AMMAN (IPS) - According to the records of the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA), Jordan is home to 1.9 million displaced Palestinians. “Jordan hosts about 42 percent of the total refugee population,” says Mattar Sakr, director of public relations for UNRWA in Jordan. Sakr adds that most refugees reside in 13 camps, three of them considered unofficial dwellings because they were not assigned by the government. Read more about Palestinian refugees in Jordan stuck in a no man's land
BRUSSELS (IPS) - Israel’s relations with the European Union were tense for most of 2009 — if newspaper headlines are to be believed. In the past week, a British court drew fierce criticism from Israeli politicians after it issued an arrest warrant for Tzipi Livni, the former Israeli foreign minister, following a complaint that she had authorized war crimes in Gaza. Read more about EU remains cozy with Israel, despite the headlines
Hassan Mousa and Jody McIntyreNilin, West Bank18 December 2009
Situated just west of Ramallah, the Palestinian village of Nilin has lost huge swathes of land to Israel’s settlements and its wall in the occupied West Bank. In a year and a half of resisting construction of the wall, five villagers have been murdered by the Israeli military while demonstrating. The Electronic Intifada contributor Jody McIntyre interviewed Hassan Mousa, a coordinator of the Nilin Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements and the uncle of Ahmed Mousa, an 11-year-old boy who was the first villager from Nilin to be killed by the Israeli army. Read more about "It is time for us to put an end to this occupation"
Twenty-three-year-old Sami from al-Essawaya village near Nablus has always believed in peaceful coexistence with Israelis. However, he and his family have paid a dear price for his convictions. Kieron Monks writes. Read more about The price of peace: Interview with detained activist
Given Ehud Olmert’s role as Prime Minister during the attacks on Gaza, he is seen by many as guilty of war crimes; it is perhaps no surprise that the Australian media seemed keen to bury the fact that Olmert was in the country and being welcomed by our government. Pro-Palestinian activists on the other hand were intent on holding him to account and letting him know he is not welcome here in our town. Frances Lewis writes for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Australian activists give Olmert an unwelcome reception
The United Nations agency Palestine refugees (UNRWA) faces a severe deficit that could lead to cuts of essential services to more than 4.7 million Palestinian refugees in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. According to UNRWA, the agency’s 2009 funds are already exhausted and it faces a shortfall of US $140 million for 2010. Rami Almeghari reports from the occupied Gaza Strip. Read more about Palestine refugees face service cuts due to UNRWA financial crisis
Iyad Burnat and Jody McIntyreBilin, West Bank14 December 2009
I started my life in jail at 17, during the first intifada, a popular uprising amongst ordinary Palestinians. It was not the first time I participated in nonviolent resistance. I have always believed that this is the way to end the occupation. But as the intifada clearly showed, the Israeli military does not understand let alone sympathize with such methods. Iyad Burnat’s story as told to The Electronic Intifada contributor Jody McIntyre. Read more about Bilin activist: "Words are not enough"
The fatal shooting by Israeli soldiers of an Israeli man earlier this week as he tried to scale a fence into the Gaza Strip was reportedly part of a drastic procedure the army was supposed to have phased out several years ago. Jonathan Cook reports. Read more about Israel: "a dead soldier is better than a captive soldier"
As a Palestinian political prisoner who has spent the past 20 years in Israeli jails I would like to highlight some of the general characteristics of the prisoners’ movement’s struggle to build a system of self and collective education as a central part of developing a patriotic and revolutionary culture that can be a pillar of the liberation movement. Khaled al-Azraq writes from Nafha prison. Read more about Israeli prisons as revolutionary universities
Last month, the second-largest Dutch pension fund PFZW joined an already impressive group of investors that have divested from Africa-Israel. Africa-Israel is the target of an international boycott campaign by Palestine solidarity activists because of its involvement in the construction of illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Adri Nieuwhof reports for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about More investors abandoning Lev Leviev and Africa-Israel
