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Month: December 2012

Abbas Too Weak to Make Transition from PA to Functioning State
By Hasan Afif El-Hasan After wasting twenty years of negotiations in which basic Palestinian rights were squandered while Israel was colonizing the West Bank and Jerusalem and millions of Palestinians rot in refugee camps, Mahmoud […]

A Precarious Existence in the Jordan Valley
By IRIN – Al-Jiftlik, West Bank For those who recently watched images of the Israeli bombardment in Gaza, the wide open hills of the Jordan Valley in the West Bank appear as a stark contrast. […]

Man Tries to Set Himself on Fire During Electricity Protest
A man from Balata refugee camp in Nablus attempted to set himself alight on Monday in protest against recently announced measures that will no longer exempt refugees from paying electricity costs. Jumah Abu Alifeh, 47, […]

Conspiracy to Thwart Palestinian Hopes for Freedom
By Stuart Littlewood This Christmas the Palestinian embassy in London sent out a particularly pathetic message. Headed ‘Palestine mulling ICC if UN takes no action on settlements,’ it warned that if the UN Security Council […]

Israel Eases Ban on Gaza Building Material
Israel has allowed a shipment of gravel for private construction into the Gaza Strip, easing the blockade it imposed after Hamas seized control of the enclave in 2007, a Palestinian official said. Raed Fattouh, familiar […]

In Valiant Fortitude – A Poem
By Soraya Boyd Unlawfully pincered between harsh collective punishment and base military aggression The tear bedabbled faces of innocent children in constant lacrimation Afforded no respite cling desperately to their progenitor for safety and protection […]

Four Palestinians Killed in Syria Refugee Camp
Four Palestinians were killed on Thursday when Syrian forces shelled a Damascus refugee camp, sources told Ma’an. Over 15 shells were fired by Syria’s military at Yarmouk refugee camp since Thursday morning, with four Palestinian […]

Knesset Member Haneen Zoabi Appeals Israel Election Ban
A Palestinian-Israeli politician is appealing a court ruling barring her from running in Israel’s general elections next month. Last week, Knesset member Haneen Zoabi was disqualified for “undermining” Israel because she was on board the […]

Israeli Politics: A Person Called Nobody
By Uri Avnery – Israel Suddenly, I realized that a new star had appeared on the political firmament of Israel. Until yesterday I did not even know of its existence. A respected public opinion poll […]

Political Grinchs Stole Christmas from Palestinian, Syrian Refugees
By Franklin Lamb – Church of Norte Dame, Damascus Church officials in Damascus advanced the hour of last night’s traditional Christmas Eve midnight service to 6:00 p.m. because few Damascenes’ venture out past sunset these […]

Constitutional Flaw: Culture of War Nation
By Charles Mercieca Over the past few decades, the United States has emerged to become the most violent nation in the civilized world. This did not happen overnight. In fact, we can trace this nation’s […]

Abbas Warns Israel of Disbanding PA
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has warned that he will disband his Palestinian Authority if there is no Israeli movement toward renewing peace talks after Israel’s elections on January 22. Abbas, in an interview with the […]

Al-Malki: Qatari Emir Postpones West Bank Visit
The emir of Qatar has postponed his visit to Ramallah until the end of January, the Palestinian Authority foreign minister said Thursday. Sheikh Hamad Ibn Khalifa al-Thani was expected to visit the West Bank in […]

2012: Hype and Realism
By Jamal Kanj The year 2012 was the last in the 21st century to have matching day, month and year (12-12-12.) It will be another nine decades before new congruent calendar is possible. That wasn’t, […]

Gaza’s Only Fisherwoman Continues to Sail
By Joshua Brollier – Gaza “The problems started for me at eighteen,” Madleen Kulab said quietly, sitting just meters from the shore of the Mediterranean. “The police and port authorities did not want me to […]

Report: Israel Expects More EU Pressure in 2013
Israel fears the European Union will step up efforts to pressure it and the Palestinians into an agreement in 2013, according to a government document quoted Wednesday in Israeli media. Israel’s Haaretz newspaper said the […]

Nakba Revisited: Tragedy of Syria’s Palestinians and Centrality of Right of Return
By Ramzy Baroud It must have been 2007, although I cannot remember the exact date. I do recall getting lost in what seemed like a futile search for the headquarters of the United Nations World […]

Video: The General’s Son
Miko Peled is a peace activist. Born in Jerusalem in 1961 into a well-known Zionist family, his grandfather, Dr. Avraham Katsnelson was a Zionist leader and signer of the Israeli Declaration of Independence. His Father, […]

Rape as Weapon of Domination: The Clout of Caste and Class in India
By Ershad Abubacker – Chennai, India More often than not, Arundhati Roy speaks unwelcome truths, truths that essentially do not go down well with the elite class. And hence she always gets dubbed as outspoken […]

Call for Freer Access to Gaza Land and Sea
By IRIN – Gaza When Jaber Abu Rjaila heard about the recent ceasefire agreement in Gaza, he rushed back to his farmland – for the first time in more than 10 years. “We have been […]

Israel to Build 942 More Settler Homes
Israel has advanced the process of building 942 more settler homes in East Jerusalem under a new fast-track plan to tighten its grip on the territory, which the Palestinians seek to have as the capital […]

Israel Endorses First University in West Bank
Israel has upgraded a college in a West Bank Jewish settlement to a university, reflecting a determination to keep control of the enclave in any peace deal with the Palestinians. The decision on Monday gives […]

Abbas in Bethlehem to Join Christmas Celebrations
President Mahmoud Abbas arrived in Bethlehem on Monday to celebrate Christmas and join the traditional Midnight Mass service in the Church of the Nativity. He was welcomed by the governor and other senior Palestinian figures […]

Terror in Christmas Tree: Israel Tries to Ban Non-Jewish Celebrations
By Jonathan Cook – Nazareth Israel’s large Palestinian minority is often spoken of in terms of the threat it poses to the Jewish majority. Palestinian citizens’ reproductive rate constitutes a “demographic timebomb”, while their main […]

Magician’s Diversion: Bleeding Syria to Death
By Jeremy Salt – Ankara According to various definitions, politicide can be used to describe the destruction of a government or a specific socio-political group, such as the Palestinians, when it overlaps with genocide. It […]

Will Israel Block Hagel as Defense Secretary?
By James M. Wall Former Nebraska Senator Charles (Chuck) Hagel may be nominated by President Barack Obama to be secretary of defense. The President is known to like his old Senate colleague, a Republican who, […]

The Trap: Politics of Partition of Historic Palestine
By Mahmoud N. Musa – Paris “At some point, Mr. Abbas must admit to his people that most of the refugees will never return to Israel: that is the price of partition”. This statement appeared […]

Why Washington Post Killed Story of Murdoch’s Bid to Buy US Presidency
By Jonathan Cook Carl Bernstein, of All the President’s Men fame, has a revealing commentary in the Guardian today, though revealing not entirely in a way he appears to understand. Bernstein highlights a story first […]

Israel’s E1 Plan and Its Implications
By Atif Shamim Syed E1, an abbreviation for East 1, is an Israeli acronym for the twelve kilometer piece of land that lies between the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim and Jerusalem. East 1 has not […]

Withholding Palestinian Tax Revenues is Criminal Act
By Rashid Shahin – Bethlehem This is not the first time the Israeli occupation authority withholds Palestinian tax revenues; in the last few years, the Israeli government has used this money as a Damocles sword […]