All Content

"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. 

Palestinian group seeks to change aid dynamics

14 August 2008


RAMALLAH (IRIN) - A newly formed Ramallah-based “Palestinian community foundation” said it is looking to change the way aid is given, so that more sections of society benefit from international donations and less money goes to waste. “We don’t want to get rid of foreign aid; we want to reform it, so it is in line with the Palestinians’ priorities,” said Nora Lester Murad from the Dalia Association. 

Israel's family unification gesture not a change in policy

14 August 2008


Since October 2007, Israel has approved 31,830 requests for family unification in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. This is the first exception in Israeli policy on this issue since September 2000, when Israel froze family unification procedures and the granting of visitor’s permits. The approvals, which were given in the framework of Israeli-Palestinian political negotiations, were described as a gesture, and not a change in policy. 

Slingshot Hip Hop comes to Lebanon

Jackson Allers 14 August 2008


“The moment I stepped into the camps here in Lebanon, I thought I was in Palestine,” Arab-American filmmaker Jackie Salloum said after a 6 August nighttime screening in the Shatila refugee camp of her documentary, Slingshot Hip Hop. “I hope people living in Beirut come to see the film,” Salloum said anxiously before a previous screening on 5 August in the Burj al-Barajne refugee camp. 

Israel claims troops acted properly in killing of Gaza journalist

14 August 2008


The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights strongly condemns the official response of the Israeli military Advocate-General to the death of a Reuters cameraman and three other civilians in the central Gaza Strip in April. The cameraman, Fadel Shana’a, and the other civilians were killed by an Israeli tank crew, who, according to the Israeli military advocate-general, acted properly and will not face any legal action.