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Stranded Palestinians turn down Sudanese asylum offer

11 October 2007


DAMASCUS, 10 October (IRIN) - Most of the over 300 Palestinian-Iraqi refugees stranded for the past 18 months at the makeshift al-Tanf refugee camp on the Syrian side of the Iraq-Syria border have rejected an offer of asylum in Sudan. The Sudanese government made an offer 8 October to take in the 310 Palestinian refugees, who are living in pitiful conditions at the camp. “The [Sudanese] president agreed to the request of both Hamas and Fatah to accommodate them and we are going to inform the Arab League and then make our preparations,” said a Sudanese Foreign Ministry official. 

Video: Nahr al-Bared refugees' joyless Ramadan

11 October 2007


The anarchist video collective “a-films” presents a 20-minute film entitled “Tragedy Without Borders,” produced by refugees from the destroyed Nahr al-Bared Refugee Camp during a video-workshop held in Baddawi Refugee Camp near Trablous (Tripoli), northern Lebanon. For two weeks, a-films has trained a group of refugees in filmmaking. Thousands of families living in Nahr al-Bared were displaced during the Lebanese army’s summer-long siege on the camp, where a militant group called Fatah al-Islam had established itself. The camp was destroyed during the conflict. 

Silencing Bishop Tutu: Critical discussion off limits?

Bill Fletcher Jr. 11 October 2007


There is a point when a political position can become rabid; a point when rational arguments no longer work because the holder of such politics believes that their way can be the only way of seeing things and that all other views must be suppressed. Thus, we have the case of the cancellation of the speaking engagement of one Bishop Desmond Tutu, world-renowned human rights activist and one of the chief architects of the South African Truth & Reconciliation Commission. Bill Fletcher, Jr. comments on the cancellation. 

Nonviolent resistance a means, not the end

Ben White 12 October 2007


In a recent article on the openDemocracy website, the rewritten Palestinian Authority policy document that replaced “muqawama” (resistance) with “popular struggle” was hailed as having “the potential to dramatically transform a conflict whose just resolution has continually eluded diplomats and militants.” EI contributor Ben White comments that the writer Maria Stephan may be admired for her optimism about the possibility of large-scale mobilization in the Occupied Palestinian Territories for a program of nonviolent resistance, but there is a twofold failure of contextualization that compromises her analysis. 

EU quiet over Israeli land expropriation

David Cronin 10 October 2007


BRUSSELS, Oct 10 (IPS) - Representatives of the European Union’s two most powerful institutions remained silent this week on new efforts by Israel to expropriate Palestinian villages, triggering accusations that the bloc’s Middle East policy suffers from double standards. During a 10 October debate in Brussels, speakers from the Portuguese government, which holds the Union’s rotating presidency, and the European Commission did not refer directly to the Israeli order to seize control of four Arab villages located between East Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Jericho. 

Audio: Crossing the Line interviews Gaza journalist Rami Almeghari

10 October 2007


This week on Crossing The Line: Host Christopher Brown speaks with Gaza-based Palestinian journalist and regular EI contributor, Rami Almeghari. Almeghari speaks about the current situation on the ground in Gaza after a week in which tens of Palestinians were wounded or killed by Israeli military actions in the Gaza Strip. Brown asks Almeghari about reactions from Gazans after Israel’s designation of Gaza as a “hostile entity.” 

Book review: "Married to Another Man"

Sonja Karkar 10 October 2007


Ghada Karmi’s latest book Married to Another Man: Israel’s Dilemma in Palestine opens with the problem European Zionists faced over a century ago when they first mooted the idea of a Jewish state in Palestine. They found then that there was already a well-established Palestinian society existing in the land they wished to claim as their own. Hence the message sent back to Vienna by the two rabbis who made the discovery: “The bride is beautiful, but she is married to another man.” EI contributor Sonja Karkar reviews. 

Report: Infighting claimed lives of 161 Palestinians

9 October 2007


PCHR has published a special report titled “Black Days in the Absence of Justice: Report on Bloody Fighting in the Gaza Strip from 7 to 14 June 2007.” The report details results of investigations conducted by PCHR into the bloody fighting between Hamas and Fatah movements, represented by their armed wings and security services, which ended with Hamas’ takeover of all headquarters and sites of security services, and consequently, the whole Gaza Strip. This latest round of fighting took the lives of 161 Palestinians, including 41 civilians. Additionally, at least 700 Palestinians were wounded. 

Education in Jerusalem: Separate and unequal

8 October 2007


When Israel annexed East Jerusalem in 1967, it assumed responsibility for the well-being of East Jerusalem’s population and for fulfilling their rights, regardless of religion or ethnicity. The right to education is one of the most basic rights, and is an essential prerequisite for the plural democracy Israel claims to be. Education is especially important because in the long term it determines a population’s ability to deal with the rest of society on a par. The education system in Israel maintains and expands gaps between the Jewish and the Palestinian Arab sectors. In East Jerusalem the differences and discrimination are especially stark and apparent.