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Annapolis, as seen from Gaza

Laila El-Haddad 23 November 2007


The Annapolis conference simply generates new and ever-more superfluous and intricate promises which Israeli leaders can commit to and yet somehow evade. An exercise in legal obfuscation at its best: we won’t build new settlements, we’ll just expropriate more land and expand to account for their “natural growth,” until they resemble towns, not colonies, and have them legitimized by a US administration looking for some way to save face. And then we’ll promise to raze outposts. Each step in the evolution of Israel’s occupation — together with the efforts to sustain it and the language to describe it — has become ever more sophisticated, strategic and euphemistic. Laila El-Haddad comments. 

Gaza closure threatens 3,000 students' education rights

23 November 2007


Israel has cut off the Gaza Strip off from the outside world since 10 June 2007 by enforcing a complete closure on all the strip’s border crossings, especially Rafah International Crossing on the Egyptian border. As a result, Gaza students studying abroad are deprived the right to travel to pursue their education. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights’ preliminary investigation and information from the Ministry of Civil Affairs indicate that approximately 7,500 Gazans are waiting for the opportunity to travel abroad for various purposes such as work, education, and treatment. 

The Gaza Strip: Disengagement two years on

Kris Petersen 24 November 2007


Two years ago, Israel completed its unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. We all remember the intense media campaign shamelessly portraying the settlers as dispossessed victims of a bold move for peace. Among others, Harvard economist Sara Roy argued that Israel’s version of disengagement would bring disaster to an already desperate Gaza. Today, we are witnessing emergence of an unparalleled economic catastrophe in the Gaza Strip and with it, the evaporation of the last remaining hopes for a Palestinian state. EI contributor Kris Petersen writes from Gaza. 

Demolition decimating Palestinian village

21 November 2007


RAMALLAH, Nov 21 (IPS) - Al-Walajeh village was once a quiet but busy place. Just four kilometers from Bethlehem and 8.5 km from Jerusalem, its rolling hills filled with fruit trees, natural forests, and blooming vegetation made it a prime farming location. Easy access to large and consistent markets led its inhabitants to relative economic prosperity. Life was good. Today, however, al-Walajeh village is a different place altogether. “The demolishing of houses is a weekly event here in al-Walajeh,” Sheerin Alaraj, al-Walajeh Village Council member, told IPS. 

Likudnik hawks work to undermine Annapolis

Jim Lobe 21 November 2007


WASHINGTON, Nov 21 (IPS) - Despite near-universal skepticism about the prospects for launching a serious, new Middle East peace process at next week’s Israeli-Palestinian summit in Annapolis, a familiar clutch of neo-conservative hawks close to the Likud Party leader, former Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, isn’t taking any chances. Hard-liners associated with the American Enterprise Institute and Freedom’s Watch, a bountifully funded campaign led by prominent backers of the Republican Jewish Coalition, among other like-minded groups, are mounting a concerted attack against next week’s meeting which they fear could result in pressure on Israel to make territorial concessions. 

West Bank maze of movement restrictions

21 November 2007


JERUSALEM, 21 November (IRIN) - Traffic news on the radio in the West Bank is more likely to be about checkpoints and barriers than jams and accidents, as a complex system of controls and permits can make a short journey for work, family or medical reasons into a time-consuming marathon, according to a new UN report. A joint Special Focus by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, released in November, said that only about 18 percent of the people who worked the land are now able to obtain Israeli-issued permits, required to access the zone between the Barrier and the Green Line, Israel’s pre-1967 border. 

"A matter of revenge": Israel denying medical treatment to Gaza

Rami Almeghari Gaza Strip, Palestine 21 November 2007


“We had been waiting for an urgent referral to an outside hospital for the past six days, until he died today,” said Dr. Ismail Yassin Monday, in response to the death of one more patient at the Gaza Children’s Hospital. Tamer al-Yazji, a 12-year-old chicken pox patient, died on Monday on his hospital bed after his referral to an Israeli hospital had been delayed. EI correspondent Rami Almeghari talks to Gaza health care workers and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel about Israel denying Gazans access to health care and the reports of Shabak pressuring patients to inform in exchange for permission to travel. 

Photostory: The month in pictures

21 November 2007


This slideshow is a selection of images from the month of October 2007. The month in pictures is an ongoing feature of the Electronic Intifada. If you have images documenting Palestine, Palestinian life, politics and culture, or of solidarity with Palestine, please email images and captions to photos@electronicintifada.net. 

New Middle East scholars group seen as close to White House

Khody Akhavi 20 November 2007


WASHINGTON, 12 November (IPS) - A small group of Middle East and African studies scholars in the United States has announced the creation of a new professional association to change the direction of scholarship in the field. And it boasts several big name albeit controversial scholars, among them Bernard Lewis and Fouad Ajami, two academics who advised the George W. Bush administration’s policy towards the Middle East. 

Palestinian police using torture in Gaza Strip

Palestinian Center for Human Rights 20 November 2007


The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) has received more affidavits from Palestinians who were subjected to beating, torture and inhuman and degrading treatment while in detention by the Palestinian police in the Gaza Strip. PCHR condemns such illegal practices and calls for prosecuting the perpetrators and ensuring that laws that regulate procedures of detention are applied.