The Electronic Intifada

In Gaza, farming under fire

Eva Bartlett 7 April 2009


KHAN YOUNIS, occupied Gaza Strip (IPS) - “They’re always shooting at us. Every day they shoot at us,” says Alaa Samour, 19, pulling aside his shirt to show a scar on his shoulder. Samour said he was shot on 28 December last year by Israeli soldiers positioned along the border fence near New Abassan village, east of Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip. 

Israeli settlement produce may be enjoying EU privileges

David Cronin 6 April 2009


BRUSSELS (IPS) - European Union officials are seeking evidence to support claims that fruit and vegetables from Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories are being exported under false pretense. In a note circulated to its fellow EU governments in late 2008, Britain expressed concern that goods from Israeli settlements in the West Bank may be entering the Union without paying the legally required duties. 

Aid groups work to care for Gaza orphans

2 April 2009


GAZA CITY, occupied Gaza Strip (IRIN) - An estimated 1,346 children were left without one or more of their parents as a result of the recent 22-day Israeli assault on Gaza, according to Islamic Relief in Gaza. An orphan is defined by Islamic Relief as a child under 18 who has lost the parent considered the head of the household, most often the father, according to Mahmoud Abudraz, a child welfare program manager, for Islamic Relief in Gaza. 

Cultural solidarity in Quebec: An interview with filmmaker Malcolm Guy

Stefan Christoff 7 April 2009


“People who were not that open to the boycott campaign previously [are now] willing to support the international boycott campaign against Israel.” The Electronic Intifada contributor Stefan Christoff interviewed Canadian filmmaker Malcolm Guy about a Quebec film festival’s recent decision to cancel a “tolerance award” and the growing movement for a cultural boycott of Israel. 

Israeli military cloaks abuses

Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendler 2 April 2009


JERUSALEM (IPS) - The Israeli army’s Advocate General has summarily closed an internal investigation into allegations stemming from accounts by soldiers of abuses against Palestinian civilians committed during Israel’s recent war on Hamas in Gaza. It took the military investigators just half the duration of the 22-day war in Gaza to bulldoze the accounts and to dismiss completely the serious allegations made by soldiers who had themselves taken part in the fighting. 

Changing the rules of war

George Bisharat 2 April 2009


The extent of Israel’s brutality against Palestinian civilians in its 22-day pounding of the Gaza Strip is gradually surfacing. Israeli soldiers are testifying to lax rules of engagement tantamount to a license to kill. One soldier commented: “That’s what is so nice, supposedly, about Gaza: You see a person on a road, walking along a path. He doesn’t have to be with a weapon, you don’t have to identify him with anything and you can just shoot him.” George Bisharat comments. 

Civil society shows its moral strength

Adri Nieuwhof 7 April 2009


At a time when Western governments refrain from using their power to stop Israel’s ongoing violations of international law, many civil society organizations silently watch the moral corrosion of their governments. At the “Israel Review Conference” in Geneva this month and the Russell Tribunal slated for early 2010, however, civil society will use its power and call Israel to account. Adri Nieuwhof comments for The Electronic Intifada. 

Not an analogy: Israel and the crime of apartheid

Hazem Jamjoum 3 April 2009


With the expanding agreement that the term “apartheid” is useful in describing the level and layout of Israel’s crimes, it is important that our understanding of the “apartheid label” be deepened, both as a means of informing activism in support of the Palestinian anti-colonial struggle, and in order to most effectively make use of comparisons with other struggles. Hazem Jamjoum comments for The Electronic Intifada.