“Because it represents a failure to be just, fair, forward-looking and charitable, US treatment of the Palestinian people represents a failure to be American. Palestine is not a sideshow in the current frightening uproar of political events in the world. It is the main event for Americans and for America. Palestine can and should be the proving grounds for all the values and principles — freedom, dignity, prosperity, justice, and fairness — that set the United States apart from other countries for decades.” EI co-founder Laurie King-Irani ponders the connections between America and Palestine by remembering the summer of 1964. Read more about "It's a small world after all"
A few weeks ago, Israeli scholars and activists appealed to Jewish-Israeli public opinion through a compelling document. Entitled “For Truth and Reconciliation, For Equality and Partnership” the appeal aimed at changing the political discourse in Israel, particularly “the historical dimension of the conflict and noting the structural political, ideological and cultural changes required to reach, in the future, a true reconciliation.” The Olga document is the result of a series of discussions between Israeli scholars and activists in Givat Olga, one of the largest neighborhoods in Hadera overlooking the Mediterranean coastline. Read more about The Olga Appeal: Israeli scholars and activists recognize the right of return
Father Michael Prior worked tirelessly for over 20 years of his life to expose the racism, false favoritism, deception, and blatantly ‘unJesuslike’ core assumptions of the theology of Christian Zionism. As a Christian theologian and philosopher he felt responsible for confronting the contradictions of the philosophy by weaving tapestries of understanding from the more mainstream pages of the Bible that Christian Zionism had torn out and discarded. EI’s Nigel Parry, who worked with Michael Prior from 1993-1994, remembers his life and work. Read more about Remembering Michael Prior
Peretz Kidron is an Israeli who has been fighting battles all his life, but many of them with the country he emigrated to as an idealistic young man in 1951. Now campaigning to spread the messages of Israeli military personnel who refuse to serve in the Occupied Territories, Kidron was one of the founders of Yesh Gvul (“There is a limit”), the movement of soldiers that sprang up in 1982 to oppose Israel’s invasion of Lebanon. EI’s Ali Abunimah recently spoke to him about the Refusenik movement, Israel’s internal politics and the prospects for peace. Read more about The deterrent power of Israeli refuseniks: interview with Peretz Kidron
“Whilst I was there, I lost all my faith in the Israeli army. They put it right in your face: ‘Go be the oppressors for your people. Force yourselves upon them.’ They told us … ‘take these bats wrapped up in plastic and … calm things down’ … We had skulls on our helmets, dude. We walked around with machetés, all kinds of crazy stuff. Sheriff badges. We’d improvise some very unique solutions.” This is Ehud, speaking 12 years after having served in the occupied Palestinian territories. Like the thousands before him, he was a paratrooper in the Israeli army during the first Palestinian intifada (1987-1993). Read more about Film review: "Aftershock" exposes IDF soldiers' psychology
Israel never fails to surprise the world with its open contempt for international law and the norms of international relations. After rejecting the historic International Court of Justice verdict earlier this month, Israel is embroiled in a serious dispute with New Zealand, sparked by two Israeli agents’ attempt to obtain New Zealand passports through fraud and deception. EI contributor Hasan Abu Nimah explains why New Zealand has reacted with unprecedented vigour to Israel’s crimes and the disputes’s significance beyond the two countries. Read more about Hanging the bell on Israel's neck
The positive spin on the negotiations to form a Likud-Labor-led coalition in Israel is that it will create a majority government capable of implementing a historic withdrawal of Israeli forces and settlers from the Gaza Strip, and that this will somehow “jump start” the peace process. But EI co-founder Ali Abunimah says that a coalition headed by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Labor leader Shimon Peres seems more a dying gasp for Israel’s existing political order which will not save Israel from its fundamental predicament. Read more about An alliance of failures in Israel
When The Hague speaks, the world listens, especially when a threat to international peace is involved. At least this was the case until the International Court of Justice took aim at Israel. At issue was the Israeli government’s building of a separation wall on occupied Palestinian lands in the West Bank, which, in essence, has caged Palestinian communities into ghettos reminiscent of the Jewish ghettos in Europe during World War II. Palestinian-American businessman Sam Bahour writes from beseiged Al-Bireh. Read more about The World Is Knocking on Israel's Door
On July 22 1987 at five in the afternoon, Palestinian cartoonist Naji Al-Ali parked his car in southwest London, and walked a few meters towards the offices of the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Qabas where he worked. He was shot in the head by a gunman. After five weeks in a coma on a life support machine Naji al-Ali died on August 30, 1987 at the age of 49. Naji al-Ali is still the most popular artist in the Arab world, loved for his defense of the ordinary people, and for his criticism of repression and despotism. His unrelenting cartoons exposed the brutality of the Israeli army and the hypocrisy of the PLO, earning him many powerful enemies. Read more about Naji al-Ali: The timeless conscience of Palestine
Widespread protests have accompanied Yasser Arafat’s appointment of his nephew Musa Arafat as the new head of the Palestinian General Security Service. Thousands of people demonstrated in the Gaza Strip on Saturday night against the appointment while the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, the armed wing of al-Fateh, described Musa Arafat as a “symbol” of the PA’s corruption. The appointment deepened the rift between Arafat’s generation, which led the Palestinian struggle from exile for decades, and young Palestinians who struggled against the Israeli occupation and who accuse the old guard of corruption and monopolizing power. Read more about What's wrong with the PA?
