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Billions for Mideast set to grab spotlight

Mitch Potter 5 July 2005


Far beneath the radar dominated by Bob Geldof’s international pop crusade, former World Bank president James Wolfensohn has been navigating diplomatic back channels to get G-8 backing. Unlike Bob Geldof, former World Bank president James Wolfensohn will have the undivided attention of G8 leaders, where he is expected to deliver an urgent call for as much as $3 billion to rebuild the Palestinian economy on the heels of the Israeli withdrawal. The project, if approved, could as much as double international aid over the next three years. Palestinians remain guarded on the prospects of a new wave of international aid. “Palestinians are not asking for charity but justice,” said Arjan El Fassed, a founder of the Electronic Intifada. 

Life under constant harassment

Eve Sabbagh 5 July 2005


Perched on a south Hebron hill, at first glance Mufaqara seems like a small quiet village sheltered from the troubles of its more famous neighboring city. But the settlers in the region have transformed the shepherds’ tranquil agricultural life into a hellish struggle against politics. Since the Havat Ma’on outpost was erected in 1998, daily life in what used to be an unknown and quiet fellahin village of the West Bank has become increasingly nightmarish. Villagers have the feeling that the settlers, as well as the Israeli army, are trying to “clear out” the area of Palestinian villages. Settler and army jeeps regularly drive back and forth in the area to intimidate the shepherds and make them move further from the settlement’s limits. 

Means of Expulsion: Violence, Harassment and Lawlessness Toward Palestinians in the Southern Hebron Hills

6 July 2005


In the southernmost West Bank, some one thousand Palestinians have maintained the way of life of their ancestors: living in caves and earning a living from farming and livestock. In the 1970s, the Israeli military commander declared the area a “closed military area,” and for the past five years, Israel has been trying to expel them from the area. In a new report, B’Tselem shows that Israel has continually sought to annex the area and expand the nearby settlements. The cave residents are victims of violence and property damage from the residents of nearby settlements. Due to the intensity of this violence, the residents of two villages to abandon their villages in 2000. 

New shelters for Rafah homeless

5 July 2005


The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) today handed over 109 new homes to 116 families from Rafah refugee camp whose shelters have been destroyed by the Israeli military during the last four years. These homes are provided for refugees made homeless by the conflict. According to UNRWA’s statistics, by end of December 2004, a total of 2,991 shelters, home to over 28,483 people had been demolished or damaged beyond repair in the Gaza Strip since the start of the strife. Of the total, 2,521 shelters accommodated 4,337 refugee families, of whom 3,633 families have been identified as being eligible for assistance under the Agency’s rehousing programme. 

A very combustible status-quo

Maureen Clare Murphy 5 July 2005


In occupied Palestine, the more things change, the more they stay the same. In the last several months, we have seen the death of former Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, the election of Mahmoud Abbas, and preparations for the planned Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and a few small settlements in the north of the West Bank. But what we haven’t seen is a change to the status-quo, a change that is desperately needed to prevent the situation from collapsing into something far worse than the first and second intifadas. While the world’s attention is diverted to the Gaza disengagement - where some 8,000 or so settlers are to be removed, a drop in the bucket of the total 415,300 illegal settlers - Israel is busily eating away at the land it prizes the most, and prejudicing final status issues. 

Welcome to Costa-del-Gaza

Eóin Murray Gaza, Palestine 5 July 2005


The two sides of present-day Gaza are the poverty-stricken Palestinian population and the Israeli settlers who control about 45% of the land. But neither population is united; the divisions within each are as real as those between them. And the Israeli soldiers present in numbers to protect the settlers are now charged with overseeing their withdrawal - and if necessary, eviction - by August. The settlers are far from homogeneous. They include religious Zionists from Hebron, growing in numbers in the southern part of the Gaza settlement blocs, who believe that disengagement is a denial of the will of God; but there are also social-welfare recipients with their bags packed, who are ready to go upon payment of substantial compensation packages. What will Gaza become after Israeli occupation? Eóin Murray reports on embattled Jewish settlers and Palestinian fears. 

Where There's the Ghetto, There's Hip Hop

Evert-Jan Grit 5 July 2005


Lid, an industrial pauperized city, not far from Israel’s Ben Gurion airport. Not a likely place for vistors and tourists to pass by. Lid faces the same problems as most metropoles and cities all over this world: drugs, pollution, unemployment, gangs, racism and violence. This is the dark side of Israel, the “only democracy in the Middle East,” with its own black minority: the Palestinians who stayed after the Nakba in 1948. Lid is the home base of Israel’s first and best Palestinian Hip Hop band DAM (“Da Arabic Microphone Controllers”). DAM started to perform in 1998 and steadily built a reputation in Israel and abroad. They played in Europe and released a song with the French Algerian group MBS. 

G8 and Disengagement: Palestine needs justice not charity

Arjan El Fassed 4 July 2005


While rock stars made poverty the central issue in the world’s biggest concert at the weekend, the world’s most powerful leaders are under increasing pressure to do something concrete about it. This week the leaders of the G8 — the US, Canada, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia — meet in Gleneagles (Scotland), hosted by Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair. But while African poverty may feature in the G8 debate, poverty in Palestine is man-made. The expansion of Israeli settlements and the completion of the Wall render a two-state solution as wished for by the G8 impossible. Palestinians are not asking for charity but justice. 

Gross Misinformation: the media in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict

Ali Abunimah 4 July 2005



The Palestinian-Israeli conflict gets a disproportionate share of mainstream western media attention, as compared, say, with conflicts in Africa. Yet the public, particularly in the United States, remains grossly misinformed. Even respected outlets like National Public Radio fail to provide objective and consistently fair coverage. EI co-founder Ali Abunimah examines trends in media coverage of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and finds that as news organizations come under increasing pressure from pro-Israel groups, there are fewer places to go for solid, independent coverage. 

Flying Checkpoints

Zachary Wales 3 July 2005


There’s a checkpoint between Birzeit and Ramallah. Out of the blue. Up until this moment, everything seemed normal: the honking of taxis, the flow of traffic over snakelike mountain roads, the odd calm of drivers as they vie for imagined lanes on hairpin curves. Suddenly it bottlenecks, then halts. “Hajiz,” shouts a taxi driver coming from the opposite direction. Checkpoint. The calm is replaced with frustration, both audible and visible. Arms flail out of car windows. Honking becomes more frequent. A baby, which until now I hadn’t noticed, cries in the back of my taxi. A gust of bluish bus exhaust empties into my open window. Nausea takes hold.