30 December, 2009
New Year Reopens Wounds Of The Old
By Eva Bartlett
For many survivors of the last Israeli war on Gaza, time has not healed their wounds, physical or emotional
Displaced And Desperate In Gaza
By Safa Joudeh
With the blockade in full force, those who lost their homes see no chance of rebuilding
Using False Accusations Of “Anti-Semitism”
As A Weapon To Silence Criticism Of
Israel’s Behaviour
By Ulli Diemer
Ulli Diemer argues that as world public opinion turns against Israel, its racist apartheid regime and its occupation, the Zionist state and its lobbies have turned to attempts to outlaw criticism of Israel by labelling it as “anti-Semitism” – attempts that need to be exposed and challenged as a serious threat to basic freedoms
Arresting Peaceful Protesters In Occupied Palestine
By Stephen Lendman
For decades, Israel has met peaceful Palestinian protesters disruptively with violence, arrests and at times unprovoked killings. It's no surprise that targeting them and their leaders is now common practice in cities and villages like Jayyous and Bil'in
29 December, 2009
The Good Out Of The Misery In Gaza:
Love In Action And Global Conscience
By Eileen Fleming
Hundreds of activists who had already traveled on their dime and given up their time to bring some much needed humanitarian aid to the innocents in Gaza and to participate in the Gaza Freedom March have now also given up food. Because the Egyptian government has denied over 1,300 nonviolent international activists entry into Gaza, hundreds of them began a hunger strike on December 28, 2009
Gaza One Year Later
By Stephen Lendman
A December 2009 report prepared by Oxfam International, Amnesty International UK, United Civilians for Peace, Christian Aid, and a dozen other international NGOs (called NGOs below) titled, "Failing Gaza: No rebuilding, no recovery, no more excuses" is hard-hitting and to the point
Gazan Children Bear 'Scars Of War'
By Phoebe Greenwood
Ahmed Awad, a child psychologist who worked as a counselling manager at the ministry of education until 2008, warns: "Every single child in Gaza is traumatised by what they experienced during the war. They all heard the aircrafts, the bombs and the shelling, they all feel unsafe. But around 60 per cent are still suffering from shock
28 December, 2009
Israel Resembles A Failed State
By Ali Abunimah
One year has passed since the savage Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip, but for the people there time might as well have stood still. Since Palestinians in Gaza buried their loved ones -- more than 1,400 persons, almost 400 of them children -- there has been little healing and virtually no reconstruction
International Law And Israel's War On Gaza
By Francis A. Boyle
Even if Oslo had succeeded, it would have resulted in the imposition of a bantustan upon the Palestinian People. But Oslo has run its course! Therefore, it is my purpose here today to chart a new direction for the Palestinian People to consider
An International Crime Called Gaza
By Dr. Elias Akleh
A fully pre-meditated international crime of genocide has been taking place during the last 62 years in the heart of the Arab World. The victims are the Palestinian people especially those in the Gaza Strip. The assassin is the worst ever terrorist group deceptively called the Israeli Defense Forces
Palestine/Israel: A Single State,
With Liberty And Justice For All
By Susan Abulhawa & Ramzy Baroud
It is time for our shared land to be the inclusive and diverse country it had been. It is time for leaders to follow the people’s determined movement toward a single democratic state, with liberty and justice for all, regardless of religion
The Occupied West Bank Latroun Villages
By Stephen Lendman
On June 6, 1967, when Israeli forces invaded Gaza and the West Bank, on the second day of the so-called Six-Day War (June 5 - 10, 1967), they entered three Palestinian villages in the Latroun salient - Imwas, Yalo and Beit Nouba, forcibly expelling the residents, numbering over 10,000 at the time. Forty-two years later, their former homes gone and land expropriated, the survivors remain displaced, unable to return in violation of international law and Article 11 of UN Resolution 194
27 December, 2009
Israeli Troops Kill 6 In West Bank, Gaza
By AFP
Israeli troops killed six Palestinians on Saturday in two separate operations, including a raid in the West Bank targeting members of president Mahmud Abbas' Fatah movement
One Year After Israeli Assault,
Gaza Is Still On The Brink
By Sharat G. Lin
On 27 December 2008, Israel launched “Operation Cast Lead” on the Gaza Strip with the announced objective of stopping Palestinian rocket attacks on Israeli civilians, most notably in the town of Sderot close to the northern border between Israel and Gaza, and halting the flow of arms through tunnels from Egypt into Gaza
Israel: A Monster Beyond Control?
By Alan Hart
On the first anniversary of the beginning of Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip – in my view it was a demonstration of Israeli state terrorism at its most naked – it’s not enough to say that the governments of the Western powers (and others) are complicit in Israel’s on-going collective punishment of 1.5 million Palestinians, 53% of whom are children. What is actually happening in the blockaded Gaza Strip, and less obviously on the occupied West Bank, is the continuation by stealth of Zionism’s ethnic cleansing of Palestine
Gaza’s Shrinking Borders:
16 Years Of The Oslo Process
By Sharat G. Lin
Forty-two years of military occupation and sixteen years of the Oslo Process have made Gaza a smaller place. Already one of the most densely-populated strips of land in the world, its population has grown during this period from less than 360,000 in 1967 to 1.5 million today. Meanwhile, its borders have not only become more impermeable, but they have been progressively closing in on what some have called “the world’s largest open air prison.”
23 December, 2009
Breaking Palestine's Peaceful Protest
By Neve Gordon
Palestinians have a long history of nonviolent resistance but Israel has continuously deployed methods to destroy it
22 December, 2009
Gaza: A Christmas Remembrance
By William A. Cook
Herman Melville realized that the superior white Christian civilization epitomized absolute savagery and that cannibals treated others with more humanity than these self-identified enlightened men. That understanding of the civilized white man struck me with its absoluteness, its certainty, its expressive force the moment I opened my file of little four year old Kaukab Al Dayah, whose tender face rests on top of the rubble of her home, an unsuspecting victim of white Zionist brutality that delivered her family a missile as a Christmas gift just over a year ago
Gaza Must Be Rebuilt Now
By Jimmy Carter
We can wait no longer to restart the peace process. The human suffering demands urgent relief
20 December, 2009
Net Around Israeli War Crimes Suspects Tightens
By Adri Nieuwhof & Ziyaad Lunat
Efforts by human rights organizations, lawyers and activists in Palestine and Europe to hold Israeli war crimes suspects to account have gained momentum over the past few years. Last week, former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni cancelled a visit to the UK over threats of a lawsuit under the country's universal jurisdiction laws
17 December, 2009
The Potentially Widespread Contamination
Of The Soil Of Gaza Due To Israeli Bombing
By Professors Mario Barbieri, Maurizio Barbieri &
Paola Manduca
Summary of the findings of a study done by Professors Mario Barbieri, Maurizio Barbieri & Paola Manduca
Steel Walls Cannot Contain
The Struggle For Freedom
By Hasan Abu Nimah
As if the siege of Gaza were not already bad enough, Israel and Egypt are working even harder to tighten the prison which holds Gaza's 1.5 million people. Egypt is building a steel wall along its 10-kilometer-long border with the Gaza Strip, according to recent media reports. This wall apparently extends not only above ground, but deep into the ground in an attempt to prevent Palestinians digging the tunnels that have become a lifeline for the territory
Get The War Criminals Arrested Now
By Khalid Amayreh
The recent arrest warrant issued in London for former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is more than justified. This woman, along with two other Israeli leaders, Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak, stood at the helm of the Israeli government that ordered, supervised and charted the genocidal onslaught against the Gaza Strip this time last year
The Lobby Within
By Ramzy Baroud
Don’t be surprised when you hear that the US continues to block the path for peace in the Middle East. At least now you know why
15 December, 2009
For Palestinians, Every Day Is Kristallnacht
By Paul Craig Roberts
“Settlers attack West Bank mosque and burn holy Muslim books” was a London Times headline on December 11, 2009. These attacks, together with the demolition of Palestinian homes, the uprooting of Palestinians’ olive groves, the innumerable checkpoints that prevent Palestinians from accessing schools, work, and medical care, the Israeli Wall that denies Palestinians access to the land stolen from them, and the isolation and blockade of the Gaza Ghetto, are part of the Israeli government’s policy of genocide for the Palestinians
“Saving Israel” Or Assisting It To Commit Suicide?
By Alan Hart
A Jewish friend in Canada drew my attention to an article in the Jewish Ledger, an independent weekly newspaper in Westport, Connecticut. The headline over it is “Saving Israel” Expert says American Jews key to Israel’s survival. I have rarely read such dangerous nonsense. It’s the voice of Zionism, deluded as ever, but with more than a hint of panic
13 December, 2009
What Did The Palestinian Say To The Policeman?
