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In Gaza's darkness, life goes on

Rami Almeghari Gaza Strip 22 August 2007


On Tuesday, Gaza was plunged into complete isolation and darkness as the electricity was cut off. It was like being in the stone age; movement was paralyzed during the day and there was total blackout at night. When there is no power, there is also no water: most houses use electricity to pump water up to their roof tanks. Muhammad, six, and his little sister had to carry water bottles home because they had no household supply. EI’s correspondent in Gaza, Rami Almegari reports. 

Bush could have given Fatah that kiss of death

Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani 22 August 2007


CAIRO, 21 August (IPS) - Ever since the takeover of Gaza two months ago by Palestinian resistance faction Hamas, Washington and its allies have steadfastly supported the rival Fatah movement headed by Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas. But public support for Fatah, which has come to be seen by many as a stooge of Washington and Tel Aviv, has dropped off markedly. “Popular support for Abbas and his Fatah party has fallen for several reasons,” Essam al-Arian, a leading member of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood movement told IPS. “For one, Abbas seems prepared to give Israel all the concessions it wants without getting anything in return.” 

The king's pardon

Joe DeVoir Ramallah 21 August 2007


Throughout history there has been a misconception concerning the true nature and influence of power. Many of us recognize correctly that power comes from strength, but where we fail to capture it is in the recognition of its ultimate use. To most of us, power — especially within the context of occupation — is determined by one’s ability to inflict violence unilaterally and with impunity. However, this is wrong. Power, in its ultimate and perhaps most abusive form, is the ability to pardon. Anyone can kill but only the king can pardon — the acceptance of which by the pardoned is the recognition of the king and his power. 

Electricity cuts exacerbate dire situation in Gaza

20 August 2007


Gaza’s only power plant has completely ceased providing power after Israel’s four-day closure of the border crossing through which fuel supplies enter the Strip and the European Union’s freezing of funds. Gazans’ already hard living conditions are expected to rapidly aggravate without proper power supplies. Israel, which has full control of Gaza’s border crossings, has continued its policy of closure, a serious measure of collective punishment against Gaza. Since 2000, it tightened the closures, but completely sealed off the Strip in June and imposed unprecedented restrictions on the movement of people and goods. 

Bedouins demand improved access to health care

20 August 2007


BEERSHEBA, 20 August 2007 (IRIN) - A new legal petition to Israel’s High Court demands the state connect 11 primary health care clinics in the unrecognized Bedouin villages in the Negev desert to the main power grid in order to provide better health services. The clinics, which were established as a result of previous petitions, use generators, but only during opening hours. Afterwards, the electricity shuts off. 

Audio: Crossing the Line interviews journalist Nora Barrows-Friedman

21 August 2007


This week on Crossing The Line: Host Christopher Brown speaks with Crossing the Line correspondent Nora Barrows-Friedman about the ongoing lack of fair coverage concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Barrows-Friedman, a senior producer with Flashpoints Radio, also speaks about her work with Palestinian youth aiming to “become the media” and tell their own stories of struggle in occupied Palestine. 

Watching Gaza collapse

Yassmin Moor Rafah, Gaza Strip 20 August 2007


Today I went with my cousin’s wife and her children to Gaza’s social welfare office to pick up her monthly paycheck from the government. My cousin was killed last September by an Israeli sniper while he stood in front of his house. Overnight his children and wife became eligible to receive 375 NIS (a little less than $100) a month from the Palestinian government because their father was now a martyr. Yassmin Moor in Gaza writes that this is their third time coming to the office in the last month, because every time they go it’s closed. 

Audio: Islamic democracy and the "war on terror"

19 August 2007


Radio Tadamon! speaks with the Washington editor of Harpers Magazine, Ken Silverstein, who recently published an article entitled, “Parties of God: The Bush doctrine and the rise of Islamic democracy,” which examines the current democratic developments in the Middle East within the context of the US supported “War on Terror.” Silverstein discusses the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Hamas in Palestine and Hizballah in Lebanon as examples the growing role of Islamic movements in democratic political systems in the Middle East. 

Israelis airdrop an occupation

Simba Russeau 20 August 2007


BEIRUT, 17 August (IPS) - With an estimated one million unexploded land ordnances meaning lack of access to their lands, many farmers in southern Lebanon see cluster bombs as an Israeli “occupation.” An estimated 25 percent of cultivated land is now inaccessible in the south. Last summer, Israel pounded Lebanon with over four million cluster bombs and artillery shells that destroyed villages, displaced thousands and wrecked more than 70 percent of the southern economy. Financial losses to the livestock sector alone were estimated at nearly 22 million dollars. 

Al-Faraheen's victims of Israeli pretexts

Rami Almeghari al-Faraheen, Gaza Strip 17 August 2007


Surveillance cameras and watchtowers loom over more than 800 meters away from the scene of destruction left by Israeli army tanks and bulldozers following the latest Israeli invasion of the al-Faraheen area in Abbassan al-Kabeera town, to the east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. “Fifteen dunums [four acres] of tomatoes along with 400 meters of irrigation pipes were crushed by the Israeli tanks during the invasion into our area, where myself and two other partners make our living,” says Samir al-Naqa, a local farmer in the al-Faraheen area. EI correspondent Rami Almeghari interviews some of those affected by Israel’s latest campaign of destruction.