Since the launch of the Palestinian boycott movement a few years ago, we have experienced an awkward phenomenon that demands urgent comment. Several organizations known for years — in some cases, decades — for their tireless Palestine solidarity work stood firmly against the Palestinian civil society Call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, issued on 9 July 2005, for various reasons. EI contributor Omar Barghouti responds to their arguments against the boycott campaign. Read more about What we really need! A response to anti-boycott arguments
GAZACITY (IPS) - The letter of acceptance that 28-year-old Hazem Hussain got for a business graduate program in a California university once brought joy. Now he does not know what to do with it. He has admission, and a visa to the United States, but the Israelis will not let him leave. “I have tried to get out through every means possible for a year now,” he says. “But I am not able to go.” Read more about Israel targets Palestinian students
Prevented from producing and competing with Israel’s economy, the Palestinians became forced consumers and this is perpetuated by foreign aid. Effectively international donors foot the bill while Israeli companies profit from the desperate need of an entire population under Israel’s occupation. Foreign aid has done nothing to revitalize the economy, and has only made the Palestinians one of the most aid-dependent populations in the world. Sonja Karkar comments for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about The pauperization of Palestine
The silence and indifference of the world community to Israel’s racial discrimination against Palestinians is a blow to all people who cannot accept injustice and unjust behavior, either from individuals or states. Moreover, as Martin Luther King, Jr. said about racial discrimination against African-Americans in the US, “injustice anywhere is threat to justice everywhere.” EI contributor Adri Nieuwhof comments. Read more about West's silence towards Israel's racial discrimination unacceptable
In his new feature film, Laila’s Birthday, director Rashid Masharawi paints a bittersweet picture of life in the West Bank city of Ramallah. There, Masharawi’s main character, Abu Laila (played by the legendary Palestinian actor Mohammad Bakri), struggles to make ends meet as a taxi driver while attempting to get a license to work as a judge from the bureaucratic Palestinian Authority. EI’s Maureen Clare Murphy reviews. Read more about Film review: Absurd humor succeeds in "Laila's Birthday"
Last May, although he was visiting the Netherlands, Dutch police failed to arrest Ami Ayalon, an Israeli government minister. An application for Ayalon’s arrest had been submitted to Dutch authorities by Khalid al-Shami, a Palestinian man who alleged he was tortured by Israel’s Shin Bet secret service when Ayalon ran it. It was a narrow escape; but credible reports indicate that Dutch authorities actively colluded with Israel to frustrate the course of justice. The Electronic Intifada’s Arjan El Fassed comments. Read more about Dutch authorities let Israel get away with torture
The following photo essay from 2003 is by Montreal photographer and community worker Scott Weinstein, who traveled to Palestine to work with the Palestine Red Crescent Society as a registered nurse. His photographs document the contemporary realities of Israeli colonialism and occupation in the West Bank, specifically focusing on settler violence against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank city of Hebron. Read more about Photo essay: Colonialism in the West Bank
Despite pronouncements from Israeli leaders that the recent Acre violence is damaging the city’s image as a model of coexistence, the reality is of a deeply divided city, where the wounds of the 1948 war have yet to heal. The Electronic Intifada contributor Jonathan Cook analyzes. Read more about Acre violence exposes Israel's double standards
On a beautiful sunny day this week, a group from the International Solidarity Movement, a non-partisan grassroots initiative, went to the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun in order to help protect Palestinian farmers harvesting their olive crops from the Israeli army. EI corespondent Rami Almeghari reports from the occupied Gaza Strip. Read more about Harvesting in solidarity with Gaza's farmers
An underreported factor behind the violence in the northern Israeli city of Acre is how militant Israeli settlers from the West Bank, funded by donors in the United States, have instigated tension in an attempt to reduce the Arab population. The Electronic Intifada’s Ali Abunimah analyzes. Read more about Extremist West Bank settlers help stir Acre violence
