Once again, the holy month of Ramadan comes to end. Once more people are preparing for the Eid holiday, the feast of breaking the fast. Once more, people think how can they celebrate this Eid. Once more, we ask the same questions: how many checkpoints and roads will be open so that Palestinians can be able to circulate freely from place to place to visit their family and friends? Abdelfattah Abusrour writes from occupied Palestine. Read more about Eid wishes
The words “Jewish” and “terrorist” are not easily uttered together by Israelis. But just occasionally, such as last week when one of the country’s leading intellectuals was injured by a pipe bomb placed at the front door of his home, they find themselves with little choice. Jonathan Cook reports. Read more about Israel's breeding ground for Jewish terrorism
RAMALLAH/GAZA (IRIN) - Palestinian unions allied with the Fatah movement have extended the strikes in the Gaza Strip’s health and education sectors for another two weeks, prolonging the labor action that has been in effect for about a month, although the numbers taking part are falling. Read more about Gaza strikes losing steam
Ramadan al-Hour’s four children have not seen their father for the past year. Ranging in age from five years to four months old, Amal, Aya, Sulaf and Walid live with their mother in the town of Kufr Qassem inside Israel. Israeli authorities have prevented al-Hour’s wife and children from entering Gaza. Rami Almeghari reports from Gaza. Read more about No Eid with the siege
On jagged roads, unpaved and covered in mounds of dust, enclosed by a monstrous, towering wall slithering like the venomous snake that it is, I await the bus that will take me to the place I’ve waited to see for far too long. Dina Elmuti writes from occupied Palestine. Read more about My occupied Utopia
From just outside Jerusalem’s Old City walls, the simple stone and cinder-block homes of Silwan cascade southwards into a valley known as the Holy Basin. The Palestinian residents are used to living in the shadow of history and religion. But of late, history has become a curse for most of Silwan’s residents. Read more about Archaeology used politically to push out Jerusalem Palestinians
WASHINGTON, (IPS) - A new report from several international aid organizations blasts the Quartet, an international group assembled to facilitate the Middle East peace process, for failing to meet their goals in advancing a lasting peace between Israel and Palestinians. Read more about International orgs. give Quartet failing grade
In November 2007 the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) sent a very senior delegation of trade union leaders including the President of ICTU and several General Secretaries of major trade unions on a seven-day fact-finding mission to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The express aim of the delegation was to produce a report that was as impartial and as objective as possible. Read more about Irish trade union delegation report criticizes Israel, governments
RAMALLAH, West Bank (IPS) Israeli-Palestinian peace talks appear to have hit a dead end, while efforts to bridge the yawning chasm which divides Hamas and Fatah politically and ideologically appear to be going nowhere. The two main streams of Palestinian politics are already locking horns over when the next legislative and presidential elections will be held, and whether Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, or Abu Mazen as he is better known, is legally entitled to stay in power beyond January 2009. Read more about Palestinian politics on the road to nowhere
WASHINGTON (IPS) - Both anti-Semitism and Islamophobia have risen in Europe over the last four years, according to a survey conducted earlier this year by the Pew Research Center. While attitudes towards Muslims are substantially more negative than those against Jews across Europe, anti-Jewish sentiment as grown steadily in five of the six countries surveyed on the question. Read more about Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia on the rise in Europe, decline in US
