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Did you say the Israelis are withdrawing?

Y. Khellef Bethlehem 27 February 2005


Since the Sharm El Sheikh summit things have significantly improved in the Palestinian territories. The Army has stopped its incursions in Palestinian towns, Palestinian civilians are free to move, prisoners are about to be released and economic activity is slowly recovering… At least this is the information that most western media is conveying to its people. The situation on the ground is unfortunately completely different. The Separation Wall is being completed faster than ever, all the military check points are still in place, the Palestinian detainees are still under Israeli custody and daily life is still hell for all Palestinians. 

Organizations Confront State Department over Silence Accorded Israeli Mistreatment of U.S. Citizens

24 February 2005


A delegation of concerned organizations and citizens met with State Department officials on February 17 to request an explanation of why there has been an official silence on the part of the U.S. Government over the mistreatment of Americans in Israel. During the meeting, they requested that the Department negotiate the release of American prisoners at the same time as Palestinians were being released by the Sharon government, as a significant gesture by Israel of its friendship with the American people. 

The LA Times' notion of "relative calm"

Alison Weir 25 February 2005


Well, I just got hung up on again. This time by an editor on the Los Angeles Times foreign desk. I had called and attempted, as politely as possible, to give him a correction for the story on the Times’ website tonight. This will probably be their front-page lead news story tomorrow morning. The headline proclaims: “Palestinian Suicide bomber Shatters Calm of late.” The lead sentence then goes on to state that this bomber “shattered a months-long period of relative calm…” The fact is, however, that the truce and this “calm” were shattered long before this. The last suicide bombing against Israeli civilians was Nov. 1, 2004. It took three Israeli lives. Since that time, while Israelis have basked in “relative calm,” 170 Palestinian men, women, and children have been killed. 

Is peace in Palestine about to break out?

Ali Abunimah 24 February 2005


Are Israelis and Palestinians finally on the road to peace? A glance at commentary in the US press would seem to suggest so. Since Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, and Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas announced a truce in early February at the Sharm al-Sheikh summit, many observers see a “window of opportunity” they are encouraging both sides to leap through. And do the latest tussles among Palestinian leaders reflect the kind of democratic reform that ordinary Palestinians want? EI co-founder Ali Abunimah compares this euphoria with the most recent developments on the ground. 

Brian Avery challenges Israeli military impunity

23 February 2005


On February 23 at 2:45 PM, Brian Avery will arrive in Tel Aviv from the U.S. in order to be present on February 28th when the Israeli Supreme Court hears his petition demanding a criminal investigation of his shooting. Brian, an American human rights activist with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), was shot in the face and critically wounded on April 5, 2003 by Israeli soldiers while standing in street with his hands in the air in the West Bank town of Jenin. A bullet entered his face, shattering his jaw and his nose.  Since the incident he has been in rehabilitation and undergone a series of facial reconstruction surgeries. 

Likud's Republican Party Connection

Bob Feldman 23 February 2005


Most U.S. anti-war activists do not support the Israeli establishment’s Likud party because Likud’s leaders have violated many United Nations resolutions which require the Israeli government to withdraw from all post-1967 occupied territory, dismantle all Israeli settlements in post-1967 occupied territories, and allow all Palestinian refugees to return to pre-1967 Israel/Palestine.  Yet a pro-Israel, apparently tax-exempt organization in the United States, the American Friends of Likud, is “part of a global federation of center-right Zionist movements known as Likud Olami—the World Union of Liberal and National Zionists” and “maintains close links to Israel’s Likud party,” according to its website. 

Limor Livnat and the Palestinian "problem"

Uri Yaakobi 23 February 2005


Recently, a law was passed saying that settlers who will be evacuated following a future retreat from the Gaza Strip will be given compensation. The balance was tipped to the side of the government from outside the coalition by MK Mohammad Barake. Barake, a MK from “Hadash” party (the former communist party) is, as his name might indicate, an Israeli Arab. Limor Livnat, the Israeli minister of education, who had also voted in favor of the law, was one of the most noticeable politicians in a group of right wing Knesset members and others who had each expressed outrage that an Arab (who had, like any other Member of the Knesset, been elected democratically) was the one to determine the future of Israel in such an important question. 

Film review: Paradise Now

Arjan El Fassed 23 February 2005


Hani Abu Assad’s Paradise Now won the AGICOA’s Blue Angel Award for the best European film at the Berlinale last week. The film has been acquired by Warner Independent Pictures in a North American and U.K. rights deal. Paradise Now is the story of two Palestinian childhood friends who have been recruited for a major operation in Tel Aviv. In the tag team of two young Palestinian men, Said and Khaled, director Hani Abu-Assad brings an intensely gripping tale of suicide bombing. 

Rewarding aggression in Palestine

Hasan Abu Nimah 23 February 2005


An Arab businessman has reportedly offered Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon tens of millions of dollars to buy evacuated Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip. EI contributor Hasan Abu Nimah looks at the legal background and argues that this scheme is as outrageous as offering a common thief compensation for returning stolen property, as well as offering him the expenses for the petrol, tools and clothing he used to commit his crime. Rather than encouraging such prepesterous ideas, as it appears to be doing, the Palestinian Authority should put a stop to it and focus on regaining Palestinian rights as set out in international law. 

ECHO: "Humanitarian needs in the West Bank and Gaza must not be forgotten"

17 February 2005


The humanitarian situation in the occupied Palestinian territories must not be overshadowed by the latest political developments and requires renewed assistance by the donors’ community, warned Cees Wittebrood, Head of the Middle East and Mediterranean countries of the European Commission’s humanitarian aid department. The European Commission is one of the largest donors of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian population, with €155 million of assistance provided since the start of the second Intifada in 2000.