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The Christmas Gate

Toine van Teeffelen Bethlehem, Palestine 2 January 2007


Looking back at Christmas in Bethlehem, I found there were too many absurdities to compensate for the familiar gay scenes of drum bands and parents with kids on their shoulders characteristic for the entry of the Patriarch and next day’s festivities around Nativity Square. Imagine, the Patriarch entering Bethlehem through the old Jerusalem-Hebron road, passing through a city quarter deadened by so many circling Walls that a talented photographer can make a surrealistic exhibition out of it. There is a legal term for what is happening to Bethlehem and several other Palestinian cities: urbicide, the killing of a city. 

Illegal Settlements and Constructive Naturalization

Louis Frankenthaler 2 January 2007


Approaching forty years, the Israeli Occupation of the Palestinian Territory has become an indelible stain, creating conditions for violence and significantly reducing the credibility of Israeli assertions of democracy. Recently, former United States President Jimmy Carter was has been widely chastised by so-called “friends of Israel” for associating the word apartheid with Israel’s Occupation regime in the Palestinian Territory (the West Bank and Gaza). The underlying and long term effects…of the Occupation have been to separate Palestinians from their homeland and to divide them internally while disinvesting them of any and all political and cultural rights. 

Agence France-Presse photographer kidnapped in Gaza City

2 January 2007


Every effort must be made to obtain the rapid release of Agence France-Presse photographer Jaime Razuri, a Peruvian national, who was kidnapped in Gaza City on 1 January 2007, RSF said, condemning a lack of political will on the part of the Palestinian authorities to put an end once and for all to the wave of criminal kidnappings of journalists in the Gaza Strip. “We realise that the chaotic situation prevailing in the Gaza Strip hampers law enforcement, but it is unacceptable that the government and the president do not take action to stop these kidnappings and punish those responsible, especially as the authorities are aware of their identities in most cases,” the press freedom organisation said. 

Fear Is a Powerful Stimulant (Part 3)

Bill Dienst Gaza, Palestine 31 December 2006


Our mobile health van drives just north of Beit Lahiya where we see a large crowd of people fleeing from the attack. We drive further north toward the village of Um Nasser, located right on the border with Israel, and right underneath the attack helicopters which are hovering about 1000 meters above us. We arrive at the village clinic. Because of the attack helicopters, patients are not showing up to be seen today. I am not as scared as I was on the first night at Hotel Al Deira, though we are in a more dangerous spot. I am strangely getting used to this. 

TV reporter, cameraman and driver held in connection with Hariri murder coverage

28 December 2006


Reporters Without Borders has condemned the continuing detention of New TV reporter Firas Hatoum, cameraman Abdel-Azim Khayat and driver Mohammed Barbar, who were arrested on 19 December 2006 for entering the apartment of a key prosecution witness in the February 2005 murder of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. New TV is a satellite news station based in Beirut. “These three New TV employees pose absolutely no threat and should not have to remain in prison while awaiting the trial,” the press freedom organisation said. 

Lebanon Destroyed, Destabilised, Desperate for Change

Dahr Jamail 31 December 2006


The 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah has left Lebanon heavily damaged and politically destabilised, with hopes for a better future only dimming as the New Year approaches. Before Jul. 12 this year when the war broke out, many people in this nation of four million situated north of Israel believed they were finally shaking away the last of the dust from the 15-year civil war 1975-90 which decimated the country. That civil war was fought between extreme Muslim and Christian groups. Lebanon is now believed to be about 60 percent Muslim. 

EI 2006: Year in Review

30 December 2006


It was the year of the first Palestinian parliamentary elections in a decade, humanitarian crisis, on top of an aid boycott, large scale military attacks on civilians in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon and, of course, the occupation. A year of often forgotten but unforgiving places like Beit Hanoun, Nablus, Rafah, Jenin and Qana, and those buzzowords “retaliation”, “ceasefire”, and “recognition”. Above all, it was three-hundred-and-sixty-five days on which every one of us will look back in our own special way. Remembering the highlights and low points of our own personal 2006, while perhaps pondering for a few minutes at least to consider the troubled world and times we live in. 

The Year of Living Dangerously in the Middle East

Adam Morrow 30 December 2006


CAIRO (IPS) - Following the execution of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, almost four years after the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq, the Middle East stands at a crossroads. The execution of Saddam may well create more problems than it could possibly solve. Despite the formation of a permanent national government, Iraq has been reduced to a state of chaos and sectarian violence. The execution is unlikely to bring stability to the country, or credibility to the government. That is after the situation in the country hit an all-time low this year. 

Childhood Interrupted, Again

Amahl Bishara Chicago, United States 30 December 2006


On Friday, December 8, six gunshots pierced the afternoon calm and six children started screaming. The cousins had been playing together with their usual gusto on the third-story veranda of their home in Aida Refugee Camp in the West Bank. A bullet tore through the slender body of one of them, a thirteen-year-old boy named Miras Al-Azzah. Several more bullets hit the stone house, and splinters of debris sliced into the bodies of the other children: Athal (10) and Rowaid (8), Miras’s younger sister and brother, and Maysan (12), Zaid (7), and Ansam (3). 

Fear is a Powerful Stimulant (Part 2)

Bill Dienst Gaza Strip 30 December 2006


Last night I again heard the roar of an F-16 fighter jet and then the low thud of air-launched missiles being fired into Beach Camp. I didn�t even bother to look out from my hotel room this time. Rafah, Jabalya and Beit Hanoun were also hit according to local news reports. This morning, we drive by Mr. Alaaki Aqeelan�s apartment in Beach Camp, which was hit last night. The third floor is a shambles and there is concrete rubble on the street. Otherwise, people in the area are going about their daily business.