A power struggle is taking place within the Fatah movement, the organisational and political backbone of the Palestinian Authority. The main contention is between the movement’s old guard, eager to retain power, and younger leaders at the intermediate levels, protesting against their marginalisation and what they call “rampant despotism and authoritarianism” by the senior leadership. The latest expression of the simmering discontent within Fatah’s rank and file took place on Wednesday when about 250 Fatah members in the Gaza Strip decided to quit, citing chaos and “personalisation” of leadership. Read more about Fatah in the throes of a power struggle 

Palestinians in Gaza have reacted to the Hamas decision to contest legislative elections this July with a mixture of ambivalence and approval. For some the decision was not particularly significant. Some are excited to hear about the decision and say they woul vote for Hamas candidates. Hamas won a significant majority in seven of the 10 municipalities and local councils that held elections on 27 January. The councils consist of 118 elected officials, 77 of whom are Hamas representatives. Hamas had previously boycotted legislative elections in 1996 because of its opposition to the 1993 Oslo peace accords that mandated the ballots. Read more about Hamas move gets mixed reactions in Gaza 

Hamas, has decided to participate in legislative elections in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip this summer. The decision on Saturday, which had been widely anticipated, was announced by Hamas leader Muhammad Ghazal during a news conference in Nablus in the West Bank. Ghazal said the decision was motivated by Hamas’ desire to serve the interests of the Palestinian people. “We are responsible to our people, not to Israel and the United States,” he said. Ghazal said the second Palestinian intifada against Israeli occupation effectively dismantled the Oslo agreement, making it possible for Hamas to take part in the elections. Read more about Hamas to contest legislative elections 

In a hospital room in Nablus’ Specialty Hospital, two gunshot victims share a room. The young men are both awake and alert, and their room is filled with relatives and colleagues. They look fine, though one only speaks with some difficulty and the other has to lie on his side because of his injuries. The scene is not an unusual one in a Palestinian hospital after four years of the Intifada, but the circumstances of their shooting have rocked Nablus. The two are policemen and were wounded when clashes broke out between the police and members of an armed group, the Fateh-affiliated Al Awda Brigades, on March 4. Their colleagues are not only there to wish them well but to protect them from possible further attacks. A policeman is stationed at the entrance to the hospital. Read more about Nablus rocked by clashes 

On the 3rd of March 2005, I left my home in the United States for Israel. I was expecting trouble upon arriving at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, as I had been forcibly expelled by the Israeli Authorities one year before due to this same work against the occupation. My expulsion at that time was based on false charges brought against me by the Israeli Ministry of Interior stating that I had resided illegally in Israel. When I arrived to Ben Gurion on the 4th of March, I was pulled aside at passport control, as I had expected. Read more about Beating Israel's activist deportation system, this time 

You won’t hear about the story of my Palestinian friend Ali Zbeidat and the threatened demolition of his “illegal” home, either from the hundreds of international correspondents in Jerusalem or from the Hebrew media. None of them will tell you about the story of Ali’s family and the imminent physical and financial ruin of their lives by Israel, even though Ali’s plight is far from unique. There are tens of thousands of other Palestinians in the same desperate situation as Ali, living in homes Israel defines as illegal. The problem for Ali is not just that he is Palestinian; if he were, you might learn of his story. Ali’s problem is that he is also a citizen of Israel. Read more about Apartheid targets Palestinian home-owners inside Israel  

“Our Western culture is radically ethnocentric. This makes it difficult to widen one’s view. To use a phrase from Juan Rulfo, ‘The world is wide and belongs to no one.’ We have think tanks full of experts who tell us that the economy requires this or that, all of these things that are just assumed. This is a very narrow vision of reality. The problem is that if this reality doesn’t count — that is, if it doesn’t matter what people of color think, what Africans think, what Asians think — then we can just go on living in ignorance of them, constructing our everyday world and believing that we are the only thing that matters in the world.” Part 2 of an interview with award-winning Spanish journalist Teresa Aranguren. Read more about Spanish perspectives II: an interview with Teresa Aranguren (Part 2)