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Nahr al-Bared treated outside of the law

Sari Hanafi 16 December 2007


Many actors play a role in alleviating the plight of the Nahr al-Bared displaced Palestinian refugees. The most important actor has been the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA. In spite of its slowness, as some interviewees complain, it has done a great job. Donors and international and local nongovernmental organizations have provided financial support and have assisted the population and ensured the basic needs of the displaced population and the returnees. In addition to these institutions, the Saudi Arabia paid seed money ($1200) to each family through the Lebanese government, and some Lebanese political parties, especially the Future Movement, provided food for the families. Sari Hanafi comments. 

Prerequisites for peace

Mustafa Barghouthi 16 December 2007


As one who for decades has supported a two-state solution and the nonviolent struggle for Palestinian rights, I view the recent conference in Annapolis with a great deal of skepticism — and a glimmer of hope. Seven years with no negotiations — and increasing numbers of Israeli settlers, an economic blockade in Gaza and an intricate network of roadblocks and checkpoints stifling movement in the West Bank — have led us to despair and distrust. Any commitment must be made not only to conclude an agreement before the end of 2008 but also to end Israel’s occupation. Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi comments. 

Palestinian NGOs pull plug on Madrid forum

15 December 2007


A major meeting of non-governmental organizations and activists fell into disarray when the Palestinian delegation announced its withdrawal just days before the event. “The Palestinian civil society delegation to the forum for a Just Peace in the Middle East, planned for 14-16 December in Madrid, has decided not to participate in the forum due to serious last-minute violations,” a December 13 statement issued by the Palestinian NGO network (PNGO) read. 

Concern rises regarding Gaza health care access

13 December 2007


JERUSALEM, 13 December (IRIN) - The isolation of the Gaza Strip is “intolerable” said a senior World Health Organization (WHO) official on 10 December, urging better access for Gazans to medical care outside the boxed-off enclave. Ambrogio Manenti, head of the WHO in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, urged medical professionals to take a stand against the current situation which, he said, was having a negative impact on the health of residents. Manenti was speaking at a WHO symposium with the Physicians for Human Rights-Israel organization and the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme. 

Audio: Crossing the Line focuses on Annapolis

13 December 2007


This week on Crossing The Line: The cameras are gone and the dignitaries have gone back home, but what if anything did Annapolis really accomplish for either Palestinians or Israelis? Host Christopher Brown speaks with Bill and Kathleen Christison, both formerly of the CIA. Bill was a senior official of the CIA and served as a National Intelligence Officer and as Director of the CIA’s Office of Regional and Political Analysis. Kathleen is a former CIA political analyst and has worked on Middle East issues for thirty years. The couple joins Brown to sort out the summit and its chances — if any — of advancing a peaceful solution to the conflict. 

More than 600 Palestinians killed in extrajudicial killings since 2000

13 December 2007


Between the eruption of the second Palestinian intifada on 28 September 2000 and June 2006, Israeli forces attempted 252 extrajudicial killing operations. According to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Israeli forces killed 603 Palestinians during these crimes. Statistically, the victims of this policy constitute 20 percent of the entire intifada’s Palestinian fatalities. Of these, 212 were bystanders killed during such operations. 

Photostory: A pervasive occupation

12 December 2007


Occupation has a way of making its presence experienced beyond its immediate manifestations — war machines and walls and checkpoints — and wounding everything it comes in contact with. The Israeli occupation has left scars on nearly all aspects of Palestinian society — both literal, physical tears in the earth and edifice. Where a million olive trees used to be rooted or tens of thousands of homes that used to be places to live and now are little more than a painful memory. However, in the midst of occupation is the energy to resist, a veiled hope for peace and justice, even at impossible odds. Adam Beach’s photographs document life in occupied Palestine. 

US Jews tilt rightwards on Israel

Jim Lobe 13 December 2007


WASHINGTON, December 12 (IPS) - US Jews appear to have become more opposed both to Israel’s making key concessions in renewed peace talks with Palestinians and to the US carrying out a military attack against Iran’s nuclear facilities, according to the latest in an annual series of surveys of Jewish opinion released here this week by the American Jewish Committee (AJC). The poll, which was carried out during November before the formal resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in Annapolis late last month, also found continued skepticism in the Jewish community over both the war in Iraq and the “war on terror” as conducted by the administration of President George W. Bush. 

Israel's Palestinians speak out

Nadim Rouhana 12 December 2007


The Annapolis peace talks regard me as an interloper in my own land. Israel’s deputy prime minister, Avigdor Lieberman, argues that I should “take [my] bundles and get lost.” Henry Kissinger thinks I ought to be summarily swapped from inside Israel to the would-be Palestinian state. I am a Palestinian with Israeli citizenship — one of 1.4 million. We are Palestinian Arabs — Christian, Muslim and Druze — not Jewish. More than twenty Israeli laws explicitly privilege Jews over non-Jews. Nadim Rouhana comments.