By Liz Galinovic
Before Liz Galinovic travelled through Palestine, she didn't expect to find the locals laughing
12 December, 2009
Outrage In Palestine
By Salim Nazzal
The disgusting view of the fundamentalist Jewish colonizer driving his car several times over the Palestinian young man Wasim muwasada has invoked extreme rage among Palestinians
11 December, 2009
Another EU Policy Statement Will Not
Stop Israel's Colonization
By Hasan Abu Nimah
Despite the usual hype, the document, a version of which was published by the Israeli daily Haaretz on 2 December, does not contain much that should cause Israel any undue worry. It is no more than a fine tuning of long-stated, and ineffectual EU positions. The statement is of course "balanced" -- meaning it goes out of its way not to offend the Israeli occupier and lawbreaker -- and it is strewn with cliches and contradictions
Decrypting The Palestinian Political Crisis:
Chile 1970-73, Palestine 2006-09
By Emilio Dabed
A historical analysis and comparison of Chile in the period 1970-1973 and Palestine in the period 2006-2009. The article also offers a contextual analysis of the current internal Palestinian crisis
09 December, 2009
The West Bank Wall: Living By The Gate From Hell
By Ellen Cantarow
Much is heard of violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but the story of the determined, long-term nonviolent resistance of many Palestinian villagers to the loss of their lands, striking as it may be, is seldom told. Here’s my report from just one village on the West Bank
Does Israel’s Ambassador
To The U.S. Have A Point?
By Alan Hart
I am giving notice of the one question I will ask and to which only a “Yes” or “No” answer is required. The question is this. Prime Minister, in exchange for peace with the whole Arab and wider Muslim world, is your government prepared to withdraw from all Arab land occupied in 1967, including East Jerusalem but on the understanding that if all the parties agreed, it would remain an undivided city and the capital of two states?
Targeting Civilians In Gaza
By Stephen Lendman
For over six decades, targeting civilians and inflicting collective punishment have been standard Israeli practice. But after the 2006 Lebanon war, it was named "Dahiya" after the Beirut suburb the IDF destroyed in the conflict. Dahiya tactics were central to the overall war strategy to inflict mass civilian deaths, injuries, destruction, and human suffering on 1.5 million Gazans
Who Will Save Gaza's Children?
By Victoria Brittain
Never mind Copenhagen, an environmental catastrophe is going on right now – contaminated water is poisoning babies in Gaza
05 December, 2009
Dead Palestinian Babies And Bombed Mosques:
IDF Fashion 2009
By Uri Blau
Dead babies, mothers weeping on their children's graves, a gun aimed at a child and bombed-out mosques - these are a few examples of the images Israel Defense Forces soldiers design these days to print on shirts they order to mark the end of training, or of field duty
Israel’s Impunity For War Crimes
By Ghali Hassan
Does the death of a Palestinian worth the same as that of a Jew? For six decades, Israeli Jewish leaders with utter impunity have been killing defenceless Palestinians and justifying their crimes as “self-defence” of Israel and all Jews. Absolving the Israeli regime of culpability of war crimes has always been a U.S.-Western ritual. The message is: Jews are above the law and killing Palestinians is Israelis’ right to commit war crimes
Will Congress Criminalize Anti-Semitism
And Israeli Criticism?
By Stephen Lendman
Ending "America's last taboo" is the way forward toward a viable, sustainable Middle East peace, possible only when 42 years of occupation end and Palestinians are again free - so far, what Israel and Washington won't allow or even consider
Australia Hosts War Criminal Ehud Olmert
By Sonja Karkar
The news that former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was in Australia and was welcomed by the honorable members of our parliament came as somewhat of a shock. It is one thing to have allowed a man charged with corruption and suspected of war crimes into Australia at all; it is another thing that he was listed as a distinguished guest in Hansard -- the official record of parliamentary proceedings -- and received a resounding "hear, hear" from our elected representatives
30 November, 2009
"We Will Have To Kill Them All":
Effie Eitam,Thug Messiah
By Jim Holstun & Irene Morrison
Effie Eitam called Palestinians "creatures who came out of the depths of darkness" who were "collectively guilty" and who could be indiscriminately killed not only if they had "blood on their hands" but because of "the evil in their heads." "We will have to kill them all," he said
29 November, 2009
“…And A Little Child Shall Lead Them”
By Uri Avnery
The role of the little child, so it seems, falls to Obama. If he accepts, God forbid, Friedman’s advice and leaves the picture, the vision will turn into a nightmare. The Israeli government will increase the oppression, the Palestinians will turn to unbridled terrorism, the entire world will be dragged into bloody chaos
28 November, 2009
Deception Has Always Been
The Name Of Zionism’s Game
By Alan Hart
What is behind Netanyahu's offer of construction freeze in the West Bank. Simple. He is seeking to make peace with the Obama administration. And its response suggests that with the help of the Zionist lobby and its stooges in Congress he’s got that matter firmly under control
25 November, 2009
The New York Mets And The Business Of Terrorism
By Aaron Levitt
I encountered racist graffiti with such statements as "Gas the Arabs" and "Fatimah, we will rape all Arab women." I repeatedly observed settlers throwing stones and clods of earth at young Palestinian girls on their way to elementary school; yelling racial epithets at Palestinians walking in the streets; pushing, kicking, and spitting on Palestinian children and (occasionally) adults who were quietly minding their own business; and hurling large stones down on Palestinian homes and residents from settlement balconies
Think Bethlehem This Christmas
By Eileen Fleming
Bethlehem was the birthplace of King David and Jesus, but today it is an open-air prison, occupied by Israel's military forces and encircled by Israel's wall
23 November, 2009
Federation? Why Not?
By Uri Avnery
Lately, the term “federation” has come into fashion again. Some people believe that it can serve as a kind of compromise between the “Two-State Solution”, now a world-wide consensus, and the “One-State Solution” that is popular in some radical circles. “Federation” sounds like a miracle: there will be both “two states for two peoples” and a single entity. Two in one, one in two
20 November, 2009
Bantustans And The Unilateral Declaration Of
Statehood
By Virginia Tilley
The Ramallah PA's suddenly serious initiative to declare an independent Palestinian state in non-sovereign territory must surely force fresh collective realization that this is a terribly pragmatic question. It's time to bring closer attention to what "Bantustan" actually means. The Palestinian national movement can only hope someone in its ranks undertakes that project as seriously as Israel has undertaken it before it's too late
19 November, 2009
One Year Later…And The Doors To The World’s
Largest Prison Are Still Sealed Shut
By Pam Rasmussen
It’s time to show Israel that the world will no longer accept this wanton and cruel suffocation of human potential. Visit www.gazafreedommarch.org to find out how you can help, either actively on the ground in Gaza or here at home
17 November, 2009
The Latest Palestinian Strategy –
Clever Or Stupid Or Both?
By Alan Hart
There is a case for saying that those leaders of the discredited PNA (Palestine National Authority) who are proposing to unilaterally declare an independent state on the West Bank and Gaza Strip and seek to get UN Security Council backing for it are being clever
Arab Teens Need ‘Protecting From Israeli Justice’
By Jonathan Cook
An Israeli judge made an historic ruling last week when he decided that an Arab teenager needed “protection” from the justice system and ordered that he not be convicted despite being found guilty of throwing stones at a police car during a protest against Israel’s attack last winter on Gaza
13 November, 2009
The Disastrous Presidency Of Mahmoud Abbas
By Rannie Amiri
Though it appears doubtful the quisling Abbas will actually resign, its mere suggestion should still be cause for celebration among Palestinians. Even if it ultimately does not come to pass – at least for now – let them rejoice
Edward Said And Barak Obama
By Prof. Haidar Eid
An Open letter from a Palestinian Resident of Gaza to the President of the United States of America, Mr. Barak Hussein Obama
11 November, 2009
Israeli Jews And The One-State Solution
By Ali Abunimah
Does solid Israeli Jewish opposition to a one-state solution mean that a peaceful one-state outcome is so unlikely that Palestinians should not pursue it, and should instead focus only on "pragmatic" solutions that would be less fiercely resisted by Israeli Jews?
