Surgery under siege17 Jun 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rMarzouq Mo’amar’s smile has returned to his face after he had almost lost hope because of thyroid cancer that had spread to his neck. Just a few weeks ago Palestinian doctors at the Gaza European Hospital in southern Gaza, were able to perform a life-saving surgery for the 62-year-old from Rafah. EI correspondent Rami Almeghari writes from Gaza.
Christian Zionist gathering mired in controversy17 Jun 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rOAKLAND, California (IPS) – The battle lines over Pastor John Hagee have been drawn, redrawn, and are no doubt being drawn again as this is being written. The San Antonio, Texas-based mega-preacher with the multi-million-dollar empire has always been controversial, but these days, the pastor is a lightning rod for critics.
Kites rise above the divisions in Gaza16 Jun 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rGAZA CITY, 15 June (IPS) – Mahmoud Abu Teior, 13, knows it’s Abdullah’s kite up in the skies, though he has never seen Abdullah. But that kite rises into the skies from across the Egyptian side of the border across from Gaza. And, Mahmoud knows Abdullah’s voice because they speak sometimes. They have never met, and likely never will, but they are connected through their kites.
Refugee children chronicle life in camp16 Jun 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rBEIRUT (IRIN) – A photograph of the sea, perfectly framed by the ragged window of a gutted building, illustrates the contrasts of Lebanon. Hanging in Medina Theatre as part of an exhibition in Beirut’s fashionable Hamra district, it could easily be the work of a professional. But the photographer is seven-year-old Manah Moustafa Diab from Rashidieh refugee camp, one of the 12 camps for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.
Net tightens around Gaza fishermen16 Jun 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rGAZA CITY, 16 June (IPS) – When the broiling sun sinks behind the rolling Mediterranean sea in Gaza, hundreds of fishing boats turn on their motors and assemble ragged nets to round up the evening catch. Flickering blue lights scatter across the shallow seas as the boats gather offshore in close quarters. Mackerel, sardine and grey mullet are caught in nets and dumped into plastic crates to be sold in the street markets.
Shelter from the siege13 Jun 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rTuesday morning at 9:00am, 220 Palestinian children gathered at al-Sherouq and al-Amal children’s club in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis refugee camp. Dressed in colorful clothes accompanied by cheerful smiles, the children lined up in rows to listen to their trainer. The children were attending their first day of a three-week-long program of training and activities at the club. EI correspondent Rami Almeghari visits this oasis in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Book review: “Where Now for Palestine? The Demise of the Two-State Solution”13 Jun 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rThe impetus for Where Now for Palestine? The Demise of the Two-State Solution, as editor Jamil Hilal states in his introduction, is the increasing recognition within the Palestinian nationalist movement and among some Israelis that “the Oslo process has collapsed and the two-state solution has reached an impasse.” This collection of eleven essays aims “to show in some detail why and how this collapse has happened, and why some new solution has to be found.” Ali Abunimah reviews.
Israel and Syria in diplomatic charade12 Jun 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rCAIRO, 12 June (IPS) – After an eight-year hiatus, Israel and Syria have resumed negotiations—albeit via Turkish middlemen—on the issue of the strategic Golan Heights, occupied by Israel since 1967. But according to analysts in Cairo, neither side appears entirely genuine in its desire to reach a final settlement.
Gaza hospitals in need of care12 Jun 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rJABALIYA REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza, 11 June (IPS) – In the brightly painted new intensive care unit wing of al-Awda, northern Gaza’s only emergency medical facility in the massive Jabaliya refugee camp, doctors, nurses, aides and administrators are ready to provide emergency surgery services for the area’s 300,000 people.
The fallacy of Islamic “national suicide”12 Jun 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr r”National suicide” will soon be an incantation by neoconservative and other pro-Israeli pundits and politicians on the “bomb Iran” bandwagon. Its strategic implications are clear: We can’t trust irrational regimes because they are not deterred by threat of annihilation. Therefore, extraordinary actions—such as preemptive attack—may be not only justified but necessary. George Bisharat comments.
Israel accelerates settlement expansion after Annapolis11 Jun 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rIsraeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and US President George W. Bush follow contradictory policy tracks. In the major media offensive accompanying last November’s US-sponsored Annapolis peace conference both leaders presented themselves as the peace makers of the region. In Annapolis, Olmert committed to freezing settlement expansion. However, since that time according to numerous sources Olmert’s government has been accelerating illegal settlement expansion on occupied Palestinian land.
Karim Makdisi discusses the Doha Agreement and Lebanon’s economic crisis11 Jun 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rNeo-liberal economic policies adopted by successive political parties since Lebanon’s 15-year civil war came to an end in 1990 have left the country in economic ruins. All of the main political parties neglect the growing poverty rates, crumbling economy and staggering emigration in Lebanon today. Karim Makdisi, a professor in the Department of Political Studies and Public Administration at the American University of Beirut, spoke with Stefan Christoff about Doha and the economic and social policies of the government and opposition forces in Lebanon.
Crossing the Line interviews Diana Buttu about Israeli bill to delist Arabic11 Jun 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rThis week on Crossing The Line: Israeli MP Limor Livnat recently introduced a draft bill to delist Arabic as an official language of the Jewish state. Former Palestine Liberation Organization spokesperson Diana Buttu joins host Naji Ali to discuss this latest attempt to strip Palestinians of their cultural and national identity.
