Recently, I was quite surprised to find that the map of Israel on the popular Internet site MapQuest presents the area of the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights (Syrian Heights) as undifferentiated from Israel proper. In other words, as opposed to depicting Israel delineated by its internationally recognized borders, MapQuest displays the “Greater Israel,” which is the dream of many in the Israeli right wing. The realization of this “Greater Israel,” of course, precludes any possibility of the Palestinian people realizing their national aspirations. Read more about MapQuest.com obscures status of occupied territories
It is only a matter of time before West Bankers start blasting holes in the wall Israel has built to contain them as though they were cattle. Right now, they seem to be satisfied with spraying graffiti on the wall and painting whimsical scenes of ladders and windows or representations of holes. On the Gaza Strip, in the fine tradition of great prison-escape movies, Hamas blasted a hole in the wall north of Rafah a few days ago to help people through. Islamic Jihad blasted a hole about a mile down the wall shortly after that. EI contributor Rima Merriman notes that Palestinians are refusing to read the lines Israel has written for them in a nightmarish script. Read more about The Palestinian 'Great Escape'
“As the so-called ‘disengagement’ from Gaza has come to an end and the Israeli government turns its hawkish eye towards consolidation in the West Bank, the lines of debate over the motives and value of the pull-out have been drawn. But whatever the future may hold, the redeployment has contributed to a pernicious vein of thinking about the colonial settlers and their relation both to the Israeli state and to Zionism itself.” Issa Mikel is a Palestinian-American lawyer currently freelance writing and engaging in non-profit work in Palestine. Read more about Disengaging from Zionism
A Palestinian-American from Brooklyn, Suheir Hammad has appeared on the HBO show “Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry,” hosted by Mos Def. Her poems have been featured in numerous publications, on the BBC World Service, and National Public Radio. Hammad recently wrote two poems about Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath. The first reprinted here, “A Prayer Band”, was performed at an event organised by Hammad called “Refugees for Refugees” in New York City on September 9th, which raised $5,000 for hurricane relief. Suheir Hammad arrived in Jackson, Mississippi yesterday, to deliver the money personally and help with direct relief efforts. Read more about "A Prayer Band": Palestinian poet Suheir Hammad on Hurricane Katrina
The recent withdrawal of Jewish settlers from Gaza was a momentous event in history. For the first time, an Israeli government insisted that Jews evacuate territory which it encouraged them to populate in the first place. So why has Sharon just risked alienating one of the strongest, most well-organised elements in Israeli society? Katharine von Schubert finds herein the paradox. The dream of settlement and expansion, which in many ways defined Zionist Israel, could not be sustained there. Israel could not have hung on to Gaza for ever. It could not afford to either militarily, financially or strategically. Yet, the moral reasons for getting out, which have not featured large in Sharon’s reasoning, speak the loudest to her and many other observers. Read more about Gaza withdrawal: momentous but unlikely to lead to peace
Kalandia checkpoint is one of the largest Israeli military checkpoints in the occupied West Bank. This checkpoint is not located on a border, but between the Palestinian town Ramallah, Kalandia refugee camp, and the Palestinian town of ar-Ram. It separates Ramallah residents from southern Palestinian towns and the northern Palestinian neighbourhoods of Jerusalem. Israeli soldiers check identity cards. The new apartheid-like terminal system Israel currently constructs will be introduced first in the Jenin area. The plan is to implement the new system in the entire West Bank gradually, starting from the north and going southwards. Read more about Photostory: The Kalandia Terminal
On June 25, an Israeli spokesperson announced a plan intended to increase the number of settlers in the Jordan Valley by 50 percent in one year. The cost of new housing units will be $13.5 million (U.S.) in the initial year, and will increase to $32.5 million in the following year. The plan focuses on the development of agriculture and tourism in the valley, with grants of up to $22 million available for agricultural development. Agrexco is 50 percent owned by the Israeli state and all of the produce exported from the valley is packed by and sold through them. Palestinian farmers no longer attempt to export because their dealings with the company have been so catastrophic. Nor are they able to take their produce to other markets in Palestine, because it is impossible to get it through the Jordan Valley checkpoints. Read more about Apartheid and Agrexco in the Jordan Valley
Listen to an interview with Mohammad Jaradat, coordinator of political campaigns at BADIL, a Palestinian NGO based in the West Bank. BADIL’s work is primarily focused on the ongoing Palestinian struggle for the right of return and acts as a coordination point for the international struggle on this issue in the occupied West Bank. In the midst of the withdrawal of illegal Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip and a handful in the West Bank, the issue of the right of return for Palestinian refugees has been seldom addressed by major media and political leaders throughout the world. Read more about Gaza Withdrawal and the Right of Return
Listen to an interview with Leila Hatoum, staff writer at Lebanon’s Daily Star newspaper, the largest English daily in the Middle East. This interview focuses on the economic policies of the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was assassinated in downtown Beirut in February 2005. Hariri’s public image in Lebanon and throughout the world is directly associated with the Lebanese “opposition” movement, sparked by his assassination and defined by large-scale street demonstrations in downtown Beirut demanding Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon. Read more about Podcast/Interview: Hariri - Reconstruction, Poverty and Unrest
An interview with Samah Idriss, co-founder of the Campaign to Boycott Supporters of Israel and editor-in-chief of al-Adab, a Lebanese arts and culture magazine based in Beirut. This interview was conducted in August 2005 in Beirut Lebanon and addresses various issues relating to the present day politics of Lebanon, while providing regional context to the major political changes taking place in Lebanon…. “The late Rafik al-Hariri had excellent relations with some Syrian elites, both politically and financially. Hariri rarely uttered a word against their interference in Lebanese public life, and their political and economic corruption in the country.” Read more about Interview with Samah Idriss: Lebanon: Assassinations, Elections and Palestine
