On 30 March, Palestinians across the Middle East staged demonstrations marking the 30th Land Day. Protests inside Israel have especial poignancy as the tragic event that Land Day commemorates occurred inside Israel, in the Galilee. In March 1976, the Israeli government under Yitzhak Rabin prepared to confiscate a swath of Arab farming land, following decades of similar expropriations, as part of renewed attempts at Judaising the Galilee (making it “more Jewish”). Read more about Land Day protests highlight Israel's continuing attempts at ethnic cleansing
Some weeks after the event was downplayed by the Israeli media, it was confirmed by police investigations that an attempt by an Israeli family to set off a large explosion in one of the Holy Land’s most sacred Christian sites, the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, had only narrowly been averted. After entering the church, the couple took up position in one corner while their daughter, Odelia, poured petrol on and around them. They then let off the sound bombs to terrify the congregation inside. When a church official tried to approach them, they doused him too in petrol and tried to set him on fire. Read more about Extent of planned attack on Nazareth's Basilica of the Annunciation emerges weeks later
The policy of “hitnatkut”, or unilateral disengagement, developed by Ariel Sharon needed a swift facelift following the withdrawal of settlers from Gaza last year. And Israel’s prime minister-designate, Ehud Olmert, has found it in the related concept of “hitkansut”, variously translated as “convergence”, “consolidation” and “ingathering”. So convergence is usefully, and misleadingly, supplanting disengagement. Olmert’s consolidation, it is becoming clear, will embrace Palestinians too. Read more about The real meaning of deporting Hamas members of parliament
Food for everybody in the world is a means to survive, to stay alive and maintain a normal, healthy life. But in Palestine, food has become increasingly hard to buy, as groceries and supermarkets have been unable to sustain the debts owed by their local customers. Because of a forced delay of more than 140,000 government employees’ salaries in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the customers have been unable to pay their supermarket tabs. Both grocers and customers have begun to complain about an increasing financial crisis due to such a delay. Read more about Empty Pockets, Growling Stomachs in Gaza
17 April 2006 — This is just one personal account of a shocking situation I witnessed in in Nablus. In the week I have been here, Nablus and Balata refugee camp have been under regular daily and nightly attack from the IDF. All of the incursions have involved live ammunition, demonstrating little care for the hundreds of civilians in these highly populated areas. We recieved a call at 10 AM to say that a house in the center of Nablus has been occupied by the army, with the family held prisoner inside. Read more about Terror and Occupation in Nablus
These are the thoughts that give me no rest, so that when a holiday comes around, as Passover did recently, I am unable to celebrate lightheartedly in the ordinary way. Occasionally, as I did this time, I go through the motions, but it seems obscene, somehow. I haven’t had a normal sort of holiday feeling in years. Lately, I finally figured out why. Going about your business as usual, insofar as possible, is an act of defiance when you’re being oppressed; but when you’re the oppressor, it’s an act of indifference. Read more about The Little Mermaid on Highway Six: Rooting for ordinary Israelis to wake up
The Palestinian group Hamas lost no time in approving Monday’s terrible suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, thus confirming the worst suspicions of the international community. But Western governments have still taken a huge gamble in withholding aid from the Hamas-controlled Palestinian National Authority. If past experience is any guide, the decision will fuel extremism, create a humanitarian crisis and also undermine Palestinian civil society, which has long been a voice for the rule of law in the Middle East. Read more about The West's strategy in Palestine will weaken civil society
8 April 2006—Last Saturday, crowds estimated at tens of thousands marched in the funeral procession of Eyad Abulineen, a Palestinian resistance fighter of Rafah, his 7-year old son Belal and four other people, who were all killed by Israeli missiles on Friday. Prior to heading to the Rafah cemetery east of the city, the crowd said a last farewell to their martyrs in a local mosque. Chanting angry slogans, with resistance fighters firing into the air, the crowd marched toward the cemetery, where the martyrs were laid to rest. Read more about In the footsteps of his father
On Tuesday, April 11, at 5:00 pm, 20 young Jewish people gathered for a seder (traditional celebration of Passover) outside 126 High Street in Boston, the building that houses the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and Boston’s Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC). The group expressed their support for Palestinian human rights and opposition to AIPAC’s and JCRC’s unquestioning support for Israel and its governmental policies. With a banner that read “Passover means liberation for all. Justice for Palestine,” they conveyed the message to the organizations inside and to the media that AIPAC and JCRC do not speak for all Jews. Read more about Young Boston Jews hold Passover seder outside AIPAC, JCRC offices
Friday, March 11, 2005, Jerusalem — Peter and I head out and descend the stairs into Damascus Gate. We climb our way through the Labyrinthine Old City and wind up at Jaffa Gate at the Green Line, the border between Jordanian and Israeli controlled Jerusalem prior to 1967. We hail a taxi and head for Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum in West Jerusalem. We pass the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, and then Hebrew University. To understand the sentiments of “Never Again!” and gain insights on the modern Jewish state’s obsession with security, it is essential to visit this place. Read more about WaSPR Delegation Diary 10: Two Traumatized Peoples: Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial
