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Doha Debates backs Palestinian refugees' right to return

29 March 2007


Should the Palestinians give up their right to return to their homeland after decades of misery and sufferings in refugee camps across the world? A huge majority of the participants at Qatar Foundation’s Doha Debates yesterday rejected the idea when they overwhelmingly defeated the motion that suggested Palestinians should give up their full right to return. Only 18.4 per cent of the participants voted for the motion. The debate was marked with the presence of two prominent Jewish personalities from Israel, opposing each other. Equally interesting was the presence of two Palestinians facing each other on the two sides of the panel. 

Palestinians: "We will continue to claim our land"

28 March 2007


On March 30th, as Palestinians in our homeland and the diaspora, we remember Land Day and strengthen our struggle for Land, Justice and Return. In 1976, 6 Palestinians were killed and a hundred injured by Israeli forces as Palestinians went on strike against a massive land confiscation scheme in the Galilee. More than 30 years later, we will be again out in the streets and in the fields confronting the Occupation in dozens of protests and demonstrations, uniting the people in villages and cities across the West Bank in a week of continuous mobilization. 

Class Struggle Until a Sectarian End

Joseph Samaha 28 March 2007


Karl Marx used to say that England was the country where class struggle will travel to its end. Can we say that Lebanon is the country where class struggle goes to its sectarian end? When observing the political spin of March 14th leaders and their media outlets in Lebanon it becomes clear that such fraudulent ideas are being directed toward the open sit-in in downtown Beirut. “Culture of death” is the key phrase for the downtown sit-in used by government leaders attempting to undermine all it represents. 

Film review: "Summer 2006, Palestine"

Shuruq Harb 28 March 2007


Summer 2006, Palestine — a crossover between film, video art, individual expression and a collective voice — is a unique experience in the Palestinian cultural scene. This collection of short films brings together 13 individual artists with different degrees of experience within the Palestinian film scene and other visual arts disciplines to convey the summer of 2006 in Palestine. The project is the result of an initiative led by several Palestinian filmmakers from the Palestinian Filmmakers’ Collective. 

United Nations aids victims of sewage spill in Gaza

28 March 2007


United Nations relief agencies are responding to the needs arising from the bursting of a sewage reservoir in an emergency filtration basin at the waste water treatment plant in Beit Lahia in Gaza. According to latest reports, waste flooding into the nearby Bedouin village of Um Al Nasser killed four people and injured 18, while 11 people remain missing. Ninety-six homes were destroyed or damaged. Between 250 and 300 families have been relocated to a temporary camp situated on higher ground between the Bedouin village and the former Israeli Nissanit settlement. 

Palestinian journalist's letter to Alan Johnston

Sami Abu Salem Gaza Strip, Palestine 28 March 2007


Dear Alan: From the depth of our hearts, I would like to say that we are really shocked and terribly sorry for what has been happening to you. Three years ago, the first time I met you at the French Cultural Centre when you were covering an art activity, I realized that you were the journalist the Palestinian people are in need of. The journalist who does not cover only bloodshed, violence and politics, but also knocks on all doors in Gaza: occupation, art, love, religion and all areas that show the entire world that we are human too. 

'Israel's right to exist': Is it a real issue?

Jeff Handmaker and Gentian Zyberi 28 March 2007


There are many aspects of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians in urgent need of legal scrutiny as part of a much-needed critical dialogue. One such issue is Israel’s claim towards Hamas to acknowledge that it has a ‘right to exist’. This claim has not only been uncritically taken on board by the Quartet. It has become one of the top conditions to be fulfilled by Hamas for receiving aid by the Quartet and other international donors. At the risk of stating the obvious, we argue that this position lacks any basis under international law and will serve no constructive political purpose in seeking to resolve the conflict. 

Um El-Naser Environmental Disaster Victims Increase to Five

28 March 2007


The victims who were killed in yesterday’s environmental disaster in Um El-Naser (Bedouin) village increased to five after rescue crews recovered the body of Fatima Habban Abu Safra (70) yesterday afternoon. The body was found under the rubble of her house that was flooded by sewage water. It is noted that earth barriers around a sewage pool that was constructed last September broke and flooded the village. The pool was constructed by a joint council of municipalities in the northern Gaza Strip. Rescue teams recovered four bodies in earlier rescue operations. All of them were drowned by the sewage flood. 

Environmental disaster in Gaza, Sewage basin collapses

27 March 2007


In the most serious environmental disaster to hit the northern Gaza Strip, earth barriers in the sewage disposal pools broke, killing four Palestinians and rendering hundreds of families homeless in the bedouin village of Um El-Naser. Many remain missing. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights calls upon the international community and the Palestinian Authority to provide emergency shelters for the victims. As a result, sewage water flooded from the pool flooded the village, and the effect was more devastating due to the fact that the pool’s elevation was higher than the village, giving the flood more power and destructive force. 

Human Rights Council calls for fact-finding missions to probe alleged Israeli abuses

27 March 2007


The United Nations Human Rights Council today adopted a resolution without a vote which called for two urgent fact-finding missions to be dispatched to the occupied Palestinian territory, voicing concern that previous attempts to investigate potential human rights abuses had been hindered by Israel. The Council noted with regret that Israel had not cooperated with two previous resolutions which dispatched the missions.