A new struggle for life after war12 Feb 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rTyre enjoys a reputation as a laid back summer resort with a “liberal” lifestyle in the heart of south Lebanon—with its striking Roman ruins, ancient Christian fishing harbor, and bustling beachfront. But during the off-season—and compounded by the negative impact of the summer 2006 conflict with Israel, the ongoing political crises in Beirut and skyrocketing prices nationwide—the town’s family-owned retail shops and businesses, farmers and fishermen barely make a living. Rebecca Murray writes from the southern Lebanon city.
Call for entries: Expressions of the Nakba12 Feb 2008rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rThe year 2008 marks the 60th anniversary of the Nakba (the catastrophe): the expulsion and dispossession of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes and land in 1948. The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation is currently soliciting entries for a commemoration of the Nakba through personal expressions in the form of visual arts, essays, poetry, music, video and digital media for its “Expressions of al-Nakba” international competition.
Lebanon’s new proxy force12 Feb 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rThe US and Israel—the two states committing the only military occupations in the region—are having an adverse influence on Lebanese internal affairs. But the people wait, unsure of what the future holds for Lebanon. The question for many is no longer if, but when will the situation quickly deteriorate into an armed internal conflict reminiscent of Lebanon’s recent history. EI editor Matthew Cassel comments.
Jerusalem off the radar12 Feb 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rRecently, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was reported to have suggested that the question of Jerusalem would be “left to last” in negotiations with the Palestinians. This was apparently on account of the issue being “too sensitive and complex,” as well as fears that talks on Jerusalem would cause the departure of religious right-wingers from Olmert’s ruling coalition. Domestic political considerations will certainly have played a part in the prime minister’s thinking, but there is another possible motivation for leaving this “final status issue” for further down the road. Ben White analyzes for EI.
UNRWA Gaza appeal making very slow progress11 Feb 2008rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rJERUSALEM, 11 February (IRIN) – A UN special appeal for the Gaza Strip has managed to bring in only a small percentage of the US$9.8 million needed for urgent food aid and cash assistance for the enclave’s most vulnerable refugees. On 6 February, UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, began to distribute food aid in Gaza funded by a $100,000 donation from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Red Crescent Society. The money came in response to the special appeal issued by UNWRA in late January.
“Where are you from?”11 Feb 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rFor Palestinian expatriate nationals like me who have managed to find their way back to Palestine in order to contribute in some fashion, what’s on the horizon is far from clear. Our foothold is tenuous; we are here on sufferance by the Israelis who control the borders and the areas between towns and villages and let us in carefully or not at all. Rima Merriman writes from Jenin.
Israeli foreign ministry’s token Arab11 Feb 2008rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rIshmael Khaldi has been all the rage amongst Israel advocacy groups in the United States, especially in the liberal San Francisco Bay Area. An Arab Bedouin who embraces his Israeli citizenship and has worked for the Israeli police as well as Israel’s occupying army, he was a dream come true for the Israeli consulate, which decided to hire him as Deputy Consul to San Francisco in December 2006. Yaman Salahi reports on Khaldi’s private talk to a group of University of California, Berkeley students organizing “Israeli Apartheid Week.”
Damaging frost compounds farmers’ woes10 Feb 2008rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rHEBRON, WEST BANK, 10 February (IRIN) – A recent cold snap with sub-zero temperatures has caused farmers in the West Bank to incur losses of nearly US$14.5 million, according to initial estimates by the Palestinian ministry of agriculture (MoA) set out in a 6 February joint “fact sheet” with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The winter cash crop is the most profitable and ”[as] a direct result of the frost, thousands of farmers have lost their main source of income for the next [few] months,” the “fact sheet,” which was emailed to IRIN, said.
Photostory: Solidarity with Gaza10 Feb 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rAs Israel tightened its siege on the Gaza Strip, Palestinians and solidarity activists demonstrated their support for the people of Gaza. The above images were sent to The Electronic Intifada from around the world and document various actions, demonstrations and vigils in solidarity with Gazans under siege.
Israel’s “next logical step”10 Feb 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr r”The next logical step” for the Israeli government “will have to be a decision whether to target the top political leadership” of Hamas. So said an Israeli official quoted in The Jerusalem Post. Tzahi Hanegbi, a senior member of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s Kadima party and chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, echoed the call, arguing that “There’s no difference between those who wear a suicide suit and a diplomat’s suit.” Ali Abunimah comments.
Book review: “Israel and the Clash of Civilisations”10 Feb 2008rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rMuch debate on conflict in the Middle East is beset by contradictions and unanswered questions. In his second book, Nazareth-based English author Jonathan Cook seeks to cut these Gordian knots, and in the process proposes an uncompromisingly grim diagnosis of what is happening in the world’s most unstable region, and why it is happening. Raymond Deane reviews for EI.
New York and London protesters call for Valentine’s boycott of Leviev9 Feb 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rForty-five protesters called on Madison Avenue shoppers to boycott the jewelry store of Israeli billionaire and settlement magnate Lev Leviev this Saturday, the last major shopping day before Valentine’s Day. The protest was the seventh organized by the New York activist group Adalah-NY since Leviev’s store opened in mid-November.
Israeli forces kill one, injure 24 and destroy property in Gaza9 Feb 2008rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rIsraeli Occupation Forces (IOF) stepped up their attacks against the Gaza Strip, launching aerial attacks on different parts of the Strip. The IOF launched two raids on Rafah, killing a policeman and causing considerable material damage in al-Shaboura refugee camp in Rafah. Also, IOF jet planes launched four attacks on a training site under construction and one attack on a steel factory in al-Zaitoun neighborhood in Gaza City, destroying it.
