JERUSALEM (IPS) - Lighting a remembrance flame at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial. Speaking against the backdrop of a pile of empty rocket casings in the southern town of Sderot. Standing solemnly, face close to the stones of the Western Wall in Jerusalem. These are the images that Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama produced during a whirlwind 36-hour visit to Israel this week, and which he hopes will help dispel doubts about his candidacy amongst skeptical US Jewish voters. Read more about Obama campaigns in Israel
The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) is a media monitoring organization with a large database of supporters known for its staunch support for Israeli policies and its ability to influence media coverage. While CAMERA claims to be objective and interested in holding the media accountable to its own “self-professed standards,” a study published by The Electronic Intifada demonstrates terminology and views of the organization are largely consistent with those of the Israeli government itself. Read more about EI study refutes CAMERA media bias accusation
Every aspect of Barack Obama’s visit to Palestine-Israel this week has seemed designed to further appease pro-Israel groups. Typically for an American aspirant to high office, he visited the Israeli Holocaust memorial and the Western Wall. He met the full spectrum of Israeli Jewish (though not Israeli Arab) political leaders. He traveled to the Israeli Jewish town of Sderot, which until last month’s ceasefire, frequently experienced rockets from the Gaza Strip. However, Ali Abunimah comments, Palestinians received very little of the Senator’s attention. Read more about What Obama missed in the Middle East
HEBRON (IPS) - The Israeli military has erected three additional roadblocks, further blocking vehicular access on the road between the south Hebron village of al-Tuwani and the commercial hub of Yatta in the southern West Bank. The West Bank is the Palestinian area west of the Jordan river, much of it under Israeli control. Read more about Roadblocks cripple West Bank economy
Israel established a “development town” on the site of the destroyed villages of al-Faluja and ‘Iraq al-Manshiya in 1955. It was called Kiryat Gat (Gat City) in the mistaken belief that it was the site of the ancient Philistine town of Gath. Initially, Kiryat Gat’s major industries were agriculture and textiles. But in the mid-1990s Intel chose Kiryat Gat as the site for a huge new plant it called Fab 18. Henry Norr comments for EI about the Intel corporation’s complicity in the ongoing Nakba in Palestine. Read more about The Nakba, Intel, and Kiryat Gat
Accounts by Western travelers coming to the “Holy Land,” later used by Zionists to justify their colonization, also compelled Raja Shehadeh to provide a counter-narrative, in Palestinian Walks: Forays into a Vanishing Landscape. “The accounts I have read do not describe a land familiar to me,” Shehadeh writes, “but rather a land of these travelers’ imaginations. Palestine has been constantly reinvented, with devastating consequences to its original inhabitants.” Lora Gordon reviews for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Taking you home: "Palestinian Walks"
Testimonies given to B’Tselem indicate that the Civil Administration recently informed residents of the Palestinian village ‘Arab al-Ramadin al-Janubi that they will be demanded to vacate their village and move to another site, in contradiction of Israel’s explicit undertaking to the high court. Read more about Israel threatens West Bank village with expulsion
Dutch designer Annelys de Vet of the the International Academy of Arts in Palestine and the Dutch Interchurch Organization for Development Cooperation, joined forces with a group of Palestinian artists to realize a moving, beautiful, poetic and at times heart-breaking book. The resulting Subjective Atlas of Palestine offers a picture of Palestine that differs from the images the public generally receives through the mass media. On 26 June 2008 it was awarded the best designed book of 2007, beating out 465 others. Adri Niewuhof reports for EI. Read more about "Subjective Atlas of Palestine" wins prestigious Dutch award
Escaping into ambitious political fantasy like that behind the Mediterranean Union is not the right approach to urgent political questions. It is no more than a waste of time. If Europe is truly concerned, there is a due need for a principled, bold, decisive and compatible with international law policy towards the resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict. EI contributor Hasan Abu Nimah comments. Read more about No Mediterranean Union shortcut around Arab-Israeli conflict
UNITEDNATIONS (IPS) - Having successfully lobbied the UN Children’s Agency UNICEF to stop accepting donations from Israeli billionaire Lev Avnerovich Leviev, activists are urging celebrities who have made public appearances with Leviev to cut all ties with him. Leviev is the chairman of Africa Israel Investments, a global conglomerate that has been criticized by a variety of non-governmental organizations for its involvement in building settlements in the occupied West Bank. Read more about Celebrities urged to cut ties to settlement financier
