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Film Review: The Chicago Palestine Film Festival's Evening of Shorts

Maymanah Farhat 11 May 2006


Rina Khoury’s West…East, is a nine minute narrative film about the Palestinian catastrophe that is told through the journey of a blind woman and her son, amidst an ambiguous landscape. Enas Muthaffar’s East…West is a sixteen minute documentary film that chronicles her family’s expulsion from their home as the apartheid wall encroaches nearby and threatens to segregate them from their community. Both films were shown in conjunction with two short films by Annemarie Jacir, Some Crumbs for the Birds and An Explanation (and then burn the ashes). 

Israeli party leader Avigdor Lieberman calls for Arab MKs to be executed

11 May 2006


Avigdor Lieberman, the leader of the far-right Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home) party, has twice called in less than a week for Arabs MKs to be put on trial for treason and executed if found guilty. Lieberman, who surprised observers by winning 11 seats in the March elections, was recently courted by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for a seat in his new cabinet. On 8 May, Lieberman presented a speech to the Knesset in which he proposed that any Arab politicians who were disloyal to the state should be punished. He added: “How is it that no Arab MK sings the national anthem or raises the flag on Independence Day?” 

Poll shows 62% of Israelis favour emigration of Arab citizens

11 May 2006


In its latest poll, the Israel Democracy Institute found that 62 per cent of Israelis support the government encouraging the country’s more than one million Arab citizens to emigrate. The Democracy Index survey, published on 9 May, contrasts with another recent poll, by the Geocartography Institute, which found that 40 per cent of Israelis favoured the emigration of Arab citizens. Recent polls have shown that, while on average 40 per cent of Israelis want Arab citizens forced to leave the country, that figure rises close to 60 per cent when respondents are asked, more ambiguously, if they want the Arab population “encouraged” to emigrate. 

Election Backlash: Iraq, Palestine and Israel

Roni Ben Efrat 10 May 2006


The phrase “democratic elections” can be misleading in its positive connotation, especially when the countries where the elections take place are embroiled in conflict. In the Middle East, during the past six months, we have witnessed three sets of elections. Each has further entangled an already complex situation. There were the Iraqi elections in December 2005, then the January 2006 elections for the Palestinian Authority (PA), and, in March, the Israeli elections. In the first two instances, the voting took place during or just after a bloody war; the elections aspired to usher in a new era of conflict resolution. 

Palestinian Laborers on the Israeli Separation Wall

Dania H. Yousef 10 May 2006


As the political and military conflict between Palestinians and Israelis wages on, it is the average citizen who has been besieged by harsh realities that have made survival all too difficult. One faction of people who have been left to clamor for economic endurance is the Palestinian laborers. The hardships faced under occupation, systemic closures, the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) history of corruption, and lack of employment opportunities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) have led many to seek employment on the Israeli Separation Wall. 

All Eyes on Jerusalem as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Allied Groups Prepare for WorldPride 2006

10 May 2006


8 May 2006, Jerusalem - WorldPride, a week-long international lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) event, will be held in the Holy City August 6-12, 2006. Jerusalem Open House, lead organizer of Jerusalem WorldPride, will collaborate with thousands of activists and organizers from around the globe for a week of discussion, camaraderie and community. Major events include an Multifaith LGBT Clergy Conference, a Pride March and outdoor festival, Human Rights Day, LGBT Health Day, an International LGBT Youth conference, an LGBT Film Festival, and the Keshet Gaava annual conference. 

Poverty in the Gaza Strip

10 May 2006


The conditions in the OPT has exacerbated the humanitarian situation for Palestinian civilians. Unemployment and poverty rates have increased dramatically. The rate of unemployment is 34% in the OPT as a whole and 44% in the Gaza Strip. This rate rises to 55% during times of complete closure imposed by Israeli Occupation Forces. Likewise, the poverty rate in the OPT is nearly 50%, with the Gaza Strip rate at approximately 70%. This in turn has impacted the per capita income, which decreased by 32% over the past three years, and is actually 40% lower today than it was three years ago. On the economic front, the gross national product decreased to dangerous levels, threatening the agricultural, industrial, commerce, transportation and tourism sectors. 

Helping Israel kill Palestinians

Ali Abunimah 10 May 2006


“Suppose I were to leave my office here in Chicago and walk the short distance to the kidney dialysis unit down the road and pull out the tubes to which four elderly patients were attached, making them seriously ill or killing them.” EI co-founder Ali Abunimah argues that this, effectively, is what the so-called international community is doing to Palestinians by cutting off aid in an attempt to blackmail Hamas into changing its policies. Reports from hospitals in Gaza say that at least four people have died due to lack of medicine due to Israeli closures and the EU aid cut off. 

At UN session, Middle East diplomatic Quartet endorses direct aid to Palestinians

10 May 2006


With donors still balking at funding a Hamas-led Palestinian Government that has yet to renounce violence, and with conditions in the West Bank and Gaza deteriorating, key international partners in the Middle East peace process meeting at the United Nations today endorsed a temporary mechanism to funnel assistance directly to the Palestinian people. The move came after senior officials of the diplomatic Quartet – the UN, European Union (EU), Russia and the United States – held daylong consultations hosted by Secretary-General Kofi Annan, including a meeting with the foreign ministers of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. 

Palestinians allowed into Syria after two months on the Iraq-Jordan border

9 May 2006


A total of 244 Palestinians, including more than 100 women and children, stranded at the Iraq-Jordan border for the past two months were allowed into Syria on Tuesday. The group consists of 181 Palestinians who left the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, in March fleeing death threats, intimidation and kidnapping. They were subsequently joined by additional families escaping the city. On April 22, the Syrian Government announced that it would welcome the stranded group into Syria, under the auspices of UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which takes care of Palestinian refugees in the Near East. Arrangements for the transfer took two weeks given the security situation in Iraq and other formalities.