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The Peace Cycle 2004: London-Jerusalem Bike Ride

15 December 2003


The main aim of this event is to raise awareness of the plight of the Palestinian people due to the continuing Israeli occupation of Palestinian land, which is denying peace and security to all the people of the region. The ride will start in London (probably Trafalgar Square) on either 7th or 14th August 2004. It is intended that the start will coincide with a big rally for Palestine, to be organised with the support of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, The Friends of Al-Aqsa and other pro-Palestinian groups. As much media coverage as possible will be arranged at the start, with high profile supporters in attendance. 

Geneva Accord: Relapse to Structural Discord for Beilin "Absolutely Kosher."

Brock L. Bevan 15 December 2003


Not quite a deus ex machina, the Geneva Accord demonstrates the manifest inability of elements within both the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Israeli ‘Left’ to fight for a just resolution to the over 100 year Zionist enterprise in Palestine. Palestinians who desire to negotiate with Israeli politicians face an intractable problem. All Israeli officials who are capable of negotiating (i.e., who are elected to the position of Prime Minister) are ardent Zionists. Yossi Beilin, the main Israeli proponent of the Geneva Accord, worries about the demographic growth of the Palestinian community relative to that of the Jewish Israelis. Brock Bevan comments. 

Broken Crystal

Lora Gordon Rafah, Gaza Strip 8 December 2003


There are no prayer mats to be found in this empty border apartment, only years of sand accumulated on the empty floors. A chandelier’s broken crystals spread in wide sunrays in the salon from the underground explosion some few meters away a few weeks ago — the army blowing up the imagined tunnels of its dream, those phantoms. Everyone knows they don’t exist on this street, which has meticulously rid itself of armed resistance and smugglers. Still, the army blow up dirt meters below the ground many times a week just next to the border homes, shattering their windows and shaking their foundations. Laura Gordon writes from Rafah. 

Deir Ballut Camp against the Wall

15 December 2003


A group of Palestinian, international, and Israeli activists have chosen the village of Deir Ballut, in the Salfit Governorate, as the site for the next round of activities in opposition to Israel’s continued building of Phase II of the Apartheid Wall. Building on the lessons of the successful Mas’ha camp, which brought enormous international attention to the political motives behind the wall, these activists will create a two-week continual presence on their land that is threatened by the building of the wall. The International Womens’ Peace Service report on the activities of the villagers of Deir Ballut. 

The blogging war

Alan D. Abbey 23 August 2002

Arjan El Fassed, 28, is a Dutch-Palestinian resident of Ar-Ram, a Ramallah suburb, who has recently published op-ed pieces in the Philadelphia Inquirer and Newsday. “TalG” is the online name of a 30-something resident of Jerusalem’s Katamon neighborhood who has been quoted in recent articles in the Christian Science Monitor, as well as numerous Web sites. Their politics couldn’t be more different. What they have in common is they are both “bloggers,” writers of online diaries known as “blogs.” 

Virtual war

Hannah Brown 27 September 2003

There are many sites out there that give a Palestinian perspective of the news, but one of the most elaborate is the Electronic Intifada. Many other URLs for Web sites that no longer exist, such as the Palestinian Authority’s old Web site, now take you directly to this site. EI, as it calls itself, is very professional, user-friendly and well written. It does collect news from a wide variety of sources, including (although not usually) the Post. 

Nablus bullets ricochet in Hartford

Elliot Jager 1 November 2002

The obituary was placed anonymously by Gale Courey Toensing, 56, of Canaan, wife of the chairman of the Connecticut board of education, Craig Toensing. What motivated Toensing, an Arab-American, to pay $ 300 for the notice was a posting by Amer Abdelhadi “writing from Nablus, occupied Palestine” on a Web site called Electronic Intifada Diaries. “The reason I did it was so people would know what’s going on there,” Toensing told the Courant after her involvement became public. 

Is Abbas really a man of peace?

11 May 2003

Ironically, while many Israeli Jews are suspicious of Abbas, so are many Palestinians. Writing in The Electronic Intifada in March, Ali Abunimah described Abbas as “widely perceived among Palestinians themselves as one of the most notoriously corrupt individuals in the Palestinian Authority,” adding he is “deeply mistrusted among Palestinians for his authorship, along with senior Israelis, of various ‘peace plans’ that relinquish fundamental Palestinian rights and maintain the occupation intact, albeit under another name.” 

Edward Said, leading Palestinian advocate, dead at 67

25 September 2003

Edward Said’s death caused an outpouring of tributes around the world, including the Electronic Intifada online, which wrote Said had “maintained his relentless engagement with people, culture, and politics all over the world, even in the last weeks of his decade- long struggle against illness”. His supporters said he was often “the sole and most effective advocate” for bringing truth about the Palestinian cause to the United States. 

Canada missing on world stage

Alan Kellogg 9 November 2003

Writing in The Electronic Intifada, Arjan El Fassed crunched the EU poll numbers and discovered that “the more highly educated respondents (66 per cent) are more likely to perceive Israel as a threat to world peace than those who ceased their studies at an earlier age. The results appear to be a mark of the widespread disapproval in Europe of the widespread violations of human rights employed by the government of Ariel Sharon.”