After a bloody day that saw 10 Palestinians killed, the fragile five-month Israeli-Palestinian truce seems to be in danger of unraveling. But analysts on both sides say this is simply a game of chicken weeks before Israel’s planned Gaza disengagement. Analysts say the violence is only intended to test the limits of the fragile truce. Sharon does not want to be seen as evacuating under fire, and Palestinian factions want the disengagement to appear as a victory. In the end, analysts say, it is in neither side’s interest to officially abandon the ceasefire before disengagement. Both sides are pushing it to the very edge. Israel’s mass of forces will not lightly decide to go in.” Read more about Israeli-Palestinian truce put to test
The demonstration in Bil’in against Israel’s illegal Annexation Wall has developed an almost ritualistic pattern that’s very typical of peaceful protests in Occupied Palestine, where Israeli soldiers tolerate passive resistance for so long before they fire tear gas or rubber-coated bullets — which break the skin and often kill — into the crowd. Doing this invokes stone throwing from local youths, who weather a day-to-day narrative of harassment, beatings and arrests, quite apart from what the internationals experience. If one believes in the adage that “the powerless don’t choose violence, violence chooses them,” then it could be applied here. Read more about How do you like your blue-eyed boy: The Rally in Bil'in
The Palestinian Islamic Resistance group, Hamas, says it remains committed to observing the ceasefire, despite the assassination by Israel of at least eight of its resistance cadres. Israeli warplanes on Friday carried out two pinpoint missile attacks on two Palestinian vehicles in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, killing at least eight Hamas resistance activists. “We are still committed to the ceasefire. We are not interested in any escalation. However, if Israel continues these acts of extrajudicial executions of our people, then we will most certainly defend ourselves,” said Hasan Yousuf, Hamas’s spokesman in the West Bank. Read more about Hamas: "We are committed to ceasefire"
14th July 2005 — There was a bombing in central London last week. We’ve just been to the third funeral since then. Two of the dead were children; all were victims of a campaign to kill and to destroy a society and way of life. We’re not in London, we’re in Nablus, Palestine. The Israeli army came into Palestinian streets and opened fire, killing the last three as they’ve killed thousands before. A little over a year ago Mohammed Alassi, 26, also known as Nino, escaped the wreckage of the car that was bombed, killing the Balata Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade leader Kalil Marshood. Nino was killed late last Wednesday night. Read more about Why kill Nino?
“Abu Mazen declared that there was nothing to prevent the Arab countries from taking a sovereign decision to offer citizenship to refugees to anyone who wants. This of course, is with the guarantee that such a measure would in no way impinge on the legal right of refugees to return, to restitution and to compensation.” Palestine Report Online interviews the director general of the PLO Refugees Affairs Departmet, Saji Salameh, on President Mahmoud Abbas’ recent comments on granting Arab citizenship to Palestinian refugees. “There are those who have American, Canadian and British passports, but this does not impinge on their legal rights, which are guaranteed by international law.” Read more about All Palestinians have a right to Palestine
On Wednesday night, the relative tranquillity of Birzeit came to an end when two unmarked armoured jeeps rolled lazily into the town center. Three Israeli commandos emerged from one of the vehicles and entered a corner store. “What are you people doing in Birzeit?” the shopkeeper asked. “We’ve come to fight for Israel,” a soldier responded. Although Birzeit is a peaceful village of approximately 5,000 farmers, storekeepers and university students in the hills north of Ramallah, the arrival of the Israeli convoy wasn’t a complete surprise. Read more about "What kind of army does this?"
In November 2003 Ahmed Abdel Majeed, a stateless Palestinian born and raised in Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp in southern Lebanon, was deported from Canada. The distance between Montreal and Lebanon stretches thousands of kilometers over oceans and continents, but is only a short distance in Ahmed’s eyes and living memory of an existence shaped by the daily struggle of statelessness. Today Ahmed resides in Ein el-Hilweh, with an estimated 80 000 other stateless Palestinians in the country’s largest refugee camp located on the outskirts of the southern Lebanese city of Saida. Read more about From Montreal to Ein el-Hilweh: Deportation, Destitution & Dignity
One year after the ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), in which it made clear that the construction of the Wall and the settlements were illegal, the Israeli cabinet called for “the immediate completion of the security fence [sic] in the Jerusalem area”. With this decision, Israel, once again, defies international law and the advisory of opinion of the ICJ, backed by the General Assembly of the United Nations, which ruled that Israel should not only immediately stop with its construction, but also begin dismantling them and to pay reparations to those who had lost their property as the result of the Wall’s construction. Read more about One year after ICJ ruling, Israel OKs Wall in Jerusalem
Yesterday I woke up early and headed for a small village in the West Bank, outside of Ramallah, called Bil’in. I arrived earlier than I had expected so I wandered around trying to see where the new portion of the Apartheid Wall will be built to encircle this town and imprison its inhabitants. The people in the community created an enormous justice scale with a coffin beneath stating “Rest in Peace.” When we arrived at the bottom of this hill we were met by the Israeli army who were in full riot gear in a line in front of us. They had their weapons pointed at us and there were also quite a few filming us and photographing us. This protest in Bil’in is a weekly occurrence. Read more about One year on: Protest against the Wall in Bil'in
Imagine that you live in the North End, but your grandparents live in the West End of Boise. Imagine that in order to visit them you must confront a 26-foot concrete wall that surrounds each neighborhood and separates you. Imagine that to cross a small break in this wall along Broadway you will be met by soldiers, who will ask to see your passport and who will interrogate you about why you want to visit your family while pointing guns in your face. Imagine that to go to work every day you must pass similar checkpoints, all of which are a cross between airport security and a military zone. This is what life is like for me right now living in the Palestinian Occupied Territories. Read more about Tearing down illegal wall only way to achieve peace
