UNITED NATIONS, 29 January (IPS) - The 15-member UN Security Council (UNSC) is set to lose its credibility once again as it prepares to impose a third set of sanctions on Iran while failing to pass any strictures on Israel for its continued heavy-handed repression of Palestinians in Gaza. “Many ask whether the UNSC still has any credibility left,” says Mouin Rabbani, contributing editor to the Washington-based Middle East Report. Read more about Security Council loses credibility over Iran, Israel 

JERUSALEM, 30 January (IRIN) - Vulnerable refugees in the Gaza Strip could soon be without an important source of protein, as canned meat has not been imported into the enclave in recent days and supplies from the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, are about to run out, a UN official who requested anonymity said on 30 January. “Canned meat is a major part of our food parcels, and is the only source of protein in the UNRWA food package,” Christopher Gunness, an UNWRA spokesman told IRIN. Read more about Snow further complicates relief supplies to Gaza 

I lived more than half of my life in the US and I never felt the alienation that I felt on the day I read George Habash, the Palestinian revolutionary who passed away last week, labeled as a “terrorism tactician” in a front page obituary in The New York Times. What do you when they want to convince you that a kind and gentle man you met and respected as a person is a terrorist when you know otherwise? As’ad AbuKhalil reflects on George Habash as a model of revolutionary struggle. Read more about George Habash's contribution to the Palestinian struggle 

I have succeeded in making peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. In an interview preceding the Annapolis Conference, Palestinian Authority (PA) negotiator Saeb Erakat claimed that peace could be delivered in half an hour. The basis, everyone already knows, is the Clinton draft: two states with border adjustments and division of Jerusalem. In my case, peace took two hours — or, well, two years. I delivered it in 2009. Jonathan Ben Efrat comments on the Peres Peace Center’s and the Israeli establishment’s video game conception of Israeli-Palestinian peace. Read more about The PeaceMaker 

JERUSALEM, 28 January (IRIN) - The Israeli-imposed restrictions on imports to the Gaza Strip are threatening the lives of vulnerable patients, the Oxfam aid agency has said. “Oxfam International is gravely concerned about the life and safety of the civilian population residing in the Gaza Strip,” Oxfam’s director said in a statement on 25 January. “In Shifa hospital in Gaza city, 135 cancer patients are currently unable to receive treatment due to the lack of basic medications,” Oxfam said. Read more about Medical supplies in Gaza running low 

The past few days have demonstrated that there is more to the destruction of the Rafah wall than the simple Hamas-Fatah dichotomy or the endless inane commentary of its impact on the “peace process.” Hamas could destroy the wall, but unless Palestinians were willing to cross the borderline and face the threat of Egyptian security forces it would have been a futile gesture. That Palestinians went over that line again and again illustrates the powerful urge for freedom from oppression and occupation. Osamah Khalil comments from Cairo. Read more about A break in the siege 

CAIRO, 28 January (IPS) - Within recent months, several Israeli and US officials have stressed Israel’s unique character as a “Jewish state.” But according to many Arab observers, the designation negates the right of Palestinian refugees to return to Israel, and leaves the door open to expulsion of Israel’s Arab citizens. “The idea of a ‘state for Jews’ neutralizes the right of some five million Palestinian refugees to return to what is now Israel,” Abdel-Halim Kandil, former editor-in-chief of opposition weekly al-Karama told IPS. “It would also subject Arabs resident in Israel to the possibility of expulsion at any moment.” Read more about Alarm bells sound over "Jewish state" 

ROME, 25 January (IPS) - Several Italian civil society groups will mark the World Social Forum’s global day of action Saturday by pledging support for Palestinians. “This decentralized World Social Forum (WSF) offers to Palestinian democratic movements the chance of asking Europe to intervene and stop what Nelson Mandela has defined ‘the new apartheid of our century,’” said Mustafa Barghouthi, a pro-democracy activist who was candidate for presidency of the Palestinian National Authority in 2005. He spoke from Ramallah during a WSF press conference in Rome Tuesday. Read more about Italians awaken to Palestinian pain 

A top European Union official has offered full backing for Israel as it continues its illegal blockade of fuel, food, medicine and other vital supplies to the occupied Gaza Strip that has led to a growing humanitarian crisis. At a conference in the Israeli town of Herzliya on 22 January, Franco Frattini, the vice president of the European Commission, stated that “the steps leading up to the Gaza blackout cannot be construed as a war crime,” according to a report on Ynetnews.com, Read more about Top EU official backs Israel's crimes in occupied Gaza