28 July 2008
UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - In both the West Bank and Gaza, young people aged 15 to 24 are the most likely of any group to be unemployed, while the number of households in Gaza below the poverty line has reached an historic high of nearly 52 percent, according to a new report by the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) issued Thursday. Read more about Poverty in Gaza hits "unprecedented" level
27 July 2008
BIL’IN, West Bank (IPS) - A YouTube video showing a blindfolded and handcuffed Palestinian being fired on at close range by an Israeli soldier in the presence of a Lieutenant-Colonel, has made international and regional headlines. Ashraf Abu-Rahma was arrested, beaten up, forced to sit blindfolded and handcuffed and then deliberately shot on his foot from less than a meter away. Read more about Palestinian "Che" blindfolded and shot
27 July 2008
JERUSALEM (IPS) - Lighting a remembrance flame at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial. Speaking against the backdrop of a pile of empty rocket casings in the southern town of Sderot. Standing solemnly, face close to the stones of the Western Wall in Jerusalem. These are the images that Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama produced during a whirlwind 36-hour visit to Israel this week, and which he hopes will help dispel doubts about his candidacy amongst skeptical US Jewish voters. Read more about Obama campaigns in Israel
25 July 2008
My friend and I decided to go to Tel Aviv at night to visit a friend of ours who works at a hotel there, and hang out on the beach together. Just before we reached the hotel, I noticed a car behind us. The driver of the other car blinked his lights, and I saw it was a police car, a GMC with a siren. I pulled over to the curb and stopped. The car stopped next to me, and one of the people in it asked, “Where are you from?” Read more about Testimony: Israeli police severely beat Palestinian student in Tel Aviv
18 August 2008
The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) is a media monitoring organization with a large database of supporters known for its staunch support for Israeli policies and its ability to influence media coverage. While CAMERA claims to be objective and interested in holding the media accountable to its own “self-professed standards,” a study published by The Electronic Intifada demonstrates terminology and views of the organization are largely consistent with those of the Israeli government itself. Read more about EI study refutes CAMERA media bias accusation
Ramallah, West Bank 24 July 2008
Aware of the dangers now facing hikers like me, I have, of late, been careful to restrict my walks to tracks which avoid any contact with the settlements. Two recent incidents I have experienced personally I believe illustrate what routine life is now like for us Palestinians in the occupied territories. Raja Shehadeh recounts for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Really living here
24 July 2008
BEIRUT (IRIN) - Thousands of children in Lebanon are denied full access to education, healthcare and residency because they do not have Lebanese citizenship. Lebanese women cannot pass on their nationality to their children and in the event of separation, it is the father who gains automatic custody, according to Lebanese nationality law. Read more about Women, non-Lebanese children get raw deal
23 July 2008
Every aspect of Barack Obama’s visit to Palestine-Israel this week has seemed designed to further appease pro-Israel groups. Typically for an American aspirant to high office, he visited the Israeli Holocaust memorial and the Western Wall. He met the full spectrum of Israeli Jewish (though not Israeli Arab) political leaders. He traveled to the Israeli Jewish town of Sderot, which until last month’s ceasefire, frequently experienced rockets from the Gaza Strip. However, Ali Abunimah comments, Palestinians received very little of the Senator’s attention. Read more about What Obama missed in the Middle East
23 July 2008
HEBRON (IPS) - The Israeli military has erected three additional roadblocks, further blocking vehicular access on the road between the south Hebron village of al-Tuwani and the commercial hub of Yatta in the southern West Bank. The West Bank is the Palestinian area west of the Jordan river, much of it under Israeli control. Read more about Roadblocks cripple West Bank economy
22 July 2008
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel deplores the unabashed pro-Israel bias of UK officialdom displayed during Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s visit to occupied Jerusalem. Brown’s pro-forma criticism of Israeli colonizing activities notwithstanding, the visit became an occasion to underline the UK government’s prejudice in favor of Israeli policies of apartheid, dispossession and colonial expansionism. Read more about Boycott group: Israeli-British academic project politically motivated