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Israel suspends family visits to prisoners

24 April 2008


JERUSALEM/GAZA, 22 April (IRIN) - For families in the Gaza Strip with sons or daughters in Israeli jails, the past 11 months have been especially hard, as they could no longer visit their imprisoned relatives and have only had contact through brief written messages. “This issue is a humanitarian concern for us, for the families and the prisoners,” said Katharina Ritz, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Jerusalem. 

US playwright Sarah Jones urged to cancel Israel performance

22 April 2008


Upon news of her upcoming performance in Israel, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel tells playwright Sarah Jones: If you perform in Jerusalem you will be taking part in a feast for war crimes, ethnic cleansing, dispossession, and continued oppression of a people. We urge you not to turn your back to the needs and rights of the Palestinian people and not to collude in Israel’s persistent human rights abuse, which is, after all, the worst enemy of art and culture. 

Palestinian education delegation to UK gets special treatment

Rumy Hasan 22 April 2008


Following a motion passed at the inaugural Congress of the University and College Union (UCU) in the UK last May, a tour of British universities by Palestinian trade union academics was authorized. However, the UCU has taken a strong line that only its members will be allowed to attend tour meetings and attendees are required to bring identification. Rumy Hasan comments. 

Activists hang up on Motorola

Adri Nieuwhof 23 April 2008


In March of this year, the US Campaign to End the Israeli occupation launched its newest corporate accountability campaign: “Hang Up on Motorola.” Motorola Incorporated and its fully owned subsidiary Motorola Israel benefit from Israel’s occupation of Palestine. Present in Israel since 1964, Motorola supplies the Israeli army with equipment. EI contributor Adri Nieuwhof reports. 

Report: Family members used to pressure Palestinians in Israeli detention

22 April 2008


“They said that if I confessed to everything they wanted, they would release my wife, and that she was in the isolation cell because of me.” This and similar testimonies of detainees interrogated by the Israeli intelligence during the past year indicate a phenomenon whose gravity must not be minimized: the use of a detainee’s family to “break” him. 

Dubai called on to boycott Leviev stores over Israeli settlements

19 April 2008


New York human rights activists, and representatives of the West Bank Palestinian villages of Bil’in and Jayyous called on the government and the people of the United Arab Emirates to boycott the jewelry stores of Israeli billionaire and diamond magnate Lev Leviev over his companies’ construction of Israeli settlements. According to a flurry of recent media reports, Leviev is opening jewelry stores in Dubai during 2008. 

Popular Conference: preserving collective identity

Noura Erakat and Monadel Herzallah 21 April 2008


The goals of the National Popular Palestinian Conference to be held in Chicago in August 2008 include cultivating our national Palestinian-Arab identity, exploring grounds for cooperation and collective expression, and motivating and organizing the US-based Palestinian community to assume a greater role in realizing Palestinian national objectives and preserving our collective identity. Noura Erakat and Monadel Herzallah outline the goals and history of the conference. 

EI exclusive: a pro-Israel group's plan to rewrite history on Wikipedia

21 April 2008


A pro-Israel pressure group is orchestrating a secret, long-term campaign to infiltrate the popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia to rewrite Palestinian history, pass off crude propaganda as fact, and take over Wikipedia administrative structures to ensure these changes go either undetected or unchallenged. A series of emails by members and associates of the pro-Israel group CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America), provided to The Electronic Intifada (EI), indicate the group is engaged in what one activist termed a “war” on Wikipedia.