Planting olive trees is a matter of resistance for the Arab Group for the Protection of Nature, a non-profit organization based in Amman, Jordan. The organization began in 2003 with the goal of replanting one million trees on Palestinian land. By 2008, they achieved this goal and now hope to plant one million more trees in Palestine. Gretchen King reports. Read more about Audio: "For us, olive trees are a matter of resistance"
Efforts by human rights organizations, lawyers and activists in Palestine and Europe to hold Israeli war crimes suspects to account have gained momentum over the past few years. Last week, former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni cancelled a visit to the UK over threats of a lawsuit under the country’s universal jurisdiction laws. Adri Nieuwhof and Ziyaad Lunat comment for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Net around Israeli war crimes suspects tightens
What was the most inspiring, informative, motivating article you read on The Electronic Intifada in 2009? Take a look at some of our highlights. Thousands of people read EI every day in almost every country around the world, finding the information they can’t get elsewhere. In its annual appeal, EI asks its readers for the financial support that will enable us to continue our groundbreaking, fearless and independent reporting on Palestine in 2010 Read more about EI reader appeal: Your support makes our work on Palestine possible
As if the siege of Gaza were not already bad enough, Israel and Egypt are working even harder to tighten the prison which holds Gaza’s 1.5 million people. Egypt is building a steel wall along its 10-kilometer-long border with the Gaza Strip, according to recent media reports. This wall apparently extends not only above ground, but deep into the ground in an attempt to prevent Palestinians digging the tunnels that have become a lifeline for the territory. Hasan Abu Nimah comments. Read more about Steel walls cannot contain the struggle for freedom
The United Nations agency Palestine refugees (UNRWA) faces a severe deficit that could lead to cuts of essential services to more than 4.7 million Palestinian refugees in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. According to UNRWA, the agency’s 2009 funds are already exhausted and it faces a shortfall of US $140 million for 2010. Rami Almeghari reports from the occupied Gaza Strip. Read more about Palestine refugees face service cuts due to UNRWA financial crisis
United States President Barack Obama has just accepted the Nobel Peace Prize at a ceremony in Oslo. His nomination had been controversial, not least because he is continuing and escalating two illegal wars of aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also because it was awarded to him at the beginning of his term, before he has proven a genuine willingness to promote peace. The glaring contradiction between US President Barack Obama’s words and actions are nowhere else more obvious than in his dealing with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Sayed Dhansay comments for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Winning prize for peace while advocating war
The fatal shooting by Israeli soldiers of an Israeli man earlier this week as he tried to scale a fence into the Gaza Strip was reportedly part of a drastic procedure the army was supposed to have phased out several years ago. Jonathan Cook reports. Read more about Israel: "a dead soldier is better than a captive soldier"
Alastair Crooke’s new book Resistance: The Essence of the Islamist Revolution studies the philosophy of resistance among Islamic movements as articulated by influential Islamist thinkers and revolutionaries of the last century. However, by defining an essence of Islam, Crooke reinforces many of the assumptions he is trying to dispel. Hicham Safieddine reviews for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Book review: Alastair Crooke's "Resistance: The Essence of the Islamist Revolution"
Last month, the second-largest Dutch pension fund PFZW joined an already impressive group of investors that have divested from Africa-Israel. Africa-Israel is the target of an international boycott campaign by Palestine solidarity activists because of its involvement in the construction of illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Adri Nieuwhof reports for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about More investors abandoning Lev Leviev and Africa-Israel
Israel started a preemptive campaign against a EU statement on the Middle East session even before it was formally presented for discussion by EU ministers this week on whether to adopt it. Israeli spokesmen expressed outrage at what they saw as an EU effort to “divide” Jerusalem, and claimed that the European position would “harm the peace process,” as if it is only Israel that has been carefully protecting it from the harmful moves of others. Hasan Abu Nimah comments. Read more about Another EU policy statement will not stop Israel's colonization
