The Electronic Intifada

Egyptian anger over Israel "approaching boiling point"

Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani 6 March 2008


CAIRO, 6 March (IPS) - Fury erupted on the streets and in parliament this week following violent Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip. But as protests were held nationwide in support of besieged Palestinians next door, Cairo continued to keep the volatile Rafah border crossing — the only means out of the strip not under direct Israeli control — tightly sealed. 

Crossing the Line interviews Israeli historian Ilan Pappe

6 March 2008


This week on Crossing The Line: The word “genocide” is one of the most powerful words used to describe criminal killing and destruction. It has been used to describe the Nazi holocaust, the killing fields of Cambodia, and Rwanda. More recently, Israeli author and historian Ilan Pappe has used this word to describe Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip. Host Naji Ali speaks with Pappe about why he sees Israel’s ongoing occupation and killing of Palestinians in Gaza as genocide. 

The mega prison of Palestine

Ilan Pappe 4 March 2008


In several articles published by The Electronic Intifada, I claimed that Israel is pursuing a genocidal policy against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The argument was that since Israel does not know how to deal with the Gaza Strip, they opted for a knee-jerk reaction in the form of massive killings whenever the Palestinians in the Strip dared to protest their strangulation and imprisonment. The end result so far is the escalation of the indiscriminate killing of Palestinians — unfortunately validating the adjective “genocidal” I and others attached to these policies. Ilan Pappe comments for EI. 

Academic freedom? Not for Arabs in Israel

Jonathan Cook 4 March 2008


In the strange world of Israeli academia, an Arab college lecturer is being dismissed from his job because he refused to declare his “respect for the uniform of the Israeli army.” The bizarre demand was made of Nizar Hassan, director of several award-winning films, after he criticized a Jewish student who arrived in his film studies class at Sapir College in the Negev for wearing his uniform and carrying a gun. Jonathan Cook writes from Nazareth. 

Trade union building targeted in Gaza

Mohammed Omer 4 March 2008


GAZA CITY, 4 March (IPS) - Two F-16 missiles were all it took to bring down the five-story headquarters of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions. The Union, established in 1965, is one of the forerunners of the movement calling for an international boycott of Israel, and imposition of sanctions on it until Israel meets its obligations over UN resolutions, borders, and the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland. 

Colonial realities

Nimer Sultany 3 March 2008


Once again Israel defies an impotent international community which offers nothing but timid calls for ceasefire on “both sides.” And once again Palestinian suffering and death tolls continue to break records. Perhaps it is easy to dismiss this suffering by blaming the victims and resorting to ready cliches. When examined closely, however, reality rules out crude explanations of “violence without reason” and “terrorism without context. Nimer Sultany comments for EI. 

Israel keeping true to its racist words

Rami Almeghari 2 March 2008


Dehumanizing the Palestinians has been necessary for Israel to justify its actions ever since, and even before, the state was declared on destroyed historic Palestine in 1948 and then in 1967 when Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza. Taken together, they indicate the historic effort to destroy Palestinian national aspirations and this is what Israel is trying to do in Gaza, which Nobel prize winner and late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin once wished would be swallowed by the sea. EI correspondent Rami Almeghari comments from Gaza.