Closed borders, closed future in Gaza21 Oct 2007rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rNine-year-old Najla Rajab, with her two brothers and mother, was among tens of Palestinians demonstrating today in Gaza City, calling for permission to leave Gaza. Najla said that she wants to travel to Saudi Arabia to see her father and to re-enroll in her school in Jeddah, but she has not been able to since Israel has closed Gaza’s borders for months. “We came to Gaza to spend the summer vacation. Now we are stranded here; I cannot go back to my school in Saudi Arabia,” said Najla. Sami Abu Salem reports from Gaza.
Gaza’s children deserve life21 Oct 2007rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rPlaces of entertainment in Gaza are few and far between compared with other parts of the world. While the atmosphere in Gaza is becoming more depressed and the economy is crumbling, Gaza’s population was nevertheless determined to celebrate the major Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr. EI contributor Rami Almeghari writes from the Gaza Strip.
The moderate blindfold20 Oct 2007rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rWe’ve had Live 8 and Live Earth, and this week, albeit on a smaller scale, we almost had One Million Voices. Organized by the OneVoice group, the declared aim was to bring together Palestinians and Israelis in simultaneous events in Tel Aviv, Jericho, London, Washington and Ottawa to voice support for the “moderates” and call for a negotiated two-state solution. EI contributor Ben White comments.
Concert cancellation victory against normalization17 Oct 2007rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rThe Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel and all its partners, individuals and organizations active in art, culture and human rights, regard the cancellation of the Jericho-Tel Aviv event, planned by “One Voice” to take place on 18 October, as a substantial accomplishment for the Palestinian boycott movement. A solid partnership between diverse civil society organizations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory has succeeded in thwarting the event’s organizers’ attempt to mislead public opinion and to use deceptive slogans to market a political program that concedes some fundamental Palestinian rights.
Academic freedom at risk on campus17 Oct 2007rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr r”Academic colleagues, get used to it,” warned the pro-Israel activist Martin Kramer in March 2004. “Yes, you are being watched. Those obscure articles in campus newspapers are now available on the Internet, and they will be harvested. Your syllabi, which you’ve also posted, will be scrutinized. Your Web sites will be visited late at night.” Kramer’s warning inaugurated an attack on intellectual freedom in the US that has grown more aggressive in recent months. Saree Makdisi comments.
Audio: Crossing the Line interviews Nadia Hijab17 Oct 2007rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rThis week on Crossing The Line: With the looming November peace conference almost here, many see the event as nothing more than a mere photo-op for the leaders of those countries who have been invited to take part. The US government’s role in supporting the Israeli occupation is not a secret, as the US gives billions in unconditional aid to Israel each year. But has this always been the case? Host Christopher Brown speaks with Nadia Hijab, senior fellow at the Institute for Palestine Studies about why, when and how the US stood up in the past to the Israeli juggernaut.
Illegal discrimination against Palestinians in Lebanon17 Oct 2007rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rBEIRUT, 17 October 2007 (IRIN) – The Lebanese government’s practices against Palestinian refugees continue to breach the country’s obligations under international human rights law and should be repealed immediately, according to a report released here on 17 October by Amnesty International. Lebanon has the highest percentage of all Palestinian refugees living in abject poverty, according to the UN’s Palestinian relief organization, UNRWA.
What a “safe” cluster bomb did16 Oct 2007rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rTYRE, Lebanon, 15 October (IPS) – The explosion ripped through the tiny garden in rural south Lebanon, hurling Naemah Ghazi to the ground. The shrapnel from the bomb sliced through her legs, and she rapidly lost consciousness. “There was a lot of blood,” her mother Khadija recalls. “All her body was bleeding.” Naemah, 48, lived quietly with her mother in the border town Blida since her father passed away nearly 30 years ago.
The show goes on … and on16 Oct 2007rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rThe “Middle East Peace Process” is like one of those big budget Broadway extravaganzas; they go on for years, but with each revival the cast changes. What may seem like a tired production to some nevertheless manages to remain fresh to the gullible throngs willing to hand over the price of admission. EI’s Ali Abunimah comments.
