The shooting from the tower dominiates the night, louder than angry men, louder than demonstrators. Earlier tonight, an ambulance’s urgent wail, me holding my breath praying. Death is so close now you can smell it. Already it has come like a rain storm beginning in Hebron, like the time I watched rain come towards me from across a lake and ran toward the forest and my feet were not faster than the rain. Laura Gordon writes from Rafah. Read more about Fragments of Rafah
Toine van TeeffelenBethlehem, Palestine1 September 2003
Waiting happens everywhere in the world. Waiting in Palestine, however, is not just a routine and bothersome phenomenon that can better be neglected because there is nothing to do about it. It happens so frequently, and it is so testing and influential, that it often dominates people’s lives. Toine van Teeffelen writes from Bethlehem. Read more about The Waiting Game
I just had the hardest day of my life. Let me start off by telling you that yesterday i had to get into Nablus while it was under curfew. I was with three Palestinians. I had a hard time getting here and, once in Nablus, I had to walk up to a tank and another armored vehicle and negotiate with them to let us through and they didn’t let the one male go past so he walked around. We eventually got around. Read more about Terror in Nablus
To relax, go to the closed checkpoint on the way to Rafah beach. For extreme sports, go to Gaza City and dodge Apache missiles… Laura Gordon writes from Gaza City. Read more about Vacationing in the Gaza Strip
At 3.30 am on Thursday the 21st of August, the Israeli occupying forces once again invaded the Palestine Medical Relief Emergency Clinic, in the old city in Nablus. Upon entering the clinic, the soldiers ordered all the staff to leave. Read more about Israeli forces invade medical aid office in Nablus
Life here on the ground in occupied Palestine is rarely reported in the United States. The brutal impact of Israel’s military occupation is hidden behind the rhetoric of pundits and politicians, many of whom have never met a Palestinian. They have never, as I have, held a sick Palestinian child in their arms as her parents beg soldiers to let them pass a checkpoint. They have never babysat Palestinian children while their mother goes out to find out what happened to her husband during an armed invasion of their refugee camp. Daniel Jacob Quinn writes from occupied Jenin. Read more about Up against the Apartheid Wall
Issam Nashashibi
In this commentary for EI, Issam Nashashibi argues that the recent poll purporting to show that few Palestinian refugees want to exercise their right of return is only the latest of many efforts to manage Palestinians’ expectations and convince them to accept less than their fundamental rights. This effort, like others before it, will not succeed. Read more about Efforts to negate right of return have long, ignoble history
There is shooting along the border and shooting at weddings and for an untrained ear it’s hard to tell the difference except by location. A Kalashnikov is low and hollow and echoes. An M-16 is a bit shriller, a bit louder. Machine gun fire comes from the border only. Tank shells come from the border only. Laura Gordon reports from Rafah. Read more about At the end of a ceasefire that never was
Toine van TeeffelenBethlehem, Palestine18 August 2003
“Don’t remind me,” says Mary. “I’ll go if I have the courage.” I asked her about visiting Etzion, the office near the Gush Etzion settlement between Bethlehem and Hebron where the Israeli ‘Civil Administration’ is located and where Bethlehemites have to ask for their tasreeyeh (“permit”). We are preparing ourselves for a holiday to Cyprus together with the kids and Imm Hannah and Janet, Mary’s mother and sister. Jara and Tamer have Dutch passports, Mary and her family however not and they therefore need a permit to enter Tel Aviv airport. Read more about Etzion
Salman Abu Sitta, president of the London-based Palestine Land Society examines a recently conducted poll among Palestinian refugees, questioning its methodology and refuting many of the claims that have been made from it. The continued dedication of Palestians to working for this right, refutes the assumption that the refugees only want shelter, food and legal papers and willingly accept settlement elsewhere. Dr. Abu Sitta contributed this article to EI. Read more about Who undermines the right of return?