10 November, 2009
How Israel Won The Settlement Battle Again
By Ramzy Baroud
When British Foreign Secretary David Miliband uttered a few words regarding the illegality of the Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, many wanted to believe that London was taking a sharp stance against Israel’s continued violations of international law. Alas, they were wrong
09 November, 2009
A Line In The Sand
By Uri Avnery
Mahmoud Abbdas is fed up. The day before yesterday he withdrew his candidacy for the coming presidential election in the Palestinian Authority. He feels betrayed. And the traitor is Barack Obama
07 November, 2009
U.N. Affirms Israeli-Hamas Goldstone Report
By Thalif Deen
The Goldstone report, which was favourably voted by the 47-member Human Rights Council in Geneva last month, received overwhelming support Thursday in the 192-member General Assembly. The vote was 114 in favour and 18 against, with 44 abstentions
Goldstone And Gaza
By Jimmy Carter
Without ascribing blame to either of the disputing parties, it is imperative that the United States and the international community take steps to assure that the rebuilding of Gaza be commenced, and without delay. The cries of homeless and freezing people demand relief
Why I Am Not A Zionist
By Kevin Coval
I am a Jewish person who stands with Palestinian people relegated to second-class citizenship and Israeli soldiers who refuse to enact racist militarism. I am not a nationalist; therefore I am not a Zionist. I am against the oppression of any person and people. I am not a builder of walls. I believe in equity and democratic practice, therefore I am not pro-Israel. I am an advocate for truth, justice and reconciliation. I believe in this. I believe in this now. I believe in the work ahead
04 November, 2009
Israel's Right To Exist?
By Alan Hart
The truth of the time was that the Zionist state, which came into being mainly as a consequence of pre-planned ethnic cleansing, had no right to exist and, more to the point, could have no right to exist UNLESS … Unless it was recognised and legitimized by those who were dispossessed of their land and their rights during the creation of the Zionist state. In international law only the Palestinians could give Israel the legitimacy it craved
30 October, 2009
Harvesting In Death Zone, With A Song
By Eva Bartlett
Harvesting is a political act at the Gaza border with Israel
27 October, 2009
Israel Rations Palestinians To Trickle Of Water
By Amnesty International
Amnesty International has accused Israel of denying Palestinians the right to access adequate water by maintaining total control over the shared water resources and pursuing discriminatory policies
Palestinian Election: Weapon Against The People
By Dr. Elias Akleh
Palestinian election under the Israeli occupation is a big joke. It is meant to give the illusion of Palestinian freedom and autonomy, and to keep the people busy with something other than their legitimate resistance to the occupation. Palestinians can regain their country and assert their rights only by resisting the Israeli occupation and not by fake elections
25 October, 2009
What's At Stake In The Deal For Gilad Shalit
By Jonathan Ben Efrat
Instead of discussing the price of Shalit’s release, we should be discussing the price of a peace agreement. Whoever is willing to dismantle the settlements, to give back the occupied territories up to the Green Line (the pre-1967 border), to come up with a fair solution to the issue of Palestinian refugees and to enable, finally, the establishment of a viable Palestinian state will ensure that there'll be no more Gilad Shalits. But as long as Israel refuses to do what everyone knows it must, the next kidnapping is merely a question of time
21 October, 2009
Israeli Police Don Arab Disguise
By Jonathan Cook
Civil rights groups in Israel have expressed outrage at the announcement last week that a special undercover unit of the police has been infiltrating and collecting intelligence on Israel’s Arab minority by disguising its officers as Arabs
The First Step: Israel Into The Dock
By Dr. Alan Sabrosky
The UN Human Rights Council (HRC) Resolution based on the Goldstone Report is a damning condemnation of Israel. The original meaning of being "caught red-handed" was literally being "caught bloody-handed," with the victim's blood on one's own hands. In Gaza, Israel has been caught red-handed in that literal sense, and for the first time in its history, is approaching the dock in the international court of opinion and, hopefully, of justice as well
19 October, 2009
Family Who Lost 29 Members In Gaza War
By Amira Hass
Richard Goldstone visited the Gaza City neighborhood of Zaytoun in late June to tour the compound of the extended Samouni family. Twenty-nine members of the family, all of them civilians, were killed in the Israel Defense Force's winter assault - 21 during the shelling of a house where IDF soldiers had gathered some 100 members of the family a day earlier
Challenging The Dahiya Doctrine
By Brenda Heard
The common denominator of the Haaretz article and the Goldstone Report and the UN Human Rights Council Report is the challenge to the Israeli military concept known as the “Dahiya doctrine.” The Goldstone Report states that “The Israeli military conception of what was necessary in a future war with Hamas seems to have been developed from at least the time of the 2006 conflict in southern Lebanon. It finds its origin in a military doctrine that views disproportionate destruction and creating maximum disruption in the lives of many people as a legitimate means to achieve military and political goals.”
16 October, 2009
Abbas And The Goldstone Report:
Our Shame Is Complete
By Ramzy Baroud
Palestinians who are now calling for change following the UN episode, must consider the Oslo culture in its entirety, its ‘revolutionary’ millionaires, its elites and contractors. A practical alternative to those corrupt must be quickly devised. The Israeli wall is encroaching on Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank, and a new war might be awaiting besieged Gaza. Time is running out, and our collective shame is nearly complete
14 October, 2009
After The Bombing, Drug Addiction Strikes Gaza
By Donald Macintyre
Under siege and grappling with joblessness, factional violence and the aftermath of war, Gazans are turning to pills as they seek to escape reality
12 October, 2009
The Travails Of The Palestinian Authority
While Palestine Vanishes
By Sonja Karkar
The fallout from the Palestinian Authority’s refusal to endorse the Goldstone Report’s passage through the United Nations is not just painful for the Palestinians, but also for all those who support the Palestinian cause. This is yet another wound inflicted by the Authority on the Palestinian struggle for liberation from a long and brutal Israeli military occupation. And yet again, Israel gets a “get out of jail free” card as the Palestinians are forced to focus on their own inept and corrupt leadership
10 October, 2009
U.S. ‘Personality Assassination’ Of
A Palestinian Ally
By Nicola Nasser
Palestinian consensus on condemnation has created a volatile environment of insecurity for Abbas. An ongoing personality assassination process has put his personal safety in jeopardy. In the behind the scenes intrigues of the Middle East politics, he might pay with his life for rubber – stamping U.S. advice, to be the second potential victim after late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for “putting all their eggs in U.S. basket.”
08 October, 2009
After Goldstone, Hamas Faces Fateful Choice
By Ali Abunimah
The uproar over the Palestinian Authority's (PA) collaboration with Israel to bury the Goldstone report, calling for trials of Israeli leaders for war crimes in Gaza, is a political earthquake. The whole political order in place since the 1993 Oslo accords were signed is crumbling. As the initial tremors begin to fade, the same old political structures may appear still to be in place, but they are hollowed out. This unprecedented crisis threatens to topple the US-backed PA leader Mahmoud Abbas, but it also leaves Hamas, the main Palestinian resistance faction, struggling with fateful choices
A Poverty Of Leadership
By Osamah Khalil
Whether or not the clumsy attempt to shelve the Goldstone report on last winter's Gaza attacks is the tipping point for Mahmoud Abbas's rule, the succession process has been underway for several years. However, it is being coordinated by the US and Israel and is no reflection of the wishes and desires of the Palestinian people. Abbas's likely successor is Salam Fayyad, who somehow manages to be an even more uninspiring and unpopular character
Israel Mulls Banning Islamic Movement
By Jonathan Cook
The Israeli government announced yesterday it would consider banning Israel’s Islamic Movement at the next cabinet meeting, in a significant escalation of tensions that have fuelled a fortnight of bloody clashes in Jerusalem over access to the Haram al Sharif compound of mosques
07 October, 2009
Tensions Mount Again At Al-Aqsa
By Jonathan Cook
Tension over control of the Haram al Sharif compound of mosques in Jerusalem’s Old City has reached a pitch unseen since clashes at the site sparked the second intifada nine years ago
How Israel Bought Off UN’s War Crimes Probe
By Jonathan Cook
Goldstone report's fate sealed by threats to Palestinian economy
The Gaza War's Effect On Women
By Stephen Lendman
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights' (PCHR) new report, titled "Through Women's Eyes," highlights "the Gender-Specific Impact and Consequences of Operation Cast Lead" and the ongoing siege, including 12 case study examples "through the victims' words."
30 September, 2009
The Goldstone Report: Fierce But Toothless
By Yacov Ben Efrat
As things look now, the Goldstone Report will go to the shelf, the Occupation will continue, and so will Palestinian suffering. To cope with the present reality is more complex than putting people on the stand for war crimes. The reality is that Israel is ruled by the Right, which is nowadays attracting part of the Left. On the Palestinian side, the reality is a war between two rival factions that care more for power than for their people
Israel's Ofra Settlement On
Unauthorized Palestinian Land
By Stephen Lendman
Under international and local laws, Ofra's settlement is illegal. No jurisdictional area was set for it. It doesn't have a valid outline plan, and at least 58% of its land is lawfully registered under Palestinian names in the Land Registry
23 September, 2009
Goldstone Commission Gaza Conflict Findings
And Reactions
By Stephen Lendman
A UN September 15 press release stated that the Mission concluded that "there is evidence indicating serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law were committed by Israel during the Gaza conflict, and that Israel committed actions amounting to war crimes, and possibly crimes against humanity."
