Israel’s one-sided war on the Palestinian people continues unabated while mountains books on the subject are being written, published, read and sometimes reviewed. EI contributor Raymond Deane assess whether two new volumes on Israel’s occupation, Neve Gordon’s Israel’s Occupation and Saree Makdisi’s Palestine Inside Out, present a radically new perspective or have the potential to influence public opinion in the right direction. Read more about Book review: Israel's occupation, inside out
Like most Israeli youth, at age 18, Rotem Mor readied himself for military conscription. In the army, he was a liaison soldier with foreign armies at the Port of Egypt, but was kicked out of the unit for under-performance. After that, he was a soldier-teacher working with civilians, and spent a year in Jerusalem, working with disadvantaged kids. But he wasn’t happy. Sarah Price writes for EI. Read more about Refusing the occupation: an interview with Rotem Mor
No one is more surprised than Shlomo Sand that his latest academic work has spent 19 weeks on Israel’s bestseller list — and that success has come to the history professor despite his book challenging Israel’s biggest taboo. Jonathan Cook reports. Read more about Israel's surprising best seller contradicts founding ideology
BARCELONA (IPS/Terraviva) - Palestinian villagers drink unsafe agricultural water rather than trusting water provided by an Israeli company, says Buthaina Mizyed, who has worked in Arraneh village near the conflict-laden West Bank city of Jenin. The reason the Palestinians avoid the water from a station in the nearby village of al-Jalameh is that it smells of chlorine. Read more about Where water leaves a bitter taste
NILIN, WESTBANK (IRIN) - As the olive harvest gets under way in the West Bank, residents of the Palestinian town of Nilin say much of their land, where their trees are, is off limits because of Israel’s wall. According to estimates by residents, some 5,000 olive trees sit on 270 hectares between the path of the wall and the border of the West Bank with Israel, known as the Green Line. “People depend on this land, especially because they have already lost so much,” said Hindi Misleh, an activist in the village. Read more about Nilin village resists Israel's land confiscation
Carel Moiseiwitsch and Gordon Murray6 October 2008
In June 2007, the Palestine Media Collective produced a newspaper parody of The Vancouver Sun that satirized the anti-Palestinian bias of CanWest, the largest media conglomerate in Canada. Six months later, CanWest launched a lawsuit against those who “conspired” to produce and distribute the parody. The original writ named Mordecai Briemberg, Horizon Publications (the printer), and six Jane and John Does. Carel Moiseiwitsch and Gordon Murray comment for EI. Read more about Huffing and puffing to silence criticism of Israel
UNITEDNATIONS (IPS) - A new United Nations report on the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories blasts the Israeli government for its heavy-handed treatment of journalists reporting on the military occupation. The 20-page report, which will go before the 63rd sessions of the General Assembly currently underway, singles out the mistreatment of award-winning Palestinian journalist Mohammed Omer who was stripped, interrogated, kicked and beaten up when he returned from Europe to his home town in the occupied territory of Gaza last June. Read more about UN report castigates Israeli abuse of journalists
RAMALLAH, West Bank (IPS) - An Israeli police commander has called them “provocateurs,” “militants,” and “lawbreakers.” Earlier in the year the Israeli army decided that their presence in the city of Hebron, 30 kilometers south of Jerusalem in the Palestinian West Bank, constituted a security threat and banned them from the city, stating that any member of the organization caught there would be expelled forthwith. Read more about Breaking the silence challenges the Israeli army
It is inspirational to find Palestine richly meditated in poetry. Two new poetry collections provide a robust testament to that — One collection is by the Palestinian-American poet Sharif S. Elmusa, Flawed Landscape, and the other is made of selected works by various poets edited by Remi Kanazi, Poets for Palestine. Atef Alshaer reviews for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Palestine in verse: "Flawed Landscape" and "Poets for Palestine" reviewed
The Israeli army officer in charge of the occupation of the West Bank, Gen Gadi Shamni, has lambasted extremist Jewish settlers, blaming rising levels of violence on the encouragement of their leadership and right-wing rabbis. It is rare for a senior commander to speak so critically of the settlers, many of whom themselves serve in senior positions in the army. Jonathan Cook reports. Read more about Israel's army and settlers fall out
