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Abbas' rival strikes confident note

Khalid Amayreh 25 December 2004


The independent Palestinian  presidential contestant, Mustafa al-Barghuthi, has said he can beat the front-runner, official Fatah candidate Mahmud Abbas, in the 9 January election. Speaking during an election rally in the town of Dura, 45km southwest of Jerusalem, on Friday, Al-Barghuthi said Palestinians shouldn’t trust “biased and tendentious polls”, an allusion to recent opinion surveys which gave Abbas a substantial lead over al-Barghuthi and other candidates. “The results of the municipal elections prove that all the opinion polls we had seen were false. So don’t trust these polls,” he said. “Instead I urge you to work with me to create a new leadership that will feel and identify with the pain of our people, not the pain of others.” 

Living into Hope: Christmas in Zababdeh, Palestine

Marthame Sanders and Elizabeth Sanders Zababdeh, Palestine 24 December 2004


“As we write this to you, we are still in Advent, a period of waiting and hoping and preparing, a time of expectation.” Marthame and Elizabeth Sanders write from Zababdeh, Palestine. Christmas in the Holy Land has a special meaning, but under military occupation it also means stocking up for curfew, anticipating loss, fearing for the worst. Despite the exhaustion, the fear, the uncertainty, the word from Zababdeh is Hope. And from this hope springs faith anew, reborn this Christmas season. 

Palestinians prepare for local elections

Khalid Amayreh 23 December 2004


Like most Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Muhammad Qaisiya, a 45-year-old taxi driver, is quite satisfied that a municipal election will finally take place in his small town of Dahiriya, some 17km south west of Hebron, on Thursday. The last local election in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories took place in 1976. Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) supporters won the mayoral election, prompting the Israeli occupation government to freeze the democratic process indefinitely and adopt a policy based on appointment rather than election. 

Costs of conflict: The changing face of Bethlehem

19 December 2004


The glory of Bethlehem, a city of historical and religious importance for those of the Christian, Muslim and Jewish faiths alike is vanishing. Today, the centuries-old link with Jerusalem is being undermined. A number of Israeli settlements have been built around Bethlehem. Additionally, movement restrictions for Palestinians have been tightened due to the security situation with the aim of protecting Israeli civilians from suicide attacks and other violence. Bethlehem’s self-sufficiency has also diminished with the loss of tourists and pilgrims due to the conflict and to movement restrictions. 

UN school shelters 600 Gaza families displaced by Israeli offensive

20 December 2004


Following a two-day offensive by Israeli forces into the Khan Younis refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, the main United Nations agency helping Palestinian refugees has opened one of its schools to provide temporary accommodation to 600 families displaced by the fighting. UNRWA immediately served the families hot meals and water in addition to providing mattresses, blankets and mats. Meanwhile as Christmas approaches in Bethlehem, two UN bodies have published a report on the devastating impact that Israeli policies have had on the little hilltop town. 

Alcatel chosen by the Palestinian operator Jawwal as mobile infrastructure supplier

18 December 2004


Jawwal, the Palestinian mobile operator has chosen Alcatel to replace part of its GSM network infrastructure, in the Gaza area. The multimillion dollars project will be completed by beginning of next year. Under the terms of the contract, Alcatel will be responsible for the supply, installation, commissioning and integration of its multi-standard GSM/GPRS/EDGE/WCDMA radio access solution, including a period of optimization assistance. “One of our main goals is to continuously improve the quality of the services we provide to our customers,” said Hakam Kanafani, Chief Executive Officer of Jawwal. 

Religious tourism and freedom of movement denied in isolated Bethlehem

Maureen Clare Murphy Bethlehem, West Bank 23 December 2004


“It is quite simple. We have no business,” a shopkeeper in Bethlehem’s Old City tells me when I ask him how his business is faring after four years of Intifada and intensified Israeli military occupation. Camels and religious figures carved out of olive wood sit neatly and undisturbed on their shelves. His inventory is the same as it was four years ago. Since no one comes into his store to buy his souvenirs, he doesn’t replenish his stock. And because businessmen like him are not ordering more merchandise, the factories in Bethlehem are at a standstill. 

The mother of all disasters?

Hasan Abu Nimah and Ali Abunimah 22 December 2004


The Palestine Liberation Organisation has, over decades, committed many strategic blunders that continue to reverberate today, especially as its leadership seems poised to commit yet more, if granted the opportunity. The essence of the failed PLO strategy is that it put the priority of having a state under PLO leadership ahead of liberating the land from Israeli occupation. The PLO’s relentless emphasis on the establishment of a state has gradually marginalized all the central causes of the conflict. EI contributor Hasan Abu Nimah and co-founder Ali Abunimah look at the failure of PLO strategy in recent decades and warn that the Palestinians may yet face the mother of all disasters. 

From Nazareth to Bethlehem, anno 2004

Arjan El Fassed and Annet Meeuws 21 December 2004


This week, people around the world will sing “O little town of Bethlehem” and say “peace on earth, goodwill to all people.” However, in the land where Jesus was born, there is no peace and people suffer from daily violence. Imagine if, today, Joseph and Mary would leave from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Would they manage to arrive in time for their son’s birth? Would they be allowed to pass through various checkpoints and roadblocks? If Mary and Joseph were to arrive in Bethlehem, not only would they need permits to pass the roadblocks and checkpoints, but they would also have to make a detour to get into the town. Surrounded by Israel’s Wall on two sides, Bethlehem has become a prison. 

Israel’s war on the milieu

John Collins 20 December 2004


“Paul Virilio, the French social theorist and war historian, has a useful term for the sort of state violence that Israel is pursuing: “war on the milieu.” According to Virilio, the classical model of waging war is increasingly being replaced by a model of perpetual counterinsurgency, in which war happens not in a strategic arena, but on it. Within such a model, war is waged directly on civilians and on the natural and built environment that ensures their survival. ” Scholar and activist John Collins examines the political economy and symbolic resonance of olive trees in the Palestinian struggle against occupation.