GAZACITY (IRIN) - Schoolchildren in the Gaza Strip face psychological trauma and lack facilities after schools were badly damaged or destroyed during Israel’s three-week assault on the enclave that began in December. Primary and secondary schools in Gaza run by the government and the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) report a shortage of drinking water and textbooks for students, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Read more about Gaza children "afraid to return to school"
Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani24 February 2009
CAIRO (IPS) - Senior Egyptian officials have indicated that the new demands raised by Israel for ceasefire could affect the peace negotiations between Israel and Hamas being brokered by Egypt. Israel abruptly announced its refusal Wednesday last week to sign on to an Egypt-proposed ceasefire deal with Palestinian resistance factions before the release of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. The proposed agreement — which Egyptian officials had said was imminent — calls for the phased reopening of the Gaza Strip’s borders. Read more about Israel ditches the go-between
RAMALLAH (IPS) - At the eleventh hour, just as a permanent ceasefire painfully mediated by the Egyptians after weeks of intensive shuttle diplomacy was about to take effect, Israel suddenly changed its preconditions for a settlement with Hamas. This has left the Palestinians, the Egyptians, and even some Israeli analysts wondering just what will happen next. IPS spoke to Hamas senior official Dr. Ahmed Yousef, based in Gaza about the stalemate. Read more about Interview: "Hamas won't give in to blackmail"
In neighborhoods around New Orleans, there’s a buzz of excitement gathering among this city’s Arab population. A new wave of organizing has brought energy and inspiration to a community that is usually content to stay in the background. Jordan Flaherty reports. Read more about New Orleans intifada
Amer al-Helo smiled wanly while saying he is broken inside. Twenty days after Israeli soldiers shot dead his 55-year-old father and his one-year-old daughter in front of him, also shooting his oldest daughter in the elbow and his brother in the shoulder, the pain of the 29-year-old had not diminished. The Electronic Intifada contributor Eva Bartlett reports from the occupied Gaza Strip. Read more about "They killed me three times"
Sami Abu Shehadeh and Fadi Shbaytah26 February 2009
The story of Jaffa’s ongoing Nakba is the story of the transformation of a thriving modern urban center into a marginalized neighborhood suffering from poverty, discrimination, gentrification, crime and demolition since the initial wave of mass expulsion in 1948 to the present day. Sami Abu Shehadeh and Fadi Shbaytah trace Jaffa’s modern history. Read more about Jaffa: from eminence to ethnic cleansing
Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani23 February 2009
CAIRO (IPS) - Egyptian authorities are continuing to prevent humanitarian aid from crossing the border into the Gaza Strip, according to local sources. “Until now, only about a quarter of all humanitarian aid to arrive in Egypt has made it across the border into Gaza,” Hatem al-Bulk, journalist and political activist, told IPS. “It’s all piling up in al-Arish because the authorities are refusing to let it through the Rafah border crossing.” Al-Arish is located some 40 kilometers west of the border in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula. Read more about Border politics slows aid to Gaza
The following statement was issued by Labor for Palestine on 17 February 2009: We salute the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU) in Durban, and Western Australian dock worker members of the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA), for refusing to handle Israeli cargo. Theirs is a courageous response to Israel’s attack on Palestinians in Gaza that, since 27 December alone, have left some 1,400 dead and 5,000 wounded — nearly all of them civilians. Read more about US labor supports boycott of Israeli cargo
BRUSSELS (IPS) - European Union aid has been given to an Israeli oil company which has reduced the supply of fuel to Gaza as part of an economic blockade internationally recognized as illegal, Brussels officials have admitted. Almost 97 million euros (124 million dollars) in funds managed by the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, were handed over directly to the firm Dor Alon between February 2008 and January this year. Read more about EU paying for Gaza blockade
One of the main issues raised during the recent conflict in the Gaza Strip — apart from a considerable number of allegations of violations of international humanitarian law that will not be dealt with here — concerns the functioning of rule of law in Israel in cases regarding the freedoms of expression, opinion and access to information. Sharon Weill and Valentina Azarov analyze for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Israel's authoritarian transformation