18 September, 2009
Israel/America: A Rambling Poem
By Remi Kanazi
Remi Kanazi recently appeared on GRITtv with Laura Flanders to perform a spoken word poem entitled Israel/America: A Rambling Poem
17 September, 2009
Lebanon’s Palestinians 27 Years After
The Sabra Shatila Massacre
By Franklin Lamb
Pressure is building this hot summer and fall in Lebanon’s refugee camps with warnings coming from Palestinian, that 27 years after the Sabra Shatila massacre, explosive conditions exist in nearly all of Lebanon’s camps
10 September, 2009
Israel’s Arab Citizens Call General Strike
By Jonathan Cook
The increasingly harsh political climate in Israel under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government has prompted the leadership of the country’s 1.3 million Arab citizens to call the first general strike in several years
Israel Blocks Money To Gaza’s Disabled
By Jonathan Cook
Injured workers denied benefit payments
The Tangled Course To Middle East
Peace Crisis And Not Conflict
By Dan Lieberman
The Tangled Course to Middle East Peace A 180 degree rotation of the elements in the present peace process combined with Israel no longer being favored and no longer allowed to frame the process provides a direction for solving the Middle East crisis
08 September, 2009
Palestinians 'Seriously Considering' One-state
By Jimmy Carter
A more likely alternative to the present debacle is one state, which is obviously the goal of Israeli leaders who insist on colonizing the West Bank and East Jerusalem. A majority of the Palestinian leaders with whom we met are seriously considering acceptance of one state, between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. By renouncing the dream of an independent Palestine, they would become fellow citizens with their Jewish neighbors and then demand equal rights within a democracy. In this nonviolent civil rights struggle, their examples would be Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela
04 September, 2009
Prof Yehuda Hiss: The Missing Link
In Palestinian Organ Theft?
By Jonathan Cook
The hyperventilating by Israel’s leaders [1] over a story published in a Swedish newspaper last month [2] suggesting that the Israeli army assisted in organ theft from Palestinians has distracted attention from the disturbing allegations made by Palestinian families that were the basis of the article’s central claim
Fighting For The Right To Walk
By Ramzy Baroud
Since the conclusion of Israel’s war last year, the Palestinian Ministry of Health declared that 344 Gaza patients have reportedly been added to the swelling number of casualties
The Beginning Of The End Of The Middle East Crisis:
Resolving The Displaced Persons Problem
By Dan Lieberman
The solution of the Middle East crisis starts with those who have suffered the most, continue to suffer and should be relieved of their suffering. The solution of the Middle East crisis starts with the Palestinian displaced persons
A Palestinian State Within Two Years?
By Yacov Ben Efrat
On Tuesday, August 25, 2009, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad presented his plan to establish a Palestinian state within two years. He stressed the internal changes that must be made in order to build its legal, economic and social infrastructure
17 August, 2009
Fatah: A New Beginning Or An Imminent End?
By Ramzy Baroud
The long delayed Fatah Congress, held in Bethlehem on August 4 has underscored the obvious: the all-encompassing movement which was meant to exact and safeguard Palestinian national rights has grown into a liability that, if anything, will continue to derail the Palestinian national project. This comes at a time when the Palestinian people are in urgent need of a collective response that is strong enough to withstand Israeli military pressure and coercion at home
Israel Begins Sell-Off Of Refugees’ Land
By Jonathan Cook
Privatisation to subvert Palestinian hopes of restitution
People, Not Politicians, Working To End
The Israeli Occupation
By Michael Galvin
When the world looks at the future of Palestine these days, the principal question is unfortunately "What will Obama do?" How far will he go in putting pressure on the new right-wing Israeli government, and how will they react? Yet, our "messiah complex" which credits politicians with being able to solve everything single-handedly allows the world to forget about the action that is going on on the ground inside Israel/Palestine by both Israelis and Palestinians against the occupation, and the struggles they encounter
US Turns Blind Eye To Israel's
New Separation Policy
By Jonathan Cook
Israel welcomes American Jewish settlers, bars Palestinian-Americans
10 August, 2009
Gaza 's Kite Runners
By Ramzy Baroud
When seen from a distance, kites in Gaza may look quite ordinary. But while Gazan children, in many respects, are just children, their kites are hardly ordinary. Often adorned by the red, black, green and white of the Palestinian flag, Gazan children's kites are expressions of defiance, hope and the longing for freedom
31 July, 2009
Israel's Discriminatory Land Policies
By Stephen Lendman
Netanyahu claims barring "natural growth" will tear apart families. Unmentioned is the continued theft of Palestinians lands, a grave violation of international law. Yet, Israel argues that, by law, it can't reverse issued tenders after properties have been bought and construction begins. However, two 1992 High Court of Justice rulings disagreed. They held that the government could legally halt construction even after begun and that any losses incurred could be addressed in civil court
30 July, 2009
Israeli Settlement Continues
To Steal Palestinian Land
By Michael Galvin
Surrounded by rich agricultural land Palestinian farmers have been using for centuries, Karmei Tzur is gradually expropriating this land through the insidious use of "security fences" guarded 24/7 by the Israeli Occupation Forces - the IDF in the occupied territories - and armed settlers
Police Protect Settlers, Attack Protesters,
After Invasion Of Palestinian House
In East Jerusalem
By Michael Galvin
On Sunday, July 26th at 12:30pm, three internationals, one Israeli and two Palestinians, including the former Minister of Jerusalem Affairs, were arrested in an attempt to block settlers from entering a Palestinian home in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah
The Palestinian Centre For Human Rights 2008
Annual Report
By Stephen Lendman
Part One assesses the overall human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinians Territories throughout 2008. Because they affect regional peace overall, this article focuses solely on Israeli crimes, not those committed by Palestinian elements in Gaza and the West Bank that pale by comparison. Part Two covers PCHR's local and international efforts over the same period
27 July, 2009
Who Killed Arafat And Why?
By Ramzy Baroud
Qaddoumi broke the news in a press conference in Amman, Jordan on July 12, 2009, asserting that Arafat had entrusted him with the minutes of that secret meeting involving top Israeli, Palestinian and American leaders and officials. The plot, according to Qaddoumi included the assassination of other Palestinian leaders, some of them have indeed been assassinated since while others are still alive, thanks to the failure of Israeli missiles and car bombs
Can An ‘Arab Soul’ Yearn For Israel’s Anthem?
By Jonathan Cook
Arab pupils expected to learn Zionist song
24 July, 2009
A Day In Gaza
By Viva Palestina Delegation
The Viva Palestina delegation of solidarity activists from the U.S. was allowed to enter Gaza on July 15 with truckloads of desperately needed humanitarian supplies--but under the condition that the convoy leave again within 24 hours. This is a diary of the 24 hours in Gaza by Tom Arabia, Karen Burke, Ream Kidane, Brian Lenzo, Khury Peterson-Smith, Eric Ruder and Martin Smith
"Breaking The Silence:" Testimonies Of
Israeli Soldiers
By Stephen Lendman
"Breaking the Silence is an organization of veteran Israeli soldiers that collects anonymous testimonies of soldiers who served in the Occupied Territories during the Second Intifada." They recount experiences that deeply affected them, including abusing Palestinians, looting, destroying property, and other practices "excused as military necessities, or explained as extreme and unique cases." Its new booklet features 54 damning testimonies from 30 Israeli soldiers on their experiences in Operation Cast Lead. They recount what official media and government sources suppressed
Settler Attacks In Southern West Bank
Exact Heavily Toll
By Michael Galvin
The Palestinian families who live in Beit Ommar have frequently been victim to settler expansion and harrassment over the last decades, attacks in the last few months have intensified as the settlement's inhabitants attempt to intimidate the Palestinians to give up their land for settlement use
Mainstream Media And The Propaganda Machine
By Ershad Abubacker
A careful observation would bring forth the fact that mainstream media, especially the American media plays a vital role in shaping the world public opinion. And it needs a detailed analysis into the complex relationship that defines the content of mainstream media today with respect to the factors that affect the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that dominates our news coverage of international issues. Given that this news coverage is world’s main source of information, it becomes important to examine the story the news media are telling us and to ask the question; does this news coverage reflect the reality on the ground?
