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Refusal to surrender: "My Father was a Freedom Fighter" reviewed

Robin Yassin-Kassab 3 March 2010


Palestinian-American author, journalist and editor of the Palestine Chronicle, Ramzy Baroud’s latest book My Father was a Freedom Fighter is an antidote to the US, European and Israeli media’s decontextualization and dehumanization of Palestinians. It’s also an instant classic, one of the very best books to have examined the Palestinian tragedy. Robin Yassin-Kassab reviews for The Electronic Intifada. 

"I can't live without this place"

Nora Barrows-Friedman al-Walaja, West Bank 2 March 2010


“The Israeli police used a bullhorn and shouted ‘death to Arabs!’ toward me once,” Abed Rabbeh remembers, his hands wrapped around a small ceramic cup of tea. “Another time, they tried to tell me that my grandfather was born in Dheisheh refugee camp and that I have no roots in this land.” Nora Barrows-Friedman reports on one man’s struggle to stay on his West Bank land. 

Pushing the boundaries of identity: an interview with Jennifer Jajeh

Uda Olabarria Walker 5 March 2010


Jennifer Jajeh’s critically acclaimed one-woman show, I Heart Hamas and Other Things I am Afraid to Tell You, pulls no punches. From a Ramallah Convention in San Francisco in the 1980s, to casting lines in contemporary Los Angeles, to the front lines of the Israeli occupation and back, Jajeh navigates the complicated and often conflicted terrain of Palestinian identity. The Electronic Intifada contributor Uda Olabarria Walker interviews Jajeh about her work. 

Rights group: Israeli forces responsible for settlers' provocation at al-Aqsa

2 March 2010


In the early morning of Sunday, 28 February 2010, Israeli forces closed all roads leading to the al-Aqsa Mosque and established barriers at the entrances of the old city of Jerusalem, denying Palestinian civilians access to it. A few hours later, at least 200 Israeli police and security officers entered the yard of the al-Aqsa Mosque and besieged dozens of Palestinian worshippers. 

NY Times' Jerusalem property makes it protagonist in Palestine conflict

Ali Abunimah 2 March 2010


The New York Times’ Jerusalem bureau chief lives on property Israel seized from Palestinian refugees forced to leave their homes during the Nakba in 1948. EI’s Ali Abunimah reveals for the first time details of The Times’ acquisition and use of this property and the story of the Palestinian family whose home it was. What are the implications for its reporting of a case that places the “newspaper of record” at the heart of the Palestine conflict? 

Palestinians excluded from bulk of occupied West Bank

Mel Frykberg 2 March 2010


IDNA, occupied West Bank (IPS) - Israel’s illegal occupation and continued expropriation of Palestinian land in the West Bank has left 2.5 million Palestinians living there with effectively less than 40 percent of the territory. Muhammad al-Bedan, 55, a vegetable farmer with 14 children, struggles to support his family on just over $600 dollars a month. 

Land Day to be marked with Global BDS Day of Action

1 March 2010


The BDS National Committee (BNC) is calling on you to unite in your different capacities and struggles for a Global BDS Day of Action on 30 March 2010 in solidarity with the Palestinian people and for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. The BNC calls on people of conscience and their organizations around the globe to mobilize in creative, concrete and visible BDS actions to make this day a historic step in the movement against Israel’s apartheid, colonialism and occupation, for accountability of the oppressor and for the fulfillment of the rights and dignity of the Palestinian people. 

Boycott committee rejects French PM's smearing of movement

1 March 2010


The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee is deeply disturbed by the inaccurate and inflammatory insinuations made by French Prime Minister Francois Fillon during his speech at the annual dinner of the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions, 3 February 2010. Fillon’s remarks came in the context of expressing commitment to fighting anti-Semitism, implying that the boycott against Israeli products may somehow be anti-Semitic. 

Building international solidarity during Israeli Apartheid Week

Ilaria Giglioli 28 February 2010


Six years since its launch at the University of Toronto, Israeli Apartheid Week is taking place in more than 40 cities in five continents, and is a key event in the yearly calendar of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, launched by more than 170 Palestinian civil society organizations on 9 July 2005. Outside its North American and European centers, IAW is also taking place in South Africa, Palestine, Lebanon and Australia. Ilaria Giglioli comments for The Electronic Intifada. 

Russell Tribunal aims to hold the international community to account

Frank Barat 28 February 2010


Today, the first session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine (RTP) will be held in Barcelona. The RTP is a peoples’ tribunal focusing not on Israel’s obligations under international humanitarian law such as the Fourth Geneva Convention, but on the obligations of the international community of signatory states which sustain and enable Israel’s continuous violations of international law. Frank Barat comments for The Electronic Intifada.