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Olive harvest begins under the shadow of restrictions on movement

13 October 2005


This year’s olive harvest season in the West Bank has begun. The harvest comes in the wake of extensive damage to the groves during the construction of the Separation Barrier, and strict restrictions on movement imposed on Palestinian farmers trying to access their land west of the Barrier. Many farmers received a permit for the harvest season, but were not allowed to reach their land during the course of the year. Since they were unable to work their fields during the year, they will now find their fields in poor condition. As a result, the harvest will be more difficult and yield a smaller crop. The restrictions on movement due to the barrier are in addition to those the IDF has imposed for a number of years on Palestinians whose agricultural lands lie near settlements and outposts. 

Forty percent Palestinians in OPT food insecure

13 October 2005


Better information on the number and the state of poor people without access to adequate food in the West Bank and Gaza Strip will help reduce the number of food insecure people there, FAO said today. A new FAO project aims to provide the Palestinian Authority with updated information on poor households and groups and the causes of their food insecurity. This analysis will enable decision-makers to better target vulnerable groups and improve the design and implementation of emergency interventions and sustainable development programmes. Food insecurity is a reality for 40 percent of the 3.6 million people living in the West Bankand Gaza Strip and a near constant threat for an additional 30 percent of the population, according to a 2003 FAO assessment. 

FREE THE P! Palestine Takes NYC's East Village by Storm

Remi Kanazi 17 October 2005


As I walk down the darkened staircase into a muggy basement in this lower eastside dive bar, a scruffily bearded supporter smiles and waves a four-foot wide Palestinian flag. The chatter begins as the room fills with anxious people awaiting the show. The young crowd came out to support Free the P, the new CD compilation of “hip-hop and spoken word, dedicated to the youth of Palestine.” The proceeds will go to Slingshot Hip-hop, “a documentary film that focuses on the daily life of Palestinian rappers living in Gaza, the West Bank and inside Israel.” Within moments, our hostess, Arab-American comedienne Maysoon Zayid, takes the ground level, makeshift stage and gets the crowd going with her dry, political humor. 

Haifa University spreads the message of fear towards Palestinians

Adri Nieuwhof and Jeff Handmaker 13 October 2005


The University of Haifa has warned foreign students of the dangers of visiting Palestinians. This warning, which comes in the form of “Special Security Instructions for Students”, follows a decision by the University to establish a special education programme for soldiers who serve in the Israeli army. Such actions are patently discriminatory, offering fresh reasons for the University of Haifa to again be included in a list of Israeli universities being (re)considered for an academic boycott. This fall, the Department of Overseas Studies at the University of Haifa circulated these instructions for students. The students are advised “not to travel in the West Bank or the Gaza strip. Avoid Arab population centres within Israel as far as possible. 

Gaza: Kidnapped journalists released

12 October 2005


Yesterday, two foreign journalists were kidnapped in the Gaza Strip. Although both were released a few hours later, the crime reflects the recurrence of kidnapping cases, in the absence of effective measures by the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) against kidnappings and other forms of security chaos. On Wednesday, six gunmen stopped a car with five passengers, including two foreign journalists, Dion Nissenbaum and Adam Pletts. The gunmen took the journalists with them until their release later. This latest incident comes as part of a pattern of kidnappings that has recently escalated in the Gaza Strip. 

Oct 14-Nov 15: ISM USA Speaking Tour on the Palestinian/Israeli Nonviolent Movement

International Solidarity Movement 12 October 2005


From October 14 � November 15, 2005, Palestinian Ayed Morrar and Israeli Jonathan Pollak will be touring the United States speaking about Nonviolent Resistance in Palestine. The tour will visit New York, North Carolina, Washington D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle and Olympia Washington, Michigan, Minnesota, Florida and Philadelphia. Ayed and Jonathan are friends and among the major figures in the Palestinian-led nonviolent struggle against Israel�s military occupation. 

UN expert: Israel puts human rights defenders at "grave risk"

11 October 2005


A top UN official accused Israel of depriving Palestinians of their basic human rights in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Hina Jilani, special representative of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Human Rights Defenders, said that Israel was blocking lawyers, journalists and rights activists from monitoring potential rights abuses. “‘Security imperatives’ have been allowed to deprive a vast population of their very basic rights and these measures need deeper scrutiny by all concerned if any respect for norms of international human rights and humanitarian law is to be preserved,” Jilani told reporters in Jerusalem. Hina Jilani concluded her visit to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. 

Selling colonialism

Anthony Loewstedt 13 October 2005


Kingdom of Heaven, directed by Sir Ridley Scott and starring Orlando Bloom, Jeremy Irons, Eva Green, Liam Neeson, has now been released on DVD (20th Century Fox). Watching this Hollywood extravaganza is like seeing the current Iraq war through the eyes of an American soldier, or a portrait of apartheid from the point of view of a rich white South African farmer, or a depiction of the Jewish settlements in the West Bank from the perspective of a Jewish settler. It is also like the foreign news in the quality U.S. and British news media today: no direct or conscious lies, but extremely one-sided. In end effect, it has all the historicity of an early cowboys-and-Indians-movie or Birth of a Nation, the infamous 1916 film that sympathizes with the Ku Klux Klan. 

The case for cultural boycott

12 October 2005


In 2004 the 20th Haifa International film festival established a section for “New Palestinian Cinema” in cooperation with Masharaf magazine in Haifa. Several Palestinian film makers were invited to present their films at this festival. A number of us at Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) contacted some of these filmmakers to urge them not to participate in that festival. There were two main reasons for that: the first was that the film festival was sponsored by the Israeli government and held under the patronage of Limor Livnat a minister in Sharon’s government and a member of the Likud party, well-known for her racist and Zionist positions and actions. 

ADC Remembers Alex Odeh

11 October 2005


The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) today marks the 20th year since the murder of Alex Odeh. Odeh, ADC’s Southern California Regional Director, was killed on October 11, 1985, when a powerful pipe bomb exploded as he unlocked and opened the door of the ADC office in Santa Ana, California. In addition to killing Odeh, the bomb injured several other victims. According to press reports, the FBI has identified members of the Jewish Defense League (JDL) as suspects in this act of domestic terrorism.