23 July, 2009
Embedded Journalism Cannot Sanctify
The Apartheid State
By Habib Siddiqui
Israel cannot prolong their apartheid system under Machiavellian claims that there is no unity amongst the Palestinians and as such they are not ready and don't deserve freedom and equality
21 July, 2009
Killing “Everything That Moves”
By Uri Avnery
Like the ghost of Hamlet’s father, the evil spirit of the Gaza War refuses to leave us in peace. This week it came back to disturb the tranquility of the chiefs of the state and the army.“Breaking the Silence”, a group of courageous former combat soldiers, published a report comprising the testimonies of 30 Gaza War fighters. A hard-hitting report about actions that may be considered war crimes
19 July, 2009
Israel Allows Momentary Peace
In Order To Maintain Long-Term Occupation
By Michael Galvin
The current right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to promote the idea of "economic and diplomatic peace" - as he recently put it - with the Palestinians, in the hope that they will be satisfied with something less than full statehood. If this becomes the case, the occupation will intensify and Israel will continue to massively expropriate the remaining land in Palestine, as massive settlement construction is already continuing apace, especially in the area surrounding Jerusalem
17 July, 2009
Israel’s Plan To Wipe Arabic Names Off The Map
By Jonathan Cook
Thousands of road signs are the latest front in Israel’s battle to erase Arab heritage from much of the Holy Land
Gaza And The Language Of Power
By Ramzy Baroud
It is the brute logic that “might makes right” pursued by those with the bigger guns, that continues to menace the Middle East, with Gaza being the most devastating example
Dangerous Untreated West Bank Wastewater
By Stephen Lendman
Israeli West Bank and Jerusalem settlements produce about 91 million cubic meters of wastewater annually, more than double the amount from Palestinian communities. Yet most of it goes untreated. As an occupying power, international humanitarian law requires it be done, yet Israel violates its obligations across the board making Palestinians suffer grievously as a result
16 July, 2009
Life Under Israeli Apartheid:
From Settlements To Refugee Camps
By Michael Galvin
A visit to he Aida refugee camp outside Bethlehem.The most striking aspect of Aida is the massive 8-meter wall that extends along an abandoned zone around the community on three sides, riddled with the rubble of demolished houses all along its watchtower-surveiled path
Obama's Prizes For Israel Are Not "Pressure"
By Ali Abunimah
A recent meeting between US President Barack Obama and Israel lobby leaders was designed to assuage American Jewish anxiety over US pressure on Israel to halt settlement construction. But rather than using American leverage to require Israel to comply with international law, the Obama administration is actually offering it more rewards at the expense of Palestinians and Arab states. Ali Abunimah comments
15 July, 2009
Israel Traps Gazans In Deprivation And Despair
By Stephen Lendman
In June 2009, International Committee of the Red Cross issued a report titled, "Gaza: 1.5 million people trapped in despair" that described the Territory as "look(ing) like the epicentre of a massive earthquake" in the wake of Operation Cast Lead and went on to detail how severely
14 July, 2009
Deir Yassin: Obfuscating History
By Michael Galvin
While visitors to the "Holy Land" seem to be enamored with the ancient history just waiting to be discovered around every corner, another more recent history is carefully and systematically obfuscated. As masses of tourists crowd the entrance to the Bible Lands Museum just down the hill, the only visitors to Deir Yassin will remain Israeli mental patients
09 July, 2009
The Two-State Solution, Israeli-Style
By Jonathan Cook
Should Mr Abbas and his PA functionaries sign up to this Israeli vision of statehood, the defeat for the Palestinians will be greater still
The Story Of Silwan
By Michael Galvin
Palestinian residents of Silwan are threatened with demolition and expulsion
06 July, 2009
Critiquing Netanyahu's Speech
By Saree Makdisi
What Netanyahu was saying to any Palestinians foolish enough to accept his terms is that if they want to stick a flag in their archipelago of little impoverished islands of territory and call it a state, they can go right ahead
05 July, 2009
Hamas’ Political Impasse:
Between Principle And Necessity
By Ramzy Baroud
Much can be said to explain, or even justify Hamas’ recent political concessions, where its top leaders in Gaza and Damascus agreed in principle with a political settlement on the basis of the two-state solution
02 July, 2009
Future Of Fatah In Doubt
By Mel Frykberg
Fatah's Revolutionary Council holding its sixth general conference Aug. 4 in Bethlehem will be an indicator whether the fragmented Fatah is a spent political force and a mere footnote in the history of the Palestinian national liberation struggle. The conference will also lay the groundwork for unity talks with arch-rival Hamas and peace talks with Israel
Ethnic Cleansing As A State Policy
By Nicola Nasser
When Netanyahu makes Palestinian recognition of Israel as a “Jewish state” as the cornerstone of his “peace” policy and has Avigdor Lieberman, who calls on record for the transfer of Israeli Arab Palestinians, as the foreign minister of his ruling coalition, he officially raises ethnic cleansing to the level of state policy
01 July, 2009
Settlement Freeze Flap Reveals Israel
As Difficult Peace Partner
By Ira Glunts
The very public disagreement about the “settlement freeze” came as a complete surprise to many observers
The Spirit Of Humanity's 21
And The Spirit That Preceded It
By Eileen Fleming
On June 30, 2009 around 3:30 PM, 23 miles off the coast of Gaza, Israeli Naval Forces attacked and boarded the Free Gaza Movement boat, the SPIRIT OF HUMANITY and abducted 21 human rights workers representing 11 countries
20 June, 2009
Gaza: Bombs, Missiles, Tanks And Bulldozers
By Jimmy Carter
Transcript of former US President Jimmy Carter's Address to the United Nations Relief Works Agency's Human Rights Graduation in Gaza
17 June, 2009
Beating And Torturing Palestinian Children
By Jonathan Cook
The rights of Palestinian children are routinely violated by Israel’s security forces, according to a new report that says beatings and torture are common. In addition, hundreds of Palestinian minors are prosecuted by Israel each year without a proper trial and are denied family visits
16 June, 2009
On The Pretence Of Peace
By Friends Of Lebanon
Full text and a critique of the address by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Begin-Sadat (BESA) Center for Strategic Studies, Bar-Ilan University ,Sunday 14 June 2009
12 June, 2009
Israeli War Crimes Against Children
During Operation Cast Lead
By Stephen Lendman
PCHR's report bears testimony to Israel's contempt for international laws, its imperial agenda, culture of violence, disdain for peace, genocidal intentions, disparagement of Arabs and Islam, and its scorn for Palestinian lives and welfare
A Boy And An Artificial Leg: A Gaza Story
By Ramzy Baroud
Like Sobhi, disgracefully growing numbers of children forever maimed, dismembered and killed by Israel are not only somehow disregarded by the world media and therefore the world’s conscience - but to add insult to injury - they are even denied access to healthcare
11 June, 2009
It's All About The Children
By Eileen Fleming
Within the last ten days, 120 CODE PINK activists have made their way into Gaza through Egypt and have built three playgrounds, played with hundreds of children. Today, over forty more CODE PINK activists will converge at Erez Checkpoint with hope to build playgrounds and it's all about the children. "The fierce urgency of now" [MLK] should compel all people of conscience to petition their governments to force an end to the occupation of Palestine Gaza, in this, the final year of the UN's Decade of Creating a Culture of Nonviolence for all the children of the world
Jewish Town In Galilee Demands ‘Loyalty Oath’
By Jonathan Cook
A community in northern Israel has changed its bylaws to demand that new residents pledge support for “Zionism, Jewish heritage and settlement of the land” in a thinly veiled attempt to block Arab applicants from gaining admission
03 June, 2009
Where Are The Missing Settlers?
