Having become the recipient of large numbers of concerned e-mails resulting from The Electronic Intifada’s special report, “NPR’s Linda Gradstein Takes Cash Payments from Pro-Israeli Groups”, NPR has now confirmed that it will enforce its conflict of interest policy banning such payments. Ali Abunimah and Nigel Parry report. Read more about Follow up: NPR replies to concerns about cash payments to reporter, conflict of interest
A US war with Iraq may reshape the Middle East, and will certainly have an impact on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Hasan Abu Nimah, who frequently contributes to EI, turns his attention to Iraq and considers whether the new UN resolution brings war closer or pushes it away. What does this mean for the UN and how should Iraq and Arab states react to stave off the threat of a catastrophic conflict? Read more about The UN's Iraq Resolution: What does it mean?
As Israel heads towards a new election, what prospect is there that Israel’s Labor party can offer a real alternative to Sharon? EI’s Ali Abunimah examines the positions of three leading lights of Israel’s “peace camp,” Shimon Peres, Yossi Beilin and Shlomo Ben Ami. Find out why he thinks they are calling for the resumption of a journey along a road that leads only to a dead end, with no new ideas and no incentives for Palestinians who want true reconciliation and coexistence to build a peace front with them. If this is the case, what possible solutions lie on the horizon? Read more about Sharon's Appendix: The bankruptcy of Israel's "Peace Camp"
Many important voices have come out to express fear that the “two-state solution” for the Palestinian-Israeli dispute is fast fading. The consequences, they warn, are horrifying, not only for the Palestinians, for whom statehood is a national aspiration, but also for Israelis. Hasan Abu Nimah examines this development and what its true consequences may be. Read more about Conflict in Palestine: a tale of two states
If everyone involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including Sharon, Arafat, the US, the Europeans and the Arab states all say they want peace, then why is there no peace? Hasan Abu Nimah tells The Electronic Intifada the answers. Read more about What is needed is a real peace plan for a change
A recent human rights award given by an international cosmetics company, The Body Shop, has focused attention on the struggles of an oft-ignored group of Palestinian refugees: those who are living as exiles inside Israel, where they are officially classified as “Present Absentees.” Isabelle Humphries reports from Nazareth. Read more about Exiles within: Palestinian internal refugees get organized
Peace activist Kathy Kern was recently deported from Ben Gurion airport after arriving for her 11th term of service with the Hebron-based Christian Peacemaker Teams. In this article about the experience, Kathy asks why the Israeli government is afraid of people reporting what it is doing in the Occupied Territories? Read more about Deported!
Just as the Israeli occupation to suppress the entire Palestinian population has taken on new shapes and forms in the absence of any international considerations, Israeli settlers are camouflaging this latest round of land confiscation with a facade of environmental issues, namely a solid waste landfill site on the eastern front of the Palestinian West Bank town of Al-Bireh. Walid Hamad, Mayor of Al-Bireh writes about the problem. Read more about Settlers and Trash
The new US “road map” to peace in the Middle East presented by US Assistant Secretary of State William J. Burns is nothing but a placebo for the Palestinians and the world community amidst war talk and sabre-rattling in Washington, DC. The new plan is not an adequate response to Palestinian and international demands that Israel immediately end the occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. Palestinian Sam Bahour and Israeli Michael Dahan weigh in. Read more about Another road map to nowhere
Issam Nashashibi
Two prominent African American members of Congress lost their primary bids for re-election in 2002. Their defeats were widely attributed to the influence of AIPAC, the largest pro-Israel lobby group in Washington, which was angered by positions they had taken in support of Palestinian human rights. Issam Nashashibi, in this contribution to EI, writes that while the US and Arab press continue to mythologize AIPAC’s power and invincibility, the lobby’s influence is often exaggerated. This, he argues, means that there are good prospects for Arab Americans to play a bigger role in shaping debate and policy in US politics. Read more about AIPAC's power is often overrated