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Month: December 2010

‘Breaking the Silence’ in Israel
By Uri Avnery – Israel It is easy to despair before the filthy wave of racism that is engulfing us. The remedy for this despair: the growing number of young people, sons and daughters of […]

Al-Qaeda Tune: Israel’s Favorite War Song
By Dr. Ahmed Yousef, Deputy Foreign Minister – Gaza Israeli strategists covet the concept of Islamic fundamentalism. It is a convenient, all-encompassing tag easily applied to any bearded man, veiled woman or contrarian critic of Western politics […]

Gaza: Two Years after the Horror
By Haidar Eid This week marks the second anniversary of the horror inflicted on the people of the Gaza Strip. Nothing has changed! Gaza has returned to its pre-invasion state of siege, confronted with the […]

Hamas Calls on Israel to Respect Truce
Hamas has urged Israel to comply with the terms of its ceasefire with the Gaza Strip and stop the aggression against Palestinians in the besieged territory. Expressing the resistance movement’s commitment to its truce with […]

UN Slams Israel for Home Destructions
UN officials strongly criticized Israel’s ongoing demolitions in the occupied territories, which also lead to the evictions of many Palestinian families. “These condemnable acts have a devastating impact,” said Barbara Shenstone, the West Bank Field […]

‘Israel Rallying for another Gaza War’
A Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) official has warned that Israel has been rallying the international community for launching another war on the Gaza Strip. "Israel is preparing the internal and international opinion using the same […]

Easing of Gaza Blockade Fails to Reverse Housing Crisis
Farid Batch and his brother Wasfi live about 500m from their old houses in Jabalia, north Gaza. The homes of four Batch brothers once stood next to each other overlooking a grove of olive and […]

Obama’s Indecisiveness Defines His Presidency
By Ramzy Baroud He may still possess the poise of a confident leader and an eloquent intellectual, but the presidency of Barack Obama is now suffering its most difficult phase to date. Certainly, Obama cannot […]

Freedom of the Press in the Arab World
By Abdel-Qader Yassine Coming from the land where two thousand years ago, four men named John, Matthew, Mark and Luke exercised a form of journalism never equalled since, I begin with the quotation: "Know ye […]


Israel to Deploy New Tanks to Gaza
The Israeli army has said it will deploy tanks equipped with a miniature missile defence system near the Gaza border, in response to the use of tank-piercing missiles by Palestinian fighters. Army officials alleged that […]

Israel to Press US for Spy Release
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister has pledged to press President Barack Obama to release Jonathan Pollard, a convicted Israeli spy sentenced to life in prison. Netanyahu said in a statement, on Tuesday, that he would […]

Palestinian Statehood: Quality as Well as Quantity
By John V. Whitbeck On December 17, Bolivia extended diplomatic recognition to the State of Palestine within its full pre-1967 borders (all of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem). Coming soon […]

Brazil Marks off Palestinian Embassy
Brazil has reportedly allocated land for the establishment of a Palestinian embassy on its soil, having recognized a sovereign and independent Palestinian state. On Monday, the Palestinian Ambassador to Brazil Ibrahim Az-Zein was awarded the […]

Gaza-bound Asia 1 Reaches Syria
The first Asian convoy that plans to break Israel’s siege of Gaza has reached Syria, reaffirming its objective of displaying solidarity with the oppressed Palestinians. The Asian People’s Solidarity with Palestine convoy, also known as […]

US Slammed for Defying Palestine State
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat has criticized the US House of Representatives for its opposition to the recognition of an independent Palestinian state. The House on Wednesday unanimously approved a resolution opposing unilateral declaration of […]

Israeli Exceptionalism
By Robin Yassin-Kassab M. Shahid Alam’s latest book ‘Israeli Exceptionalism: The Destabilising Logic of Zionism’ is a fascinating historical analysis, densely detailed and referenced, of the nature and trajectory of Jewish nationalism. It is bracingly […]

Israeli Fighter Jets Attack Gaza
Israeli fighter jets have attacked the Gaza Strip, wounding two Palestinian fighters, according to a Palestinian medical source and witnesses. The overnight raids came after the Israeli army accused Palestinian fighters of firing nine mortar […]

Egypt Blames Israel for Impasse
Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, has blamed Israel for the stalemate in peace negotiations with the Palestinians. He singled out the construction of Jewish settlements on lands the Palestinians want for a future state as […]

‘No Such Thing as Justice in the Holy Land’
By Stuart Littlewood – London We are not here as politicians, they said. We come as representatives of the various churches in Jerusalem. But the trio from the Holy Land showed they were more than […]

Wasted Journeys: Anti-Racism in Israel
By Seraj Assi In his ‘Telephone Conversation’ Nigerian poet Wole Soyinka reflects on the absurdity of racism allowing his poetic muse to render it ironic, sarcastic, cynical, satiric, ridiculous, beautiful and nasty. The speaker of […]

Eyes in Gaza
By Jeremy Salt – Ankara (Mads Gilbert and Erik Fosse. Eyes in Gaza. London: Quartet Books, 2010.) "They bombed the central vegetable market in Gaza City two hours ago. 80 injured, 20 killed, all came […]

O Little Town of Bethlehem Today
By Ron Forthofer During Christmas time, the town of Bethlehem in the West Bank, the birthplace of Jesus, comes to mind. I wonder what Jesus would think were he to return to Bethlehem, to Jerusalem […]

Castigating Global Activism as ‘Lawfare’
By Iqbal Jassat – Pretoria Reading details of a press conference hosted by Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon to mark International Human Rights Day makes one aware not only about how far removed the […]

Hidden Histories
By Jim Miles (Basem L. Ra’ad. Hidden Histories – Palestine and the Eastern Mediterranean. London: Pluto Press, 2010.) The clear majority of the modern works that examine the Palestine/Israel conflict do so with a strong […]

Wikimania and the First Amendment
By Ralph Nader Thomas Blanton, the esteemed director of the National Security Archive at George Washington University described Washington’s hyper-reaction to Wikileaks’ transmission of information to some major media in various countries as ‘Wikimania.’ In testimony […]

AIPAC’s Scandalous Behaviors
By Dallas Darling If it was not enough for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) to condemn the Palestinians for publicly suggesting that they have a right to consider a unilateral declaration of statehood, […]

I Dreamed This was Only a Nightmare
By Lillian Rosengarten I woke up this morning from a nightmare. I dreamed of Dr Izzeldin Abuelaish. Perhaps the world has forgotten or does not know about this Gazan physician who has dedicated his life […]

HRW Says Israel Enforcing Apartheid
The Human Rights Watch says Israel is enforceing an apartheid system in the occupied West Bank by indulging its own population while depriving the Palestinians. The New York-based rights group’s representative Carroll Bogert said, "Palestinians […]

’10 EU States to Upgrade PLO Missions’
European countries have agreed to upgrade Palestinian missions as embassies, trying to push for a Palestinian state, chief Palestinian Authority negotiator says. Saeb Erakat said on Sunday that Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) missions abroad are […]