When I think of cinema in Ramallah, I think of Esther Jallad. She and her family were expelled from their wealthy home in the port city of Jaffa in 1948 and found themselves in the hilly village of Ramallah. In her displacement, Esther carried one passion with her: she loved to go to the movies. She lived conveniently, next to one of the three cinemas in Ramallah, Cinema Dunia. Raja Shehadeh remembers a woman whose life imitated art, and a lost Palestinian past. Read more about In memory of Esther: Cinema Dunia
DAMASCUS, 7 April (IRIN) - Thirty-nine Palestinian refugees from Iraq — stuck at al-Tanf refugee camp in no-man’s land on the Iraq-Syria border — have been resettled in Chile. “Until last year it felt like the doors were closed for moving the Palestinian refugees. The desert conditions at al-Tanf are extremely inappropriate for the refugees to live in. Read more about Palestine refugees from Iraq resettled in Chile
When I came to learn of the fate that befell the Palestinians, I was shaken to the core and most particularly when I read eye-witness accounts of a massacre of Palestinian villagers that occurred a month before Israel’s unilateral declaration of independence. This was at Deir Yassin, a quiet village just outside Jerusalem, which had the misfortune to lie by the road from Tel Aviv. South African minister Ronnie Kasrils recalls the massacre that happened there 60 years ago and observes that the killing of Palestinians has continued uninterrupted. Read more about Sixty years after Deir Yassin
BRUSSELS, 4 April (IPS) - Israel has been described as “closer to the European Union than ever before” by a leading Brussels official, even though a new EU report laments the ongoing killing of Palestinians by Israeli forces. This week, the European Commission published a series of progress reports on its relations with countries neighboring the 27-country bloc. Read more about EU "closer than ever" to Israel
GAZACITY, 5 April (IPS) - Ayman Eid stands as motionless as his orange Hyundai taxi. Never mind taking a passenger somewhere, Ayman has no idea how he will ever get home. The queue at the petrol station seems endless. Drivers have run out of petrol even to queue up in their cars; they just queue up themselves, empty cans in hand. Only the lucky leave with a full can by the end of a day. Read more about Gaza running on near empty
BEERSHEEBA, 3 April (IRIN) - Over half of the 85,000 Bedouin in the Negev desert live in some 40 villages not recognized by Israel, leaving them without access to many basic services, most importantly water. According to experts, about 45,000 Bedouin transport water to their homes using tankers or on animals. Read more about Bedouin in unrecognized villages struggle for water
Four comedians recently came together in Houston, Texas “to promote peace through comedy” under the banner of the Israeli-Palestinian Comedy Tour. However, rather than promoting a just end to the conflict, their material exploits it in a disturbing manner. “We rely on the conflict; peace would ruin our show,” co-founder Ray Hanania said in an interview with EI contributor Sousan Hammad. Read more about Nothing to laugh at here
JERUSALEM, 1 April (IRIN) - “Tragedies that could and should have been avoided,” was how Ambrogio Manenti, head of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Jerusalem, described the cases of Palestinian patients who died while awaiting medical treatment outside the Gaza Strip. A new report by the WHO on 1 April describes in detail five cases of patients who died either while awaiting an Israeli permit to exit the enclave or after having been denied one. Read more about Gaza patients die as Israel denies treatment
This slideshow is a selection of images from the month of March 2008. The month in pictures is an ongoing feature of the Electronic Intifada. If you have images documenting Palestine, Palestinian life, politics and culture, or of solidarity with Palestine, please email images and captions to photos AT electronicintifada DOT net. Read more about Photostory: The month in pictures, March 2008
Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani2 April 2008
CAIRO, 2 April (IPS) - A recent article in Vanity Fair magazine “exposing” a US-planned coup attempt against Palestinian resistance movement Hamas last year has ignited a storm of debate about Washington’s Middle East policies. Yet for more than nine months, details of the plot were reported in the independent Arabic press — and elsewhere — leading some observers to ask: where was the mainstream media? Read more about This 'bombshell' took a year falling
