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Book Review: The Unmasking of the Jewish and Democratic State

Raymond Deane 12 June 2006


Jonathan Cook’s new book “Blood and Religion: The Unmasking of the Jewish and Democratic State” focuses attention on the descendants of Palestinians who managed to remain in “sovereign” Israel during the ethnic cleansing of 1948. In this book review, EI contributor Raymond Deane says Cook meticulously analyzes the political basis for the daily discrimination exercised by the Jewish state against its Arab citizens. Cook lays bare the Zionist ideal of a state that is racially pure, and demonstrates how successive generations of Israeli politicians and soldiers - the former tending to be enlisted from the ranks of the latter - have sought to bring about this regressive aim. 

Israeli human rights organizations: End killing of civilians

10 June 2006


Five Israeli human rights organizations demanded today in an urgent appeal to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense that they take immediate action to end the killing of Palestinian civilians in the Occupied Territories, and to eradicate the factors contributing to these killings. The organizations (B’Tselem, ACRI, PCATI, HaMoked and PHR-Israel) state that the killing of a family at the Gaza seashore on Friday (a father, mother and five children), apparently by a shell fired by Israeli soldiers, is a terrible addition to an already horrifying statistic: according to B’Tselem data, since the onset of the second Intifada, 3,431 Palestinians in the Occupied Territories have been killed by Israeli security forces. 

ICRC steps up aid, calls for action to avert major humanitarian crisis

12 June 2006


The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is increasing by roughly a quarter its 2006 budget for its activities in Israel and the occupied and autonomous territories, bringing the overall figure to more than 52 million Swiss francs. The additional funding will provide the means to meet most acute needs of Palestinians affected by the current crisis, particularly in the faltering health-care sector. The ICRC will fund the purchase of medical supplies and cover salaries and running costs to help the Palestine Red Crescent Society operate four hospitals, 30 primary health-care centres and ambulance services. The ability to provide these services has been severely jeopardized by the fact that the Society no longer receives funding from the Palestinian Authority. 

Black Eyed Peas: Celebrating South African freedom while normalizing Israeli apartheid

Maureen Clare Murphy and Nigel Parry 12 June 2006

We are writing you regarding the Black Eyed Peas’ concert in Tel Aviv June 3rd during which you put on a spectacular performance to an effusive Israeli crowd. During the concert, Ms. Ferguson declared that Israel is “one of the most fun places on the planet.” Mr. Adams described the Peas’ time in Israel as “the best five days of our lives.” However, for your Palestinian fans living in the West Bank in Gaza, who are not allowed to travel to Tel Aviv to attend hip-hop shows, life under the thumb of Israeli occupation is anything but fun. 

Open Letter to the Capitol Steps

Kathleen Kern 11 June 2006


I have for years loved your clever musical routines. I first enjoyed you on NPR. My fiancé, shortly after we first began dating gave me a bunch of your CDs and actually took me to a New Year’s Eve performance in Rochester, NY, where I first saw you live. In more recent years, I have begun to wince whenever you refer to people of Middle Eastern origins, but since these slurs usually only appeared once in half hour radio shows, I let them slide. I left the theater that evening feeling deep grieved and angry. 

The case against torture: A personal account

Christopher Brown Palestine 11 June 2006


“While I lived in Palestine for three years, I had many conversations with both Israelis and Palestinians about the issue of torture. The conversations always varied and they never became dull. I heard from many Palestinians who had been tortured. I also heard from some Israelis and Palestinians who felt that certain forms of torture are useful. But every time I got into one of these conversations, I would think back to a certain time in my life that deeply affected my view on the subject.” Christopher Brown ponders Israel’s torture of Palestinians out of his own torture experiences at the hands of the apartheid government of South Africa. 

Film Review: "Yasmine's Song"

Maymanah Farhat 11 June 2006


Najwa Najjar’s short feature film, Yasmine’s Song, 2005, uses the story of Yasmine, a young Palestinian woman living in a small Palestinian village, to articulate the even greater difficulties Palestinians are facing as their land, villages, communities and families become increasingly divided by the wall. In her film, Najjar examines the stifling effects of the Israeli occupation on Palestinian life through the most universal subject, love. The narrative of the film revolves around the love story of Yasmine and Ziad (a young man from her village). 

Gaza: On the beach

Mona El-Farra 11 June 2006


Hoda, age 12, with her brothers and sisters, running happily, giggling, racing to reach the beach, her dad and mum busy carrying the picnic basket. It is Friday and Hoda’s family, like other Palestinians, were trying to enjoy a little fun. Suddenly, the moment shattered. An Israeli gunship suddenly fired at random against the beach, while army tanks fired artillery shells and Apache helicopters crossed the sky. 40 civilians were injured, 10 killed. I watched Hoda on the local TV, shocked, yelling, shouting, crying, “ya baba ya baba!” (“Dad, Dad!”). 

Black Weekend, Bloody Mud, and White Sand

Sami Abu Salem 11 June 2006


The tears have not yet left the innocent face of one astonished girl, Huda Ghalia, 12, who lost 7 members of her family yesterday, while they enjoyed their weekend at the shore in the town of Beit Lahia, north of Gaza. Huda and her sisters and brothers were happily enjoying their first weekend together without thinking of homework, as they recently completed their school exams. The Ghalia family went to a less populated area at the northern part of the beach, where white sand dunes and little wild plants were scattered. 

14 killed in Gaza in 24 hours

11 June 2006


Over the past 24 hours, the Gaza Strip was the target of a deadly escalation in Israeli attacks. Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) committed a number of war crimes in the Gaza Strip, which resulted in the killing of fourteen Palestinians and the injury of thirty-six others, including thirteen children. The most severe and inhumane of these crimes was the killing of seven members of the same family (father, mother and five children), who had been enjoying a day on the beach to the west of the town of Beit Lahya.