BETHLEHEM, occupied West Bank (IPS) - As the wreckage from Israel’s recent siege on Gaza continues to smolder, international civil society organizations are assembling this week in Switzerland to address Israel’s crimes of military occupation and racism. But any discussion on Israel’s actions in Palestine will be excluded from the formal framework at the Durban Anti-Racism Review Conference in Geneva Monday. Read more about UN Protects Israel from racism charges
AL-ARISH, Egypt (IPS) - Hundreds of thousands of tons of aid intended for the Gaza Strip is piling up in cities across Egypt’s North Sinai region, despite recent calls from the United Nations to ease aid flow restrictions to the embattled territory in the wake of Israel’s 22-day assault. Read more about Aid rots outside Gaza
RAMALLAH, occupied West Bank (IPS) - “Intifada,” scream the animals as they chase Jones from the farm. Strobe lights flash and loud music blares as the packed audience sits captivated, eyes trained on the stage below. “We are exhausted not because we are hungry. We are exhausted because of human oppression, and we can’t work out how to resolve our problems,” shouts Old Major, one of the senior pig revolutionaries. Read more about Animal Farm finds a Palestinian stage
By the time we arrived in Sur Bahir, a Palestinian village near Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on the afternoon of 7 April, it was calm. At 6am, some 2,000 Israeli border police and special forces and other personnel descended on the village to demolish a wing of a house that belonged to the family of a Palestinian construction worker who allegedly went on a rampage while operating a bulldozer last July. Marian Houk reports. Read more about Punitive house demolitions as "deterrence"
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “economic peace” proposal should be seen as the beginning of a new stage of colonization. Israel has been successful in dividing the Palestinians into different groups, separated politically and geographically. Israel has also been successful in creating a collaborating political class. Israel failed however to squash their desire for freedom and their right to resist aggression. In other words, Israel was successful in the physical colonization of the land, de facto controlling the whole of historic Palestine, but failed to colonize Palestinian minds, for the most part, at least. This new stage will target the latter. Ziyaad Lunat comments for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about The rhetoric of "peace"
Annemarie Jacir’s Salt of this Sea (2008) is the first full-length feature film by a Palestinian female director. Since its world premier at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, it has toured the world and is scheduled to screen at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival in New York at the end of the month. Maymanah Farhat reviews for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Finding a sense of home in "Salt of this Sea"
On 12 April 2009 GAP brought together world-renowned hip-hop artists to Chicago’s Logan Square Auditorium to perform in solidarity with Gaza. The event, which aimed to raise funds and gather support for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, brought out a diverse crowd of hundreds from around the city. The following images are by Matthew Cassel. Read more about Photostory: Hip-hop for Gaza
BEIRUT (IRIN) - Rights and labor groups say almost all the estimated 300,000 Syrians working in Lebanon have no official status, often endure dangerous conditions, and earn about $300 a month doing jobs shunned by most Lebanese. In 2006, the Labor Ministry issued just 471 work permits to Syrian nationals, meaning the remainder worked unregistered. Read more about Wretched conditions for Syrian workers
The moment in which boycott of Israeli elections could become a serious and viable option is fast approaching, if the necessary preparations are made. Nonetheless, the boycott is not an end in itself and must not be used in the context of a feeling of resignation towards politics and the possibility of having an impact. Otherwise, it will be no more than another means of depriving the people of hope. Nimer Sultany comments. Read more about Should Palestinian citizens vote in Israel's parliamentary elections?
While nowhere in his invaluable diplomatic history of eight presidencies, A World of Trouble: America in the Middle East, does Patrick E. Tyler use the phrase “the Israel lobby,” it nevertheless looms largest among the reasons why all US efforts to feign balance between the competing concerns of good relations with Arab-Muslim states and unwavering allegiance to Israel have foundered. Muhammad Idrees Ahmad reviews for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Empire and agency: "A World of Trouble: America in the Middle East"
