Maysoon notices an odd formation of soldiers. In a row. Guns drawn. Rafael is walking towards them. There are no street lights on. He thinks he’s walking towards an empty van. She pulls him closer to her, and shots are fired. Yes. The soldiers shot into the crowd. No warning fire. No megaphone. Live bullets into a crowd of hundreds. It is so dark, my friends see the sparks fly out of the guns. They keep walking, slowly. Surely. Maysoon figures they won’t shoot in the direction of other soldiers, and she is right. They breeze through the checkpoint. No questions asked by either side. Once through, an Israeli soldier asks her where she’s from, in English. “Can you believe he wanted to have a normal conversation with me?” Read more about Palestine's people never say goodbye
Returning home to Gaza, I had to fly first to Cairo, then cross the Sinai desert by coach to reach the Rafah border crossing — a journey that takes 6 hours at least, as Palestinians are not allowed to use Ben Gurion airport which is merely an hour’s drive from Gaza). The Gaza Strip is served by a modern international airport — built during the Oslo years — but this has remained closed since late 2000, and now sports a bulldozed runway, courtesy of the Israeli army. Dr. Mona El-Farra writes about her long journey from Cairo to Gaza. Read more about The Story of the Seven Gates
The 216th General Assembly approved several measures opposing the Israeli occupation of Palestine Friday, including a call for the corporate witness office of the Presbyterian Church (USA) to begin gathering data to support a selective divestment of holdings in multinational corporations doing business in Israel/Palestine. Divestment is one of the strategies that U.S. churches used in the 1970s and ’80s in a successful campaign to end apartheid in South Africa. The vote was 431 to 62 to have the church’s Mission Responsibility Through Investment Committee (MRTI) study the matter and make recommendations to the General Assembly Council. Read more about Assembly Presbyterian Church endorses Israel divestment
A few weeks ago, Israeli scholars and activists appealed to Jewish-Israeli public opinion through a compelling document. Entitled “For Truth and Reconciliation, For Equality and Partnership” the appeal aimed at changing the political discourse in Israel, particularly “the historical dimension of the conflict and noting the structural political, ideological and cultural changes required to reach, in the future, a true reconciliation.” The Olga document is the result of a series of discussions between Israeli scholars and activists in Givat Olga, one of the largest neighborhoods in Hadera overlooking the Mediterranean coastline. Read more about The Olga Appeal: Israeli scholars and activists recognize the right of return
During the last week of our stay, we decided to visit Tel Aviv. It was Easter Monday, and many Christians from all over Palestine were gathering to celebrate that holiday in the Arab city of Yafa, now mostly depopulated and surrounded by Tel Aviv. We decided to go with a group of our friends from Ramallah, all of whom, being Christian, were able to obtain the special Easter permits to travel to Israel. This week, EI publishes daily installments of a six-part diary from March/April 2004, by Dr. Saber Zaitoun, the pseudonym of a Palestinian-American in his thirties. Dr. Zaitoun grew up under Israeli occupation and first came to the USA during the first Intifada to finish his education. He is married, and currently teaches at a University on the East Coast. Read more about A Stranger in My Own Land: An excursion to Tel Aviv (6 of 6)
Having seen the latest developments first-hand on this trip, it dawned on me that what’s going on over there is a full-blown genocide. A genocide in slow motion, perhaps, but a genocide nevertheless. This week, EI publishes daily installments of a six-part diary from March/April 2004, by Dr. Saber Zaitoun, the pseudonym of a Palestinian-American in his thirties. Dr. Zaitoun grew up under Israeli occupation and first came to the USA during the first Intifada to finish his education. He is married, and currently teaches at a University on the East Coast. Read more about A Stranger in My Own Land: Changing the Map (5 of 6)
Peretz Kidron is an Israeli who has been fighting battles all his life, but many of them with the country he emigrated to as an idealistic young man in 1951. Now campaigning to spread the messages of Israeli military personnel who refuse to serve in the Occupied Territories, Kidron was one of the founders of Yesh Gvul (“There is a limit”), the movement of soldiers that sprang up in 1982 to oppose Israel’s invasion of Lebanon. EI’s Ali Abunimah recently spoke to him about the Refusenik movement, Israel’s internal politics and the prospects for peace. Read more about The deterrent power of Israeli refuseniks: interview with Peretz Kidron
Around Ramallah, the Apartheid Wall is still in the form a snaking stretch of electrified barbed wires surrounded by military roads and minefields, rather than the familiar slabs of concrete seen in other cities. A 5-minute drive towards the nearby village of Rafat, situated between Ramallah and Jerusalem, brings one face-to-face with three layers of wall in plain sight. This week, EI publishes daily installments of a six-part diary from March/April 2004, by Dr. Saber Zaitoun, the pseudonym of a Palestinian-American in his thirties. Dr. Zaitoun grew up under Israeli occupation and first came to the USA during the first Intifada to finish his education. He is married, and currently teaches at a University on the East Coast. Read more about A Stranger in My Own Land: Life in the Ghetto (4 of 6)
When The Hague speaks, the world listens, especially when a threat to international peace is involved. At least this was the case until the International Court of Justice took aim at Israel. At issue was the Israeli government’s building of a separation wall on occupied Palestinian lands in the West Bank, which, in essence, has caged Palestinian communities into ghettos reminiscent of the Jewish ghettos in Europe during World War II. Palestinian-American businessman Sam Bahour writes from beseiged Al-Bireh. Read more about The World Is Knocking on Israel's Door
On July 22 1987 at five in the afternoon, Palestinian cartoonist Naji Al-Ali parked his car in southwest London, and walked a few meters towards the offices of the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Qabas where he worked. He was shot in the head by a gunman. After five weeks in a coma on a life support machine Naji al-Ali died on August 30, 1987 at the age of 49. Naji al-Ali is still the most popular artist in the Arab world, loved for his defense of the ordinary people, and for his criticism of repression and despotism. His unrelenting cartoons exposed the brutality of the Israeli army and the hypocrisy of the PLO, earning him many powerful enemies. Read more about Naji al-Ali: The timeless conscience of Palestine