By Jonathan Cook
It is the duty of reporters to remind their readers of the internationally accepted understandings about the settlements. They should not forget that international law, and possibly now the White House’s vision of peace, requires the removal of 200,000 settlers in East Jerusalem too
30 May, 2009
Mr. Abbas Goes To Washington
By Ali Abunimah
If the Oval Office guest list is an indicator, President Obama is making good on his commitment to try to revive the long-dead Arab-Israeli peace process. On May 18 President Obama received Israel's new prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu; today he met with Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah
Netanyahu’s New Quest: The Game Is On
By Ramzy Baroud
If Obama hesitates in confronting the new Israeli agenda, and if the Congress continues to treat Israel’s security obsessions as top American priorities, there is no telling what the Middle East will look like the next time Netanyahu arrives in Washington to meet the new American president
25 May, 2009
Human Rights Situation In Occupied Palestine
By Stephen Lendman
At its tenth session this year, UN Human Rights Council (HRC) prepared a report titled: "Human Rights Situation in Palestine and other Occupied Arab Territories" and delivered it on March 20. It deals mainly with grave human rights violations in Occupied Palestine, especially due to Operation Cast Lead against Gaza
11 May, 2009
War Without Context: Fatah, Hamas
And Flawed Language
By Ramzy Baroud
President Abbas is reportedly assembling a new government, which is expected to, once again, exclude the majority-party in the parliament
02 May, 2009
Clinton’s Unpromising Start
By Ramzy Baroud
It behoves Clinton and the Obama administration to abandon the tired slogans and the old, belligerent policies of their predecessor. If they are indeed interested in a just peace, for its own sake, then luring Israel to engage Abbas only to trick the Arabs and isolate Iran cannot be a promising start
27 April, 2009
Israeli Use of Palestinians As Human Shields
By Stephen Lendman
In April, The Al Mezan Center for Human Rights , published a seven-case study update of its July 2008 report titled: "Hiding Behind Civilians - The Continued Use of Palestinian Civilians as Human Shields by the Israeli Occupation Forces." This article reviews both reports to highlight what international law unequivocally prohibits. Nonetheless, it's customary IDF practice even though Israel's Supreme Court banned it on October 6, 2005
24 April, 2009
Gaza Resistance Destroys Fatah Faction
By Adam Morrow & Khaled Moussa Al-Omrani
The recent onslaught against the Gaza Strip - and Israel's failure to achieve its military objectives there - left Palestinian resistance group Hamas politically stronger than ever. Concurrently, it dealt a possible death blow to the faction within Fatah led by strongman Mohamed Dahlan, long known for its closeness to Israel
Middle East 'Spies': A New Front
For Gaza's Conflict
By Ramzy Baroud
The reverberations of the Israeli war on Gaza are still felt throughout the Middle East. One could in fact speak of a silent war being waged in the region. Now that Israel’s clear intentions in Gaza - discrediting Hamas and ultimately ousting them from their democratically elected position - resulted in utter failure, Israelis are hoping to exploit regional conflicts to rein in Hamas and other such organizations through alternative means
21 April, 2009
Gaza's Underground Economy
By Ebrahim Sobeh
For the Gazans as a whole, the tunnel economy is all that exists between them and starvation. Tunnels have been used to smuggle through a vital economic lifeline, including domestic goods, medicine, fuel, cigarettes, power generators, motorcycles, livestock and sometimes people into, or out of, Gaza. The Hamas leadership has welcomed the emergence of this new tunnel economy, as a way of circumventing Israel's blockade on the Gaza Strip. They claim that the tunnels will be shut down as soon as the main Gaza-Israel crossings are opened
19 April, 2009
Bouncer in Jerusalem
By Sam Bahour
Now Netanyahu seems to have a new gambit: diverting our attention from the ever-more- entrenched military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip with an "economy first" approach to peace
15 April, 2009
Investigating Israeli War Crimes in Gaza
By Stephen Lendman
Independent investigations and convincing testimonies, on both sides, provide compelling evidence of Israeli war crimes in Gaza. It's time to hold the guilty accountable
02 April, 2009
Changing The Rules Of War
By George Bisharat
The extent of Israel's brutality against Palestinian civilians in its 22-day pounding of the Gaza Strip is gradually surfacing. Israeli soldiers are testifying to lax rules of engagement tantamount to a license to kill
01 April, 2009
Israel's Illegal Annexation Of East Jerusalem
By Stephen Lendman
So says a confidential EU report revealed on March 7 by The London Guardian's Rory McCarthy. It accuses Israel "of using settlement expansion, house demolitions, discriminatory housing policies and the West Bank (Separation) barrier as a way of 'actively pursuing the illegal annexation' of East Jerusalem." More still, including restrictive permits, "closure of Palestinian institutions," and various other ways to "increase Jewish presence in" the city, "impede Palestinian urban development, and separate East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank" incrementally to annex it
30 March, 2009
Remembering Land Day
By Jonathan Cook
Palestinians honour dead from 1976 clashes with Israeli army
26 March, 2009
The Zionist Crusade Against Palestinians
By Mustafa Khan
The original crusades went on for two hundred years spread over several centuries of the Middle Ages. Another such albeit inverted crusade began with the birth of Israel and its unrelenting and merciless drive against the Palestinians in order to grab their land. The Gaza aggression (2008-2009) in which nearly 1400 mostly innocent Palestinians lost their life and thousands were injured was continuation of the same
25 March, 2009
Incriminating Evidence Of Israeli
War Crimes In Gaza
By Stephen Lendman
On March 19, in the first of a series of articles, Haaretz headlined: "IDF killed civilians in Gaza under loose rules of engagement." Military correspondent Amos Harel revealed Israeli soldier and pilot testimonies of being ordered to kill unarmed civilians and destroy their property
Lieberman Is No Abnormality
By Nimer Sultany
The movement to the right wing within Zionism cannot be reduced to Lieberman, and what is troubling about Zionism cannot be reduced to its right-wing side only
Ottoman Archives Show Land Deeds Forged
By Jonathan Cook
A legal battle being waged by Palestinian families to stop the takeover of their neighbourhood in East Jerusalem by Jewish settlers has received a major fillip from the recent souring of relations between Israel and Turkey
21 March, 2009
Intifada: A Third Chapter
By Ramzy Baroud
A third Intifada, in the eyes of many, could accomplish one vital task. It could provide the platform for the Palestinians to reclaim their unity (despite the prevailing factionalism of today) and declare that they will struggle until the day when they finally embrace freedom. If this is all that a third Intifada accomplishes, in the eyes of many Palestinians, then it is certainly a necessary and worthy endeavor
19 March, 2009
Israeli Soldiers Expose Atrocities In Gaza
By Jerrold Kessel & Pierre Klochendler
The report includes the testimony of one NCO (non-commissioned officer): "A company commander with 100 soldiers under his command saw a woman walking down a road some distance away, but close enough that you could've gunned down whoever you identified...She was an elderly woman - whether she raised any suspicion, I don't know. But what the officer did in the end was to put men on the roof and with the snipers bring her down. I felt it was simply murder in cold blood."
Israel's War Crimes
By Richard Falk
Lack of international action against Israel's war on Gaza illustrates the grand hypocracy of human rights rhetoric. But civilian groups can now use international law to show the 'legitimacy gap' of Israeli government tactics in the Palestinian territories, argues Richard Falk
18 March, 2009
U.S. Moment Of Truth On
Palestinian – Israeli Conflict
By Nicola Nasser
In view of a world consensus on a two – state solution for the Arab – Israeli conflict, most political analysts and commentators have concluded that the Israeli Prime Minister – designate Benjamin Netanyahu, who still refuses to affirm his commitment thereto, was to come face to face with his “moment of truth” during his recent meetings earlier this month with visiting U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, and her “presidential” envoy for peace in the Middle East, George Mitchell, but the outcome of Clinton’s first regional tour as secretary of state and Mitchell’s second tour in the region has proved vice versa
14 March, 2009
The Case Against Israel's "Right To Exist"
By Roger Tucker
An Open Letter to Representative David Price (D) 4th District, NC
12 March, 2009
Israel-Palestine Conflict 101:
Taking Off The Blinders In The U.S.
By A.M. Khan
Now that Israel’s bombardment of Gaza is off the front page and the Gazans are left to deal with the aftermath outside of world media attention, it makes sense to step back and review how the Israel-Palestine conflict is depicted in U.S. mainstream media. This depiction shapes how the U.S. public views the recent events in Gaza. It also shapes how the public understands what constitutes a just resolution to the conflict
10 March, 2009
Palestinian Villages Become Israel’s Playground
By Jonathan Cook
Several parks across Israel have been established on the ruins of Palestinian villages
06 March, 2009
Palestine And The Post-State Era
By Cameron Hunt
Were Hamas to embrace the proposed no-state solution, they would in fact be taking the first step towards a Post-State World. They would immediately represent the World’s intellectual vanguard, declaring that the European Model of statehood does not in fact represent the best framework for the 21st Century, or beyond
Suddenly, Home Was Gone
By Eva Bartlett
Dates in the calendar to mark the rights of women mean little to Manwa Tarrabin (56) and her two daughters. They have lost home, and any rights to it. Until Jan. 17, they were living in a small bungalow in the Al-Amal quarter of Beit Hanoun, within 200 metres of Gaza's eastern border, in a region declared by the Israeli authorities a 'closed military zone'
Was Hamas The Work Of The Israeli Mossad?
