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Sharon coalition on borrowed time

Khalid Amayreh 21 January 2005


There are serious concerns in Israel that the new Likud-Labour coalition government may not survive intense pressure from the extreme right within Likud, Ariel Sharon’s own party. On Monday, 13 Likud lawmakers in the Knesset voted against the new coalition government, forcing the Israeli prime minister to rely on the centre-left Yahad and the Arab parties to bail him out from certain government collapse. According to an Israeli commentator, the split in Likud places the Sharon-Peres government in real jeopardy and might very well spell its end. 

No rest for Nablus during Eid celebrations

Ray Smith Nablus 21 January 2005


Optimism for a period of peace following the elections has been misguided. In Nablus, Israeli military aggression continues as usual. The army made a special effort for Eid celebrations. On 18 January at 9pm a large number of troops entered Nablus in unmarked vehicles and took up positions in the area. Soon after, a group of medics and internationals reached Old Najah Street near the Old City. More army also arrived, in about twenty military vehicles. If anyone approached the soldiers, the result was “access denied” at gunpoint. Israeli occupation forces blew up a house. Many neighbours had not been evacuated and found themselves amidst bursting windows. The explosion flattened the house completely, also causing severe damage to several of his neighbour’s homes. 

What "Peace" Really Means to Israelis

Avigail Abarbanel 20 January 2005


Two months ago I returned from a two-week family visit to Israel. Although I am an activist for Palestinian rights, I decided that this visit would be entirely private. Living for two weeks with my brother, his wife and their two little girls in their tiny apartment in a North Tel-Aviv suburb, gave me an opportunity to observe and see what daily life is like for Israelis at the moment. Israelis have always talked about peace, sung about it, made art and poetry about it as if it is something almost supernatural, some kind of a paradise that they yearn for but that has nothing to do with their everyday reality, and that they have no idea how to create. 

US must act to stop ethnic cleansing in Palestine

Priscilla Read 21 January 2005


The average American finds unfathomable the desperation that drives suicide bombers. Yet Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip is a recipe for producing violence. It robs Palestinians of their livelihood, their dignity, and their faith in the future. U.S. acquiescence in Israeli policies that render Palestinians’ lives untenable in order to force them off their land makes a mockery of Washington’s pretense at being an honest broker in this conflict. Across the Arab and Muslim world, suffering in the Occupied Territories provokes bitter hostility. 

Daily disruption in Balata: A four day overview

Ray Smith Balata refugee camp, Nablus 19 January 2005


The time of relative quiet that the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) initiated during the Palestinian Authority elections, in order to please international observers and media, is now definitely over. While before the army kept coming at night, the IOF now also causes trouble during the day. The main target of these daily IOF attacks on Nablus is, once more, the Balata Refugee Camp. With almost 30,000 inhabitants — the largest camp in the occupied West Bank — it is situated on the outskirts of the city. 

Behind Israel's official version of the news

Anna Weekes 20 January 2005


Two innocent Palestinians were killed by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) on 12 January 2005. Although they were the latest in a long line of Palestinian victims, and from a tiny village near Ramallah, they made headlines all over the world. They were the first Palestinians to be assassinated by the IOF since the election of Mahmoud Abbas, which had taken place just three days before. The so-called ‘period of restraint’ had come to an abrupt end with the killings. For this reason, the assassinations were portrayed by the commercial media as a necessary response to two violent militants who had opened fire at Israeli soldiers. However, eyewitnesses on the ground report an entirely different story. 

Israeli Judge Silences Jewish American Activist

16 January 2005


January 16, 2005 — An Israeli judge today refused to hear US Jewish lesbian activist Kate Raphael Bender’s appeal of her deportation. Judge Tal of the District Court, Tel Aviv, said he could not hear Raphael Bender’s case because her visa was no longer valid. Her visa expired yesterday, after five weeks in detention. Consulting an attorney friend present in the courtroom Raphael Bender accepted the judge’s deal to drop the appeal in exchange for the possibility to apply for her reentry into Israel to the Ministry of Interior. The Israeli law that prohibits reentry after deportation from five to ten years will not apply but this rule is very arbitrarily applied. 

Both Sides Now: Palestinians And Israelis Unite Against NPR

Jeffrey A. Dvorkin 10 January 2005


Although it has been relatively quiet of late, NPR’s reporting from the Middle East often results in protests from one side or the other — or from both at the same time. The accusation is always the same: that NPR’s journalistic processes are deficient at best and biased at worst. That use of the phrase in an introduction read by NPR’s Steve Inskeep on Morning Edition on Jan. 4 moved Ali Abunimah, a long-standing critic of NPR, to complain: “This intro highlighted the phrase “Zionist enemy,” and suggested that it was a deliberate appeal to Palestinian extremism. What Abbas actually said, at a campaign appearance was, ‘We came to you today, while we are praying for the souls of the martyrs who were killed today by the shells of the Zionist enemy in Beit Lahiya.’” 

Departing head of UN refugee agency decries conditions in Gaza as horrendous

Genevieve Cora Fraser 18 January 2005


Peter Hansen, the departing Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNWRA), spoke out about the conditions in Gaza at a recent conference sponsored by the Faculty for Israeli-Palestinian Peace held in East Jerusalem. According to Hansen, the situation in Gaza is so horrendous that without the help of bulldozers you couldn’t get through the debris and sand barriers thrown up to block traffic. “If you wanted to go into Gaza today you wouldn’t be able to because there are tanks along all along the main road to Gaza. All along the road you will see houses that have been bulldozed. As you move down through Gaza the situation gets even worse,” Hansen stated. 

Mass hypnosis in the Middle East

Hasan Abu Nimah and Ali Abunimah 19 January 2005



What explains the widespread readiness of various groups to lapse into hypnosis and euphoria about a non-existent “window of opportunity” for peace, ask EI co-founder Ali Abunimah and regular contributor Hasan Abu Nimah? They examine the motives of various constituencies that have welcomed the charade of the Mahmoud Abbas election from an endless stream of EU envoys to the US government, and suggest that the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority may have more in common in their approach to the peace process than initially meets the eye.