Is the Bush administration making quiet overtures towards Hamas? What are the prospects for reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah, and what are Hamas’ views on peace with Israel? Does the Islamist movement support the one-state solution and where does it look to for political role models? Dr. Ahmed Yousef, senior advisor to Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, the leader of the Hamas government in Gaza, recently spoke to The Electronic Intifada’s Gaza Strip correspondent Rami Almeghari about these and other issues. Read more about EI interview: Hamas advisor on talking to the US, Fatah and Israel
“The Acre incidents” rocked the city from its supposed tranquility — a tranquility that hinged on a tenuous basis. It might definitely be best for everyone if life in Acre does not return to its previous track. It is simply necessary to change the track. But Acre is not alone. There are six other cities like it that are also called “mixed cities,” where strong and deep-rooted Palestinian communities lived until 1948 and where only the remnants of the expulsion remained. Ali Haider comments. Read more about Don't put life in Acre back on track
Since the launch of the Palestinian boycott movement a few years ago, we have experienced an awkward phenomenon that demands urgent comment. Several organizations known for years — in some cases, decades — for their tireless Palestine solidarity work stood firmly against the Palestinian civil society Call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, issued on 9 July 2005, for various reasons. EI contributor Omar Barghouti responds to their arguments against the boycott campaign. Read more about What we really need! A response to anti-boycott arguments
Prevented from producing and competing with Israel’s economy, the Palestinians became forced consumers and this is perpetuated by foreign aid. Effectively international donors foot the bill while Israeli companies profit from the desperate need of an entire population under Israel’s occupation. Foreign aid has done nothing to revitalize the economy, and has only made the Palestinians one of the most aid-dependent populations in the world. Sonja Karkar comments for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about The pauperization of Palestine
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