By Ramzy Baroud
Analysts, politicians, critics and third-parties alike can squabble about the origins and history of this movement that has among many things given a large segment of Palestinian society a sense of self-respect and feeling of leverage with their occupiers; but to advocate that Hamas was cooked up by some Israeli agents hell-bent on the demise of the Palestinians is simply hogwash
05 March, 2009
Did Clinton Sabotage A Palestinian Reconciliation?
By Hasan Abu Nimah & Ali Abunimah
There are many in the region who were encouraged by US President Barack Obama's appointment of former Northern Ireland mediator Senator George Mitchell as Middle East envoy. But in all other respects the new president has continued the Bush administration's disastrous policies. It is not too late to change course, for persisting in these errors will guarantee only more failure and bloodshed
Human Rights In Israel And Occupied Palestine
By Stephen Lendman
For nearly 61 years and over 41 in the occupied Palestine Territories, Israel has willfully and systematically defiled human rights, so far with impunity. When will the world community take notice? When will it enforce this Declaration for the Palestinian people and Israeli Arabs? When will such gross injustice end?
27 February, 2009
Israel's Lurch To The Right Could Be Far Indeed
By Helena Cobban
The continuing efforts by Israel’s presumptive next prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, to assemble a rightwing-dominated government have sparked serious concern about the effects such a government might have on peace efforts with the Palestinians
25 February, 2009
Targeting Israel With Boycotts,
Divestment, Sanctions, And Prosecutions
By Stephen Lendman
Enough is enough. After 61 years of Palestinian slaughter, displacement, occupation, oppression, and international dismissiveness and complicity, global action is essential. Israel must be held accountable. World leaders won't do it, so grassroots movements must lead the way
24 February, 2009
The BattleFor Bil'in
By Eileen Fleming
For four years, the beleaguered agricultural village of Bil'in in the West Bank has resisted the route of Israel's Wall; which in Bil'in is composed of miles of electrified-barbed wire fencing that denies the landowners access to their legally owned land. The Israeli Supreme Court has ruled that The Fence must be moved and the stolen land restored to the Bil'in villagers; but civil and military authorities have not complied and last week, night time raids by Israel escalated
Arab Parties Face The Most Hostile Knesset
In History
By Jonathan Cook
rab party legislators will be facing the most hostile Knesset in history. Of the parliament’s 120 members, at least 65 are classified as belonging to the right and far-right and may yet form a governing coalition
21 February, 2009
Global Boycott Movement Marks Its Successes
By Jeff Handmaker
Responding to the many calls for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel, solidarity movements around the world have marked many successes. It is important for human rights advocates to build on this momentum and seize the opportunity to do what is within their power to try and hold Israel accountable for its abuses of human rights and other international laws
20 February, 2009
Where Are The Weapons?
By Robin Davis
Israel's claim to attack Gaza was that Hamas was illegally smuggling weapons into Gaza and was firing them into Israel. But from beneath the pulverised "terrorist infrastructure" of hospitals, mosques, police stations, UN aid warehouses, schools, shops, offices, orchards, farms and homes, we have yet to see evidence of anything but a modestly armed militia and the mangled corpses of ordinary human beings with nowhere to run. The so-called "war" showed that Hamas and the other Palestinian fighters are all but defenseless. The question that rings out loudly is this "Where are the weapons?"
A Palestinian Christian Cry for Reconciliation
By Eileen Fleming
A Review of A Palestinian Christian Cry for Reconciliation by Rev. Naim Ateek
19 February, 2009
Israel’s Naked Zionfascism
By Ghali Hassan
Israel’s Zionfascism is the greatest threat to world peace and security. Its real aim has always been military domination and the obliteration of the Palestinian nation. It is time for people to stop acting like outsiders. The alternative is the global resistance campaign that includes boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) to defeat Zionfascism in pursuit of peace and Palestinian independence
The Roots Of Hatred In The Zionist Ideology
By Salim Nazzal
The fact that Hitler was democratically elected by the German people did not legitimize his policy of mass murder; in the same way the Israeli election of fascists and war criminals should not legitimate the Zionists' policy of mass murder. However, if Hitler is the starkest model of the democratic electoral system that brought Nazism to power in Germany, the recent Israeli election is a more recent example of an election that brought another known fascist, Avigdor Lieberman, widely viewed as the Israeli duplicate of contemporary European fascists like Jorg Haider or Jean Marie Le Pen, to power
Fearing A 'One State Solution', Israel's President Serves Pabulum To Washington
By Franklin Lamb
Israel's President urges the American people and government to, "commit our most concerted effort to allow two states to flourish." Unless he and his fellow leaders of Israel are prepared, without further delay, to commit to a complete withdrawal to the June 4, 1967 armistice line, in a serious effort at peace, Israel will continue to lose American and International support and One State is the likely future for Palestine
17 February, 2009
Apartheid Israel Gaza Massacre
By Gideon Polya
The horrendous mortality and morbidity statistics revealed by the paper "The Wounds of Gaza", just published in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet are truly shocking – 1,350 killed (60% children) and 5,450 severely wounded (40% children) in reprisals for zero (0) Israeli deaths from Gaza rockets in the preceding year. This demands International Criminal Court and intra-national prosecutions and Sanctions and Boycotts against Apartheid Israel by all decent decent people around the world
16 February, 2009
Chomsky On Gaza
By Christiana Voniati
An interview with Noam Chomsky
Israel Is Committing A Holocaust In Gaza:
Norman Finkelstein
By Selcuk Gultasli
An interview with Professor Norman Finkelstein who compiled the photomontage comparing the atrocities committed by Israel in Palestine and the Nazi holocaust
The Uniqueness Of Israeli Election
By Dr. Elias Akleh
Elections all over the world very much look alike. The candidates talk about improving economic situations, creating jobs, cutting spending and reducing taxes, improving education, and increasing medical coverage and social services. But the Israeli elections have a unique characteristic that distinguishes it from all other elections. Israeli candidates talk about huge military spending, killing Palestinians, evicting them out of their homes, destroying their towns, stealing their land and building more illegal Israeli colonies
13 February, 2009
Israel Lurches Into Fascism
By Ali Abunimah
Israel today is lurching into open fascism. It is utterly disingenuous to continue to pretend -- as so many do -- that its failed and criminal leaders hold the key to getting out of the morass. Instead of waiting for them to form a coalition, we must escalate the international civil society campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions to force Israelis to choose a saner path
Israelis, In Crisis, Vote For A Government Of War
By Nicola Nasser
Dust of Tuesday’s voting battle settled down and the battle of forming the next Israeli government has just begun. With Benjamin Netanyahu poised for premiership and Avigdor Lieberman, leader of a “racist and fascist” party (as condemned by Talia Sasson of the Merez party) very well positioned to be the king or queen maker of the next ruling coalition, the Palestinian people and the whole region will have to brace as from next March for an Israeli government of war
The PLO: Why An Alternative And Why The Panic?
By Ramzy Baroud
Many Palestinians are still hoping that the PLO can be revamped without the need for further fragmentation. However, since neither the current PLO nor the PA are truly independent bodies, one has to wonder if national unity under the current circumstances is at all possible
11 February, 2009
Few Peacemakers In Israel's Knesset
By Neve Gordon
Israeli voters have elected a majority of lawmakers who are against the two-state solution. Now it's up to the world--and the Obama administration--to respond
Digging For The Truth
By Sameh A. Habeeb & Janet Zimmerman
South of the Gaza Strip, a very strange phenomena is taking place. People are racing time, using primitive ways to get food and achieve a good life. The people in the Gaza Strip, the most densely populated area in the world, are forced to face death in order to attain life's basic necessities. This is against all humanitarian laws, and the rights of these laws were stripped from the Gazans by Israel. Border crossings were closed as a tightened siege was imposed two years ago
09 February, 2009
A Short History Of The Israeli - Palestinian Conflict: Past Is Prologue
By Stephen Lendman
Grave breaches of Geneva constitute war crimes. Israel (like America) is criminally liable. Holding it accountable is essential. It's high time world jurists demanded it
05 February, 2009
Palestine Caught Between The Culture Of
Life And The Culture Of Death
By Salim Nazzal
Many lessons can be concluded from the Gaza war. The first is the Palestinian's great will to sacrifice to defend their home. The second is the failure of Israel's excessive power to achieve anything apart from taking the life of around 450 Palestinian children under 10 years and adding more innocent Palestinians to the graveyards of Gaza
04 February, 2009
BBC's "Impartiality" Anything But
By Muhammad Idrees Ahmad
BBC's decision to refuse a charity appeal has consequences that go far beyond any of the BBC's earlier failings: as the respected British MP Tony Benn put it, "people will die because of the BBC decision."
