All Content

Film review: Palestine 1948 Nakba

Maureen Clare Murphy 30 June 2008


Shortly after he moved to Kibbutz Dalia in central Israel in 1967, photographer Ryuichi Hirokawa stumbled upon some “white stones scattered in rubble.” He asked the residents of the kibbutz about the origins of the stones, but he never received a satisfactory answer. Through Hirokawa’s quest to unearth the origins of those white stones he learned the story of Palestine, and it is this lifelong journey that he presents in his documentary Palestine 1948 Nakba, reviewed for The Electronic Intifada by Maureen Clare Murphy. 

Israelis assault award winning journalist

Mel Frykberg 29 June 2008


GAZA CITY (IPS) - Mohammed Omer, the Gaza correspondent of IPS, and joint winner of the 2008 Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism, was strip-searched at gunpoint, assaulted and abused by Israeli security officials at the Allenby border crossing between Jordan and the West Bank on Thursday as he tried to return home to Gaza. Omer, a resident of Rafah in the south of Gaza, was returning from London where he had just collected his Gellhorn Prize, 

Zionism's dead end

Jonathan Cook 27 June 2008


The following is adapted from a talk by Jonathan Cook delivered at the Conference for the Right of Return and the Secular Democratic State, held in Haifa on 21 June 2008. In 1895 Theodor Herzl, Zionism’s chief prophet, confided in his diary that he did not favor sharing Palestine with the natives. Better, he wrote, to “try to spirit the penniless [Palestinian] population across the border by denying it any employment in our own country … Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly.” 

Tactics that ended apartheid in S. Africa can end it in Israel

Bill Fletcher Jr. 28 June 2008


The Israeli-Palestinian conflict often inspires a sense of powerlessness. What can average Americans do to bring an end to this decades-old conflict when our leaders have failed so miserably? And what good is speaking out about Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land as the primary obstacle to peace when even former President Jimmy Carter and Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu are condemned for their criticism of Israeli policies? Bill Fletcher, Jr. comments. 

Hamas and Hizballah gain, almost hand in hand

Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani 26 June 2008


CAIRO (IPS) - Hizballah’s dramatic seizure of Beirut last month stunned observers and dealt a heavy blow to Washington’s Lebanese allies. In Cairo, analysts compared the episode to last year’s takeover of the Gaza Strip by Palestinian resistance faction Hamas, noting that both actions were pre-emptive — rather than offensive — in nature. 

Occupation by bureaucracy

Saree Makdisi 26 June 2008


A ceasefire went into effect in Gaza last week, offering some respite from the violence that has killed hundreds of Palestinians and five Israelis in recent months. It will do nothing, however, to address the underlying cause of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Intermittent spectacular violence may draw the world’s attention to the occupied Palestinian territories, but our obsession with violence actually distracts us from the real nature of Israel’s occupation, which is its smothering bureaucratic control of everyday Palestinian life. Saree Makdisi comments. 

Israel training to attack Iran

Peter Hirschberg 25 June 2008


JERUSALEM, (IPS) - Israeli defense experts were not surprised by a New York Times report over the weekend that the Israeli air force had recently conducted what appeared to be a rehearsal for an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Israel, the experts say, has never taken the military option off the table and they therefore expect the air force to be training for a strike in Iran. 

Palestine is illegal

Sumia Ibrahim Palestine 25 June 2008


The young, dark-haired woman behind the glass stamped the American passport in front of her. “Welcome to Israel,” she said cheerily. The line in front of me receded quickly as passport after passport was stamped, and traveler after traveler admitted entry. I made my way to the desk and slid my passport under the glass. Sumia Ibrahim writes from Palestine.