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PLC candidates protest against Jerusalem arrangements


PLC candidates in Jerusalem confirm that the Palestinian Election Process in terms of candidacy and voting is a sacred right for all Palestinians. The Candidates insist that the Legislative Council Elections should be held as scheduled, and should not be postponed due to disruption caused by the Israeli authorities. The Candidates commend the favorable position and statements of the International Community and Agencies in support of fair, free and transparent elections in occupied East Jerusalem. They request US and EU officials to boost up their initiatives that propose additional polling stations to allow for fair elections and support proposals to place their premises at the disposal of the CEC to be used as polling stations. 

Jerusalem voters mount pressure on PA and Israel to allow free elections


Israel has not officially pronounced its position to refuse or to allow the Palestinians of Occupied East Jerusalem, including ourselves, to participate in the upcoming Palestinian Legislative Council Elections in blatant violation of International law-specifically the right of self determination. Palestinians demand enough voting stations in Jerusalem. Since, Israel closed down registration stations in OEJ, and no voter’s registration lists were prepared, electors should vote using their Identification Cards. The Israeli Government should officially state that voting in Jerusalem does not affect the rights of the Palestinians in the City, and we request that the Post Offices cameras be shut off on Election day. 

Arrangements of Jerusalem vote draws criticism


Out of the 120,000 eligible Palestinian voters, only 5,767 are allowed to elect in East Jerusalem. Voters are not allowed to cast their vote in a secret ballot, but in an absentee ballot form. During the Presidential election on January 9, 2005, Israel disrupted the voting process, intimidated the electorate, forbade campaigning and referred to Palestinian voters as Post Office customers. All Palestinian efforts to renegotiate and coordinate for the upcoming legislative elections came to little avail. Since yesterday Israel allowed for conditional election campaigning. This is insufficient to lead to free, fair and transparent elections. 

WasPR Delegation Diary 6: Stuck at Eretz Crossing, Having Coffee with Kareem


Have I been blacklisted? What will happen when we are separated from the rest of the group? After fumbling through my bags on the terminal floor to find the gifts going into Gaza, I am flabbergasted, and a bit panicky. I am sent back to the desk to pick up a piece of paper so I can disembark on the Israeli side of the checkpoint. I feel nervous. I leave the desk and then return, thinking that the soldiers have not given me back my passport. They say they can’t find it, and after a cold sweat, I discover it in my shirt pocket, right where it belongs! Part of the art of living in this part of the world is being appropriately paranoid, without being excessively so. We all miss the mark at times. That goes for Israelis, Palestinians, and also human rights activists. 

Suffocation in isolated Bethlehem


Today is my mother’s birthday. She called my cellphone as my dear friend Areej and I were walking in the late afternoon shadow of the brand-new Apartheid Wall and “terminal” seperating Bethlehem from the rest of the goddamn world. To prove that i was there, i held the phone up to the wall and slapped it as hard as i could. The “terminal,” as it is being called, is a cattle-catch maze of turnstyles and x-ray machines, all enclosed in an enormous building of wire and steel and sniper weapons with crosshairs tuned like a fiddle. This is on the “Jerusalem” side of the wall, which one is able to access only after papers are shuffled, cars are inspected, and people are humiliated and intimidated, or perhaps beaten and arrested and tortured. 

The Arabs Are Coming! New York Arab American Comedy Festival heads for LA!


(New York, NY) - Organizers behind the groundbreaking New York Arab American Comedy Festival (NYAACF) announced that they will be taking their critically acclaimed Festival on the road for the first time ever as they travel to Los Angeles for three nights: Tuesday, January 24 - Thursday, January 26, 2006. This LA run follows the overwhelming success of the third annual NYAACF held in New York City from November 13-17, 2005 and which saw over one thousand people attend the five nights of sold out events. 

"Munich": Spielberg's thrilling crisis of conscience


“What’s going on in that head and that mind?” an American news commentator asks during a montage of media reports on the kidnapping of eleven Israeli athletes by the Palestinian Black September group. The astonished newsman is questioning the Palestinian hostage takers who end up murdering their eleven captors during Germany’s botched rescue attempt. But Munich’s director Steven Spielberg, for now, is more interested in what’s going on in the mind of the Israeli agent in charge of the state’s response to the Munich killings. However, whether we really get into the minds of the unlikely group of Israeli Mossad agents who are assembled by Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir to avenge the killings is debatable. It is mostly Spielberg’s moral dilemmas that we access, but not all the questions necessary to resolving his moral dilemma are posed. 

Hebron disengagement and violence begin


A mob of 30 female settler teenagers rampaged through Tel Rumeida on Thursday, 12 January. Ten of them wore black ski masks to hide their identities, and attacked everyone they encountered, including IDF soldiers and Israeli police officers, with spit, paint bombs and insults, and surrounded a human rights worker, violently stealing the battery of his camera. Six male settlers have begun attempts to illegally occupy an empty Palestinian home located on the path near a Palestinian girls’ school. Settlers entered the home on Tuesday, 10 January, cleaned out two rooms and broke a hole in a wall to access other rooms. 

Dogs - Reconnaissance tool of the Israeli occupation


The Israeli military is using dogs as a reconnaissance tool in its actions against Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including the Balata refugee camp in Nablus. The dogs’ actions are controlled remotely through sophisticated technology; commands are issued by way of a radio transmitter. This evokes much fear and deepens the alienation of Palestinians. The way Israel is using dogs is yet another dehumanising step, taking place under the “cover” of war. The dogs follow the orders of their military masters. In no way should the international community permit the Israeli government to escape its responsibility for these barbaric practices in enforcing its brutal occupation of the Palestinian territories. 

Modern Activism: Palo Dutch Concept Factory


Let’s face it. So far, Palestinian PR and communications were not entirely successful. Just ask any person in the streets of Amsterdam, London or New York what he or she knows and thinks of Palestinians and Palestine. Palestinians who have never travelled outside Palestine will be shocked. On the other hand, almost every visitor to Palestine will start crying after three or four days. Based on these thoughts, The Palo Dutch Concept Factory is looking for creative talents. The Palo Dutch Concept Factory, boarded by some very good and well known Dutch PR professional, is founded by Dutch columnist Justus van Oel. In February 2005 he visited Palestine. He has been deeply moved by what he saw and became motivated to contribute to advocate for Palestine.