The Ambassador of Israel in The Netherlands, Eitan Margalit spoke to an audience of mainly international lawyers on 20 November 2003 in The Hague, followed by an outpouring of criticism. Even a sympathetic observer present at the lecture would not fail to have noticed how thin the Israeli government’s arguments have become in objecting to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Jeff Handmaker, a Jewish human rights lawyer based in the Netherlands argues that the Israeli government’s insistence upon the “rule of law” yet refusal to submit to a supranational court is blatantly hypocritical. Read more about Running out of steam: Israel’s empty objections to the International Criminal Court
Activists from several peace and justice groups gathered infront of the Israeli consulate in Los Angeles yesterday to protest against the Israeli occupation of Palestine. The protests were prompted by the four-week siege and attacks on the town of Nablus. During this time, at least 18 Palestinians had been killed and over 250 injured. The town had been under 24-hour curfew much of the time, and homes have been demolished in the Balata refugee camp, Beit Foreek, and the historic center of the city. The rally in LA was a signal of solidarity with the people of Nablus and other areas that are continuously under attack. Read more about LA activists rally in solidarity with the Palestinian People
Many of Israel’s apologists, and even former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, quote Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. declaring, “anti-Zionist is inherently anti-Semitic, and ever will be so.” There’s only one problem with this famous quote: King never said it, because its a hoax. EI contributors Fadi Kiblawi and Will Youmans investigate the use and abuse of Dr. King’s legacy to justify Israeli abuses, and silence criticism of Israel. Read more about Israel's apologists and the Martin Luther King Jr. hoax
Ayed Morar, or Abu Ahmed as he is known to all, sits in jail tonight and I wonder if he is thinking of Martin Luther King, Jr. Unlike Dr. King, Abu Ahmed will not be leaving jail anytime soon, and is he unable to protest his imprisonment by exemplifying the moral injustice done to him and his people, for the world’s powers have maintained a deaf ear to the plight of the Palestinian people. Like Dr. King, however, Abu Ahmed is in jail for organizing and participating in nonviolent direct action against unjust, discriminatory and violent policies targeting his people on the basis of their ethnicity. Adam Shapiro writes. Read more about Unbound Spirit: Ayed Morar and Martin Luther King
Around 11pm Wednesday, January 14, the Israeli army re-invaded the Tulkarem refugee camp, after a 30-hour invasion that ended Tuesday. A curfew was imposed throughout the entire camp at 4am on Thursday morning. Soldiers entered two homes, between the hours of 5 and 9am and ordered the families and nearby neighbors to leave immediately. One of the homes belonged to the family of a man who was killed by Israeli troops over one year ago in the Nur Shams refugee camp of Tulkarem. The second home belonged to a man who was arrested by the army during the invasion two days ago. Flo Razowsky reports from on the ground. Read more about Israel reinvades Tulkarem camp, destroys homes
Dan Walsh, creator of the online exhibition Antonym/Synonym: The Poster Art of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, thinks that taking a look at political posters can enable “a new democratic discussion.” His website, Liberation Graphics, which features over 100 posters, a mere fraction of his collection, can only be described as a labor of love. Each poster is catalogued with an essay that both analyzes the poster’s formal and conceptual qualities, and places the subject matter within a brief historical context. Read more about Review: Poster art of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
For decades, Israel claimed that the creation of a Palestinian state would mean the “destruction of the Jewish state.” Now, Israel insists that not having a Palestinian state would mean annihilation. EI contributor Hasan Abu Nimah examines this apparent contradiction in the context of Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qureia’s recent “threat” that the Palestinians would abandon the two-state solution and call for a binational democracy in all of historic Palestine instead. Read more about Israel, the PA and the one-state "threat"
Starting shortly before 11am on Monday, January 12, all residents in a section of the Tulkarem refugee camp were rounded up at a centrally located day care center. The men were separated from the woman and children and taken away in military trucks. At the end of the first day, over 230 men had been handcuffed, blindfolded and taken out of the camp to an unknown location. The woman and children, after being separated from the men, were taken to the UNWRA building in the center of the camp. From the beginning, several women complained that their children were not present. Flo Razowsky reports from on the ground. Read more about Israel invades Tulkarem refugee camp
In the midst of an already month-long invasion, the sheikhs announced over the mosques for everyone to yell from their windows and their roofs “Allahu akbar” (god is great) together for an hour. It began with the voices from the mosques, together, “Allahu akbar” again and again, the voices growing louder and prouder with each chant. Then, a chorus began from the old city, and then the mountains and the camps. Thousands of different voices, in different rhythms and tones, yelling and chanting together, their sound almost drowning out the noise of the tank fire around them. Kelly B. writes from Nablus. Read more about Nablus: Resistance Under Occupation
David Hirst worked as The Guardian’s Middle East correspondent from 1967 to 2001, and authored the classic book The Gun and the Olive Branch: The Roots of Violence in the Middle East, which was published in its third edition in 2003 with a new 120 page foreword. From Beirut, Hirst spoke with EI on the bias of the American media towards Israel in its coverage of the conflict, the implications of Israel’s nuclear aresenal, and how Israel is more of a strategic liability than asset for the U.S. Listen to the interview or read the interview on EI. Read more about The media, nuclear power, and failed peace: An interview with David Hirst
