I have succeeded in making peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. In an interview preceding the Annapolis Conference, Palestinian Authority (PA) negotiator Saeb Erakat claimed that peace could be delivered in half an hour. The basis, everyone already knows, is the Clinton draft: two states with border adjustments and division of Jerusalem. In my case, peace took two hours — or, well, two years. I delivered it in 2009. Jonathan Ben Efrat comments on the Peres Peace Center’s and the Israeli establishment’s video game conception of Israeli-Palestinian peace. Read more about The PeaceMaker
JERUSALEM, 28 January (IRIN) - The Israeli-imposed restrictions on imports to the Gaza Strip are threatening the lives of vulnerable patients, the Oxfam aid agency has said. “Oxfam International is gravely concerned about the life and safety of the civilian population residing in the Gaza Strip,” Oxfam’s director said in a statement on 25 January. “In Shifa hospital in Gaza city, 135 cancer patients are currently unable to receive treatment due to the lack of basic medications,” Oxfam said. Read more about Medical supplies in Gaza running low
The past few days have demonstrated that there is more to the destruction of the Rafah wall than the simple Hamas-Fatah dichotomy or the endless inane commentary of its impact on the “peace process.” Hamas could destroy the wall, but unless Palestinians were willing to cross the borderline and face the threat of Egyptian security forces it would have been a futile gesture. That Palestinians went over that line again and again illustrates the powerful urge for freedom from oppression and occupation. Osamah Khalil comments from Cairo. Read more about A break in the siege
GAZACITY, 28 January (IPS) - A stream of dark and putrid sludge snakes through Gaza’s streets. It is a noxious mix of human and animal waste. The stench is overwhelming. The occasional passer-by vomits. Over recent days this has been a more common sight than the sale of food on the streets of Gaza, choked by a relentless Israeli siege. Hundreds of thousands of Gazans, almost all of its able male adults among a population of 1.5 million, crossed over into Egypt last week to buy essential provisions — and a new lease of life. That has staved off starvation. But streets continue as sewers. Read more about Closure turns Gaza's streets into sewers
Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani28 January 2008
CAIRO, 28 January (IPS) - Within recent months, several Israeli and US officials have stressed Israel’s unique character as a “Jewish state.” But according to many Arab observers, the designation negates the right of Palestinian refugees to return to Israel, and leaves the door open to expulsion of Israel’s Arab citizens. “The idea of a ‘state for Jews’ neutralizes the right of some five million Palestinian refugees to return to what is now Israel,” Abdel-Halim Kandil, former editor-in-chief of opposition weekly al-Karama told IPS. “It would also subject Arabs resident in Israel to the possibility of expulsion at any moment.” Read more about Alarm bells sound over "Jewish state"
ROME, 25 January (IPS) - Several Italian civil society groups will mark the World Social Forum’s global day of action Saturday by pledging support for Palestinians. “This decentralized World Social Forum (WSF) offers to Palestinian democratic movements the chance of asking Europe to intervene and stop what Nelson Mandela has defined ‘the new apartheid of our century,’” said Mustafa Barghouthi, a pro-democracy activist who was candidate for presidency of the Palestinian National Authority in 2005. He spoke from Ramallah during a WSF press conference in Rome Tuesday. Read more about Italians awaken to Palestinian pain
A top European Union official has offered full backing for Israel as it continues its illegal blockade of fuel, food, medicine and other vital supplies to the occupied Gaza Strip that has led to a growing humanitarian crisis. At a conference in the Israeli town of Herzliya on 22 January, Franco Frattini, the vice president of the European Commission, stated that “the steps leading up to the Gaza blackout cannot be construed as a war crime,” according to a report on Ynetnews.com, Read more about Top EU official backs Israel's crimes in occupied Gaza
UNITEDNATIONS, 23 January (IPS) - Despite intensifying calls for international pressure to address the fast deteriorating situation in the Gaza Strip, observers and some diplomats say the UN Security Council has proved as ineffective as it has been for many years concerning issues related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. On Tuesday, the Council called an emergency meeting during which a vast majority of delegates strongly condemned Israel’s blockade of the occupied Palestinian areas and charged that it was violating international humanitarian law. Read more about US stymies Security Council action on Gaza
The architecture of occupation is thoroughly analyzed in the Israeli-born architect Eyal Weizman’s Hollow Land. The study takes us to the heart of a conflict which has always been about land, where “the mundane elements of planning and architecture have become tactical tools and the means of dispossession.” Behind the headlines, the reality on the ground (as well as above and beneath it) continues to be reshaped daily. Ben White reviews. Read more about Sovereignty by stealth: Eyal Weizman's "Hollow Land"
A staggering disparity in images has emanated from the Middle East over the past two weeks. While US President George W. Bush received a warm welcome during his tour of the Persian Gulf, Israel pounded Gaza killing over 40 Palestinians, nearly half of them civilians. Bush participated in sword dancing ceremonies, watched the prowess of hunting falcons, and in the United Arab Emirates he was finally greeted with the flowers that he once believed American troops would receive in Iraq. Osamah Khalil comments. Read more about Sword dancing while Gaza starves
