Soliciting the support of people in the US-based Palestine solidarity movement, Palestine Note recently launched a new website that aspires to become the online hub for all things Palestine. While the website announces its dedication to “news, stories and views about Palestine and Palestinians,” and its aspiration to become a “cultivator of community,” The Electronic Intifada contributor Yaman Salahi finds there is more behind the enterprise than meets the eye. Read more about Making a business out of Palestine's struggle
One of the travesties of living in a colonized environment is that the inferior, or oppressed, aspire to win admittance to the Western world. There seems to be an emerging trend of this type of appeasement, where submission has replaced the revolution. The introduction to spectacles, like the breaking of a Guinness record for the largest plate of kanafeh and the search for a national beauty queen, are just two examples of absurd practices are coming to be seen as normal in Palestinian cities. Sousan Hammad comments for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Miss Palestine's mistaken rebellion
I mark the beginning of the new decade imprisoned in a military detention camp. Nevertheless, from within the occupation′s holding cell I meet the New Year with determination and hope. I know that Israel’s military campaign to imprison the leadership of the Palestinian popular struggle shows that our nonviolent struggle is effective. Abdallah Abu Rahmah writes from the Ofer Military Detention Camp. Read more about "No army, no prison and no wall can stop us"
On International Human Rights Day in 2008, my husband Abdallah Abu Rahmah was in Berlin receiving a medal from the World Association for Human Rights. Last year on the same day, 10 December, Abdallah was taken away at 2am by Israeli soldiers who broke into our West Bank home. Abdallah was arrested for the same reasons he received the prize — his nonviolent struggle for justice, equality and peace in Palestine/Israel. Majida Abu Rahmah comments. Read more about My husband: jailed for protesting Israel's wall
The US, UK and Canadian governments are all embroiled in attempts to immunize themselves from accountability under international law for their own actions in the so-called War on Terror. Protecting Israel from international law has therefore acquired an added urgency, not only in the interests of the Zionist regime, but also in the interests of the US and its two staunchest allies in the War on Terror, Britain and Canada, to remain beyond the reach of international law. Sunera Thobani comments for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Gaza and the path to accountability
Israel still believes it can act with impunity. It will only stop if there is a cost to its human rights violations. Appeals to the Israeli authorities to respect due process are not enough, as Omar Barghouti put it in a call to redouble efforts for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS). Israel will only change if it “gets the message that its arrest of civil resistance leaders will only intensify the already massive BDS campaigns against it.” Nadia Hijab comments. Read more about Targeting human rights defenders
Too many months have gone by with no change in the crippling isolation of Gaza imposed by Israel and Egypt, and it was time to risk our privileged access to take our efforts to break the siege up a notch. Our numbers had to be massive enough to threaten the jailers’ growing complacence and broad enough to send the message that this is a global movement that won’t stop until the Palestinian people are given the freedom and justice they deserve. Pam Rasmussen comments for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Gaza's border must be opened NOW
A year after Israel’s attack and after more than two-and-a-half years of blockade, the Palestinian people in Gaza have not surrendered. Instead they have offered the world lessons in steadfastness and dignity, even at an appalling, unimaginable cost. Ali Abunimah comments. Read more about Israel resembles a failed state
On 29 December, I will attempt to cross into the Gaza Strip along with 1,300 other peace and justice activists from 43 countries. Some of us have traveled to Gaza previously. It will be my third visit since the Israeli invasion, which destroyed or damaged more than 50,000 homes and 90 percent of private industry. Pam Rasmussen comments for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Why I want to march in Gaza
Efforts by human rights organizations, lawyers and activists in Palestine and Europe to hold Israeli war crimes suspects to account have gained momentum over the past few years. Last week, former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni cancelled a visit to the UK over threats of a lawsuit under the country’s universal jurisdiction laws. Adri Nieuwhof and Ziyaad Lunat comment for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Net around Israeli war crimes suspects tightens