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FAST Conference: Reconstruction of Memory

25 April 2006


Preservation projects can be as emblematic as the destruction that induces them. Construction can be used both to reinforce a violent separation of the built environment and destroy the fabric of a former life. The FAST conference on May 14 in Amsterdam will form an inquiry into the ways preservation projects are being appropriated by official institutions in order to promote ideological and political agendas. Some torn threads of antiquity include the destruction of Muslim history, religious monuments and buildings in Bosnia; the destruction of black history and heritage in South Africa under the apartheid regime; and the destruction and distortion of Palestinian past after the creation of the State of Israel. A poignant example of this eradication of local memory is the village of Lifta. 

Yes Mr. Solana, the EU has abandoned the Palestinian people

Ali Abunimah 25 April 2006


“Europe has always been at the forefront in defending Palestinian national aspirations.” So says Javier Solana, the European Union foreign policy chief. This used to be true, but Europe’s past record is now too threadbare to serve as a cloak for the scandalous bankruptcy of its present policies. The Palestinians are not in their predicament because of insufficient “technical assistance ” from EU bureaucrats, but because they live under a brutal foreign military occupation which they have few means to resist. True EU solidarity with the Palestinians, writes EI co-founder Ali Abunimah, would involve a total reversal of its current pro-Israeli approach. 

Trócaire seeks clarity from the Irish Government on aid to the Palestinian Authority

23 April 2006


Trócaire has written to the Department of Foreign Affairs to seek clarity on the Irish Government’s position with regard to the suspension of funding to the Palestinian Authority. It follows the European Union’s recent threat to freeze direct assistance to the Authority at a meeting of EU Foreign Ministers in Luxembourg on 10 April. The European Council’s conclusions come at a time when Israel’s closure policies, particularly the restrictions on the movement of people and goods in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, are having a deep impact on social services and economic activity. 

Security Council warned of "dangerous deterioration" in Israeli-Palestinian conflict

24 April 2006


“We are witnessing a potentially dangerous deterioration of the situation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” Alvaro de Soto, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, told the Security Council in the monthly briefing on the issue. Israel has continued to “create facts on the ground” including settlement expansion and a route of the Barrier which deviates from the 1967 borders. The envoy warned that this raises “serious concerns” as to the possibility of achieving a viable and contiguous Palestinian State. “The first challenge is to stabilize the security environment, where the primary responsibility rests with the parties,” Mr. de Soto said. 

Review: "The Wall and the Checkpoints"

Maureen Clare Murphy 24 April 2006


In the near future, it would be worth doing a follow-up exhibition to The Wall and the Checkpoints, recently shown at the Darat al Funun in Amman, Jordan, which featured Palestinian artists’ work on that theme. To the individual fresh from the borders and checkpoints of the occupied Palestinian territories, the artwork already begs to be updated, for Israel’s grip there is becoming that more tight. Indeed, it is this timeliness that gives the work a sense of urgency. 

UN refugee report: Most protracted and largest of all refugee problems in the world remains unresolved

Arjan El Fassed and Laurie King 26 April 2006


As people return to former war zones, global numbers of refugees are falling. The most protracted and largest of all refugee problems in the world, however, remains unresolved, says UNHCR in a major report on refugees published on Wednesday. UNHCR’s report, “The State of the World’s Refugees: Human Displacement in the New Millennium,” examines the changing dynamics of displacement over the past half decade. In 2001, former UNHCR Commissioner Ruud Lubbers stated that it is neither morallly acceptable nor politically sustainable to ignore the plight of refugees who have been confined to small areas and a legacy of poverty for nearly four generations. 

Ehud Olmert's government accused of cynical maneuvering over "affirmative action" measures

21 April 2006


A fortnight before the elections, the Israeli government announced an “affirmative action” program to reverse discrimination against three groups - Arabs, Ethiopians and disabled people - in recruitment to the civil service.
The measures, announced on March 12 at the weekly cabinet meeting, will include creating 37 and a half jobs a year for the next three years in government ministries to be offered to Arab candidates “whenever possible”. A similar number of existing jobs in the various ministries will be made available to Arab candidates if vacancies arise. 

Land Day protests highlight Israel's continuing attempts at ethnic cleansing

21 April 2006


On 30 March, Palestinians across the Middle East staged demonstrations marking the 30th Land Day. Protests inside Israel have especial poignancy as the tragic event that Land Day commemorates occurred inside Israel, in the Galilee. In March 1976, the Israeli government under Yitzhak Rabin prepared to confiscate a swath of Arab farming land, following decades of similar expropriations, as part of renewed attempts at Judaising the Galilee (making it “more Jewish”). 

Extent of planned attack on Nazareth's Basilica of the Annunciation emerges weeks later

21 April 2006


Some weeks after the event was downplayed by the Israeli media, it was confirmed by police investigations that an attempt by an Israeli family to set off a large explosion in one of the Holy Land’s most sacred Christian sites, the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, had only narrowly been averted. After entering the church, the couple took up position in one corner while their daughter, Odelia, poured petrol on and around them. They then let off the sound bombs to terrify the congregation inside. When a church official tried to approach them, they doused him too in petrol and tried to set him on fire. 

The real meaning of deporting Hamas members of parliament

Jonathan Cook 21 April 2006


The policy of “hitnatkut”, or unilateral disengagement, developed by Ariel Sharon needed a swift facelift following the withdrawal of settlers from Gaza last year. And Israel’s prime minister-designate, Ehud Olmert, has found it in the related concept of “hitkansut”, variously translated as “convergence”, “consolidation” and “ingathering”. So convergence is usefully, and misleadingly, supplanting disengagement. Olmert’s consolidation, it is becoming clear, will embrace Palestinians too.