Seven Gazans killed in day of Israeli air, shelling attacks6 Feb 2008rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rOn 7 February 2008, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) killed seven Palestinians, raising the number of victims from its military attacks to seventeen persons since the beginning of this month, and 96 persons since the beginning of 2008 in the Gaza Strip. The IOF launched seven attacks in different parts of the Gaza Strip since last night, of which the most affected areas were Khan Younis, al-Nuseirat, and other areas in northern Gaza.
Gaza fishermen: “We are ready to work”6 Feb 2008rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr r”I’ve been a fisherman for thirty six years, ever since I was 15 years old. My original village, al-Jura, was famous for its fishermen. When my father migrated to Gaza in 1948, he came here by boat.” Jamal Mohammed Bassalla is the spokesman of the Rafah Fisherman’s Syndicate in the southern Gaza Strip. The syndicate represents around 450 local fishermen and its headquarters are on the beach just outside Rafah. This morning, however, Jamal and his crew are sitting under tarpaulin on the beach, drinking tea around a small driftwood fire. Conditions at sea are treacherous, and they’re waiting for the weather to improve.
Photostory: The month in pictures, January 20086 Feb 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rJanuary 2008 saw a tightening of Israel’s siege of the Gaza Strip following Hamas’ routing of Fatah there the previous June. Palestinians in Gaza have been cut off from the outside world and Israel has banned or severely restricted the import of basic needs such as fuel, medicine and medical equipment, food, school supplies and cement. In January, electricity cuts lasted more than 12 hours per day as lack of fuel forced the closure of the region’s sole power plant.The above slideshow is a selection of images related to the breaking the Gaza siege in January 2008 taken by MaanImages photographer Wissam Nassar.
Why I will not participate in the Turin Book Fair6 Feb 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rWhen I agreed to participate in the Turin Book Fair, which I have done before, I had no idea that the “guest of honor” was Israel and its sixtieth birthday. But this is also the sixtieth anniversary of what the Palestinian call the Nakba: the disaster that befell them that year, when they were expelled from their villages, some killed, women raped by the settlers. These facts are no longer disputed. So why did the Turin Book Fair not invite Palestinians in equal numbers? Tariq Ali comments.
Rights orgs: Israel escalating Gaza collective punishment measures5 Feb 2008rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rBeginning tomorrow (Thursday, 7 February), Israel will reduce supplies of electricity it sells to Gaza, as part of punitive measures taken against Gaza’s civilian population, with the approval of Israel’s high court. The cutbacks to electricity were permitted after the court last week rejected a petition by ten Israeli and Palestinian human rights organizations challenging Israel’s planned reductions to the supplies of electricity and fuel it allows Gaza residents to purchase.
Toddlers not immune from discrimination in Israel4 Feb 2008rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rAfter Fathi’s son had been attending a child daycare center for several days, the daycare worker telephoned him and said: “We have a problem with your son … and after the other parents found out, some of them have removed their children from the center.”
Israeli Apartheid Week launches in Soweto4 Feb 2008rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rIsraeli Apartheid Week 2008 was officially launched on Sunday, 3 February in Soweto, South Africa. Exiled Palestinian member of the Israeli Knesset, Azmi Bishara, addressed his lecture on the 60th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced from their land to become what remains one of the world’s largest refugee populations. Bishara spoke under the banner “Silenced in Apartheid Israel—Welcomed in Soweto” alongside prominent South Africans such as Eddie Maque, General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches.
Fueling disaster4 Feb 2008rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rAt the bus stop at Palestine Square, in the bustling heart of Gaza City, 25-year-old Said Ramadan cried to passersby, “Fuel, fuel, fuel! Come and buy!” Last week Ramadan took advantage of the blasting through of the border wall between the Gaza Strip and Egypt and the brief respite from months of siege to travel to the nearby Egyptian town of al-Arish and stock up on gallons of fuel. Rami Almeghari reports from Gaza.
Continuing the struggle3 Feb 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rSince being deported from Palestine in the summer of 2005, I’ve been living and working in London. Yet even here, Palestine doesn’t leave you. At dawn on the morning of Friday, 25 January, a friend of mine was shot and left to bleed to death by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank’s Balata refugee camp. When I read the email sent from a friend at 10:23am that stated “I don’t know if you heard, Ahmed Sanaqra was killed yesterday in Balata,” my fist clenched and hit the wall. Mika Minio-Paluello writes from London.
The loneliness of the One-Issue Voter3 Feb 2008rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rThere are lots of “One Issue Voters” out here: those who decide to support a candidate based on the sole criterion of abortion, or taxation, or gun control, or crime. For those of us who fall into the “Pro-Palestinian Rights” category of One Issue Voter-hood, it’s a particularly lonely and dispiriting time. It’s as though there’s this big progressive celebration going on, but we haven’t been invited. Laurie King-Irani comments.
Beatles: don’t let it be!3 Feb 2008rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rThe following is an open letter sent to the Beatles on 2 February 2008: Forty-three years ago, the government of Israel banned your performance in the country for fear you would corrupt the minds of Israeli youth. Now, Israel is extending an apology and an invitation to you, hoping you will forget the past and agree to help celebrate its 60th “birthday.” The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel urges you to say no to Israel, particularly since the creation of this state 60 years ago dispossessed and uprooted hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes and lands, condemning them to a life of exile and destitution.
Starving Gaza2 Feb 2008rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rWorking together, Hamas and the people of Gaza have forced Egypt’s hand and made much more visible than ever before the role it had been playing all along in the Israeli occupation and strangulation of Gaza; now that its role in assisting Israel has been revealed, it will be difficult for Egypt to go back to the status quo. Gazans have thrown Israel’s plans into disarray, because Israel’s leaders could do little more than watch with pursed lips as the people of Gaza burst out of their prison. Saree Makdisi comments.
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