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Australian Delegation Visits Cluster-Bombed Areas of Lebanon, Calls for Ban

23 January 2007


A joint humanitarian delegation, representing Australians For Lebanon (AFL), the Medical Association for Prevention of War (MAPW), and later joined by the Australian Lebanese Youth Association (ALYA), has recently returned to Australia from areas of Southern Lebanon heavily affected by cluster bombs. It is calling for a global ban on these inhumane weapons. The delegation spoke with authorities in Lebanon who are attempting to clear the munitions, including the National De-Mining Office and the UN Mine Action and Coordination Centre near Tyre in Southern Lebanon, and saw at first hand the terrible impact the weapons have on communities. 

Misuse of weapons kills two women, injures four in Gaza Strip

23 January 2007


In the past two days, the Gaza Strip has witnessed a serious escalation in the misuse of weapons, which is part of the sate of the state of lawlessness and misuse of weapons prevailing in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. A woman was killed; four other persons, including a woman, were wounded; and an explosive device was detonated inside a tourist resort. Furthermore, on Monday afternoon, a woman was killed in al-Boreij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. She was hit by live bullets fired by mistake during an interfamily quarrel. 

Attack on Al-Arabia Satellite News Channel Condemned

23 January 2007


PCHR strongly condemns the attack on the office of the Al-Arabia satellite news channel on Monday evening as unknown persons detonated an explosive device at the door of the office, causing severe damage. According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 21:20 on Monday, 22 January 2007, unknown persons detonated an explosive device in front of the office of the Al-Arabia satellite news channel on the 12th floor of the Al-Shorouq tower building in Al-Remal neighborhood in the center of Gaza City. The explosion caused severe damage to the office and the door of a neighboring office of Reuters news agency. 

Siniora Cabinet girds for rough ride as opposition launches general strike

Rym Ghazal 23 January 2007


BEIRUT: As the Hizbullah-led opposition forces move on Tuesday to launch a general strike that promises to paralyze the country, officials within the ruling parliamentary majority have urged Lebanese to ignore the calls for a work stoppage. After almost two months of an opposition sit-in in the heart of the capital aimed at bringing down the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, the campaign has progressed to ambitions of paralyzing the periphery of the capital and the rest of the country. However, Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah vowed on Monday that “we will not raise arms against anyone.” 

Football, Twelve-Year-Old Boys, and Military Curfews: Elizabeth Laird's "A Little Piece of Ground"

Ron Jacobs 22 January 2007


Most twelve-year-old boys in the United States spend their days thinking about video games, sports, school work, and maybe that cute girl in homeroom. If their father is a store owner, chances are they have no other concerns, since money is not a problem. In Elizabeth Laird’s novel A Little Piece of Ground (Haymarket Books, 2006), the twelve-year-old boys that serve as the story’s protagonists also spend a lot of their time on the aforementioned concerns. However, they also live in Palestine under occupation. 

Bush Urged to Make Israeli-Palestinian Peace Now

Jim Lobe 22 January 2007


WASHINGTON, Jan 22 (IPS) - As U.S. President George W. Bush puts the final touches on his State of the Union Address, an unusually broad group of Middle East specialists here is hoping that he will make his proposed two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a centrepiece of both his speech and his last two years in office. Despite the political weakness of both Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, the group, the Campaign for American Leadership in the Middle East (CALME), believes that the current moment offers a major opportunity for a breakthrough in the 60-year-old conflict. 

Important Lessons: Integrated Education in the State of Israel

Ilona Drewry 22 January 2007


The current public education system in Israel mirrors the wider divisions in society. It is divided into separate sectors: religious Jewish, secular Jewish, Orthodox Jewish and Arab. Although roughly one quarter of Israel’s 1.6 million schoolchildren are Arab, their parallel education system reveals fundamental inequality. The 2001 Human Rights Watch report “Second Class: Discrimination against Palestinian Arab Children in Israel’s Schools” details the extent of the inequalities in funding, facilities, teacher-student ratios. Integrated schools represent a glimmer of light in this picture of a discriminatory and segregated education system. 

Jewish Like Me

Jesse Rosenfeld 22 January 2007


Like most kids growing up Jewish, I loved Israel. I identified with the country and saw my Jewish identity expressed in it. Maybe it was because I found inspiration in an Israeli culture that seemed to focus on youth. I liked how David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first Prime Minister, referred to the “New Israeli Jew” — strong, committed and independent — as opposed to the idea of a “European Jew” — weak, emasculated, and dependent. The Israeli myth allowed me to reject the stuffiness of North American Jewish culture while keeping a sense of an imagined community that was still accepted, and even encouraged, by my family and community. As I explored this more, I began to realize that Zionism was synonymous with a violent colonization and occupation of another people. 

New TV journalists held for past month on theft charges

19 January 2007


Reporters Without Borders has written to Lebanese information minister Ghazi Aridi urging him to do everything possible to obtain the release of New TV journalists Firas Hatoum and Abdel-Azim Khayat, and their driver Mohammed Barbar, who have been held since 19 December for entering the apartment of a key witness in the murder of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. “These journalists have been in prison for a month now,” the press freedom organisation said. “We will remain on alert until they are freed. We call on the authorities to stop considering this as a criminal case.” 

Carter and Camp David, where it all began

Zachary Wales 22 January 2007


Now it’s on. The debate over President Jimmy Carter’s Palestine: Peace not Apartheid has become a mainstream staple. Turn on Fox News and see resigned Carter aid Steve Berman bullied into saying that Carter is not only anti-Semitic, but supports terror. Open the New York Times, Amazon.com, Washington Post and find outraged columnists, petitioning consumers, D-Rep. Lady Macbeth washing her hands of that dreaded a-word. But like most things Israeli and Palestinian, few are taking note of history and what it might mean to an ex-president.