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"How will I care for my children?"

Rami Almeghari Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip 3 September 2007


“May God close the eyes of anyone who attempts to shut down the al-Salah charitable society that provides us our living.” So said Halima Abu ‘Isa, a 45-year-old widow and mother of two in reaction to the decision of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah to close down 103 Palestinian charities. The monthly allowance of 900 shekels (US $230) that Abu ‘Isa receives from al-Salah, an Islamic charity with links to Hamas, is the only thing that stands between her and destitution. EI correspondent Rami Almeghari reports on how the decision will affect her and thousands of other charity-dependant Palestinians. 

Heritage uprooted

Sonja Karkar 3 September 2007


Universally regarded as the symbol of peace, the olive tree has become the object of violence. For more than forty years, Israel has uprooted over one million olive trees and hundreds of thousands of fruit trees in Palestine with terrible economic and ecological consequences for the Palestinian people. Their willful destruction has so threatened Palestinian culture, heritage and identity that the olive tree has now become the symbol of Palestinian steadfastness because of its own rootedness and ability to survive in a land where water is perennially scarce. Sonja Karkar comments for EI. 

Shameless

Osamah Khalil 31 August 2007


Over the past two months a coalition has formed around Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in an attempt to bolster his rule. Desperate to maintain his hold on power, Abbas has chosen to forgo national unity and rely on support from the US and Israel to tighten his hold on the West Bank and target Gaza. Abbas and his benefactors have made it clear to the residents of Gaza that only by abandoning Hamas will the siege be lifted. In the interim, any deaths or starvation, while regrettable, are the requisite price to maintain Abbas’ presidency and the position of his cronies. Osamah Khalil comments for EI. 

PA set to close 103 Palestinian NGOs

29 August 2007


The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) is extremely concerned by the decision taken by the Interior Minister in the Palestinian Government in Ramallah to dissolve 103 benevolent associations and non-governmental organizations alleging administrative, financial, or legal violations. PCHR fears that this step is taken within the context of recent restrictions placed on civil society to undermine its role and restrict its work under the “State of Emergency” declared on 14 June 2007 in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. 

Not another international force

Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani 29 August 2007


CAIRO, 27 August (IPS) - Since the Gaza Strip was taken over by Palestinian resistance faction Hamas in June, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas has twice appealed for the deployment of an “international force” to the troubled territory. But with international contingents already deployed in hotspots from Lebanon to Afghanistan, some observers see the trend as a challenge to principles of national sovereignty. “The phenomenon represents a return of the region to the foreign colonialism of days past, albeit in a new, internationalized form,” Abdel-Halim Kandil, political analyst and former editor-in-chief of opposition weekly al-Karama told IPS. 

Audio: Crossing the Line interviews ARIJ director Jad Isaac

29 August 2007


This week on Crossing The Line: Host Christopher Brown speaks to Jad Isaac the director of the Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem (ARIJ), a Palestinian environmental non-governmental organization based in Bethlehem, about the crucial issue of water and how the Israelis have continually denied Palestinians access to a life source that they desperately need. Next, Brown speaks with Nachy Kanfer a Canadian-American environmental activist about the need for Palestinians to determine their own destiny with regards to Palestine’s natural resources. 

Bureaucratic dispossession

Ben White 28 August 2007


On 20 August 2007, a story appeared in the Israeli daily Haaretz about the disputed ownership of a piece of land in East Jerusalem. The “land in question,” the report said, is “an olive grove called Kerem Hamufti” and part of the “Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.” According to Haaretz, the “Israel Lands Administration is working together with the Ateret Cohanim association to wrest from Palestinian landowners control of 30 dunams (7.5 acres) of land in East Jerusalem and to transfer it to the association without a tender.” Ben White analyzes for EI. 

Is this Jericho or Hell?

Xen Hasan Nablus 27 August 2007


My husband and I left Amman at dawn with our three-month-old-son, and arrived at the Jordanian border control just after 8am. From there its a few minutes’ drive to the Israeli section of the border, then three-and-a-half hours of sitting in a sweltering hot bus waiting at the entrance to the border compound. It was 40 degrees celsius outside, and the stationary bus was like a greenhouse. Inside the compound, Israeli officers took me to one side as I was going through the x-ray. What followed was seven hours of waiting and wondering. 

Ban on truckloads of paper set to hit Gaza schools

26 August 2007


JERUSALEM, 26 August 2007 (IRIN) - The Israeli ban on deliveries of paper to Gaza is not only threatening to create a shortage of textbooks in the Strip but also shining a spotlight on what constitutes legitimate humanitarian aid. Israel is allowing in food, medicines and fuel, which it sees as essential aid, but not paper, even though many would see education as a vital sector in need of all the support it can get. 

What do Palestinians really think?

Ali Abunimah 26 August 2007


“Palestinian poll finds support for Fatah government over Hamas.” That headline from the International Herald Tribune, one of many similar ones last week, must have warmed the hearts of supporters of the illegal, unelected and Israeli-backed Ramallah “government” of Salam Fayyad. Last June Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas and the national unity government he headed, and appointed Fayyad without the legally required endorsement of the Palestinian legislative council.