News

New Orleans intifada

Jordan Flaherty 24 February 2009


In neighborhoods around New Orleans, there’s a buzz of excitement gathering among this city’s Arab population. A new wave of organizing has brought energy and inspiration to a community that is usually content to stay in the background. Jordan Flaherty reports. 

"They killed me three times"

Eva Bartlett Gaza Strip 24 February 2009


Amer al-Helo smiled wanly while saying he is broken inside. Twenty days after Israeli soldiers shot dead his 55-year-old father and his one-year-old daughter in front of him, also shooting his oldest daughter in the elbow and his brother in the shoulder, the pain of the 29-year-old had not diminished. The Electronic Intifada contributor Eva Bartlett reports from the occupied Gaza Strip. 

Jaffa: from eminence to ethnic cleansing

Sami Abu Shehadeh and Fadi Shbaytah 26 February 2009


The story of Jaffa’s ongoing Nakba is the story of the transformation of a thriving modern urban center into a marginalized neighborhood suffering from poverty, discrimination, gentrification, crime and demolition since the initial wave of mass expulsion in 1948 to the present day. Sami Abu Shehadeh and Fadi Shbaytah trace Jaffa’s modern history. 

Border politics slows aid to Gaza

Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani 23 February 2009


CAIRO (IPS) - Egyptian authorities are continuing to prevent humanitarian aid from crossing the border into the Gaza Strip, according to local sources. “Until now, only about a quarter of all humanitarian aid to arrive in Egypt has made it across the border into Gaza,” Hatem al-Bulk, journalist and political activist, told IPS. “It’s all piling up in al-Arish because the authorities are refusing to let it through the Rafah border crossing.” Al-Arish is located some 40 kilometers west of the border in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula. 

US labor supports boycott of Israeli cargo

Labor for Palestine 23 February 2009


The following statement was issued by Labor for Palestine on 17 February 2009: We salute the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU) in Durban, and Western Australian dock worker members of the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA), for refusing to handle Israeli cargo. Theirs is a courageous response to Israel’s attack on Palestinians in Gaza that, since 27 December alone, have left some 1,400 dead and 5,000 wounded — nearly all of them civilians. 

EU paying for Gaza blockade

David Cronin 23 February 2009


BRUSSELS (IPS) - European Union aid has been given to an Israeli oil company which has reduced the supply of fuel to Gaza as part of an economic blockade internationally recognized as illegal, Brussels officials have admitted. Almost 97 million euros (124 million dollars) in funds managed by the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, were handed over directly to the firm Dor Alon between February 2008 and January this year. 

Israel's authoritarian transformation

Sharon Weill and Valentina Azarov 25 February 2009


One of the main issues raised during the recent conflict in the Gaza Strip — apart from a considerable number of allegations of violations of international humanitarian law that will not be dealt with here — concerns the functioning of rule of law in Israel in cases regarding the freedoms of expression, opinion and access to information. Sharon Weill and Valentina Azarov analyze for The Electronic Intifada. 

Little hope from new US mediation

Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani 20 February 2009


CAIRO (IPS) - Egyptians seem at best only cautiously optimistic over the appointment of Senator George Mitchell as United States envoy to the Middle East. Mitchell is mandated chiefly with settling the Arab-Israeli dispute. “Mitchell’s prospects for achieving an acceptable settlement are grim,” Ahmed Thabet, political science professor at Cairo University told IPS. “The previous US administration created several facts on the ground which will be very difficult to undo.” 

Food insecurity increasing after war

20 February 2009


GAZA CITY, occupied Gaza Strip (IRIN) - Thousands of food-insecure Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are facing an even worse situation after large numbers of livestock and agricultural land were badly damaged or destroyed during Israel’s military assault, which began on 27 December. The already fragile food situation in Gaza has been seriously aggravated by the conflict, according to a report by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization. 

Long road to rehabilitation for Gaza's amputees

Rami Almeghari Gaza Strip 20 February 2009


As the only facility of its kind in Gaza, al-Wafa hospital is set to receive more people who have lost limbs to begin a rehabilitation process that can take weeks, months and even years. Patients receive physical, functional, psychological and clinical support. The number and severity of injuries as a result of the Israeli attack were unprecedented and unfamiliar to Gaza’s doctors.The Electronic Intifada contributor Rami Almeghari reports from the occupied Gaza Strip.