Approximately 30 activists – mainly students from area universities – disrupted a lecture given in Chicago by former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert yesterday which was hosted by the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy. While Olmert’s speech was disrupted inside the lecture hall, approximately 150 activists protested outside the hall in the freezing rain. Read more about EI exclusive video: Protesters shout down Ehud Olmert in Chicago
Touching the old scar on her forehead, 14-year-old Samah Owda fought back tears while telling her story. For the past four years she has carried on, proving that internal wounds are sometimes more difficult to heal than external ones. As a 10-year-old girl she was given a “new life” and a chance that at the time no one thought would be possible. Eman Mohammed reports from the occupied Gaza Strip. Read more about Second chance at life
GAZACITY, occupied Gaza Strip (IRIN) - Thousands of Gazan farmers may be unable to replant their crops during the region’s main planting season in October due to agricultural land still damaged by the Israeli offensive at the start of the year, and a lack of agricultural materials like seeds and fertilizers, according to officials. Read more about Gaza farmers struggle with damaged agricultural land
SHEIKHZAYED, occupied Gaza Strip (IPS) - On a searing summer morning, workers are adding layers to the mud-brick police station being constructed in Sheikh Zayed, northern Gaza. “We started building on 20 June,” says Mohammed al-Sheikh Eid, a consultant engineer with Gaza’s Ministry of Interior. “Since this is the first time we’ve built something on this scale with mud bricks, we can’t estimate exactly how much longer it will take to complete. Maybe another two months or so.” Read more about Rebuilding Gaza's infrastructure with mud
On 30 September 2009 at 11am, 17-year-old Fuad Mahmoud Nayif Turkman was standing outside his school in the West Bank village of Yabad, when he was run over by an Israeli military jeep. An Israeli military spokesperson later claimed that “hundreds” of Palestinians were “rioting” in the area, and that the jeep had experienced “mechanical difficulties.” However, eyewitnesses from the scene say that the students were doing nothing of the sort. Jody McIntyre spoke with Fuad’s father, Mahmoud Turkman, and his 12-year-old brother Fadi for The Electronic Intifada Read more about "They killed him because he was Palestinian"
Palestinian resistance to the Israeli occupation would have to be suppressed and the population pacified if the occupation was to be sustainable. Thus began an evolutionary relationship that continues to this day, that of the Palestinian resistance versus Israel’s policy of permanent occupation. Jimmy Johnson analyzes for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Israel's export of occupation police tactics
The Israeli government announced yesterday it would consider banning Israel’s Islamic Movement at the next cabinet meeting, in a significant escalation of tensions that have fueled a fortnight of bloody clashes in Jerusalem over access to the Haram al-Sharif compound of mosques. The move followed the arrest of the movement’s leader, Sheikh Raed Salah, on Tuesday on suspicion of incitement and sedition. Jonathan Cook reports from Nazareth. Read more about Following al-Aqsa clashes, Israel mulls banning Islamic movement
Following reports published by The Electronic Intifada on the use of Volvo equipment in the demolition of Palestinian houses in 2007, the Volvo Group stated that it did not condone the use of its equipment for such purposes. Claiming to have no control over the use of its products, Volvo affirmed that its Code of Conduct decries unethical behavior. In spite of these claims, The Electronic Intifada has found that through its Volvo Buses branch, the Volvo Group is providing armored buses to transport Israeli settlers in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Read more about Volvo providing armored buses for Israeli settlements
Tension over control of the Haram al-Sharif compound of mosques in Jerusalem’s Old City has reached a pitch unseen since clashes at the site sparked the second Palestinian intifada nine years ago. Ten days of intermittently bloody clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces in Jerusalem culminated yesterday in warnings by Palestinian officials that Israel was “sparking a fire” in the city. Israel’s Jerusalem Post newspaper similarly wondered whether a third intifada was imminent. Jonathan Cook reports from Nazareth. Read more about Haram al-Sharif sovereignty under threat
Israeli youth who refuse to cooperate with Israel’s military occupation are sent into a lengthy and relentless labyrinth of court martials and consecutive jail terms in what Israeli lawyer Michael Sfard calls a “price tag” meant to deter other young Israelis from non-participation. “Otherwise,” he says, “[the Israeli government’s] argument says, everyone — of ideological or personal reasons — will refuse to serve.” The Electronic Intifada contributor Nora Barrows-Friedman recently interviewed two young Israeli women who have refused to serve in the army. Read more about Israeli highschoolers choose jail over occupation army service