Palestinians unfairly stripped of citizenship in Jordan
2 Feb 2010
rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rWASHINGTON, (IPS) – The Jordanian government should halt the arbitrary revocation of nationality from its citizens of Palestinian origin, according to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report released Monday. The report, “Stateless Again: Palestinian-Origin Jordanians Deprived of their Nationality,” details the Jordanian government’s efforts to strip more than 2,700 Jordanians of their citizenship between 2004 and 2008.

“A different kind of occupation”: an interview with Elia Suleiman
1 Feb 2010
rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rNazareth-born filmmaker Elia Suleiman is one of the darlings of Cannes and stands out from the pack of contemporary Palestinian filmmakers for his unique style of filmmaking based on sewing together a series vignettes, silence—an emphasis on visual storytelling versus dialogue, and deadpan comedy found in often grim humor in the lives of everyday people living under the tyranny of what he calls a “pathetic occupation.” Sabah Haider recently interviewed Suleiman for The Electronic Intifada.

Carleton University students launch campus divestment campaign
1 Feb 2010
rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rFor the past several months, Students Against Israeli Apartheid – Carleton (SAIA), a student group at Carleton University in Ottawa that is committed to supporting the Palestinian struggle for freedom, has been conducting research on Carleton’s investments in Israeli apartheid. In light of its findings, SAIA has launched a campaign calling on Carleton to immediately divest from the offending corporations, as well as to adopt a socially responsible investment policy for all of its investments.

Hamas parliamentarian: “We accept existence of Israel within 1967 borders”
1 Feb 2010
rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rRAMALLAH, occupied West Bank (IPS) – Palestinian politics are at an impasse. The four-year term of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) ended on 25 January with no new elections planned. Presidential elections, meant to be held last year, were also postponed indefinitely. IPS spoke with Dr. Mahmoud Ramahi, a neurosurgeon and secretary-general of the PLC, on the political deadlock.

Fighting for an education in Gaza
1 Feb 2010
rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rAyman Talal Quader is a blogger from the Nuseirat refugee camp located in the middle of the Gaza Strip. On his blog titled “Voice From Gaza,” Aywan chronicled eyewitness accounts of the war and the continuing siege of the territory as well as his own attempts to leave Gaza in order to further his education in Spain. Although classes start on 8 February, he has yet to receive approval from the Egyptian government to travel to Cairo for his flight to Spain. The Electronic Intifada contributor Jody McIntyre recently spoke with Ayman in Gaza.

“Redeeming” the land: from kibbutzniks to Hilltop Youth
1 Feb 2010
rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rAfter the 1967 war the value of the kibbutz—instrumental in defining territory for the Jewish State of Israel—as a frontline force had become obsolete. The then burgeoning settler movement soon came to replace the kibbutz as a central colonizing body. Occupying Palestinian land and cultivating it to be inhabited by exclusively Jewish communities, the strategies of settlers are not much different than early kibbutzniks. Carmelle Wolfson writes.

Floods bring more misery for tented communities in Gaza
29 Jan 2010
rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rOCCUPIED GAZA STRIP (IRIN) – Thousands of Palestinians in Gaza made homeless by Israel’s 23-day military assault on the Gaza Strip which ended just over a year ago, are still in tents and damaged buildings; cold weather and recent flash floods have exacerbated their plight, say aid workers and the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA.

“Together we can end this occupation”
29 Jan 2010
rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rThe Israeli military recently dropped hundreds of leaflets warning Palestinian residents from the village of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip not to travel within 300 meters of the border—the distance of Israel’s so-called “buffer zone.” In response, local activists marched to and nonviolently demonstrated inside the “buffer zone” against the illegal action. The Electronic Intifada contributor Jody McIntyre recently spoke with demonstration organizer Saber Zanin.

“Our community is at risk”: An interview with Ittijah’s Ameer Makhoul
29 Jan 2010
rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rIttijah, the Union of Arab Community Based Associations, was founded in 1995 in response to a widely felt need for increased cooperation and exchange between Palestinian Arab organizations in Israel. The Electronic Intifada contributor Adri Nieuwhof recently interviewed Ameer Makhoul, the general director of Ittijah.

Goldstone member to EI: Gaza ambulance shelled “point blank”
28 Jan 2010
rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rDesmond Travers, member of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict led by Judge Richard Goldstone, responds to the description of an attack on an ambulance by means of a “dart bomb” to The Electronic Intifada.

Bilin grassroots leader Mohammed Khatib arrested in late-night raid
28 Jan 2010
rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rBILIN, occupied West Bank – At 1:45am today, Mohammed Khatib, his wife Lamia and their four young children were woken up by Israeli soldiers storming their home, which was surrounded by a large military force. Once inside the house, the soldiers arrested Khatib, conducted a quick search and left the house.

Israel fast-tracking Indian immigrants to subvert settlement freeze
28 Jan 2010
rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rThe Israeli government is reported to have quietly approved the fast-track immigration of 7,000 members of a supposedly “lost Jewish” tribe, known as the Bnei Menashe, currently living in a remote area of India. Jonathan Cook reports.

