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Echoes of Ireland in Palestine: a review of Ken Loach's new film

Ali Abunimah 29 September 2006


Watching The Wind That Shakes the Barley, Ken Loach’s new feature film set mainly during the Irish Civil War in the early 1920’s, it is impossible not to make comparisons with contemporary events. Indeed Loach, whose film won the Palme D’Or at Cannes, has been quite explicit about his own view that the film is not merely an examination of the past, but a comment on the times we live in. Loach also recently announced his support for the call by Palestinian film-makers, artists and others to boycott state sponsored Israeli cultural institutions and acknowledged that “Palestinians are driven to call for this boycott after forty years of the occupation of their land, destruction of their homes and the kidnapping and murder of their civilians.” 

UNHCR links with social development centres to help Lebanese IDPs

Annette Rehrl 28 September 2006


World attention may have shifted away from Lebanon, but many people continue to suffer from the recent conflict - including hundreds of displaced people in Beirut’s crowded Hai Al Sullam area. Before the five-week war, the southern suburb’s 275,000 permanent residents - mostly Shia Muslims and poor - lived cheek by jowl with migrants and Iraqi refugees and asylum seekers. They have since been joined by hundreds of displaced Lebanese, whose houses in neighbouring districts were destroyed by Israeli fire or who fled from the south to stay with families in the capital until it is safe to return. Uncertainty among the internally displaced people (IDPs) is high. 

UN human rights chief to visit Occupied Palestinian territories, Israel

28 September 2006


United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour briefed the Human Rights Council today on the worldwide work of her Office, voicing concern at the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan and announcing that she would soon visit Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Turning to the Palestinian Territories (OPT), she stressed that only a political solution “will bring an end to the loss of life, immense suffering and hardship.” Her forthcoming visit will allow her to conduct a first-hand assessment of the situation. 

Lebanon is recovering quickly from recent conflict between Israel and Hizbollah - UN

28 September 2006


Lebanon is making speedy progress towards recovery after the destructive conflict between Israel and Hizbollah this summer and humanitarian agencies are preparing to close down or transfer their activities to relevant Government authorities or development agencies, the United Nations officials reported today. As early as tomorrow the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) plans to hand over of the role of coordinating international activities in southern Lebanon to the UN Development Programme (UNDP). The official end of humanitarian operations is scheduled for 24 October, according to OCHA’s latest update. 

200,000 remain displaced

27 September 2006


Fourteen people have been killed and 90 injured from all types of unexploded ordnance in Lebanon from 14 August until 19 September. Of these totals, children (6 years to 18 years of age) accounted for two of the fatalities and 32 of the injuries, according to Lebanon’s National Demining Office. All the fatalities and most of the injuries resulted from cluster munitions. According to UNHCR, some 200,000 people remain displaced because of the level of destruction in their villages, and because of the UXOs and cluster sub-munitions which contaminate their houses and hometowns. 

Depression increasing due to conflict and poverty

28 September 2006


A survey by a West Bank research company has revealed that the level of “severe depression” in the population of the Palestinian territory had increased by 21 percent over the past year to 77 percent. The survey, conducted by Near East Consulting company, questioned residents of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem on their general state of being. Much higher levels of depression were found in respondents living in extreme poverty, where the figure stands at 83 percent. Only 13 percent of respondents in the oPt said they were “very content”, a decline of 12 percent from 2005. 

Bedouin families denied water rights in unrecognized villages

28 September 2006


On 13 September 2006, the Haifa District Court (sitting as a Water Tribunal) rejected an appeal filed by Adalah on behalf of 767 Palestinian Bedouin citizens of Israel living in unrecognized villages in the Naqab (Negev), demanding access to sources of clean drinking water. Adalah Attorney Marwan Dalal submitted the appeal against prior decisions of the Water Commissioner, who had also denied these requests. Adalah argued in the appeal, filed on 20 April 2005, that Arab Bedouin living in the unrecognized villages in the south possess the basic human right to water and health, which must be granted by the state in order to guarantee the constitutional right to dignity. 

Palestinian agricultural losses top US $1 billion

28 September 2006


An ongoing economic boycott and intermittent border closures have created humanitarian problems for Gaza’s residents, including a deteriorating agricultural sector, the United Nations and the Palestinian Authority (PA) said. The PA’s Minister of Agriculture, Mohammed al-Agha, told IRIN that “Israel’s security measures had cost Palestinian farmers thousands of acres of farmland and nearly US $1.2 billion since the start of the second intifada [Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation] in September 2000.” Israel says it was necessary to clear land to prevent cross-border terrorist attacks. 

UNRWA Commissioner General calls for action to ease plight of Palestine refugees

28 September 2006


Commissioner General of UNRWA Karen Koning AbuZayd has called for action to ease the plight of Palestine refugees. Speaking to delegates participating in UNRWA’s Advisory Commission meeting, which opened in Amman this morning, Ms. AbuZayd appealed to concerned actors to address the causes of conflict. “The political front is where we need your leadership”, the Commissioner General told the meeting. “I see my role as one of informing political leaders of the facts on the ground and of encouraging action that will ease the plight of the refugees”, said AbuZayd, expressing hope that a unity government in Palestine will become a reality, thus paving the way for revitalizing the peace process. 

Australian journalist's new book takes heat for posing "My Israel Question"

Amal Awad 27 September 2006


Sydney-based journalist and author Antony Loewenstein is used to controversy. On many occasions he has told of how his critical assessment of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as a Jew has left him a pariah in family and social circles. This is unlikely to change anytime soon given that he spent the last couple of years penning the newly released My Israel Question, a self-critical consideration of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in a particularly Australian context. Loewenstein comes from “a liberal Jewish family” with parents he describes as once having been “unthinking Zionists”, who he later realised were simply uninformed because of their reliance on Jewish and mainstream press for their understanding of the conflict.