Last week’s attack on the Nahal Oz fuel depot should not surprise critics in the West. Palestinians are fighting a total war waged on us by a nation that mobilizes against our people with every means at its disposal — from its high-tech military to its economic stranglehold, from its falsified history to its judiciary that “legalizes” the infrastructure of apartheid. Resistance remains our only option. Hamas founder Mahmoud al-Zahar comments. Read more about No peace without Hamas
JERUSALEM, 17 April (IPS) - Three decades after he brokered the first-ever peace treaty between Israel and an Arab country, former US president Jimmy Carter has become persona non grata in the Jewish state. Both Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak refused to meet with him during his four-day visit here. So did former prime minister and opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who accused Carter of holding “anti-Israel views in recent years.” Read more about Israel doesn't want to know Carter any more
WASHINGTON, 15 April (IPS) - A new group of prominent US Jews who believe that the so-called “Israel Lobby” has been dominated for too long by neo-conservatives and other Likud-oriented hawks has launched a new organization to help fund political candidates who favor a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a stronger US role in achieving it. Read more about New Jewish lobby seeks to redefine "pro-Israel"
“Carter seems more comfortable with terrorists than with friends like Israel.” So said a newsflash on the Israeli daily Haaretz’s website last Sunday. The statement was attributed to the American pro-Israel group, the Anti-Defamation League, and was obviously a reaction to news that former US president Jimmy Carter was planning to meet with Hamas leader Khaled Meshal during an upcoming visit to Damascus. EI contributor Hasan Abu Nimah comments. Read more about Carter's visit with Hamas' Meshal
HEBRON, 14 April (IRIN) - A Palestinian charity in the West Bank city of Hebron is concerned it will be shut by the Israeli military and forced to close its orphanages and schools, employees at the institution told IRIN. The Israeli military has ordered the closure of buildings rented by the Islamic Charitable Society (ICS), saying it is working for Hamas. Read more about Israel moves to shut Hebron orphanages, schools
On 22 March, The Miami Herald published an article entitled “Dreaming of a peaceful Mideast.” The initial reaction to such a headline is naturally one of pleased interest. Reporter Frida Ghitis praises the Israel/Palestine Centre for Research and Information for “working to create” a “culture of peace” in order to “put a stop to incitement and hatred.” Carol Scheller comments for EI. Read more about How Palestinian children really learn
WASHINGTON, 14 April (IPS) - Despite renewed US efforts to achieve an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement this year, popular views of the United States in the Arab world have actually worsened since 2006, according to a major new survey of public opinion in six Arab states. Read more about Poll: Israel, US greatest threats to Middle East
GAZACITY, 12 April - “I am bleeding uncontrollably, I need an ambulance.” That was not a call to emergency services, it was an appeal broadcast live on radio in Gaza City. Who knows whether there will ever be an ambulance or not. But this way the ambulance services still hear the appeal broadcast on al-Iman FM Radio Station, one of few independent radio stations in Gaza. And if the emergency services cannot help, someone else who hears the appeal might. Read more about No ambulance, call the radio
Muhammad Jaradat looks at the history that shaped the Palestinian Return Movement, the obstacles and challenges it faced — both internal and external — and its achievements towards the revitalization of the Palestinian consensus about the centrality of the right of return for the future of the Palestinian people and peace in the region. Read more about Reflections on the Palestine return movement
When I think of cinema in Ramallah, I think of Esther Jallad. She and her family were expelled from their wealthy home in the port city of Jaffa in 1948 and found themselves in the hilly village of Ramallah. In her displacement, Esther carried one passion with her: she loved to go to the movies. She lived conveniently, next to one of the three cinemas in Ramallah, Cinema Dunia. Raja Shehadeh remembers a woman whose life imitated art, and a lost Palestinian past. Read more about In memory of Esther: Cinema Dunia
