All Content

The Case for Israel, a Critical Review

Feroze Sidhwa 15 June 2005


The Case for Israel lacks objectivity, to say the least. Dershowitz treats evidence in much the same way Joan Peters does in From Time Immemorial, and the results are similar. Like Peters, Dershowitz selects facts to suit his theses. He employs distortion and fabrication while contending elsewhere that he knows the evidence he presents is distorted and falsified. He misconstrues sources in a tendentious manner. He draws hard conclusions from tenuous evidence. He adduces evidence that in no way supports his claims, even omitting “inconvenient” portions of quotations without inserting ellipses. He quotes sources completely out of context. 

A better strategy for the Palestinian Authority

Hasan Abu Nimah 15 June 2005


In Palestinian-Israeli politics, Israel remembers that there are certain mutual understandings used to manage the troubled relationship only when Palestinians take actions that anger the Israelis. Only in such circumstances does Israel complain of threats to the roadmap, the Sharm El Sheikh understandings, or even the entire peace process. When the Palestinians do whatever they are asked, however, such understandings and frameworks suddenly cease to exist. EI contributor Hasan Abu Nimah looks at current Palestinian Authority strategy and considers alternatives. 

Conference Critiques Negotiation Tactics of Palestinians and Israelis

Evan Hays 13 June 2005


On June 7, 2005, the United States Institute for Peace held a conference entitled “How Israelis and Palestinians Negotiate: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of the Oslo Peace Process” that attempted to enunciate to the public a more in-depth understanding of the failure of the negotiations that took place at Camp David in the year 2000 and, more broadly, the Oslo peace process. Rather than simply reflecting on the issues that proved to be sticking points in the negotiations, the speakers attempted to evaluate the flaws that typified the negotiation styles of both Palestinians and Israelis, differences that dramatically flared up when they came together in at Camp David. 

Activists to protest Caterpillar in NYC on June 14th

13 June 2005


In recent weeks the Israeli government has announced plans to demolish 88 more Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem using Caterpillar bulldozers, as Israel continues to bulldoze Palestinian homes throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Simultaneously, Caterpillar executives will lead a June 14 workshop on Sustainable Development and Corporate Social Responsibility at a conference for international business leaders at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Given CAT’s continued provision of equipment for Israel’s destruction of Palestinian homes and property, CAT executives are the last people who should give advice to others on such issues. 

The myth of incitement in Palestinian textbooks

13 June 2005


There has been a flood of accusations for several years over the content of Palestinian textbooks — that the textbooks incite children to hatred and violence towards Israeli Jews, and fail to promote the values of peace, tolerance and coexistence. This claim has been widely accepted as a fact mostly in the United States and Israeli official circles. Such claims are based on reports by the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace (CMIP), a Jewish organization with links to extremist and racist Israeli groups that advocate settlement activities in the Palestinian territories, expulsion (transfer) of Palestinians from their homeland. 

Kofi Annan urges media to refrain from myths, hate propaganda in message to international media seminar

13 June 2005


Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, Shashi Tharoor, delivered a message from UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the International Media Seminar on Peace in the Middle East, “Reinvigorating the Peace Process: The Role of International and Regional Actors in Facilitating a Comprehensive, Just and Lasting Peace in the Middle East in Cairo. “The people of the Middle East are now approaching a number of important turning points,” he said. With help from their regional and international partners, they can prevent a slide back into conflict and confrontation. And with help from responsible media — media that refrain from myths, stereotypes and hate propaganda –- they can avoid inflaming an already volatile climate.” 

Israel recruits Palestinian children to collaborate

12 June 2005


In the occupied Palestinian territories, a collaborator is understood as any Palestinian who cooperates with the Israeli security forces. Recruiting Palestinians as collaborators is perceived in the OPT as part of Israel’s policy to maintain control over the territory and the Palestinian people. Most cases of collaboration are found in interrogation centers and prisons where detainees are put under extreme physical and mental pressure to collaborate. Palestinian children often find themselves under such pressure. The Israeli intelligence services continually seek to recruit children as informants. 

Hamas: EU, US want to talk

Khalid Amayreh 8 June 2005


Hamas says it is being approached by European representatives seeking dialogue on the resistance movement’s role in the Palestinian-Israeli peace process. Under heavy Israeli and American pressure, Hamas, including its political wing, was placed on the EU list of terrorist groups two years ago. The US had classified Hamas as a “terrorist group” several years earlier, citing resistance attacks, including suicide bombings, by Hamas’ military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, against Israeli civilian and military targets. However, the growing popularity of Hamas, which found expression in recent elections in the occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, has prompted European policy planners to have second thoughts. 

Palestinian rights group critical of Abbas' support for death penalty

12 June 2005


The Palestinian Authority has carried out four death sentences this morning in Gaza City. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights is gravely concerned about this development, the first executions since 2002, and reiterates that the death penalty constitutes a violation of the right to life. It is a cruel and inhumane punishment that does not serve to deter crimes. The rights group calls upon President Abbas again not to convert death sentences and the Palestinian Legislative Council to repeal legislation related to the death penalty. The PA carried out the death sentences handed down against four prisoners convicted of murder and other crimes between 1995 and 2000. 

Photostory: Gate Bethlehem

M. El Fassed-Vermeer 11 June 2005


Surrounded by Israel’s Wall on two sides and with many restricted roads and roadblocks, Bethlehem has become a prison. The illegal barrier cuts through several kilometers of Bethlehem. The Wall has already disrupted the lives of thousands of Palestinians who have been cut off from their lands and have been prevented from reaching other villages and population centers. To a visitor the Wall erected at the entrance of the city is the most visible manifestation of its physical separation from other towns and villages. For Palestinian residents of Bethlehem, the Wall is the latest of a series of restrictions that have been implemented over the past decade and which cut the historical road that connects Jerusalem to Bethlehem and Hebron in the south.