“I am asking today with deep sorrow: Can we, despite all our achievements, ignore the intolerable gap between what the Declaration of Independence promised and what was fulfilled, the gap between the idea and the realities of Israel? Does the condition of occupation and domination over another people fit the Declaration of Independence? Is there any sense in the independence of one at the expense of the fundamental rights of the other?” In this speech to the Knesset upon receiving the Wolf Prize delivered May 9, world-renowned musician and conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Daniel Barenboim asked difficult, but necessary questions. Read more about Daniel Barenboim's statement at the Knesset upon receiving the Wolf Prize, May 9, 2004
Our taxi wove through the narrow streets of Gaza, our driver giving us a brief tour of the horrors. We saw the house of Sheikh Yassin and the point where he was executed. Demolished Mosques, homes and businesses point the direction to the Zaytoun neighbourhood in south central Gaza City. The past few nights have been sleepless. The Israeli forces have attacked from land, sea and air. My home, close to the sea, echoed and shook with the pounding of the shelling on the nearby Beach Camp. Further into the centre of Gaza the people of Zaytoun (which means ‘olive’) have been imprisoned in the scene of some of the most intense fighting since the Intifada began. Read more about Israel's revenge in Zaytoun, Gaza
The situation in Gaza is horrific beyond belief. Since Tuesday, May 11, thousands of people have been denied the simple right to return to their homes; this includes infants, children, students, employees, women, and men of all ages. There is no law in this life or world that should prevent someone from returning to his or her home. Yet in Palestine this is happening. And it is Israel, the storied democratic state, that is practicing this grave violation of very basic human rights. Ghada Ageel reports from Zahra, in Gaza Strip. Read more about Gaza: horror beyond belief
A New York City judge has imposed unprecedentedly harsh penalties on a group of anti-war protesters who blocked traffic on 5th Ave. last spring, in a move activists warn is intended as a message for those planning to demonstrate at the upcoming Republican National Convention. Four of the protesters still await sentencing and may face jail time. Judge Robert Stoltz called the protest “an imposition” of protesters’ opinions on “the people of New York City,” and told his courtroom that people attend political demonstrations out of “lack of confidence.” Twelve activists were slapped with to a total of 90 days community service, and fines totalling more than $2,000. Four protesters—who face potential jail time—still await sentencing on May 26. Read more about NYC plays hardball with Rachel Corrie protest defendants
US President George W. Bush set out his vision for the Middle East in a speech he gave in the Rose Garden on 24 June 2002. The problem with his vision is that it keeps changing, writes Victor Kattan, a correspondent for Arab Media Watch who covered the oral pleadings which took place before the International Court of Justice in The Hague in February 2004. He is the author of “The Right of Return Revisited”, which will be published in a forthcoming edition of the Mediterranean Journal of Human Rights. Read more about The President's Vision: Development Under Occupation
The State Comptroller Report for 2003, published recently, exposes a harsh phenomenon that we have known about for a long time and has now received the validation of the highest authority in the country: The funding of illegal building and construction in the West Bank. The funding amounts to NIS 29.7 million. Of the 33 places which received funding, 18 are not included within the boundary of any Jewish settlement. In addition, the Housing and Construction Ministry funded the setting-up of infrastructure in places where the Civil Administration had already issued demolishing orders. Read more about The State Comptroller Report for 2003: House Demolitions in the West Bank
In a few months, the International Court will conclude its deliberations on the wall that Israeli constructs on Palestinian land. It has long been claimed that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is a political problem and that the solution is a political solution. However, what the Palestinians have been witnessing since 1967 is land grab and settlements expansion done through “legal” means, when in fact the law was always abused to satisfy Israel’s expansionist whims. Azem Bishara, a legal expert, argues that an advisory opinion will reverse that process with an authoritative statement on basic legal issues that have been long disputed by Israel. Read more about The Wall and the Court: Replacing Politics with Law
Ramallah is now usually quiet at night. This has not always been the case for this summer town located in the center of the West Bank. As a matter of fact, before the latest Israeli military aggression and subsequent re-occupation of the West Bank, Palestinians in Ramallah were known to walk the streets and socialize well into the night. However, tonight the deafening silence was broken, not by the frequent Israeli tanks and jeeps that now enter and exit the city at will, but rather by the music of the distinguished Daniel Barenboim, one of the great musicians of our time. Read more about A Guiding Light Falls on Ramallah
At a time when the Western world worries about weapons of mass destruction in terrorist hands, a more basic device has emerged as the weapon of choice - a life itself. This use of life as a weapon - now exercised mainly by Islamic youths - is frequently presented as the manifestation of Islamic fanaticism. But studies by serious scholars and recent surveys show that the spate of suicide attacks in the Middle East is linked more to politics than to religion. Riaz Hassan, a professor of sociology at Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia, examines recent studies on the subject. Read more about Suicide bombers driven more by politics than religious fundamentalism
What might happen to those taxi drivers and travelers is at present a subject of much storytelling in Bethlehem. Mary heard from a cousin that her brother in law, a taxi driver, was beaten up by soldiers. Another of her cousins studies at Birzeit University and has to take the Wadi Nar road every now and then to visit family back in Bethlehem. A weekend ago she even didn’t dare to try to take that road. Apparently soldiers had erected a large tent next to it where those who were caught sneaking through the hills were brought together and sometimes beaten up. All were people who for their daily duties had to travel from one Palestinian town to another. Read more about Resilience
