29 January 2009
RAMALLAH, occupied West Bank (IPS) - Gaza will need years to recover from the devastating Israeli assault, says Katharina Ritz, head of mission of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Israel’s 22-day assault left more than 1,300 Palestinians dead, and decimated much of the coastal territory’s infrastructure. Read more about "Gaza will take years to recover"
29 January 2009
RAMALLAH, occupied West Bank (IRIN) - Israel says 453 trucks entered Gaza 18-23 January, but only about half of them carried humanitarian aid — not nearly enough for 1.5 million Gazans, say United Nations agencies and international aid groups. “The donors and the general public have mobilized from all over the world but the aid is stuck outside Gaza,” said John Ging, head of the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza. Read more about Aid reaching Gaza, but is it enough?
2 February 2009
US President Barack Obama’s appointment of former Senator George Mitchell as his new Middle East envoy is a good choice. Mitchell helped broker the 1998 Belfast Agreement, the key to ending decades of strife in Northern Ireland. Because of historical similarities, that peace agreement is an important precedent for Palestinians and Israeli Jews. But will Mitchell be allowed to apply its lessons? The Electronic Intifada’s Ali Abunimah comments. Read more about Can Mitchell turn Jerusalem into Belfast?
28 January 2009
UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - The president of the United Nations General Assembly was a last-minute no-show at the UN’s annual ceremony commemorating the Holocaust, following an intense lobbying campaign by pro-Israel organizations to have him removed from the program. Father Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann had come under fire for his harsh criticisms of Israeli policies, leading to suspicions that his failure to deliver a scheduled speech at the event was due to political considerations. Read more about Gaza tensions shadow UN Holocaust ceremony
28 January 2009
Students from at least 17 universities in the United Kingdom have staged sit-ins, as part of an unprecedented increase in British activism in support of the Palestinians. These university “occupations” have been launched to compel administrators to meet demands ranging from official condemnation of the Israeli action to establishing scholarships for Palestinian students to study in the UK. Read more about Surge of direct action at UK universities in support of Palestine
5 February 2009
The Arab peace initiative, adopted by the Arab League at its 2002 summit in Beirut, misses fundamental ingredients that would make the blood of vitality flow through its weak veins. After long years of Arab marketing, repetition and explanations (often very boring), we are still at the starting line. Large segments of Arab public opinion view the initiative with suspicion and doubt, and the Israelis — for reasons beyond my comprehension — want to avoid it as much as possible. Ahmad Hijazi comments for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about A real Arab peace initiative
27 January 2009
Perhaps the most nuanced aspect of Palestinian suffering that goes more or less unnoticed is the abominable state of the Palestinian economy. The systemic and perpetual economic hindrances imposed upon the Palestinian economy by the Israeli occupation are viewed by most experts to be the primary impediment to allowing the Palestinian economy to reach its full potential. Sami Halabi analyzes for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Palestinian economy: Foundation of a state or common burden?
27 January 2009
It is utterly misleading and dishonest to pretend — as so many now do — that the sum total of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is a confrontation over what expired Palestinian Authority President and Israeli puppet Mahmoud Abbas himself referred to as “silly rockets.” To pretend that stopping the supply of rockets will make any difference to the course of a conflict that results from the historic dispossession — the Nakba — of an entire nation, and its replacement with a racist rogue state that has exiled, occupied and massacred the survivors for 61 years is the height of delusion. Hasan Abu Nimah comments. Read more about The shortcut to peace
26 January 2009
GAZA CITY, occupied Gaza Strip (IPS) - At 7:30am 22 January, five days after Israeli authorities declared a “ceasefire” following their 22-day air, land and sea bombardment of the Gaza Strip, Israeli gunboats renewed shelling off the Gaza city coast, injuring at least six, including four children. Read more about Ceasefire broken from day one
26 January 2009
In Gaza, Palestinians have once again been blamed for their own deaths. The British made a similar argument 151 years ago when they killed thousands of Indian civilians — 1,200 in a single village — in response to the largest anti-colonial uprising of the 19th century. If Israel truly desires peace with the Palestinians and safety for its citizens, it should look back to one of the greatest, and misunderstood, independence movements in history. Radhika Sainath comments for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about The Indian example