Two Palestinians were killed and seven Israeli soldiers and 13 Palestinians were wounded today when a bomb exploded at Kalandia checkpoint, separating Ramallah and northern parts of Jerusalem from the rest of the city. Six Palestinian wounded were taken to Ramallah hospitals. All Israeli casualties were Israeli army officers. They were taken to hospitals in Jerusalem. As Israeli soldiers are combing the streets of Jerusalem neighborhoods ar-Ram and Dahiya al-Barid, the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack. The Aqsa Martyrs Brigades said the attack was meant to retaliate for Israeli actions in Gaza. Israeli armed forces imposed a closure on Ramallah. Hundreds of Israeli police and soldiers are deployed in the area. Read more about Photostory: Images of the Kalandia Checkpoint bombing
The Oslo Agreement stipulation on the telecom sector is very clear. Any operator must be licensed by the Palestinian Authority if they desire to sell their services to the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Not only are all of the Israeli cellular companies illegally operating in Palestinian areas without licenses, but the Israeli government is encouraging them by disrupting the ability of the Palestinians to develop their own telecommunications networks and refusing to take action against these Israeli operators for violating agreements. Read more about De-development Israeli style
The case for Israel’s wall and fence barrier rests an endlessly repeated and passionately defended premise: only such a barrier can provide Israel security from the waves of Palestinian suicide bombers who have brutally maimed and killed hundreds of Israeli civilians in buses and café’s over the past four years. Given the devastating impact of Palestinian suicide attacks on Israeli society, it’s not hard to see why many have embraced the barrier as a remedy to stop the carnage. Unfortunately, in this case the proposed cure may actually be worse than the malady itself. Steve Niva examines the facts. Read more about Dangerous Illusion: Why Israel's Barrier Will Fail to Provide Security
News from the Holy Land: Options and Consequences is a film that shows how journalists can improve their coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict. It is geared towards aspiring journalists (although veteran journalists could learn a thing or two from it), introducing creative ways of covering the conflict. The film stresses that it is the lack of context in mainstream reporting of the conflict that leads to a process of polarization. This is partly because the media are only interested in violence and not the underlying processes which lead to the violence. Read more about Documentary film review: "News from the Holy Land"
Take the A train to Brooklyn, the message said. Walk one block west. Meet at the basement. Call this number if you’re lost and don’t forward this message. Palestinian Activist Forum of New York (PAFNY), was planning a demonstration in Manhattan, the Big Apple turned Orange. With the Republican National Convention around the corner, the city would amputate a bridge over one suspicious package. So as PAFNY convened last Friday night to prepare banners, placards and leaflets, security precautions were necessary. Any responsible political group takes precautions into their own hands. Read more about Protest March New York, includes Jewish support for refugees' return
A settler group, Women in Green, has taken to spying on MachsomWatch at checkpoints, taking cookies and Cokes to “our boys in green” or, in the Gaza settlements, doing the soldiers’ laundry. Meanwhile, on various occasions, settlers (including Daniela Weiss, lady mayor of Kedumim settlement near Nablus) have physically attacked MachsomWatch groups. Now, anonymous right-wingers have set up a tastelessly fake version of MachsomWatch’s website. The fake “dot com” site is used as a platform for ultra-right wing propaganda of a typically odious nature. Angela Godfrey-Goldstein reports. Read more about Ultra-right establish fake MachsomWatch website
Where Israel is concerned, U.S. foreign policy never ceases to amaze. When Palestinian in-fighting took place in Gaza last week, Secretary of State Colin Powell had the following to say about the United States’ position: “Just have to watch it unfold.” If U.S. interests in the Middle East continue to be hijacked and jeopardized by a rapacious Israeli state, then maybe not only the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza are occupied territories. Maybe we need a peacekeeping force immediately sent to Capital Hill. In the meantime, Palestinians’ eyes will be fixed on Washington and we will “just have to watch it unfold.” Palestinian American businessman Sam Bahour comments from occupied Al-Bireh/Ramallah. Read more about Colin Powell And My Grandmother
“Because it represents a failure to be just, fair, forward-looking and charitable, US treatment of the Palestinian people represents a failure to be American. Palestine is not a sideshow in the current frightening uproar of political events in the world. It is the main event for Americans and for America. Palestine can and should be the proving grounds for all the values and principles — freedom, dignity, prosperity, justice, and fairness — that set the United States apart from other countries for decades.” EI co-founder Laurie King-Irani ponders the connections between America and Palestine by remembering the summer of 1964. Read more about "It's a small world after all"
A few weeks ago, Israeli scholars and activists appealed to Jewish-Israeli public opinion through a compelling document. Entitled “For Truth and Reconciliation, For Equality and Partnership” the appeal aimed at changing the political discourse in Israel, particularly “the historical dimension of the conflict and noting the structural political, ideological and cultural changes required to reach, in the future, a true reconciliation.” The Olga document is the result of a series of discussions between Israeli scholars and activists in Givat Olga, one of the largest neighborhoods in Hadera overlooking the Mediterranean coastline. Read more about The Olga Appeal: Israeli scholars and activists recognize the right of return
Father Michael Prior worked tirelessly for over 20 years of his life to expose the racism, false favoritism, deception, and blatantly ‘unJesuslike’ core assumptions of the theology of Christian Zionism. As a Christian theologian and philosopher he felt responsible for confronting the contradictions of the philosophy by weaving tapestries of understanding from the more mainstream pages of the Bible that Christian Zionism had torn out and discarded. EI’s Nigel Parry, who worked with Michael Prior from 1993-1994, remembers his life and work. Read more about Remembering Michael Prior
