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New Bush initiative met with skepticism

Jim Lobe 17 July 2007


WASHINGTON, 16 July (IPS) - A major policy address Monday by US President George W. Bush promoting a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine has been greeted with considerable skepticism by Middle East specialists here. Most analysts said Bush’s speech — including his pledge to provide some 190 million dollars to support Palestine Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas and convene a regional conference to support renewed Israeli-Palestinian peace talks — was too little, too late and included too many conditions to rally strong Palestinian or Arab support. 

Lebanon's bloody summer

Mohamad Bazzi 23 July 2007


This is the state of Lebanon today: deep sectarian anger that could boil over at any moment. In mixed Beirut neighborhoods, tensions rise between Sunnis and Shiites after each bombing. Tempers flare, small fights get out of hand, people start calling their friends and relatives to come in from other areas to help them and eventually the police have to step in. (A Shiite friend who lives in a mainly Sunni neighborhood told me that for several days after Eido’s killing, he found a broken egg each morning on his car.) And there’s no shortage of bombings to stoke tensions. 

Cairo changes tack on Gaza

Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani 16 July 2007


CAIRO, 14 July (IPS) - In the immediate wake of last month’s takeover of the Gaza Strip by Palestinian resistance faction Hamas, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak condemned the action, describing it as “the overthrow of Palestinian legitimacy.” Since then, however, Cairo appears to have tempered its position, reiterating the need for peaceful dialogue between Hamas and its US-backed rival Fatah. 

Death of detainee prompts calls for investigation

16 July 2007


Forty-five-year-old Waleed Salman Abu Dalfa died yesterday, 15 July 2007, while being held in custody at the former Intelligence Headquarters in the al-Mashtal area east of Gaza City. The facility, which was recently converted into a detention centre, is currently run and supervised by Hamas’ military wing — Ezadin al-Qassam Brigades. According to investigations carried out by Al Mezan, Al-Haq and Al Dameer, Waleed and his brother, Khalil, were arrested at their home in Gaza City on Monday, 9 July 2007. 

Volvo: Evading corporate responsibility

Adri Nieuwhof 16 July 2007


The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre in London published on its website a link to my article Volvo: Symbol of safety or human rights abuses?,” and asked the company to respond. The article highlights the use of Volvo construction machinery by the Israeli military as a tool in the occupation, which is the reason behind recent calls for economic pressure on Volvo. Mr. M. Wikforss, Vice President of Media Relations & Corporate News of Volvo Group wrote a letter in response, which is also published on the Resource Centre’s website. In this article I react to Volvo’s arguments. 

A confined space

Marcy Newman Beirut 19 July 2007


It’s difficult for me to live in Lebanon and not be conscious of space and time. The space around me when I’m in an enclosed space like a refugee camp or facing the openness of the Mediterranean Sea along the Corniche or examining the changed landscape of Beirut peppered among the high-rise skyscrapers and bullet-pocked buildings from the Civil War. Those scars on the buildings in Beirut are as ever present whether one is in the city or in a refugee camp, some places more ravaged than others. 

Basic needs reaching Gaza but economy near collapse

13 July 2007


JERUSALEM, 12 July 2007 (IRIN) - While humanitarian aid flows into the Gaza Strip are meeting most of the basic needs of the Palestinians, industries are unable to export their goods. This has lead to mass layoffs and unemployment in the already impoverished enclave. Businessmen in Gaza speak of over 30,000 layoffs as a result of the lockdown on the Gaza Strip initiated after fighting between the Islamist group Hamas and Fatah last month, which ended when the former seized control over the strip. 

Audio: Crossing the Line interviews witness to killings of Palestinians by Lebanese Army

13 July 2007


This week on Crossing the Line, host Chris Brown continues to focus on the ongoing crisis in the Palestine refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared located in northern Lebanon. This week Brown speaks with activist Caoimhe Butterly who is in Lebanon working with Palestinians who have been forced from their homes in Nahr al-Bared because of the fighting between the Lebanese Army and militants from Fatah al-Islam. Butterly speaks about an event she witnessed where two Palestinians were killed and 27 injured when the Lebanese Army opened fire on a non-violent protest organized by Nahr al-Bared residents wishing to return to their homes. 

Nahr al-Bared residents flee ahead of expected final assault

11 July 2007


BEIRUT, 11 July 2007 (IRIN) - Up to 150 people from the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon fled on 11 July, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Witnesses said the army was preparing a final assault on the Fatah al-Islam militants holed up inside. ICRC spokeswoman Virginia de la Guardia said between 140 and 150 people, mostly men, had left the camp during a lull in fighting early in the day. By afternoon, the army had resumed heavy bombardment of positions suspected to be held by the al-Qaeda-inspired Islamist militants. 

Toward a Palestinian-led rebuilding

Osamah Khalil 16 July 2007


As Middle East envoy of “the Quartet,” Tony Blair, the former British Prime Minister, has been charged with helping to “build up” Palestinian institutions. It is a cruel irony that one of the handmaidens of the destruction of those very institutions is now being dispatched with the portfolio of resurrecting them. Yet, this should not come as a surprise. In spite of Blair’s passionate rhetoric to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict during his decade of rule, he joined Washington in actively subverting Palestinian institutions and their hopes for self-determination.