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Lebanon Bloggers Roundup: Academia, Agriculture and Construction

Moussa Bashir Lebanon 27 February 2007


Let us begin this week’s roundup of the Lebanese blogosphere with non-political posts. Let us start from a post about two Lebanese salads that are used as appetizers during meals. Skylark shows us (Fr) how to prepare Fattush and Tabboule, which are two delicious Lebanese salads that are usually found whenever Lebanese spread the table for a guest. Now that we have satisfied our taste buds, let us move to publishing and academia. Lazarus wrote at the Lebanese Blogger Forum about A Lost Summer: Postcards from Lebanon which is a book that compiles quotations, written during the summer war in Lebanon. 

Coming Home: Palestinian Cinema

Annemarie Jacir 27 February 2007


In the late 1960s, a group of young Arab women and men devoted to the struggle for Palestinian freedom chose to contribute to the resistance through filmmaking — recording their lives, hopes, and their fight for justice. Working in both fiction and documentary, they strived to tell the stories of Palestine and to create a new kind of cinema. Most were refugees, exiled from their homes in Palestine. And additionally there were fellow Arabs who stood in solidarity with them, devoting their work to a just cause. Their films screened across the Arab world and internationally but never in Palestine. 

UN Rapporteur compares Israel to Apartheid South Africa

27 February 2007


The UN’s Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, John Dugard, has issued a harshly critical report on Israel’s human rights record in regards to its treatment of the Palestinians in occupied Palestine. “The international community, speaking through the United Nations, has identified three regimes as inimical to human rights - foreign occupation, apartheid and colonialism,” Dugard says. In a report posted on the UN Human Rights Council’s website, due to be tabled this week, the South African law professor accuses Israeli regime of all three. 

Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination considers Israel

23 February 2007


Last week, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has considered the tenth to thirteenth periodic reports of Israel on its implementation of the provisions of the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination. In preliminary concluding observations, Morten Kjaerum, the Committee Expert who served as country Rapporteur for the report of Israel, welcomed the information provided by the Israeli delegation on affirmative action plans. However, relying on jurisprudence of the Supreme Court according to which the principle of equality was derived from the Basic Law on dignity was not sufficient. 

Traditional Egyptian Influence Begins to Decline

Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani 27 February 2007


CAIRO, Feb 27 (IPS) - The Mecca Agreement was hailed throughout the Arab world earlier this month for putting an end to Palestinian infighting, which had claimed scores of lives. But some local analysts see the deal — which was sponsored by Egypt’s diplomatic rival Saudi Arabia — as an indication of Cairo’s waning influence as the principal mediator in inter-Palestinian disputes. “Egypt’s diplomatic role has declined and has turned into that of a spectator,” Abdel-Halim Kandil, editor-in-chief of opposition weekly al-Karama told IPS. 

UN official urges world community to match 'courage' of Palestinian unity government

27 February 2007


The agreement to form a new Palestinian Unity Government challenges the international community to “match the courage and compromises” shown by the rival parties with “bold steps of its own,” a senior United Nations official said today. “The inter-factional fighting that raged across parts of Gaza posed a genuine threat to the existence of the Palestinian polity,” UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) Commissioner-General Karen Koning AbuZayd told a meeting of the agency’s Advisory Commission in Amman, Jordan. 

Settlers assault family as soldiers look on: Three testimonies

27 February 2007


Shopkeeper Dahud Jabber testifies to B’Tselem: “We heard stones hit the door of the grocery store. They [the settlers] threw stones for about an hour. They swore and shouted, “We want to slaughter Arabs.” A neighbor of mine, Tareq, said that they also threw stones at his house. They did all this with Israeli soldiers next to them. We did not file a complaint with anyone. Who could we complain to? We had already complained and never got any results. Another neighbor, Sufyan, told me that settlers broke into his house the same night and assaulted his family.” 

How to Live with Hunger

Ran HaCohen 27 February 2007


When I was a child, a popular argument in favor of the Israeli “liberation,” i.e., occupation, of the Palestinian territories was its being a blessing for the Palestinians themselves. “When we took it over,” I was told at school, “there were just a couple of cars in the entire West Bank. And look how many they have now!” Indeed, in the first decades of the Israeli occupation, the Palestinian standard of living was on the rise — not because of Israeli investments (Israel never invested a cent in Palestinian welfare or infrastructure), but mainly because Israel exploited the Palestinians as a cheap labor force, and even a cheap labor force gets paid. 

Three women killed in separate Gaza City crimes

27 February 2007


PCHR strongly condemns the killing of three women from Gaza City during the past 24 hours, in three separate crimes that took place under similar circumstances. The Centre calls upon the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), represented by the Attorney General, to seriously investigate these crimes, and bring the perpetrators to justice. PCHR’s preliminary investigation indicates that at approximately 22:15 on Monday, 26 February 2007, people found the body of a female in the Salatin area, west of Beit Lahia. 

Gaza: Non-Entity

Philip Rizk Gaza Strip, Palestine 26 February 2007


Leaving Gaza requires one to walk through a long tunnel made up of turnstiles, X-ray machines, gates, cages and passport controls. This past Wednesday I found the tunnel ending abruptly ahead of me, a crudely fashioned wall barred me from the usual way of entry — instead, an opening to the right lead to an unknown place. I turned the corner and found myself in an Orwellian passage leading to a huge building with four automatic doors that were shut tight. Along this fenced-in passageway runs an anachronistic, medieval ditch, beyond it a mound made of rubble and dirt of the once magnificently fruitful region of Beit Hanoun.