Formalizing apartheid packaged as peace initiative15 Oct 2007rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rNext month the US plans to host a regional meeting to discuss peace in the Middle East, or at least peace between Israel and the Palestinians. The maneuvering, deal making and negotiating about what will be on the table has been going on for some time. But the details of the agreement being discussed have been a well-guarded secret but for the steady flow of leaks and trial balloons. Deciphering this information combined with facts on the ground, one can put together a clear outline of Israel’s “next generous offer.” Neta Golan and Mohammed Khatib comment for EI.
Another Mideast envoy fed up with quartet15 Oct 2007rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rUNITED NATIONS, Oct 15 (IPS) – The United Nations has come under strong criticism from one of its own top human rights officials for failing to take effective action to check the ongoing Israeli abuses in the occupied Palestinian territories. Expressing his anger and frustration at the fast-deteriorating human rights situation in Gaza and the West Bank, John Dugard, the UN special rapporteur on human rights for the Palestinian territories since 2001, has suggested that the world body quit the Middle East Quartet.
Disaster capitalism: Israel as warning14 Oct 2007rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rIn her new book The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein argues that in the wake of natural and unnatural disasters, neo-liberal economic reform is foisted on stricken societies while their citizens are in a condition of collective disorientation. She writes, in a context where “instability is the new stability,” “Israel is often held up as a kind of Exhibit A.” Contributor Raymond Deane reviews Klein’s blockbuster for EI.
Planting seeds of independence14 Oct 2007rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr r”We have just initiated our small project with an intent to help these simple rural women sustain amidst their families’ harsh economic conditions,” says Yassmin Moor, a young Palestinian-American woman who manages a domestic gardening project in the Gaza Strip city of Rafah. The project, which has been a part of the US-based Save Gaza program, is intended to empower poor women in the rural and remote areas of the Gaza Strip. EI correspondent Rami Almeghari reports.
Separation of families “priority humanitarian issue”13 Oct 2007rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rJERUSALEM, 14 October 2007 (IRIN) – Some 580 women living in the occupied Golan region are disconnected from their families in Syria as they are not allowed to cross from the occupied zone to their homeland, a new women’s organization has said. “All the Arabs of the Golan have some family in Syria. But these women are disconnected from their mothers, fathers and brothers and sisters,” said Souha Munder, a lawyer who works with the new group, which calls itself The Women of the Occupied Arab-Syrian Golan.
Palestinians return to desolate, dangerous camp11 Oct 2007rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rNAHR AL-BARED, 12 October (IRIN) – The first Palestinian families displaced by 15 weeks of intense fighting between the army and Islamist militants that left much of north Lebanon’s Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in ruins have begun returning home to start rebuilding their lives. “I never imagined I would have to leave my home again,” said 80-year-old Mahmoud Nimr Abdou as he boarded the bus carrying the first refugees home from neighboring Baddawi camp, where the majority of the up to 40,000 people displaced from Nahr al-Bared have been living in cramped conditions. “I will kiss the ground when I return.”
Video: “Homeless in Shatila”11 Oct 2007rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rThe anarchist film collective “a-films” presents a short video on refugees from the destroyed refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared who are stranded in Shatila Camp, Beirut. The conflict in Nahr al-Bared between the Lebanese army and Fatah al-Islam militants left homeless tens of thousands of Palestinians. Under fire and assuming they could soon return to the camp after their flight, most of them didn’t taken any of their belongings with them. While Baddawi Camp near Trablous (Tripoli), northern Lebanon, is hosting the majority of those who fled, thousands of the camp’s residents are scattered all over other Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.
Nonviolent resistance a means, not the end11 Oct 2007rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rIn a recent article on the openDemocracy website, the rewritten Palestinian Authority policy document that replaced “muqawama” (resistance) with “popular struggle” was hailed as having “the potential to dramatically transform a conflict whose just resolution has continually eluded diplomats and militants.” EI contributor Ben White comments that the writer Maria Stephan may be admired for her optimism about the possibility of large-scale mobilization in the Occupied Palestinian Territories for a program of nonviolent resistance, but there is a twofold failure of contextualization that compromises her analysis.
