When the PLO moved its leadership and cadres from exile to the Occupied Territories, they did not come as liberators, but merely to join their people as fellow prisoners of the Israelis. From the first days of the Oslo accords, even Palestinian leaders were subjected to the most humiliating controls by the occupier, except when “VIP” passes were granted as a favor and privilege to be withdrawn at any time. Today, “VIP” stands only for “Very Important Prisoner.” Read more about Arafat & Co. celebrate 'VIP' status
To forget a massacre is to murder the victims a second time; to forget the dead is to condone the crime and to excuse the killers. And the dead of Sabra and Shatila have been killed many, many times. EI’s Laurie King-Irani writes about the massacre. Read more about Massacres Don't "Just Happen"
“ ‘Arafat is filthy swine, there is no Palestine,’ and ‘Thank you for killing my cousins in Israel,’ were some of the more polite slogans shouted at Al-Awda activist Benjamin Doherty and me as we protested silently at the annual “Walk With Israel” on Chicago’s lakefront,” writes Ali Abunimah after a not so pleasant walk in Chicago’s beautiful lakefront park. Read more about Spat upon, threatened, we stood for Palestine
“I had resolved to be as meek as necessary to ensure that the Israeli officials did not stamp my passport. But I could not and did not try to hide my grim face as I stood in line to be greeted by the Israeli security officials, after coming off the bus that brought me across the Allenby Bridge from Jordan,” writes Ali Abunimah Read more about Notes on a Visit to Palestine
Ali Abunimah visits southern Lebanon, just weeks after Lebanese resistance fighters liberated it from the brutal two-decade Israeli occupation. Read more about A Visit to Southern Lebanon
As much as I may tell you about Shatila, I lack the ability to put in words what I saw and felt the day I visited that place. The name “Shatila” has lived in my consciousness as a Palestinian, since 1982, when along with “Sabra,” it came to represent unspeakable evil, the place where up to two thousand Palestinians were massacred by far-right Lebanese militias in 1982, as the Israeli army watched and covered them from positions outside the camp. Read more about A Visit to Shatila
Following a baseless attack on EI by a former Israeli cabinet minister, published in Ha’aretz newspaper, EI’s attempts to get Ha’aretz to print a very reasonable correction ended in an unsatisfying exchange with Ha’aretz editor David Landau. Read more about Exchange of correspondence with Ha'aretz newspaper
“I was afraid you’d gone to Rafah”, I say to Ahmad over the wires to Gaza City. More families in Rafah lost their homes to Israeli bulldozers this past week and a young man died for objecting to the zillionth incursion onto his land. I worried that Ahmad had gone to investigate. His extended family lives there. “No one is going anywhere”, Ahmad responds cynically. “It’s Yom Kippur”. Read more about Days of Darkness, Days of Awe: Yom Kippur in Palestine
