The impetus for Where Now for Palestine? The Demise of the Two-State Solution, as editor Jamil Hilal states in his introduction, is the increasing recognition within the Palestinian nationalist movement and among some Israelis that “the Oslo process has collapsed and the two-state solution has reached an impasse.” This collection of eleven essays aims “to show in some detail why and how this collapse has happened, and why some new solution has to be found.” Ali Abunimah reviews. Read more about Book review: "Where Now for Palestine? The Demise of the Two-State Solution"
Israel needs a Palestinian state — or at least the illusion of one — to mask the reality of apartheid where millions of Palestinians, soon to be the majority population between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, are ruled by a Jewish sectarian government in which they have no rights. EI co-founders Arjan El Fassed and Ali Abunimah comment. Read more about Beyond the make-believe of negotiations
This month Israel marks the 60th anniversary of its founding. But amidst the festivities including visits by international celebrities and politicians there is deep unease — Israel has skeletons in its closet that it has tried hard to hide, and anxieties about an uncertain future which make many Israelis question whether the state will celebrate an 80th birthday. EI co-founder Ali Abunimah comments. Read more about Remembering 1948 and looking to the future
It is a familiar dilemma. You are on a plane, or at a social gathering, and a stranger asks you where you are from. Your mind races to come up with an answer. If you say “Palestine,” you know that it’s not likely to be a short conversation. Bashar (Bashar Da’as), the main protagonist of Driving to Zigzigland, Nicole Ballivan’s 2006 feature film, uses a strategy to give him a measure of control with his taxi fares that support him while he looks for the perfect acting role. EI co-founder Ali Abunimah reviews. Read more about Film review: "Driving to Zigzigland"
Israeli society is in the grip of a wave of unchecked racism and incitement that seriously threatens Israel’s Palestinian community and the long-term prospects for regional peace. This Palestine Center briefing by Ali Abunimah examines societal and institutional racism and incitement by public figures against Israel’s Arab population and considers some policy implications. Read more about Anti-Arab racism and incitement in Israel
For months, even before most Americans had heard of Senator Barack Obama’s pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, prominent pro-Israel activists were hounding Obama over Wright’s views on Israel and ties to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. In January, Abraham Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League, demanded that Obama denounce Farrakhan as an anti-Semite. The senator duly did so, but that was not enough. EI co-founder Ali Abunimah comments. Read more about The senator, his pastor and the Israel lobby
The fallacy that lies behind the differential concern for the lives of innocent Israelis and Palestinians is that the massacre yesterday in Jerusalem and the massacres in Gaza can be separated. Israeli deaths are “terrorism,” while Palestinian deaths are merely an unfortunate consequence of the fight against “terrorism.” But the two are intricately linked, and what happened in Jerusalem is a direct consequence of what Israel has been doing to the Palestinians for decades. Ali Abunimah comments. Read more about A defeated policy, not a defeated people
Israeli officials began damage limitation efforts after the country’s deputy defense minister Matan Vilnai threatened Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip with a “holocaust.” The comments came a day after Israeli occupation forces killed 31 Palestinians, nine of them children, one a six-month-old baby, in a series of air raids across the Gaza Strip. EI co-founder Ali Abunimah comments. Read more about Israeli minister threatens "holocaust" as public demand ceasefire talks
Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence has produced a range of reactions among Israeli and Palestinian observers that reveal their anxieties about their respective situations. However, EI co-founder Ali Abunimah cautions, history should tell us that imposed partitions have only generated new conflict, injustice and ethnic cleansing and have reinforced nationalism and irredentism. Read more about Kosovo and the question of Palestine
“The next logical step” for the Israeli government “will have to be a decision whether to target the top political leadership” of Hamas. So said an Israeli official quoted in The Jerusalem Post. Tzahi Hanegbi, a senior member of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s Kadima party and chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, echoed the call, arguing that “There’s no difference between those who wear a suicide suit and a diplomat’s suit.” Ali Abunimah comments. Read more about Israel's "next logical step"
