Though the Security Council has “primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security,” it has not been able to address and resolve a number of conflicts, including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the conflict in Darfur. No party in these crises has taken adequate measures to ensure the cessation of violence against civilians in spite of the many assurances made. Over 20 months since they were burned out of their villages and after numerous promises from the Government of Sudan and world leaders, people’s lives are still under daily threat. EI’s Arjan El Fassed recently visited various camps and towns in Darfur. Read more about Darfur, another failure of the international community 

14 February 2005 — According to Israeli authorities, one reason for my arrest two weeks ago in Biddu and my denial of entry into Israel in 2003 is that I “organized and participated in illegal demonstrations.” Israeli authorities frequently use the term “illegal demonstrations” to describe peaceful protests against Israeli government violations of international law. This twisted reasoning needs to be exposed and rejected. What is legal often does not completely correspond to what is moral. However, when what is moral is described as illegal, there is a major problem. Read more about Israel's Criminalization of Nonviolent Protest 

Since the announcement of the hudna (“cease-fire”), Nablus hasn’t seen anything like a hudna. Almost every night IOF troops enter the city, especially the refugee camps and the old city. Ray Smith reports from occupied Nablus. Last night the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) again showed their committment to what’s currently celebrated as a cease-fire: Mayoub Mureb Al-Qanni and Issam Hamsa Mansour were killed by IOF troops near the village of Kufr Qalil, right outside the West Bank city of Nablus. Read more about Israel provokes Palestinian resistance groups in Nablus, kills two 

3 February 2005 — The Jericho Intercontinental is a very posh hotel built next to a casino, both of which were finished just as the Second Intifada started and thus never really opened. But they dusted themselves off and offered a New Year’s Eve party, a night in a big lavish room, and two meals for $90 each. Several Palestinians and internationals jumped at the chance, eager for a change in scenery and atmosphere. I loaded up with some Palestinian officemates and friends into a service taxi on New Year’s Eve, and we made the long journey bypassing the Qalandia checkpoint. Read more about A West Bank Story: New Year's in a Garden on the Moon 

My Palestinian mother has a favorite expression that she likes to use. Whenever she wants the curtains pulled back, a window or door opened to the outside world, or just wants to get out of the house, to be outdoors, she would always say that she wants to ashoof wijih rabie (roughly translated: “to see the face of my God”). Last summer, while my family and I were in Palestine, we got to see and experience, first hand, the magnificence of God’s face and the ugly face of occupation and oppression, the Apartheid Wall that is being built by Israel. Mike Odetalla writes from Beit Hanina. Read more about Blocking Out the Sun 

The recent election of Mahmoud Abbas in the Occupied Territories was hailed by the Western press as a milestone in the democratization of the Palestinian people. However, recent reports coming out of that region have questioned the legitimacy of this supposed triumph in democracy. These elections have added to a growing worldwide skepticism about Western notions of democracy (i.e. institutionalized suffrage, parliamentary procedures, etc.). It seems Western democratic practices, here in the form of an internationally-supervised day of voting, do not, in and of themselves, guarantee a truly democratic society. Read more about The False Promise of Western Democracy