Last week the Israeli daily Haaretz reported that the consortium holding the contract to the controversial Jerusalem light rail project surveyed city residents on whether they would feel comfortable sharing rail service with Palestinians. The bad publicity around the survey — described as racist by even members of the Israeli government — is an ironic turn of events. Adri Nieuwhof reports for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Veolia whitewashes illegal light rail project
“Uff, uff, uff, you can never get time to rest or sleep quietly and you can’t even work. Wherever you are, you hear sound of power generators which makes it seem we are all living in a big factory,” Ahmad al-Bar explained, expressing the frustration of many Palestinians in Gaza at the electricity crisis there, now going on three years. Read more about "Like living in a big factory" in Gaza
GAZACITY, occupied Gaza Strip (IPS) - Just off Omar al-Mukhtar Street, Gaza City’s main thoroughfare, in a narrow, sandy alleyway is a little second-hand clothing shop. In the dimly lit store, with only intermittent electricity for some hours a day at best, sits a single battered and aging sewing machine. Read more about Gaza's industries suffer under siege
Jerusalem-born Firas al-Maraghi has been holding a hunger strike outside the Israeli embassy in Berlin, Germany, since 26 July, protesting a decision by the Israeli government to prevent his newborn daughter from being registered as a Jerusalem resident. Read more about Israel refuses to lift ban on family unification
AZZUNATMA, occupied northern West Bank (IPS) - For seven years Majda Abdul Qader Sheikh, 38, has not been allowed to visit the home of her parents, just a few hundred meters from her house. “I tried to get a special visitor’s permit for a quick visit during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan but I was refused,” says Sheikh, mother of seven children. “I have had no problems with the Israeli authorities, nor am I considered a security threat,” she added. Read more about Palestinians face movement restrictions during Ramadan
Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendler19 August 2010
JERUSALEM (IPS) - On the eve of the start of Ramadan last week, Israeli police demolished the Bedouin village of al-Araqib in the Negev desert. It was the third time within two weeks that the village had been razed. Unfazed, the Bedouin villagers immediately began rebuilding. Read more about Al-Araqib residents fear fourth demolition
History may be written by the victors, as Winston Churchill is said to have observed, but the opening up of archives can threaten a nation every bit as much as the unearthing of mass graves. That danger explains a decision quietly taken last month by Benjamin Netanyahu to extend by an additional 20 years the country’s 50-year rule for the release of sensitive documents. Jonathan Cook reports. Read more about Israel keeps evidence of ethnic cleansing locked away
Beyond tarnishing Gaza’s once pristine shores, the noxious consequences of the deterioration of the wastewater treatment operation in Gaza resulting from the closure hold much more grave implications: the Gaza Strip is, quite literally, being poisoned. Read more about Poisoning of Gaza water puts population at risk
GAZACITY, occupied Gaza Strip - Outside the battered Civil Defense station in northern Gaza’s Jabaliya region, Mohammed Zidan, a seven-year veteran of fire-fighting and rescue services, stands on crutches in front of battered Civil Defense vehicles. Read more about Gaza's emergency services battered
