In February, press reports that cement imported from Egypt through Palestinian companies and ready-made concrete manufactured in the Palestinian village of Abu Dis were being used to build Israeli settlements and the apartheid wall provoked outrage among Palestinians. A commission of inquiry has now reported finding “compelling evidence and documents adequate for indicting those involved.” But Hasan Abu Nimah and Ali Abunimah say that corruption within the Palestinian Authority has deep roots. Read more about Deep-rooted corruption in Palestine
The 77-minute HBO/Channel 4 production Death in Gaza is a story about the last moments of the life of award-winning British cameraman James Miller, 1968-2003. Miller travelled to the occupied Palestinian territories to make a film on children and was fatally shot by an Israeli soldier when filming in Rafah. The film’s commentator, Saira Shah, is an award-winning journalist of Afghan-Scottish decent. Miller and Shah had collaborated on other award-winning documentaries such as Beneath the Veil and Unholy War (Channel 4 / CNN), both filmed in Afghanistan. Read more about Review: "Death in Gaza"
“People who have been [to the West Bank and Gaza Strip] always say it’s very difficult … to speak about it” to others who haven’t been there, says French director Samir Abdallah, creator of the film Writers on the Borders: A Journey to Palestine(s). Abdallah adds that his film “brings some proposal to this question of how to speak about it and show what’s happening in Palestine and … [informs how to] not only be a storyteller but an actor, in an active position” in striving for justice for the Palestinians. EI’s Maureen Clare Murphy caught up with Abdallah who was in Chicago for the North American premier of Writers on the Borders. Read more about Interview: "Writers on the Borders" director Samir Abdallah
Israeli public pressure on Sharon’s militarised regime to withdraw from Gaza and the occupied territories is growing. This comes not only from civilians and organisations active in the peace movement, but — to the great alarm of an Israeli government with deep military links — also from the country’s military and security forces. Reservists and soldiers are not prepared to die for the settlers in Gaza. Adri Nieuwhof and Jeff Handmaker say Sharon would be foolish not to heed the similar experiences of other leaders who faced growing resentment from their army and police commanders as their militarised policies failed. Read more about Sharon shows no respect for democratic principles
Rolling hills unmarred by the hands of man, the water of the Jordan river trickling along its way, olive trees rustling in the breeze — this is the land of the Galilee that Melkite priest Elias Chacour so loves, and this is the imagery he says Jesus enjoyed when he was living in what is now referred to as the Holy Land. To understand Chacour’s background is to understand his connection, and his family’s ties, to the land of the Galilee, and so it is appropriate that filmmaker Claude Roshem-Smith opens with beautiful scenes of Galilean pastoral greenery in his biographical film Elias Chacour: Prophet in His Own Country. Read more about Review: Elias Chacour: Prophet in His Own Country
“We have to make the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a mainstream concern and the only way we can do that is by effectively communicating the realities at ground zero for Joe and Jane Palestinian to the American public. Nobody would sign off on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict if they knew what happened at ground zero, nobody. Only the most ardent and entrenched supporters of Israel.” This article is an edited version of a speech EI’s Nigel Parry gave at the “Palestine: Perception and Reality” panel at the 21st National Convention of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in Washington DC, on Sunday 13 June 2004. Read more about Palestine: Perception and Reality
“Mafateeh,” or “keys,” is a word that holds symbolic meaning for Palestinians, and refugees in Rafah, Amman, and Jenin alike can show you the keys to their houses that they temporarily fled or were expelled from during the time leading up to and during the 1948 war. And like Ali Nimer Harami does in the film Keys, these refugees can show you well-preserved pieces of paper that prove their legal claim over land that is currently inhabited by Jewish Israelis in what is now Israel. Maureen Clare Murphy reviews the beautifully shot film for EI. Read more about Documentary film review: "Keys"
At the 21st National Convention of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) in Washington DC, from June 10th-13th, EI’s Nigel Parry shot video footage of Palestinian-American poet and political activist Suheir Hammad reading her poem Beyond Words. Recipient of the Audre Lourde Writing Award from Hunter College, the Morris Center for Healing Poetry Award, and a New York Mills Artist Residency in Minnesota, Suheir has recently been touring with the Tony Award-winning Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry Jam. Video in MPEG-4 format. Read more about Video: Suheir Hammad reading 'Beyond Words' at ADC 2004
At the 21st National Convention of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) in Washington DC, from June 10th-13th, EI’s Nigel Parry shot video footage of two performances by Palestinian comedians — Maysoon Zayid and Dean Obeidallah, who are definitely rising stars in the American comedy circuit and host their own New York-based FM radio show, Fen Majnoon (“Crazy Art”) with Dean and Maysoon. Video is available in MPEG-4 format, which can be viewed using QuickTime. Read more about Video: Palestinian comedians Maysoon Zayid and Dean Obeidallah at ADC 2004
Both of the films A Stone’s Throw Away and The Children of Ibdaa investigate the thoughts and lives of a handful of children from the Deheisheh refugee camp, an impoverished refugee town on the outskirts of Bethlehem. Together, they illustrate that what drives Palestinians to commit violence, and how children need something to make their lives meaningful given the humiliation and lack of opportunity that come with living under Israeli military occupation. Read more about Review: "A Stone's Throw Away" and "The Children of Ibda'a"
