All Content

Israel's weapon of house demolitions

Jill Shaw Beit Hanina, West Bank 25 August 2008


The four-story building in Beit Hanina, a Palestinian neighborhood a few miles north of East Jerusalem, was clearly home to wealth. As our carload of internationals pulled up the small street leading to Abu Majed Eisha’s house at around midnight I noticed several BMWs parked along the way. From what I had learned during my brief time in the West Bank, Palestine, I knew already that this was not going to be an ordinary house demolition. Jill Shaw writes from Beit Hanina. 

Gaza patients continue painful wait for urgent medical treatment

21 August 2008


“I have been sick for more than a year now. Five months ago I was finally diagnosed with cancer of my bladder. I was working at the Islamic University here in Gaza city, but now I am stuck at home, and taking a diet of painkillers.” Ahmed Hisham Abu Shawish is 46 years old, but he looks older. His skin is tinged with grey and he sits slumped forward in his chair. 

Standing up for justice in the Middle East

Ramzi Kysia 20 August 2008


The Free Gaza Movement, a diverse group of international human rights activists from 17 different countries, will soon set sail from Cyprus to Gaza in order to challenge the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip. I’m proud to stand with them. Over 170 prominent individuals and organizations have endorsed our efforts, including the Carter Center, former British Cabinet member Clare Short, and Nobel Peace Prize laureates Mairead Maguire and Desmond Tutu. Ramzi Kysia comments. 

Swiss bank excludes company involved with illegal tramway

Adri Nieuwhof 19 August 2008


Palestine solidarity activists based in Basel, Switzerland demanded Bank Sarasin to divest from Veolia Environnement in early June, because of its involvement in the illegal tramway being built by Israel that runs through occupied East Jerusalem. Within a month Bank Sarasin replied with a five-page response, to explain its longstanding practice of assessing its sustainable investments. Adri Nieuwhof reports. 

Failing Darwish's legacy

Sumia Ibrahim 19 August 2008


Last Wednesday’s state funeral in Ramallah for the revered Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, with its excessive military pomp, revealed how far the Palestinian people are from realizing the justice imagined in Darwish’s writing, and was a sad reminder of how the Palestinian Authority helps undermine his people’s struggle. EI contributor Sumia Ibrahim comments from Ramallah. 

"60 Minutes" serves as Israeli propaganda mouthpiece

Ira Glunts 18 August 2008


As Philip Giraldi points out in his 12 August article “America’s Israeli-Occupied Media” published on antiwar.com, the Israeli government is continuing its campaign to get the US military to attack Iran or at least give a “green light” for a massive Israeli bombing strike. In pursuit of this reckless and ill-conceived plan Tel Aviv has a willing co-conspirator in the mainstream American media, who will present the Israeli world-view without criticism or qualification. Ira Glunts analyzes. 

The poetics of Palestinian resistance

As'ad AbuKhalil 18 August 2008


In many ways, Mahmoud Darwish’s life summarizes the Palestinian journey of suffering. He was born in Palestine (in what is today “Israel”), and was forced out of his home by Israeli occupation troops. When he returned (or when he snuck back in as the Israeli occupiers killed thousands of other Palestinians who attempted to return), his village was among the hundreds razed to the ground and erased from the map by Israel — or so thought the Zionists. As’ad AbuKhalil comments. 

Fulbright or McCarthy for Palestinian students?

Fidaa Abed 17 August 2008


Last week, I landed in Washington, DC, brimming with optimism. Upon arrival, I was whisked into a separate room. An American official informed me that he had just received information about me that he could not reveal. However, it required him to put me on the next plane home. I was shocked. And I was taken aback at the cruelty of snatching away my educational dreams at the last possible moment. Fulbright scholarship recipient Fidaa Abed comments. 

Crossing the Line focuses on impunity for Israeli soldiers

17 August 2008


This week on Crossing The Line: From the beginning of the second Palestinian intifada in September 2000 through 2007, on 76 of the nearly 1,300 Israeli military police investigations into suspected crimes against Palestinians committed by the Israeli army ended in indictments. In our first segment, Lior Yavne, research director of the Israeli human rights group Yesh Din, will join host Naji Ali to discuss these disturbing statistics. 

Dreaming of paradise

Joy Ellison al-Tuwani, West Bank 15 August 2008


“I had a dream last night,” Sami (not his real name) told my teammates and me while we sat munching sliced tomatoes and olives one hot afternoon. Sami told us that in his dream he had climbed to the top of one of the pine trees at the edge of Havot Ma’on, an illegal Israeli settlement outpost. Below him, Sami could see Israeli settlers stealing the fodder that he uses to feed his sheep. Joy Ellison writes from the occupied West Bank.