All Content

The Third Intifada

Sam Bahour 4 February 2006


Welcome to the third Palestinian intifada. The first was with stones, the second a mix between non-violent and more violent means, and this one via a ballot box. With Hamas’ landslide victory in the Palestinian elections breaking years of political stagnation, we are witnessing, right before our eyes, a chapter of history being made. In an attempt to make sense of the rapidly moving situation following the elections, I pose the following for consideration. Three ironies, three potential failures and three challenges. 

A Parliament of Prisoners

Toufic Haddad 4 February 2006


Most attention surrounding the 25 January 2006 election has focused upon the sweeping victory of Hamas at the polls, and with good reason. But there are other aspects to this year’s election that will also leave permanent impressions upon the future of Palestinian national activity. Among the 132 Palestinians who won seats in the Legislative Council, 15 of them are prisoners. 14 are imprisoned in Israeli jails, and one sits in a Palestinian administered jail in Jericho, with CIA and British Intelligence oversight. 11 of them are affiliated with Hamas, 3 with Fateh, and one with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. 

Politics, Language and the Palestinians

Saree Makdisi 3 February 2006


After Hamas’ election victory, the organization’s exiled leader Khaled Meshal wrote an article that was printed in several western newspapers. EI contributor Saree Makdisi says “what was refreshing about Meshal’s piece was his use of a defiant language of struggle—one appropriate to their desperate circumstances—rather than the meaningless, empty, bankrupt language all but handed to current and previous Palestinian leaders by a team of American and Israeli script-writers.” Makdisi writes that whether one disagrees with Hamas or not, the article reminds us of the importance of redefining the Palestinian struggle and the language used to shape it. 

We will not sell our people or principles for foreign aid

Khaled Meshal 31 January 2006


Khaled Mishal, the head of the Hamas political bureau writes that Palestinian voters chose his party “because of its pledge never to give up the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people and its promise to embark on a programme of reform.” “Our message to the US and EU governments is this”, he writes, “your attempt to force us to give up our principles or our struggle is in vain. Our people who gave thousands of martyrs, the millions of refugees who have waited for nearly 60 years to return home and our 9,000 political and war prisoners in Israeli jails have not made those sacrifices in order to settle for close to nothing.” 

Mock PLO elections in Europe

31 January 2006


Symbolic elections have been held in Europe which coincide with Palestine’s first parliamentary elections in a decade. Exiled Palestinian communities living in Paris and Brussels, organised mock elections to highlight the fact that a majority of Palestinians are denied the chance to elect national leaders. Ali Abunimah is co-founder of Electronic Intifada - an independent website which addresses the Israeli - Palestinian conflict. He’s speaking with SBS radio’s Natasha Cuculovski. 

Munich, or Making Baklava

Joseph Massad 3 February 2006


“The best baklava is made by the Arabs in Jaffa,” insists the Mossad case officer to his chief agent in charge of assassinating those Palestinians Israel claims planned the Munich operation of 1972. Besides being excellent baklava-makers, we learn little else in Steven Spielberg’s film “Munich” about Jaffa’s Palestinians, the majority of whom were pushed into the sea by Zionist forces in May 1948. Columbia University professor and EI contributor Joseph Massad examines Spielberg’s film and finds that it continues a tradition started by Otto Preminger’s 1960 film “Exodus,” and ultimately serves to justify rather than question Israeli terrorism and violence. 

Weekly report on human rights violations

3 February 2006


This week, Israeli forces killed three Palestinians, including a mentally-handicapped child. At least 13 Palestinian civilians, including a child were wounded. Israeli forces conducted 27 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank. Israeli forces raided Palestinian homes and 53 civilians, including six children were arrested. Israeli forces transformed six Palestinian homes into military outpost. Israel continues to impose a total siege on the occupied Palestinian territories. Israeli forces have imposed severe restrictions on movement. Despite international criticism, Israel continues to construct the Apartheid Wall. Israeli forces razed land in Hebron. Israeli settlers continue attacks on Palestinian civilians and property. Israeli forces demolished two Palestinian homes in Bethlehem. 

The End of a Political Fiction?

Adam Hanieh 2 February 2006


Hamas’s landslide victory in the January 25 elections for the 132-seat Palestinian Legislative Council is an unprecedented turning point for politics in both Palestine and the broader Middle East. Arguably for the first time since the establishment of Israel in 1948, an official administrative power in the West Bank and Gaza Strip has strong popular support and is not directly beholden to Israeli or Western interests. The Hamas victory helps to dispel the myths surrounding the negotiations of the last decade. Hamas’s victory expressed a political sentiment and desire for a real alternative to the Oslo straitjacket. The Hamas leadership clearly recognizes this and has shown little inclination to implement far-reaching social changes along religious lines. 

Where the Sidewalk Ends

Laila El-Haddad Gaza Strip 1 February 2006


Yesterday, after a trip around Bait Hanun, Gaza’s northern breadbasket, I headed to the Erez Crossing to give some journalist friends a lift. They were headed to Jerusalem, where they were based, and to where I am I unable to travel.I hadn’t been to Erez in a while, namely because there is no point. I am forbidden from entering the West Bank based on the arbitrary decision of some official in the Israeli security matrix. Or maybe not so arbitrary. Because obviously with a pen in one hand, a dirty diaper in the other, I am a very real and potent threat to the Israeli security establishment. 

The Perfect Antidote to the War on Terror

Nigel Parry 1 February 2006


Any Arab who has watched a few movies in their time knows that their people and Tinsel Town have a few things to work out. With no shortage of caricatures, stereotypes, and other negative portrayals flickering across cinema screens year after year, passing unnoticed in American society bar the reflexive condemnations by Arab American groups, it was high time someone did something proactive. The New York Arab-American Comedy Festival, which held its third annual event in Manhattan last November to sold out crowds, recently took the Festival on the road to the industry’s front door: Hollywood, Los Angeles.