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Volleyball and Civil War

Philip Rizk Gaza Strip, Palestine 6 March 2007


I heard my name called out as I walked swiftly past the main police station in Gaza City. One of the three policemen gathered there walked over to me, a cigarette dangling from his lips. I had met Ahmed the second week I was in Gaza, when I went to play volleyball with Palestine’s best team, located in the Jabalya refugee camp. Ahmed was their star player. Warming up that day I paired up with Ahmed, which lead to a slew of questions about my coming to Gaza and sparked the beginning of our friendship. 

No fake analogy

Arjan El Fassed 5 March 2007


Joel Pollak wants people to believe comparisons between Israeli policies and apartheid are nothing but a fraud, “The trouble with the apartheid analogy” (March 2). He castigates former US president Jimmy Carter for quoting a six-year-old letter from Nelson Mandela to New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman making the apartheid comparison, and accuses me of perpetrating a hoax and admitting I made the whole thing up. There is no possible basis for Pollak to say I intended people to believe the memo was written by anyone other than myself. Although the Mandela memo was only a piece of satire, it is not necessary to believe it to understand the Israel-apartheid comparison is grounded in an ugly reality. 

Obama, Israel, and the Jewish Vote

Jake Tapper 4 March 2007


Seeking to assure supporters of Israel that he is as ardent a backer of the Jewish state as are rivals such as Sens. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, and John Edwards, D-NC, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, delivered a very pro-Israel address to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee of Chicago at the end of last week. But now comes a very interesting blog entry by the pro-Palestinian blogger Ali Abunimah at The Electronic Intifada, who alleges that Obama has changed to a far more stridently pro-Israel position as his national aspirations developed. “The last time I spoke to Obama was in the winter of 2004 at a gathering in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood,” Abunimah writes. 

Anxiety and Cautious Optimism

Moussa Bashir Beirut 5 March 2007


Most of the posts in the Lebanese blogosphere reflect the atmosphere of anxiety, pessimism and mistrust that is the general mood of the Lebanese nowadays. Here is a summary of some of the posts. An attempt has been made to include one or two light posts with brighter outlooks, but they did not drown the overall disposition mentioned above. Let’s begin by mentioning Lebanon’s loss of Joseph Samaha, a very prominent columnist and political analyst, last week. Many bloggers posted about the man and his works. Jamal Ghosn wrote a post about Samaha which he began with: “Life Goes On, but it must not go on dumber, less informed, mentally poorer.” 

Open Letter to the People of Six Nations

Jamal Juma' 5 March 2007


On the anniversary of the Six Nations Land Reclamation we express our solidarity to you and to all those that are defending today their land and livelihoods against theft and colonization. On February 28th, 2006, after the Canadian government gave a construction company the permission to build a settlement on their land, the people of Six Nations took it back, demanding an end to the theft and destruction of their land and to settler encroachment on their territory. Many of them now face charges in Canadian courts for defending their land. This sounds tragically familiar to us in Palestine and to many others around the world. 

Gaza's fishing industry under siege

Rami Almeghari Gaza Strip, Palestine 5 March 2007


Since the abduction by Palestinian resistance groups of Israeli soldier Gila’d Shalit on 25 June 2006, Israeli gunships have prevented Palestinians from fishing off the Gaza coast. This has severely affected both fishermen and food security for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Thirty-thousand people are dependant on Gaza’s fishing industry, but since last June, the Israeli naval forces have harassed those Palestinian fishing boats that dare leave the dock. In the main fishing site of Gaza City, called Almina, there are dozens of fishermen trying to feed their children under harsh economic conditions. 

One Killed and Ten Wounded in Gaza Due to Weapons Mishandling

4 March 2007


In the past three days, a person was killed and two others, including two children, were wounded in the Gaza Strip in the context of the state of lawlessness and proliferation of weapons prevailing in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 19:30 on Thursday, 1 March 2007, Yasser Fathi Zannoun, 17, from al-Shaboura refugee camp in Rafah, was wounded by a bullet to the left foot when he was checking a gun inside his house. 

Palestinian youth in Bethlehem area fully support non-violent resistance

Adri Nieuwhof 4 March 2007


The Joint Advocacy Initiative (JAI), an initiative of YWCA of Palestine and East Jerusalem YMCA, carried out research among young people from the Bethlehem area, to examine the attitude of Palestinian youth towards non-violent struggle against the occupation and oppressive practices. The results published in a report recently show that almost sixty percent of the youth are affiliated to a political party and they fully support non-violent means of resistance against the Israeli occupation. The opinions voiced by the youth offer clear building blocks for a strategy of national resistance. A strategy that shows striking similarities to the strategy successfully used by the African National Congress of South Africa to fight apartheid. 

Wounded teen speaks about friend's killing at Gaza fence

3 March 2007


‘Abd a-Ra’uf al-‘Adini testifies to B’Tselem: Two days ago [23 January], the last day of school semester, I went to school and took an exam in mathematics. Then, around nine o’clock, I met my two friends. We sat together for about fifteen minutes. Mahran suggested that we quit school and look for work in Israel , anything other than this life of hardship in the Gaza Strip. Mahran’s father is a government clerk, and he lives off advances that he gets on his salary, which is not currently being paid. ‘Imad and I agreed to the idea of working in Israel ; in any case the situation there is better than it is here. 

Injured Palestinian dies after being held up at gate

3 March 2007


On 17 February 2007, around 9:40 P.M., three young men from ‘Azzun ‘Atmah were summoned to help free a car that was stuck in a field in the village. They drove to the area in a tractor without lights. The tractor went up onto a boulder and flipped over. One of the men, ‘Adel ‘Omar, 21, was pinned under the tractor and seriously injured. The village of ‘Azzun ‘Atmah is surrounded by the separation barrier, and lies between Israel ‘s green line and the separation barrier. The only way out of the village is through a gate in the barrier, which closes at 10:00 P.M.