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Living the New Year's Raid on Ramallah

Dana Shalash Ramallah, Palestine 5 January 2007


I never thought I would be so happy to come back home. I am still disoriented and traumatized, and though I had taken pain killers, and coffee after coffee, I just can’t bring myself to sleep. Early this morning while walking in Ramallah, I took a road that brought awful memories into my head. Last year, I witnessed one of the Israeli forces’ raids in Ramallah. Though it was from a distance, it was a chilling experience to be totally surrounded by bullets and blood. I have just come back from Ramallah where together with my sister I was locked inside a building at Al Manara, Ramallah’s city center, for four hours. 

Israeli troops kill four in Ramallah raid

4 January 2007


Ma’an news agency photojournalist, Fadi Arouri, has been shot in the flank by Israeli military forces during an Israeli invasion of Ramallah. Fadi was photographing the incursion for Ma’an news. Two Palestinians were killed [editor’s note: later reports indicated four Palestinians were killed] during the incursion. Ma’an’s correspondent reports that one of those killed has been identified as Yousif Abdul-Qadir, 23, while the other remains anonymous. Israeli military vehicles invaded the central West Bank city of Ramallah shooting heavily. 

Federation of Journalists and Palestinians Join Forces in Call for Release of Kidnapped Photographer

4 January 2007


The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and journalists across the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza Strip today demanded the immediate release of Peruvian photographer Jaime Razuri, kidnapped in Gaza on Monday. “Free him now and stop this cat-and-mouse intimidation of journalists and media staff,” said Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary. The IFJ says kidnapping of journalists, which has been a feature of tactics used by political extremists, only damages the Palestinian cause. Razuri, a 50-year-old Peruvian national working for Agence France-Presse (AFP), was abducted by gunmen on 1 January as he was about to enter his office in Gaza. 

Two Civil Wars with Brakes On

Roni Ben Efrat 4 January 2007


The Israeli-Palestinian conflict was once the mother of all problems in the Middle East. Today it is one among many. For this demotion we may largely thank US President George W. Bush and his war in Iraq. Apart from splitting that unhappy country into Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish sectors, Bush’s war has changed the geopolitics of the region. The Iraq of Saddam Hussein used to be the area’s major power, but today it is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s Iran. Saddam was a secular dictator who represented Arab nationalism; Ahmadinejad represents Shiite fundamentalism — and his country, of course, isn’t Arab. 

Israeli Soldiers who Shot Unarmed Palestinian in Back not Indicted by Chief Military Prosecutor

3 January 2007


On the night of 13-14 October 2003, a unit of Israeli army soldiers opened fire near the Jewish settlement of Negohot in the West Bank (Hebron Region), killing Mr. Meteb al-Nebari, a 31-year-old Palestinian Bedouin citizen of Israel from Tel el-Sabe (Tel Sheva). Mr. al-Nebari was unarmed and did not constitute any threat to the soldiers, and, according to the General Security Services (GSS), had no record of prior security offenses. 

Why an academic boycott of Israel is necessary

Lawrence Davidson 3 January 2007


Let me begin by stating that any successful academic boycott imposed upon Israeli institutions of higher education will assuredly have an impact on the academic freedom of Israeli scholars and teachers, at least in terms of its expression beyond their national borders. Is this acceptable? After all, other teachers and scholars who obviously have a stake in academic freedom, will have to cooperate with the boycott if it is to have an impact. As one of those academics, my answer to this question is that it is not only acceptable but absolutely necessary. 

Support a Palestinian Civil Rights Movement

Rima Merriman 3 January 2007


Sometime in 2003, Condoleezza Rice declared to Reuters: “One of the really bad actors in the Middle East has just been deposed, and the president is not going to miss this opportunity” - meaning the opportunity to broker peace between the Palestinians and Israelis. But, as it turned out, not only did this promise remain unfulfilled, the “opportunity” of which Rice spoke did not even exist. The really bad actor has now been hanged and hastily buried in what appears like Wild West justice to many in the Arab world. All that was missing from the spectacle was the picnicking rabble come to watch the hanging for entertainment. 

The Manichean Middle East of Mark MacKinnon

Stefan Christoff and Dru Oja Jay 2 January 2007


When newspapers send correspondents afield to report on world events, the position is fraught with opportunity and responsibility. Opportunity to share meaningful insight into current events, and responsibility to accurately report on them. In many cases, unfortunately, other motivations prevail. For the owners and editors of the few papers that shell out for foreign correspondents, the opportunity to shape public opinion seems too tempting to pass up, even if it comes at the expense of insight and accuracy. The Globe and Mail’s Middle East correspondent Mark MacKinnon has been publishing dispatches on the ongoing political crisis in Lebanon regularly from Beirut. 

With the New Year, will Ha'aretz's op-ed page be any different?

Zachary Wales 3 January 2007


On New Year’s Day, notions of resolve, reform, or reflection come as no surprise on newspaper editorial pages. Similarly unsurprising are the op-eders that carry on with business as usual. Things were no different on Ha’aretz’s opinion page, which kept an even keel of New Yearisms. Rather untypical, however, was the limited role that honesty played in the mix. The most curious example was the lead editorial, — often viewed as any paper’s mouthpiece — entitled, “Our obligation to refugees, as refugees.” 

Truth at last, while breaking a U.S. taboo of criticizing Israel

George Bisharat 2 January 2007


Americans owe a debt to former President Jimmy Carter for speaking long hidden but vital truths. His book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid breaks the taboo barring criticism in the United States of Israel’s discriminatory treatment of Palestinians. Our government’s tacit acceptance of Israel’s unfair policies causes global hostility against us. Israel’s friends have attacked Carter, a Nobel laureate who has worked tirelessly for Middle East peace, even raising the specter of anti-Semitism.