The silence and indifference of the world community to Israel’s racial discrimination against Palestinians is a blow to all people who cannot accept injustice and unjust behavior, either from individuals or states. Moreover, as Martin Luther King, Jr. said about racial discrimination against African-Americans in the US, “injustice anywhere is threat to justice everywhere.” EI contributor Adri Nieuwhof comments. Read more about West's silence towards Israel's racial discrimination unacceptable
Last May, although he was visiting the Netherlands, Dutch police failed to arrest Ami Ayalon, an Israeli government minister. An application for Ayalon’s arrest had been submitted to Dutch authorities by Khalid al-Shami, a Palestinian man who alleged he was tortured by Israel’s Shin Bet secret service when Ayalon ran it. It was a narrow escape; but credible reports indicate that Dutch authorities actively colluded with Israel to frustrate the course of justice. The Electronic Intifada’s Arjan El Fassed comments. Read more about Dutch authorities let Israel get away with torture
The recent violence in the Israeli town of Acre has been presented by mainstream media as an aberration in Israel’s model “democracy.” The BBC echoed official Israeli discourse, emphasizing that the so-called “Israeli-Arabs” “have full rights as Israeli citizens.” However, as The Electronic Intifada contributor Ziyaad Lunat argues, the Zionist state has historically suppressed its Palestinian citizens, through a complex legal framework that circumspectly discriminates against them, while still allowing for a “democratic” facade. Read more about Israel's democratic facade erodes
Carel Moiseiwitsch and Gordon Murray6 October 2008
In June 2007, the Palestine Media Collective produced a newspaper parody of The Vancouver Sun that satirized the anti-Palestinian bias of CanWest, the largest media conglomerate in Canada. Six months later, CanWest launched a lawsuit against those who “conspired” to produce and distribute the parody. The original writ named Mordecai Briemberg, Horizon Publications (the printer), and six Jane and John Does. Carel Moiseiwitsch and Gordon Murray comment for EI. Read more about Huffing and puffing to silence criticism of Israel
With Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert forced to concentrate on his corruption charges, Tzipi Livni, Israel’s foreign minister, won the ruling party Kadima’s primaries and is hoping to form a new government. The Electronic Intifada contributor Gabriel Ash looks at Livni’s cultivated dovish image in the context of a neo-liberal and colonial Israel. Read more about Livni: the making of an Israeli "dove"
The strategic value of international solidarity with the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, refugees in the Diaspora and Palestinians in Israel raises some fundamental questions. The most immediate and urgent are: what the nature of international solidarity should be and how it can best support the Palestinian struggle for self-determination? Savera Kalideen and Haidar Eid comment for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Learning from South Africa
Israel has always had a master plan and a strategy for achieving it and its plans for us are patently clear. We, too, need a long-term strategy in which we act intelligently and purposefully, not simply reacting ineffectually to the schemes of others. Our strategy must be mindful of our history, the irrefutable justice of our cause, the sacrifices that good and honest people have made in hope of realizing a better future for generations to come, and the considerable assets that we have, marginalized and bombarded and besieged though we are. Ida Audeh comments for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Identifying Palestinian options
Imagine John Lennon is still alive and touring, and is asked to play Tel Aviv as Israel celebrates turning 60. Picture him publicly telling the Israelis where to stick their offer. Paul McCartney, on the other hand, will be giving the first performance by a Beatle in Tel Aviv on 25 September — receiving an alleged $4.3 million — despite efforts by various groups in Palestine and internationally calling on him to boycott Israel. William Parry comments for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Live and let die
I continue to believe that we can achieve a lasting peace, with the Israeli and Palestinian peoples living as neighbors in two independent states. But if we do not succeed, and succeed soon, the parameters of the debate are apt to shift dramatically. Israel’s continued settlement expansion and land confiscation in the West Bank makes physical separation of our two peoples increasingly impossible. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas comments. Read more about Israel and Palestine can still achieve peace
Where are you taking us, Mr. President? To what desert are you leading us? To what catastrophe? How dare you decide how many refugees can or cannot return? Who gave you permission to speak in my name, and in my children’s name? Who asked you to barter our rights? What is the price for the sale of an entire people’s rights and their sacrifices for 60 years? Abdelfattah Abusrour decries the Palestinian Authority president’s recent statements undermining the Palestinian refugees’ right of return and compensation. Read more about A refugee's open letter to Mahmoud Abbas
