In the period 12-15 February, 2007, Near East Consulting (NEC) conducted a phone survey of over 1200 randomly selected Palestinians in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and Jerusalem of which 806 were successfully completed. It is worth noting that the margin of error is +/- 3.4% with a 95% confidence level. The main findings: 75% of Palestinians do not think that [in principle] Israel has the right to exist, 70% support One State. Furthermore, 51% of Palestinians feel less secure since the January 2006 elections, as compared to 48% last month, and 44% in December 2006. Read more about Survey: 70 percent of Palestinians support one-state solution 

Chanting “Fight the power, turn the page: Heather, Jerry, hear our rage!”, one hundred and fifty protesters marched from the Israeli consulate to a nearby Indigo Books and Music store in Toronto on Saturday afternoon. They were protesting Indigo’s majority shareholders’ support for Israeli Apartheid. The day of action was organized by the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) as the culmination of the third annual Israeli Apartheid Week. Israeli Apartheid Week was a series of lectures held on campuses in Canada (Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa), the UK (Oxford, Cambridge), and the US (New York) to highlight Israel’s apartheid policies. Read more about Day of Action Against Indigo Books and Music Inc. 

WASHINGTON, Feb 21 (IPS) - If, as she insists, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is determined to make concrete progress toward achieving George W. Bush’s vision of a two-state solution, one in which Israel would be required to make major territorial concessions, it appears that she faces a major foe in the White House. No, not only Dick Cheney and the surviving members of the neo-conservative clique that surrounded him and former Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld during Bush’s first term — although the vice president’s office remains a formidable force against any concessions to a Palestinian government of national unity that includes Hamas, despite Saudi Arabia’s role in midwifing its birth at Mecca last week. Read more about Rice Faces Formidable White House Foe 

I spent my 25th birthday in Jabalya, Gaza’s biggest refugee camp. I have known Jamal, a taxi driver in Gaza, for almost two years. I could only protest so many times at his neglecting to host me in his home. In spite of the pleas of his children, whom I had met on a number of occasions outside his home, I realized today why he never did. I have often entered the homes of refugees while distributing food across the Gaza Strip and yet what struck me that day was the familiarity of Jamal sitting by my side against the unfamiliarity of his home. Read more about My birthday in Jabalya refugee camp 

Gabriel Ashkenazi, a 2004 graduate of Harvard Business School who was appointed chief of staff of the Israeli Defense Forces this weekend, has come under fire from activists at Harvard who say Ashkenazi was responsible for human rights abuses before his arrival in Cambridge. [*] In e-mails to The Crimson, the activists alleged that Ashkenazi was responsible for abuses during Israel’s 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon and for his role in overseeing the construction of the barrier separating Israel and several of its settlements from the rest of the West Bank. Read more about Controversy at Harvard after appointment of alum to Israeli army chief of staff 

In recent weeks and months Lebanon has faced major political upheaval, marked by massive street demonstrations, international political intervention and a national general strike. Lebanon’s political opposition maintains an ongoing open-air demonstration in central Beirut, which commenced on December 1st, 2006, fueled by popular discontent toward the current national government. Vivid political debate in Lebanon and throughout the Lebanese Diaspora presents challenging political questions toward both the current government and political opposition regarding growing sectarian strife across an increasingly divided nation. Read more about Photostory: Solidarity in Solidere 

“I’m still in New Orleans. It’s so much like Palestine it’s eerie. It’s a different kind of devastation than right after the storm. Some of the worst wreckage has been cleaned up — there are no longer throngs of people camping out on the I-10 Causeway or waterlogged bodies lining the streets. Now it’s the emptiness that is most striking. Some parts of the city are like a ghost town.” Writing from New Orleans, EI contributor Lora Gordan finds parallels between the struggle for justice in New Orleans and that in Palestine. Read more about The geography of dissent: New Orleans and Palestine 

The fears of sectarian strife may be the reason why a good number of bloggers wrote about sectarianism this week. However, as one may expect, bloggers do not agree on how to define or confront this issue. While some see that it is blown out of proportion, or that ignoring it may bring calamity, others think that it is a blessing and a Lebanese exceptionality. Nevertheless, many anti-sectarian youth peace groups have popped-up in Beirut in an attempt to save Lebanon from the seemingly inevitable future of a civil war or violence such as those occurring in neighboring countries in the region. Read more about Lebanon Bloggers Roundup: Sectarianism and Peace Groups