Video: Nahr al-Bared refugees’ joyless Ramadan11 Oct 2007The anarchist video collective “a-films” presents a 20-minute film entitled “Tragedy Without Borders,” produced by refugees from the destroyed Nahr al-Bared Refugee Camp during a video-workshop held in Baddawi Refugee Camp near Trablous (Tripoli), northern Lebanon. For two weeks, a-films has trained a group of refugees in filmmaking. Thousands of families living in Nahr al-Bared were displaced during the Lebanese army’s summer-long siege on the camp, where a militant group called Fatah al-Islam had established itself. The camp was destroyed during the conflict.
Stranded Palestinians turn down Sudanese asylum offer11 Oct 2007rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rDAMASCUS, 10 October (IRIN) – Most of the over 300 Palestinian-Iraqi refugees stranded for the past 18 months at the makeshift al-Tanf refugee camp on the Syrian side of the Iraq-Syria border have rejected an offer of asylum in Sudan. The Sudanese government made an offer 8 October to take in the 310 Palestinian refugees, who are living in pitiful conditions at the camp. “The [Sudanese] president agreed to the request of both Hamas and Fatah to accommodate them and we are going to inform the Arab League and then make our preparations,” said a Sudanese Foreign Ministry official.
Silencing Bishop Tutu: Critical discussion off limits?10 Oct 2007rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rThere is a point when a political position can become rabid; a point when rational arguments no longer work because the holder of such politics believes that their way can be the only way of seeing things and that all other views must be suppressed. Thus, we have the case of the cancellation of the speaking engagement of one Bishop Desmond Tutu, world-renowned human rights activist and one of the chief architects of the South African Truth & Reconciliation Commission. Bill Fletcher, Jr. comments on the cancellation.
Passing undefeated: Remembering Haider Abdul-Shafi10 Oct 2007rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rThe recent death of Haider Abdul-Shafi could not have come at a worse time. Bearing in mind the grim shortcomings of the Palestinian leadership and the lack of any serious attempt to rectify the situation, the loss of this unique and iconic leader feels all the more acute. Ramzy Baroud remembers the life of the late Palestinian leader.
Book review: “Married to Another Man”10 Oct 2007rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rGhada Karmi’s latest book Married to Another Man: Israel’s Dilemma in Palestine opens with the problem European Zionists faced over a century ago when they first mooted the idea of a Jewish state in Palestine. They found then that there was already a well-established Palestinian society existing in the land they wished to claim as their own. Hence the message sent back to Vienna by the two rabbis who made the discovery: “The bride is beautiful, but she is married to another man.” EI contributor Sonja Karkar reviews.
Audio: Crossing the Line interviews Gaza journalist Rami Almeghari10 Oct 2007rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rThis week on Crossing The Line: Host Christopher Brown speaks with Gaza-based Palestinian journalist and regular EI contributor, Rami Almeghari. Almeghari speaks about the current situation on the ground in Gaza after a week in which tens of Palestinians were wounded or killed by Israeli military actions in the Gaza Strip. Brown asks Almeghari about reactions from Gazans after Israel’s designation of Gaza as a “hostile entity.”
EU quiet over Israeli land expropriation9 Oct 2007rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rBRUSSELS, Oct 10 (IPS) – Representatives of the European Union’s two most powerful institutions remained silent this week on new efforts by Israel to expropriate Palestinian villages, triggering accusations that the bloc’s Middle East policy suffers from double standards. During a 10 October debate in Brussels, speakers from the Portuguese government, which holds the Union’s rotating presidency, and the European Commission did not refer directly to the Israeli order to seize control of four Arab villages located between East Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Jericho.
Report: Infighting claimed lives of 161 Palestinians9 Oct 2007rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rPCHR has published a special report titled “Black Days in the Absence of Justice: Report on Bloody Fighting in the Gaza Strip from 7 to 14 June 2007.” The report details results of investigations conducted by PCHR into the bloody fighting between Hamas and Fatah movements, represented by their armed wings and security services, which ended with Hamas’ takeover of all headquarters and sites of security services, and consequently, the whole Gaza Strip. This latest round of fighting took the lives of 161 Palestinians, including 41 civilians. Additionally, at least 700 Palestinians were wounded.
Electronic Intifada