WASHINGTON (IPS) - With less than two months before the November elections, Arab American voters in the United States are poised to vote heavily Democratic, according to a poll released here today by the Arab American Institute. The poll, which was conducted by Zogby International for AAI, a Washington-based lobby and public education group, found that the Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, currently leads his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, by some 20 percentage points among Arab American voters — 54 percent to 33 percent — in a two-man race. Read more about Poll shows Arab Americans favor Obama by wide margin
RAMALLAH, West Bank (IPS) - Palestinian children continue to be victims of disproportionate and indiscriminate violence from the both the Israeli occupation and internal Palestinian infighting in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Read more about UN office: Palestinian children's rights being violated
JERUSALEM (IRIN) - Economic progress ha s been insufficient to stimulate growth in the Occupied Palestinian Territories because of the restrictions on movement, while dependency on aid was increasing, the World Bank said on 17 September. In a report released ahead of a donors’ meeting on 22 September, the bank praised the reform efforts of the Palestinian Authority, saying appointed Prime Minister Salam Fayyad had managed to significantly reduce expenditure, cut down on government employment and begin reforming the security forces. Read more about World Bank: Growth weak, aid dependency rising
Silenced and out of the international spotlight, the hundreds of Palestinians waiting in al-Arish said that their plight at the closed crossing is either ignored or politicized. Many were running out of money, while others had completely run out, having waited for the opening of Rafah for weeks without earning an income. Eva Bartlett writes from al-Arish. Read more about Forgotten at the Gaza-Egypt border
Many Palestinians that I met during my travels in the West Bank told me that to know what Palestine really was about and meant, I had to go to Nablus. Most of them also told me that Nablus was their favorite city. After spending five weeks there this summer, I understand why. Frank Barat writes of the city that teems with life. Read more about Nablus, vibrant despite it all
Zaki Khimayl’s home and cafe are located on Jaffa’s beach, a stone’s throw away from Tel Aviv. However, like hundreds of other families in the Arab neighborhoods of Ajami and Jabaliya of Jaffa, Khimayl is up to his eyes in debt and trapped in a world of bureaucratic regulations apparently designed with only one end in mind: his eviction from Jaffa. Jonathan Cook reports. Read more about Jaffa's "renewal" aims at expulsion of Palestinians
GAZACITY (IPS) - A strike call has trapped thousands of teachers between Fatah unions and a Hamas government. The strike in Gaza called by the Palestine Teachers’ Union — a non-elected body supported by the government of Palestine Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank — continues into its third week. Of the Palestinian territories, Gaza strip is ruled by the Hamas government and the West Bank by the Fatah Party led by Abbas. Read more about Gaza teachers trapped between Fatah and Hamas
It was a very sudden moment when I realized that I was no longer a child. Occupation, intifada, Israel, enemy, Zionists, curfew, revolution, all these words were repeatedly spoken everywhere and I was very confused trying to understand what they all meant. Ahmed Abed reflects on what it means for children to grow up under occupation in the Gaza Strip. Read more about Growing up occupied in Gaza
EASTJERUSALEM (IPS) - The Israeli government is attempting to Judaize Palestinian East Jerusalem, and maintain a Jewish majority against the demographic threat of a higher Palestinian birth rate. To that end, the Israeli government is enforcing a number of policies aimed at establishing facts on the ground in order to limit the number of Palestinian residents in the city. Read more about Israel Moves to Judaize East Jerusalem
Rami AlmeghariMaghazi refugee camp, Gaza Strip8 September 2008
Thirteen-year-old Alaa has grown up in Gaza’s Maghazi refugee camp and her family’s home is an example of the typical “old-new” refugee camp dwellings. Comprised of three rooms, a wretched kitchen and an old-fashioned bathroom, the whole house is in need of urgent repair. Alaa lives in the same unhealthy house with her mother, two brothers and three sisters. Although poor, Alaa is a brilliant student. EI correspondent Rami Almeghari reports from the occupied Gaza Strip. Read more about In Gaza, succeeding against the odds
