It is estimated that Israel’s Annexation Wall will be completed in the early part of 2006. When it is finished it will annex 47% of the West Bank, and hand it over to the settler population. At least 15% of Palestinians will be left outside the wall1, completely isolated from the rest of society, and over 222,098 refugees for the second or third times will experience, “land confiscation, destruction of property, and denial of access to their lands thus directly affecting their means of livelihood”2. In the end, it is not an over exaggeration to say that the entire Palestinian society will directly suffer by its completion, in addition to the seemingly unstoppable illegal Israeli practices that continue unhindered. Read more about Breaking Down the Wall
For four years, The Electronic Intifada has, with your support, worked to bring light to this darkness through award-winning original investigative reporting, sound analysis and features. At a time when the mainstream media’s attention is increasingly dominated by repetition of cliches and conventional wisdom, EI remains committed to making intelligent noise. In 2005, the Electronic Intifada saw over two million visitor sessions and the original material we produce continues to be picked up and used by journalists, activists and educators all over the world. Read more about Help EI Make Intelligent Noise
In 2003, Susan Nathan moved from her comfortable home in Tel Aviv to Tamra, an Palestinian town in the northern part of Israel. Nathan had arrived in Israel four years earlier and had taught English and worked with various progressive social organizations. Her desire to help build a just and humane society in Israel took an unexpected turn, however, when she became aware of Israel’s neglected and often oppressed indigenous Palestinian population. Despite warnings from friends about the dangers she would encounter, Nathan settled in an apartment in Tamra. There she discovered a division between Israeli Jews and Palestinians as tangible as the concrete wall that surrounds the Palestinian towns of the West Bank and Gaza. Read more about Racism in Israel
The European Union threatened today to curb aid to the Palestinian Authority if Hamas wins next month’s Palestinian Legislative Council elections. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, following his recent shelving of a report critical of Israeli policies in Jerusalem, said during a visit to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories that if Hamas won the elections, it would be “very difficult that the help and the money that goes to… the Palestinian Authority will continue to flow”. Relations between Israel and the EU have warmed recently, with Israel agreeing to allow EU representatives to monitor the crucial Rafah crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. Read more about Solana exposes European bias towards Israel once again
Yesterday at the Beverly Hilton, the motion picture ‘Paradise Now’ was nominated in the best foreign language film category for the 63rd Annual Golden Globe Awards. The 63rd Annual Golden Globe Awards will take place Monday, January 16, 2006, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel with a live telecast airing on NBC. Last week, Philip Berk, President of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced that sixty foreign language films have been qualified for the 63rd Annual Golden Globe Awards. Earlier this week, it was announced that the film is a finalist for the Broadcast Film Critics Association award and has won the National Board of Review award. Read more about Paradise Now nominated for Golden Globes
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana successfully lobbied EU foreign ministers to suppress a report documenting the devastating effects of Israel’s separation wall and colonies in Occupied East Jerusalem. Solana argued that publishing the report would hurt Israeli sensitivities and would cause the EU to lose influence. Electronic Intifada co-founder, in a letter to Solana, argues that EU indulgence of Israel is like the action of “a person who provides an alcoholic with money for booze and a car to drive while drunk while saying that to do otherwise would offend the sensitivities of someone who is a great danger to himself and others.” Read more about Letter: EU's Solana pushes cover-up of Jerusalem report
In an incredible example of how acceptable even the most extreme manifestations of anti-Arab racism have become in Israel, the website of the leading English/Hebrew daily, Ha’aretz today ran a front page advertisement that warned: “If the Arab population in Israel will reach 40% the Jewish State will be nullified. For the only solution press here.” The link lead to the website of an Israeli group that campaigns against abortion and offers material and emotional support to pregnant mothers before and after their babies are born. Read more about Haaretz.com runs ad discouraging Jewish abortions as "only solution" to Arab population growth
The Electronic Intifada is currently working on the production of a multimedia DVD for distribution to journalists, editors, producers, politicians, entertainment industry contacts, activists, and others interested in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The EIDVD will include introductions to the history of the conflict and to key aspects of the current situation on the ground, as well as an extensive Arts, Music & Culture section, will offer features, videos, and MP3s showcasing a range of material from Palestinian and Palestine-related artists. EI appeals for content submissions and financial support for the project. Read more about The Coming EI DVD: Call for Content Submission and Financial Support
Palestine/Israel is a strange place; here separateness is valorized by many decent people and presented as the ‘peace option’ and the not-so-nice-ones openly preach ethnic cleansing. Yet those who preach ethnic cleansing are often viewed as persons that ‘we can do business with’. In South Africa, apartheid was regarded by the world as the problem; here in Israel they, and much of the rest of the world, present it as the solution. For many otherwise decent people who do not experience dispossession and discrimination on a daily basis, stability in its preferred and somehow morally elevated package as ‘peace’ becomes the single most important objective that one must yearn for. Read more about The Choice to be Struck?
New documents obtained by EI under the UK’s Freedom of Information Act (2000) indicate that Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was asked to personally lobby Israeli officials on behalf of a UK company whose work helps extend Israel’s administrative and legal structures into Occupied East Jerusalem in violation of international law and long-standing UK policy. The new documents indicate not only the high importance the British government attached to the contract, but that British officials dismissed concerns that the company’s work could violate British policy on the status of Jerusalem. EI co-founder Ali Abunimah reports this exclusive. Read more about EI EXCLUSIVE: Did UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw help sell out Jerusalem?
