Israel established a “development town” on the site of the destroyed villages of al-Faluja and ‘Iraq al-Manshiya in 1955. It was called Kiryat Gat (Gat City) in the mistaken belief that it was the site of the ancient Philistine town of Gath. Initially, Kiryat Gat’s major industries were agriculture and textiles. But in the mid-1990s Intel chose Kiryat Gat as the site for a huge new plant it called Fab 18. Henry Norr comments for EI about the Intel corporation’s complicity in the ongoing Nakba in Palestine. Read more about The Nakba, Intel, and Kiryat Gat
The Israeli cabinet’s decision to strike a prisoner-exchange deal with the Hizballah movement in Lebanon — on the eve of the anniversary of the war between the two sides of 12 July-14 August 2006 — will not be remembered as one of Israel’s most glorious moments. Amal Saad-Ghorayeb looks at the short-term and long-term implications of the deal. Read more about The Israel-Hizballah prisoner deal
Escaping into ambitious political fantasy like that behind the Mediterranean Union is not the right approach to urgent political questions. It is no more than a waste of time. If Europe is truly concerned, there is a due need for a principled, bold, decisive and compatible with international law policy towards the resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict. EI contributor Hasan Abu Nimah comments. Read more about No Mediterranean Union shortcut around Arab-Israeli conflict
The petty politics of forming a national “unity” government in Lebanon will be overshadowed this week by a development with local and regional implications. All Lebanese political prisoners still held in Israeli jails will return home. Five in total, including Samir Kuntar, the dean of Arab detainees, who has spent close to three decades of his life in captivity. With the return of prisoners, another chapter of Hizballah’s struggle against Israel has closed. Read more about Meet the Lebanese Press: Free at last!
Five days into the long awaited Gaza ceasefire, Israel allowed the entry of tissues and sanitary napkins into Gaza as a form of “good will.” Simultaneously, it carried out an early morning raid against a student hostel in Nablus, killing two Palestinians in their beds. Dr. Eyad al-Sarraj comments on what it will take for a permanent lifting of the siege and resisting of Israeli colonial designs. Read more about Unite to negotiate a real truce
GAZACITY (IPS) - The assault of IPS Gaza correspondent Mohammed Omer has left Israeli security personnel with a lot of explaining to do. And they are not doing a very good job of it. Omer was abused and assaulted by Israeli security personnel at the Allenby border crossing into Israel from Jordan as he tried to return to his home last week in the Gaza Strip. Omer was returning from Europe where he had addressed European parliamentarians on the situation on the ground in Gaza. Read more about When you shoot the messenger
The following is adapted from a talk by Jonathan Cook delivered at the Conference for the Right of Return and the Secular Democratic State, held in Haifa on 21 June 2008. In 1895 Theodor Herzl, Zionism’s chief prophet, confided in his diary that he did not favor sharing Palestine with the natives. Better, he wrote, to “try to spirit the penniless [Palestinian] population across the border by denying it any employment in our own country … Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly.” Read more about Zionism's dead end
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict often inspires a sense of powerlessness. What can average Americans do to bring an end to this decades-old conflict when our leaders have failed so miserably? And what good is speaking out about Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land as the primary obstacle to peace when even former President Jimmy Carter and Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu are condemned for their criticism of Israeli policies? Bill Fletcher, Jr. comments. Read more about Tactics that ended apartheid in S. Africa can end it in Israel
A ceasefire went into effect in Gaza last week, offering some respite from the violence that has killed hundreds of Palestinians and five Israelis in recent months. It will do nothing, however, to address the underlying cause of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Intermittent spectacular violence may draw the world’s attention to the occupied Palestinian territories, but our obsession with violence actually distracts us from the real nature of Israel’s occupation, which is its smothering bureaucratic control of everyday Palestinian life. Saree Makdisi comments. Read more about Occupation by bureaucracy
StandWithUs is a Zionist advocacy group in Los Angeles. It concentrates on US colleges and universities, offering fellowships, book donations, lectures, training and hands-on activism. EI contributor Jim Holstun analyzes the problematic writing one of StandWithUs’ most energetic speakers, Nonie Darwish, billed as “a Muslim Shahid’s Daughter.” Read more about Nonie Darwish and the al-Bureij massacre
