An article was recently published reporting the shooting of two children inside a United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) school in one of Gaza’s refugee camps. Ahmed, a seven-year-old, was seated at his desk when a bullet penetrated his head just as the school day began. Despite my best efforts, I have been unable to determine if he survived. I became afraid for my little cousin, Sharif, a first grader at one of UNRWA’s schools in Rafah. While reading about Ahmed, my mind immediately reeled to Sharif, whom I had just spoken to on the phone a day earlier. He is always a highlight of my day. Read more about Children of the Second Intifada
The title of this piece is not related to Ernest Hemingway’s novel A Farewell to Arms, but is instead a reference to a conflict in the Middle East, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, particularly the part of that conflict being played out in Gaza, an area which has remained one of the most highly volatile places on this earth for several decades. In the last decade, the conflicting parties have time and again said “farewell to arms” amidst deaths caused by their conflict, with the hope that such an announcement would save them from more bloodshed. The past five months saw the most severe round of fighting in Gaza, that has so far claimed the lives of 479 Palestinians. Read more about Farewell to Arms in Gaza
Today, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution ran the following op-ed by John Dugard, a South African former anti-apartheid leader. He is currently the Special Rapporteur on Palestine to the United Nations Human Rights Council. He not only compares Israeli policies to apartheid, but says that in many ways Israeli policies are worse than South African apartheid was. Please take a minute to write a letter to the editor thanking the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for running this honest piece. Read more about Write to thank Atlanta Journal Constitution for honest opinion piece
On Saturday 25th November the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) mounted a successful picket outside the entrance to the Limerick branch of the Atlantic Homecare chain store in Ireland. After refusing to move the picket when approached by security guards the protestors eventually agreed to call off their action after the store manger removed from sale all of the Israeli manufactured Keter Plastic products in the store. Within two hours of the commencing the action IPSC members witnessed pallet loads of the Israel made plastic storage boxes, wheelbarrows and garden sheds being taken off the sales floor. Read more about Significant Victory on Boycott Front in Ireland
Between the 2nd and 8th of November 2006, the town of Beit Hanoun (population 28,000) was under a siege and blockade by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF). Beit Hanoun is located in the Northern Gaza Strip, immediately south of the Apartheid Wall around Gaza and Erez Crossing with Israel. The besieged residents of Beit Hanoun suffered widespread collective punishment, such as a cut off of electricity and water. House to house searches were conducted, and males over the age of 16 years were summarily rounded up, imprisoned and interrogated. Many families were forced to huddle into rooms away from windows because Israeli snipers were on the rooftops killing people. Read more about Aftermath of the Beit Hanoun Siege and Massacre
In the wake of Lebanese anti-Syrian Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel’s assassination on Tuesday the debate is raging on who was behind the killing and why. Thursday saw hundreds of thousands of Lebanese from all sects on the streets turn out for his funeral. They were there in genuine sadness at the murder of an elected cabinet minister and to show their disgust at the continued way violent killings are being used to conduct politics in Lebanon. The protest also saw calls for pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud to resign and much anger directed against the also pro-Syrian Shi’ite group Hizbullah - whose supporters stayed away from the proceedings. Read more about Gemayel's assassination: What do Lebanon's Shi'ite think?
It was 4:30 PM when my students’ cell phones began receiving SMS messages. We had fifteen minutes left of class. They told me that Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel had been assassinated. One of my students fled the room in tears. I could hear students amassing outside in front of the AUB student union building just outside our window. The mood was tense. Students began with their theories of who was responsible: Mossad, Syria, the CIA. The usual suspects. The story was, of course, confirmed as I listened to the news reports in the office. Just a few hours before in front of AUB’s student union there was a display of national unity as people celebrated Lebanon’s Flag Day. Read more about Unity or Solidarity in Lebanon?
Only a few hours after my fiancee, a 24-year-old Dutch musician and I, a 29-year-old Israeli musician and writer, arrived to Israel for the summer vacation, the war in Lebanon broke out. At first, no one dared to call it by the W-word; the media described it as a swift military operation to retrieve the kidnapped soldiers while teaching Hezbollah a bitter lesson. Everyone agreed with an across-the-board solidarity that it was a noble and imperative cause. The Israeli flag was brandished on balconies, cars and T-shirts, left and right-wing politicians were sharing spoons to stir their afternoon teas, and graffitists sprayed the walls with jingoistic ‘Go Israel!’ or ‘Let the IDF win!’. Read more about Fighting for the Next Generation
Irish academics were thanked this week in an open letter, signed by over 100 academics and 1,000 students of Birzeit University near Ramallah, Palestine. The thanks were addressed to the 61 Irish academics who wrote a public letter in September calling for a moratorium on EU aid to Israeli universities, until Israel abides by international law and basic human rights norms. The letter, published in the Irish Times on September 16th, has caused a public stir in Israel; the education minister Yuli Tamir has travelled to England to ‘verify if they [the signatories] are lecturers who have influence’. Read more about Palestinians hail Irish academics' support of Palestine
His panic-stricken little face lights up when he receives the information that we’ll escort him home, sending him skipping merrily down the road on an errand to buy potatoes. This is the Palestinian Authority controlled area of Hebron, and as we cross through Tel Rumeida checkpoint to the other side in order to wait for the Palestinian boy’s return, we soon discover the source of his fear. We are confronted by around 100 ultra-orthodox Jews, who are gathered in Hebron to mark ‘Hebron day’, one of whom shouts “You know that Jesus is gay?”. None of us really react to this arbitrary taunt, however it does serve to focus the crowd’s attentions squarely on our small group of human rights workers. Read more about Streets of Hate
