As Palestinian prisoners enter the 11th day of a hunger strike to protest abysmal Israeli prison conditions, Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, professional groups from other Arab countries, and Israeli activists have joined with the strikers in solidarity. Israeli authorities reacted to the strike with disciplinary measures and suspended several of the prisoners’ privileges such as confiscating television sets and radios, suspending newspaper deliveries and stopping visits. Over 200 Palestinian prisoners have died while in Israeli custody, due to torture, ill-treatment, deprivation of medical treatment, and neglect. Read more about Local, regional solidarity with hunger strikers grows
Over 2,000 Palestinian political prisoners are currently participating in a hunger strike to protest their detention conditions and treatment by Israeli prison authorities. These include demands for public phones, the removal of partitions that separate inmates from visiting family members, and a halt to strip searches. They are also demanding the right to be able to hold their children during visits. Israeli prison authorities have resorted to new measures to end the open hunger strike that entered its 11th day today. EI’s Arjan El Fassed reports. Read more about Palestinian prisoner hunger strike continues, despite Israeli repression
Salim Shawamreh, the Palestinian coordinator of the camp has had his home demolished four times and has rebuilt it for the fifth time as Beit Arabiya, the House of Peace. It is named after his wife who was the head chef at the work camp and is dedicated to American activist Rachel Corrie and Palestinian Nuha Sweidan, two women who died during home demolitions in Gaza last year. In his eyes, it is not a home demolition, but a life demolition. “When they come to demolish our homes, they are planting the hatred inside our kids,” says Shawamreh. Read more about Building Peace: Demolished Home Rebuilt in Anata Village
Right-wing Israelis and many Palestinians have at least one thing in common: Both fear the disastrous ramifications of Sharon’s Disengagement Plan. Of course, one viewpoint is an expansionist one that seeks to drive Palestinians from their land, while the other one comes from the very real fear that Sharon will show flexibility on Gaza only in order to entrench the occupation in the West Bank. To date, the Bush administration has failed to grapple meaningfully with the Gaza Disengagement Plan in the context of its being a first step within the scenario of a full withdrawal from the Occupied Territories. Read more about Gaza Disengagement: Palestinian concerns ignored
The bright red letters stand out starkly against the ugly grey cement. The wall that is slicing through East Jerusalem is some thirty feet high, but casts its shadow for miles. There is little the Palestinians hemmed in on both sides of the wall can do to oppose it. So, the wall is dotted with marks where rocks have been thrown at it in anger, and covered with graffiti. Some graffiti writers ask if the builder of this wall can be a “man of peace”. Some ask how a people whose history is full of ghettos can now be building one. And someone decided to remind us all, in those blood-red letters, that it was “Paid by USA”. Read more about The writing on the wall
Palestinians should have the permission to narrate their own lives, their own hopes, their own history. Putting tragedies, events and experiences into words help ease turmoil and defuse the terror. Writing provides a sense of control and a sense of understanding. For some, writing is a struggle, a matter of survival. As eyewitnesses of tomorrow’s news, we cannot hope to understand what is going on without access to alternative information resources. The compelling stories of Mitri Raheb, a Palestinian Christian pastor of the Evangelical Christmas Church where he ministers to his people in Bethlehem, gives us a window not only into what it is like to have grown up under occupation but also into his soul. Read more about Book Review: Bethlehem Besieged
While the world’s attention is almost completely absorbed by events in Iraq, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s onslaught on the Palestinians continues with extreme brutality. He hopes to put an end to the Intifada before a new American administration is in place, writes EI contributor Hasan Abu Nimah, but while the Palestinian resistance may be exhausted for now, Israel is nowhere near victory and is, strategically, in its worst position against the Palestinians ever. Israel has missed a historic opportunity for peace on highly favorable terms, and the time is coming where it will be lucky to settle for much less than it has now. Read more about Israel's race to end Palestinian resistance before the US election
Palestinian prisoners in four different Israeli prisons started an open-ended hunger strike on Sunday to press for better living conditions of the nearly 8,000 Palestinian prisoners. Israeli authorities reacted to the strike with disciplinary measures and suspended several of the prisoners’ privileges such as confiscating television sets and radios, suspending newspaper deliveries and stopping visits. Since 1967 to date, Israel has arbitrarily detained over 630,000 Palestinians. In 1989 alone, Israel detained 50,000 Palestinians, representing 16% of the entire male population of the West Bank and Gaza Strip between the ages of 14 and 55. Read more about Imprisoned Decency
The recent Geneva performance by the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, created by the late Edward Said and the world-famous musician Daniel Barenboim, was cultural diplomacy at its best, and at the same time represented the kind of politics that, quite simply, defies the very conventions of politics. Peace making made fun (and beautiful), but not watered down, the performance was a sophisticated, classic display of the pen’s superiority over the sword, the violin over the rifle. Ismail Khalidi reflects upon the orchedstra’s talent and significance for EI. Read more about The intellectual, the maestro, and the "piece process"
The Myth of Palestinian Development is a focused biography that takes a deep and serious look into how two funding agencies, in particular, and the entire donor community in general, including pre-Oslo Palestinian and Arab donors, view and act toward Palestinian development. The book takes a unique approach by surveying the Palestinian development process — the ‘de-development’ process as Dr. Nakhleh would call it — through his own work experience with the two most significant developmental agencies of the pre and post-Oslo periods, The Welfare Association (1984-1992) and the European Commission (1993-2001). Read more about Book Review: The Myth of Palestinian Development
