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Cheering to the beat of the Palestinians' misery

Sami Hermez 25 May 2007


“In the first three days of the recent events involving the Lebanese army and Fateh el-Islam in the Nahr el-Bared camp, the Lebanese army committed what would amount to war crimes in a similar fashion to that of the Israeli army in Gaza and in Lebanon last summer, firing on a civilian population indiscriminately. When the Israelis do this, we scream at the injustice, but when the Lebanese army does it we applaud them. These are double standards.” Sami Hermez analyzes the Lebanese support for the siege of Nahr al-Bared camp for Electronic Lebanon. 

DC Metro Ads are Racist and Islamaphobic

24 May 2007


StandWithUs and AMCHA-The Coalition for Jewish Concerns have placed ads in stations of the DC metropolitan area metro/subway system (WMATA) in response to ads by the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation and United for Peace and Justice for the June 10 Mobilization Against Israeli Occupation. Contrary to their sponsors’ claims, nothing on these ads responds to the main issues raised by the June 10 demonstration ads… 

B'Tselem calls for criminal investigation into Gaza bombing

24 May 2007


In an attack in the Sheja’iyeh neighborhood in Gaza on 20 May, the Israeli air force killed eight persons. Seven of them were members of the al-Haya family, relatives of Khalil al-Haya, a Hamas member of the Palestinian Legislative Council. The dead included three minors, aged sixteen and seventeen, and two men, aged fifty-six and sixty-four. Another four people were injured in the attack, two of them severely. The other two suffered light wounds and were discharged from the hospital. 

Interview: As'ad Abukhalil on the Nahr al-Bared siege

Ali Abunimah 24 May 2007


Thousands of Palestinian refugees are fleeing from Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon as five days of fighting by the Lebanese army and a militant group known as Fath al-Islam has left dozens of soldiers and fighters and an unknown number of civilians dead. As the situation of these Palestinian refugees worsens, 59 years after they were first expelled from their homeland into Lebanon, the world looks on in silence. Electronic Intifada co-founder Ali Abunimah spoke with As’ad Abukhalil, the creator of the Angry Arab News Service blog on the origins of Fath al-Islam, the events that led to the violence and what it means for Lebanon and the region. 

"On the way to the hospital I realised that my mother had died"

24 May 2007


NAHR AL-BARED, 24 May 2007 (IRIN) - Yousef Abu Radi, 12, was hit by shrapnel when a civilian bus fleeing Nahr al-Bared, a Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon, came under fire on Wednesday afternoon. Dozens of civilians have been killed in five days of fighting between the Lebanese army and Fatah al-Islam, a radical Islamist group based in the camp. At least 50 soldiers and militants have also been killed. 

30,000 Caught in Crossfire

Jackson Allers 24 May 2007


BEIRUT, May 24 (IPS) - Palestinian factions inside Lebanon have been in a quandary as to how to assist the more than 30,000 residents of the densely populated Nahr el-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon trapped after three days of fighting between Lebanese Army units and members of a Sunni Islamist group, Fatah al-Islam. Ashraf Abu-Khorj, a camp resident, spoke to IPS in the middle of the shelling on the second day of fighting. Khorj said that the situation was growing increasingly dire, as he and his neighbours felt that no one was acting to put an end to the situation peacefully. 

Palestinian patient dies after delay at Erez Crossing

24 May 2007


Mohammed Ahmed Ibrahim Mansour, 23, was admitted into Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on 15 May 2007, after he had been wounded by several gunshots during the latest internal fighting in the Gaza Strip. Since he was in a critical condition, his family, in coordination with the liaison officer at the Palestinian Ministry of Health, made efforts over five days to obtain permission for his transfer to Israeli hospitals, but the Israeli side refused to offer him such permission for alleged security reasons. 

Israel arbitrary detains Palestinian legislators in the West Bank

24 May 2007


The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) arrested 33 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), cabinet and local authorities yesterday 23 May 2007. Most of those are elected officials known to be affiliated with Hamas faction. The campaign was focused in the districts of Nablus, Tulkarem, Qalqilya, Ramallah, Salfit and Hebron. This is the third detention campaign IOF carry out against Palestinian officials. On 29 June 2006 IOF arrested eight ministers and 21 PLC members and local authorities’ officials. Later on 5 August 2006, IOF arrested the president of the PLC from his house in Ramallah. 

War games

Laila El-Haddad Gaza City, Palestine 23 May 2007


I can’t sleep. I get up maybe once every two hours. Go to the bathroom, walk around a little, and then doze off again. Only to be awakened by the drones, followed by the manic hovering of helicopter gun ships. This time they were directly over our apartment building. I would have been afraid, except this happened once before, maybe two years ago. Panicked and fearful at the time, I called my cousin, who reassured me that when an Apache is directly overhead, it means its intended target is about 500 metres to one kilometre away. It is information I wish I did not know. 

Humanitarian work resumes in Gaza as factional fighting ends

23 May 2007


JERUSALEM, 23 May 2007 (IRIN) - As Israeli operations against suspected Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip increase and internal violence wanes, some humanitarian organisations are resuming work in the troubled enclave which remains closed off from the rest of the world. The Rafah Crossing, the only crossing to destinations outside Israel, has been closed for over a week. The other crossings lead to Israel, and most Palestinians from Gaza, barring exceptional humanitarian cases, are not able to obtain the requisite permits.