The Arab states are in desperate need of reform. Their hundreds of millions of people — the vast majority of them under age 30 — lack the basic freedoms and opportunities that they crave. EI’s Ali Abunimah considers the vexing problem of what can be an agent for much needed change. Some believe that an external “shock,” like the US invasion of Iraq can shake things up for the better. Abunimah believes its urgent that we search for a more positive and constructive path to democracy. Read more about Regional Focus: The problem of Arab reform
The security wall Israel is hastily constructing around the West Bank - officially justified by the need to stop terror attacks - will cage in more than 2 million Palestinians. Another electrified fence is already imprisoning 1 million Palestinians in Gaza. Little attention has focused on this wall, mainly because it is assumed it follows the Green Line, the internationally recognized border that existed between Israel and the West Bank until the war of 1967. But Sharon admitted in a recent interview with the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth that the wall will be at least 1,000 kilometers long (625 miles), whereas the Green Line is only 360 kilometers long. Jonathan Cook writes from Nazareth. Read more about A cage for Palestinians: A 1,000-kilometer fence preempts the Road Map
In “All talk and no dialogue” (Haaretz, August 15), Ze’ev Schiff states that it’s “clear that the truce does not in fact exist,” and explains that the Palestinian government “is incapable of implementing the hudna,” that Abu Mazen cannot “enforce” the agreement among the various Palestinian organizations, and that “the leading trio - Abu Mazen, Minister of State for Security Affairs Mohammed Dahlan, and Finance Minister Salam Fayyad - is incapable of enforcing the hudna even on the armed groups within its own movement, the Fatah.” Hillel Schocken comments in Ha’aretz.Read more about Before we blame the Palestinians
Last Tuesday two Palestinian suicide bombers attacked targets in Rosh Ha’ayin in northern Israel and the Jewish settlement of Ariel in the West Bank. Two Israelis were killed and thirteen wounded in the attacks. The Hamas organisation and Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, to which the bombers belonged, claimed that the attacks were in retaliation for an Israeli attack on the Askar refugee camp, in which two Palestinians were killed. Israel’s immediate response has been to cancel any further releases of Palestinian prisoners and to demolish the family home of one of the bombers, as well as the homes of those families who had the misfortune of living in the same building. In the longer term, if previous practice is anything to go by, the family home of the other bomber will be demolished and Israel will insist that it can make no further concessions until the Palestinian Authority eliminates all forms of militant resistance to the Occupation. Former ISM Media Coordinator Michael Shaik comments. Read more about Road Map obscured by blood
In an earlier essay for The Electronic Intifada, on the right of return of Palestinian refugees, Raja Halwani concluded that it is one thing to recognize this right and another to implement it. In this follow up essay, Halwani takes an in-depth look at arguments for and against implementing the right in practice. Read more about On the Right of Return - Part II
Here in Palestine we have been watching with great despair the visits of Palestinian Prime Minister Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Sharon to Washington. Amidst the rhetoric of negotiations, over 100 bulldozers are working non-stop, every day, to continue construction of the Wall, which highlights the actual path that the Road Map is paving. While President Bush was correct in calling the Wall “a problem” and referring to it as “a wall snaking through the West Bank,” on the ground there is no sign of an end to what has been called the largest “project” ever undertaken by Israel. PENGON coordinator Jamal Juma’ comments. Read more about The Wall in Palestine: Security as Pretense for Dispossession
One of the bitter ironies of the last few years is the continuous calls issued from the United States, that school curricula across the Arab (and Muslim) worlds should be changed in order to reflect the American (and Israeli) view of the world. Yet, writes Joseph Massad, it is the school curricula and textbooks which the United States and Israel both use are in need of equally, if not more, major overhauling, to come close to objective, or at least more inclusive, representations of reality. Read more about Curriculum reform should start in the U.S. and Israel
Recently, we have been witnessing a raging debate about the separation wall which Israel has been building around itself, to prevent further Palestinian “suicide attacks.” But the wall will also include the settlements and the bypass roads built during the interim period under the Oslo accords, to link them with Israel (the interim period which was ostensibly intended to build confidence, not additional annexation facts on the ground), and the land which Israel claims is necessary for security, therefore slicing huge chunks of Arab Palestinian lands to add to Israel as a purely illegal unilateral measure. Hasan Abu-Nimah comments. Read more about Back to barbed wire and separation walls mentality
As Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights organisations have recorded serious abuses over the past several weeks, evidence of European arms, such as modified British Centurion tanks, being used by the Israeli armed forces highlights the need to make the fledgling EU Code of Conduct on Arms Exports effective. Read more about Enough reason to impose a European arms embargo on Israel
With media coverage so tightly focused on the diplomatic maneuvering surrounding President Bush’s Road Map peace initiative, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that Israel continues to implement a devastating set of policies that are endangering the social and national existence of the Palestinian people. In fact, Israel’s grudging participation in the Road Map process is little more than an effort to buy time for these policies to achieve this outcome. Professor Steve Niva reports after returning from Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories as part of a trip organized by Faculty for Israeli-Palestinian Peace. Read more about Road Map diplomacy conceals 'politicide' of the Palestinian people