Pledging allegiance to AIPAC10 Jun 2008rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rWASHINGTON, 9 June (IPS) – With the Iranian nuclear “threat” in the crosshairs, discussion of Palestinians or a Syrian-Israeli detente was virtually non-existent. But then again, one should not expect many overtures for peace when attending the annual policy conference for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
Hatred is too heavy a burden to carry10 Jun 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rThe West Bank is fragmented by checkpoints, settler-only roads, closed military zones and Israeli-declared “nature reserves.” The road barriers come in many forms—barbed wire, metal fences, cement blocks, dirt mounds, trenches and permanent border crossings or terminals like Qalandia around every Palestinian city. The one at Qalandia actually says “Welcome to Israel,” as though it was an international border. Cathy Sultan writes from the occupied West Bank.
Palestinian leaders take step towards reducing rift10 Jun 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rGAZA CITY, 6 June (IPS) – In the early hours of Friday morning, Israeli warplanes targeted a Hamas-run security post in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, injuring 29 Palestinian civilians, according to Gaza medical sources. In the eastern Gaza City neighborhood of al-Shuja’iya, a 27-year-old man was shot dead by Israeli special forces during another invasion.
Blue sky, toxic sea9 Jun 2008rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rOn a massive and wide-ranging scale, every single aspect of life in Gaza is punctuated by the Israeli occupation and the blockade. There are 1.5 million people here, trapped and hermetically sealed, in this 22-mile by 6-mile strip of devastated open-air prison compound. Fuel is scarce and the streets are thick with the soupy smoke of cooking gas, falafel oil and benzene as Israel’s collective punishment policies force people to fill their cars with their families’ gas rations. Nora Barrows-Friedman writes from Gaza.
Photostory: The month in pictures, May 20089 Jun 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rIn 1948 the state of Israel declared independence on the destroyed historic homeland of Palestine, an event Palestinians call the Nakba (catastrophe). During this period, the majority of the indigenous inhabitants of the land were forced to flee, and the descendants of those approximately 750,000 refugees now number in the millions. The above slideshow is a selection of images all addressing this anniversary.
Quebec student federation joins international boycott movement9 Jun 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rA grassroots response in opposition to Israeli apartheid is growing throughout the world sparked by an appeal launched by Palestinian civil-society organizations in 2005 for an international campaign directed at the government in Israel, a campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions. Today students in Quebec are now joining the international boycott campaign in large numbers including L’Association pour une Solidarite Syndicale Etudiante, an important Quebec-wide student federation representing over 42,000 students.
The most reliable path to freedom9 Jun 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rFor cynics who still consider the above too little progress for the given timeframe, I can only reiterate what a South African comrade once told us: “The [African National Congress] issued its academic boycott call in the 1950s; the international community started to heed it almost three decades later! So you guys are doing much better than us.” EI contributor Omar Barghouti argues that boycott, divestment and sanctions are the most reliable and moral path to freedom, justice, equality and peace in Palestine and the entire Middle East.
An award for the voiceless in Gaza7 Jun 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rThe siege of Gaza has many layers. I work here as a journalist, amid near-daily air and land assaults from Israel, amid the unending killings and destruction of land and livelihood, which are all made more unbearable by critical shortages of fuel, food, medicine, electricity for hospital machinery and electricity for my work. Recently I returned from fieldwork to find cheerful news from John Pilger: that I have won the 2008 Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism, along with my respected colleague Dahr Jamail.
Slow death in Gaza6 Jun 2008rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rEach American claim to moral authority becomes a foul excretion in light of US complicity in Israel’s barbaric and illegal treatment of the Palestinians. Washington deploys its superpower apparatus to smother dissent against its Middle East policy in Europe and elsewhere, leaving former president Jimmy Carter and Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu as lonely defenders of Palestinian human rights. No change in American policy is on the horizon, as “the rot in America goes beyond this administration, and so does the rot in Israel.” Margaret Kimberley comments.
Dutch bank agrees: Jerusalem tramway is illegal6 Jun 2008rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rLast week, the managing director of SNS Asset Management, a division of the Dutch SNS Bank, sent me a letter explaining the bank’s position on divesting from Veolia. Veiola is a European company contracted to build a tramway on illegally seized Palestinian land that connects Israeli settlements on the West Bank, constructed in open violation of international law, with neighborhoods in West Jerusalem. EI contributor Adri Nieuwhof reports.
No time to celebrate6 Jun 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rFrankly, I’ve always been a little uneasy about explicitly Jewish actions around Palestine. Isn’t this a human rights issue in which all voices are equally needed and valued? What difference does one’s background make when one is speaking up for justice? I worry that people will listen more to what a group of Jews has to say than to Palestinians and other activists. I don’t believe in a a special “Jewish position” on Palestine. Deborah Agre writes from San Francisco.
Crossing the Line interviews professor Joel Beinin6 Jun 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rThis week on Crossing The Line: US President George W. Bush recently wrapped up a five-day visit to the Middle East meeting with Arab leaders at the World Economic Forum, pledging a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. However, given Bush’s dismal approval rating, what are the odds that Bush will have any real effect on the situation? Joel Beinin, Director of Middle East Studies at American University of Cairo joins host Naji Ali to talk more on the subject.
Electronic Intifada