “ethnic Jew to Jewish national to Israeli,” disregarding his grandmother’s warning that “Israel is no place for a Jewish boy!” Raymond Deane reviews for EI.
Palestinian PSS storms Ramattan Press Agency in Ramallah16 Mar 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rPCHR is deeply concerned over storming the headquarters of Ramattan Press Agency in Ramallah by members of the Palestinian Preventive Security Service (PSS) and the arrest of a Palestinian journalist on Wednesday, 12 March 2008. PCHR believes that this attack constitutes an assault on press freedoms and the right to freedom of expression, and stresses that the rights to freedom of expression and to receive and impart information are ensured by the Palestinian Basic Law and international human rights instruments.
Palestinians in Gaza lose their livelihoods16 Mar 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rThe Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) continues its tight siege and prevents movement of people and goods in and out of the Gaza Strip. This includes patients who are close to dying due to denied access to hospitals abroad. Sources from the Palestinian Ministry of Health have indicated that more than 100 patients have died since mid-June 2007.
Meet the Lebanese Press: US military “tourism”16 Mar 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rSupporters of Lebanon’s March 14 movement tend to complain about the damage to tourism caused by the current status quo in Lebanon. Many of them cheered recently when the wheels of fortune seemed to swing their way as the US destroyer USS Cole approached Lebanese shores.
Activists to Waldorf-Astoria: Cancel Friends of IDF fundraiser16 Mar 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rAs 13 organizations working for human rights, social justice, and peace, we demand that The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan rescind its agreement to host the 18 March fundraiser for Friends of the Israel Defense Forces. The Israeli military has historically been a flagrant violator of human rights and international law as demonstrated by the recent attacks on Gaza that killed over 100 Palestinians, the 2006 attack on Lebanon, and the 60-year assault on and dispossession of the Palestinian people.
IOF shuts down two radio stations in Jenin15 Mar 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rOn 11 March 2008, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) stormed into Al Quds Radio and Al Majd Radio headquarters in Jenin, West Bank and confiscated most of the contents in the buildings. According to sources from Al Quds Radio, the IOF, which carried out an incursion into the town of Jenin, in the northern West Bank, raided the headquarters of the radio station.
Two-state dreamers13 Mar 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rIf the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the world’s most intractable, much the same can be said of the parallel debate about whether its resolution can best be achieved by a single state embracing the two peoples living there or by a division of the land into two separate states, one for Jews and the other for Palestinians. EI contributor Jonathan Cook asks the question: if one state is impossible, why is Olmert so afraid of it?
Political crisis set to worsen12 Mar 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rTYRE, Lebanon, 12 March (IPS) – Soon after the US destroyer USS Cole was deployed off Lebanon’s shore 28 February to “preserve political stability”, a group of young men gathered around in the embattled agricultural town Qana in south Lebanon, and voiced their fears. “Everyone feels there is a war coming,” said Salman Ismael, a 22-year-old university student. “Especially after the killing of (Hizballah commander) Imad Mughniyeh and what is happening in Gaza.”
Crossing the Line interviews Gaza-based journalist Rami Almeghari12 Mar 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rThis week on Crossing the Line: Israel continues its siege and steps up attacks on the Gaza Strip killing more than 100 Palestinians, the majority of whom were civilians according to various human rights organizations. Host Naji Ali speaks with journalist, Rami Almeghari, to get an update on the situation in Gaza.
Egypt quietly lets in 230 patients from Gaza12 Mar 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rJERUSALEM/GAZA, 12 March 2008 (IRIN) – Egypt has allowed over 200 Palestinian patients from the Gaza Strip to make their way into Egypt via the Rafah border crossing, according to Palestinian health officials. After the large-scale Israeli incursion into Jabalya refugee camp at the end of February and beginning of March, which killed about 120 and caused many injuries, Egypt allowed some of the wounded to enter its territory through Rafah.
A letter from a mother in Gaza to a mother in Sderot12 Mar 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rDear Rima Haimov, When I read your words the only thing I can say is that I feel sorry for your son, and that I can understand you as a mother and the traumatic events that your child is experiencing. I cannot deny the fact that life becomes very difficult in such circumstances when you realize that you and your family are in danger at any moment; I fully understand your worries, your feelings and concerns. I am addressing this letter to you with the hope that you will understand my pain too.
Salata Baladi or Afrangi?12 Mar 2008rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rCultural critic Joseph Massad finds a problematic political agenda is at the heart of Nadia Kamel’s first documentary Salata Baladi, in which she mourns the imagined loss of a cosmopolitan Cairo, told through the story of her mother Mary Rosenthal, a.k.a. Naila Kamel and her separation from family that left Egypt for Israel.
A recipe for Israel’s security11 Mar 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rTime after time, Israel has failed to provide its citizens with either actual security or even a sense of security, whether inside or outside the country. This is so despite the fact that it possesses all means of military power and superiority including the nuclear weapons making it the strongest regional power in the Middle East. In fact, despite all its power, Israel lives in a continuous security crisis. Ghada Ageel comments for EI.
Interview with single-state activist Dr. Haider Eid11 Mar 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr r”The establishment of a sovereign, independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders is unfeasible. A Bantustan-based system does not guarantee a comprehensive peace. It never did in Apartheid South Africa. Ironically, therefore, what the Oslo Accords, signed in 1993 between Israel and the PLO, have led to is a situation that was not envisaged by its signatories, that is the impossibility of establishing a sovereign independent Palestinian state on 22 percent of historic Palestine.” Dr. Haider Eid speaks with Anna Weekes.
Electronic Intifada