Palestinian Authority: Pray our way or else
28 Jan 2010
rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rRAMALLAH, occupied West Bank (IPS) – The Palestinian Authority (PA) is using West Bank mosques as a new battleground in its political offensive against its opponents within Hamas as well as critics from its own Fatah party. Earlier this month, PA security forces raided several mosques in Ramallah, Nablus and Hebron before assaulting and arresting a number of Friday worshippers.

Arab parliamentarian in Israel visits Auschwitz
27 Jan 2010
rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rAn Arab member of the Israeli parliament has sparked controversy among Jews and Arabs in Israel over his decision to join an official Israeli delegation commemorating International Holocaust Day today at a Nazi death camp in Poland. Mohammed Barakeh will be the only Arab in a contingent of Israeli parliamentarians and government ministers at Auschwitz to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the camp’s liberation. Jonathan Cook reports.

How surrendering Palestinian rights became the language of “peace”
27 Jan 2010
rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rThe 1993 Oslo agreement did not only usher in a new era of Palestinian-Israeli relations but has had a much more lasting effect in transforming the very language through which these relations have been governed internationally and the way the Palestinian leadership viewed them. Joseph Massad comments.

“I was supposed to be born in a villa by the sea”
26 Jan 2010
rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rAtef Abu Saif took his grandmother’s stories of Jaffa to heart. These memories and these stories are the only treasure and wealth of the refugee. They are the sole inheritance for the children of the dispossessed generation. Memories of what once was. Stories of what ought to have been. Marryam Haleem writes.

Book review: Avi Shlaim’s “Israel and Palestine”
26 Jan 2010
rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rWhen prolific writers compile a decade or more of their writing in a single collection, changes in style, political outlook, or interpretive tendencies are readily apparent. Consistency in all these respects is visible too. While Avi Shlaim’s latest book—Israel and Palestine: Reappraisals, Revisions, Refutations reveals such changes and continuities, his analytical gaze suffers from a blind spot when it comes to the ideology upon which Israel was founded. Max Ajl reviews for The Electronic Intifada.

My family’s ongoing Nakba story
26 Jan 2010
rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rOne of the most traumatic effects wrought upon Palestinian society by the 1948 Nakba, or the dispossession of historic Palestine, is the physical separation it forced upon Palestinians, between those in the diaspora and the refugees, between those living in the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967 and those who became citizens of Israel. Yet this process is ongoing to this very day, and targets even individual families. Mohammad Alsaafin details how Israel is preventing his family from seeing each other through its restrictive ID system.

New York Times fails to disclose Jerusalem bureau chief’s conflict of interest
25 Jan 2010
rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rThe New York Times has all but confirmed to The Electronic Intifada (EI) that the son of its Jerusalem bureau chief Ethan Bronner was recently inducted into the Israeli army. Over the weekend, EI received a tip suggesting this had been the case and wrote to Bronner to ask him to confirm or deny the information and to seek his opinion on whether, if true, he thought it would be a conflict of interest.

Israel’s PR exploitation of Haiti aid
25 Jan 2010
rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rDespite logistical problems, the 12 January earthquake in Haiti has seen much of the “international community” pull together to provide food, doctors and other emergency aid for the already poverty-stricken country. But the disaster has also provided apologists for the State of Israel’s human rights abuses an opportunity to try and grab high moral ground. Sarah Irving comments for The Electronic Intifada.

Gaza families fight to visit relatives in Israeli prisons
25 Jan 2010
rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rUmm Faris Baroud of Shati refugee camp in western Gaza City wakes up early every Monday in the hope that she will be allowed to visit her son Faris, serving a life sentence in one of Israel’s prisons. “For the past two and a half years I have been able to visit Faris,” she explained. “Every Monday, I participate in a weekly protest along with many other families including mothers, wives and children of detainees, at the office of the International Committee of the Red Cross.” Rami Almeghari reports for The Electronic Intifada.

Israel upgrades settlement college to university
25 Jan 2010
rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rEhud Barak, Israel’s defense minister, approved last week the upgrading to university status of a college in a settlement located deep inside the West Bank, a move certain to further undermine Palestinian confidence in the peace process. The decision, authorizing the first Israeli university in Palestinian territory, is expected to entitle the college to significant extra funding, allowing it to expand its student population. Jonathan Cook reports.

Gaza’s thin red line one year later
22 Jan 2010
rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rDuring last winter’s invasion of Gaza, Israeli forces killed 16 medical rescuers, four in one day alone. Another 57 were injured. At least 16 ambulances were damaged with at least nine completely destroyed. In a special report for The Electronic Intifada, Eva Bartlett speaks with Gaza’s emergency medical workers one year after the massacres.

“Palestinian journalists can’t work freely or safely”
22 Jan 2010
rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr r”Being a journalist is the most dangerous work in the world,” says Palestinian photojournalist Nayef Hashlamoun, “especially being a photojournalist or a photographer. We work under risk every day, especially in conflict areas like Palestine or Iraq, especially if you have soldiers who feel that you are from the other side, not from their side.” Sarah Irving reports for The Electronic Intifada.

Lebanon activists launch campaign targeting Egypt’s “wall of shame”
21 Jan 2010
rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rThe Campaign to Stop the Wall of Shame, a newly-formed activist movement based in Beirut, Lebanon, held a press conference this morning to publicize the Arab Contractors construction company’s role in the building of an underground steel wall along the Egypt-Gaza border.