A new study by Arab Media Watch demonstrates a strong tendency in the British press to represent Israel as “retaliating” in coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The study, the first to investigate this aspect of British press coverage of the conflict, examined a period from January to June 2008. It found that when the British press represents a party as retaliating or responding in the conflict, that party is Israel 72 percent of the time. The tabloid press showed a particularly marked bias, representing Israel as retaliating in 100 percent of all representations of “retaliation.” Read more about Study: Israel "retaliates" to Palestinian "provocation" in UK press
The following statement was issued by Labor for Palestine on 17 February 2009: We salute the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU) in Durban, and Western Australian dock worker members of the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA), for refusing to handle Israeli cargo. Theirs is a courageous response to Israel’s attack on Palestinians in Gaza that, since 27 December alone, have left some 1,400 dead and 5,000 wounded — nearly all of them civilians. Read more about US labor supports boycott of Israeli cargo
BRUSSELS (IPS) - European Union aid has been given to an Israeli oil company which has reduced the supply of fuel to Gaza as part of an economic blockade internationally recognized as illegal, Brussels officials have admitted. Almost 97 million euros (124 million dollars) in funds managed by the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, were handed over directly to the firm Dor Alon between February 2008 and January this year. Read more about EU paying for Gaza blockade
According to Gamal Eid, Executive Director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, the recent arrests of bloggers is an attempt by Mubarak’s regime “To silence the voices that criticize the [Egyptian] government’s performance and send a message by assaulting and kidnapping, to say that criticism will not be tolerated.” Rannie Amiri reports for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about The perils of blogging in Egypt
The Holocaust Is Over; We Must Rise From its Ashes claims that the Shoah (the Nazi holocaust) has been “nationalized” and “privatized” and seeks to reclaim its memory for a universalist vision. Only thus, claims author Avraham Burg, can Israelis be rescued from their obsession with spurious victimhood, and Hitler finally be defeated. Raymond Deane reviews for The Electronic Intifada Read more about Book review: Avraham Burg and the denying of denial
One of the main issues raised during the recent conflict in the Gaza Strip — apart from a considerable number of allegations of violations of international humanitarian law that will not be dealt with here — concerns the functioning of rule of law in Israel in cases regarding the freedoms of expression, opinion and access to information. Sharon Weill and Valentina Azarov analyze for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Israel's authoritarian transformation
Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani20 February 2009
CAIRO (IPS) - Egyptians seem at best only cautiously optimistic over the appointment of Senator George Mitchell as United States envoy to the Middle East. Mitchell is mandated chiefly with settling the Arab-Israeli dispute. “Mitchell’s prospects for achieving an acceptable settlement are grim,” Ahmed Thabet, political science professor at Cairo University told IPS. “The previous US administration created several facts on the ground which will be very difficult to undo.” Read more about Little hope from new US mediation
GAZACITY, occupied Gaza Strip (IRIN) - Thousands of food-insecure Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are facing an even worse situation after large numbers of livestock and agricultural land were badly damaged or destroyed during Israel’s military assault, which began on 27 December. The already fragile food situation in Gaza has been seriously aggravated by the conflict, according to a report by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization. Read more about Food insecurity increasing after war
If there is controversy about who won the recent war in Gaza, there is no question that Ramattan News Agency of Gaza City won the war to broadcast it. It was Ramattan’s images that beamed Israel’s 22-day “Operation Cast Lead” into millions of households across the globe, capturing the indelible visual moments of the war. Ramattan’s images were broadcast uncensored around the clock and only stopped on the few occasions the staff had to evacuate the studios fearing the 11-story building was about to be bombed. Toufic Haddad reports for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Ramattan's war: The world's eyes into Gaza
To say that Palestinians are absent in Waltz with Bashir, to say that it is a film that deals not with Palestinians but with Israelis who served in Lebanon, only barely begins to describe the violence that this film commits against Palestinians. There is nothing interesting or new in the depiction of Palestinians — they have no names, they don’t speak, they are anonymous. But they are not simply faceless victims. Instead, the victims in the story that Waltz with Bashir tells are Israeli soldiers. Naira Antoun reviews the film for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Film review: "Waltz with Bashir"