The Story Of Khaled Abd Rabo
By Sameh A. Habeeb & Janet Zimmerman
"My mother, my wife, and my three daughters all held white flags..."
04 February, 2009
Did The Israeli Army Wage
A Jewish Jihad In Gaza?
By Jonathan Cook
Nazareth: Extremist rabbis and their followers, bent on waging holy war against the Palestinians, are taking over the Israeli army by stealth
Can Mitchell Turn Jerusalem Into Belfast?
By Ali Abunimah
US President Barack Obama's appointment of former Senator George Mitchell as his new Middle East envoy is a good choice. Mitchell showed even-handedness uncharacteristic of US officials when he led a fact-finding mission to the region in 2000
03 February, 2009
Under The Black Flag
By Uri Avnery
A Spanish judge has instituted a judicial inquiry against seven Israeli political and military personalities on suspicion of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The case: the 2002 dropping of a one ton bomb on the home of Hamas leader Salah Shehade. Apart from the intended victim, 14 people, most of them children, were killed
02 February, 2009
Endless Night
By Ashok Agrwaal
I call upon both the Palestinians and the Israelis to show some sense. To recognize that they are both the losers in this game. (Ultimately Israel must also lose.) If they do not heed my message (and why should they, I am nobody) I then choose to stand on the sidelines and watch. I choose not to take sides because I see the larger picture
Ceasefires, Israeli-Style
By Stephen Lendman
Declaration notwithstanding, nothing changed. Gaza remains occupied, under siege, and totally isolated. Borders are still closed. On January 28, The New York Times said "truckloads of humanitarian aid" are stuck in Egypt because of Israeli and Cairo restrictions. Little can get in, and attacks merely downshifted to a lower gear
Gaza New Siege Mechanism
By Nicola Nasser
The rebuilding of Gaza has become the latest siege weapon. The Israeli occupation, the US that had backed its offensive, and the EU which did nothing to stop it are conspiring to turn the reconstruction process into a means to produce a suitable "peace partner" while the Arab summit in Kuwait hopes to use it to bring about Palestinian reconciliation
31 January, 2009
Gaza: Every Family Has A Story,
Here Are Some Of Them
By Eva Bartlett
There are many stories. Each account -- each murdered individual, each wounded person, each burned-out and broken house, each shattered window, trashed kitchen, strewn item of clothing, bedroom turned upside down, bullet and shelling hole in walls, offensive Israeli army graffiti -- is important
War On Gaza: Israeli Action, Not Reaction
By Nicola Nasser
In historical perspective, nothing proves the Israeli action and the Palestinian reaction more than the very existence of Hamas. While founding the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was the reaction of the Palestinian refugees in exile to the Israeli action of forcing them out of their homeland in 1948, the founding of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in Gaza was the Palestinian reaction to the Israeli military expansion in 1967, which led to the occupation of the rest of historic Palestine
Israel And Hamas Won, So Who Lost?
By Yacov Ben Efrat
Israel may have won in Gaza, but the centrist Kedima party, as well as Labor, have shot themselves in the foot. The other big loser is the people of Israel, intoxicated with victory. But the greatest loser in this war ofcourse is the Palestinian people
30 January, 2009
Were Chickens Firing Rockets?
By Sameh A. Habeeb
I continued touring farms in the area where the smell of death filled the air. Surviving chickens roamed around surrounded by thousands of their dead kin. It was an overwhelming scene leaving one to ask only: why?
Tough Love And The Brutal Truth
By Eeileen Fleming
Jerry Levin, Author and a former CNN Mid East Bureau Chief in Lebanon, delivered the following statement to the Muslim Students Association at University of Alabama, Birmingham
29 January, 2009
For Palestinians, Obama’s Message Is
Crystal Clear
By Ramzy Baroud
Those who counted on Obama to bring a just peace to the Middle East must’ve had their hearts broken watching the man charging against Hamas’ terror, as thousands of Gazans were killed and wounded, including 430 children in the matter of three weeks as a result of Israel’s barbarous attacks, using mostly American weapons (and full, unqualified US backing.)
Palestine: The Shortcut To Peace
By Hasan Abu Nimah
There is a shortcut to calm, the elimination of violence and eventually peace. It is a lesson that should have been learned many years, and countless thousands of lives ago: justice
28 January, 2009
The Post-Gaza World
By Hamid Golpira
Although no one can predict the future, it appears that nothing will be the same in the post-Gaza world. Be hopeful, be positive, but be prepared for the worst since the world is entering uncharted territory. Welcome to the post-Gaza world
27 January, 2009
Fuelling The Cycle Of Hate
By Neve Gordon & Yigal Bronner
War is teaching the children of Israel and Gaza that the other side is a bloodthirsty monster, and destroying any desire for peace
Gaza: The Indian Example
By Radhika Sainath
In Gaza, Palestinians have once again been blamed for their own deaths. The British made a similar argument 151 years ago when they killed thousands of Indian civilians -- 1,200 in a single village -- in response to the largest anti-colonial uprising of the 19th century. If Israel truly desires peace with the Palestinians and safety for its citizens, it should look back to one of the greatest, and misunderstood, independence movements in history
How To Kill A Palestinian
By Dr. Elias Akleh
This onslaught is a holocaust since the many tons of phosphorous bombs, dropped on Gaza cities, had burnt civilians to the bones, burnt their homes and buildings, and burnt their fields and crops. This is the holocaust that the Israeli Deputy Defense Minister, Matan Vilnai, had threatened Palestinians
26 January, 2009
Israel Killed Everything But The Will To Resist
By Stephen Lendman
Three weeks of Israeli terror caused about 1400 deaths, over 5500 injured (many seriously), vast destruction throughout Gaza, and Physicians for Human Rights warning that large numbers of wounded may die because hospitals are overloaded and lack basic supplies. Yet Palestinians endure. Their spirit is unbowed and unbroken. Hamas is more popular than ever, and world outrage sustains them
25 January, 2009
On The Wrong Side
By Uri Avnery
Our leaders are now boasting about their part in the Gaza War, in which unbridled military force was unleashed intentionally against a civilian population, men, women and children, with the declared aim of “creating deterrence”. In the era that began last Tuesday, such expressions can only arouse shudders
Breaking Gaza’s Will: Israel’s Enduring Fantasy
By Ramzy Baroud
Isn't 60 years of suffering and survival enough to convince Olmert that the will of the Palestinians cannot be broken? How many heaps of wreckage and mutilated bodies will be enough to convince the prime minister that those who fight for their freedom will either be free or will die trying?
Israel Faces The Gaza Aftermath
By Dan Lieberman
23 January, 2009
A Decisive Loss For Israel
By Mousa Abu Marzook
If anything, the last three weeks, and previous 18 months, have proved that the Palestinians can never be broken by either starvation, economic strangulation or brutal attack. European leaders have only one option: to recognize the outcome of a democratic process they had called for and supported
21 January, 2009
State Terrorism Against Gaza
By Ralph Nader
What is going on in Gaza is what Bill Moyers called it earlier this month – “state terrorism.” Already about 400 children are known to have died. More will be added who are under the rubble
Isn't It Time For A War Crimes Tribunal?
By Robert Fisk
It was pathetic. When I asked Mr Ban if he would consider a UN war crimes tribunal in Gaza, he said this would not be for him to "determine". But only a few journalists bothered to listen to him and his officials were quickly folding up the UN flag on the table. About time too. Bring back the League of Nations. All is forgiven
Israel's Right To Defend Itself
By Joseph Massad
The Palestinians, students of a universal humanism in which they consider themselves equal to everyone else, keep failing Israel's racial lessons and tests. What the Palestinians ultimately insist on is that Israel must be taught that it does not have the right to defend its racial supremacy and that the Palestinians have the right to defend their universal humanity against Israel's racist oppression. Will Israel and its allies ever learn that lesson? Israeli history tells us that as students of racial supremacy, Zionists have always failed the test of universal humanism
Al Nakba Redux
By Stephen Lendman
For Palestinians, the Nakba "Catastrophe" is their "Holocaust" six-month slaughter and displacement before and after the May 1948 establishment of Israel. In December 1947, Jews in Palestine numbered 600,000 compared to 1.3 million Palestinians. David Ben-Gurion ordered them removed and for "Every attack....to end with occupation, destruction and expulsion."
The Israeli Invasion Of Gaza;
Politics By Other Means
By William James Martin
Because of the constant killing and massacres of Palestinians, the latest instant of mass slaughter is occurring as I write this, the state of Israel has no moral right to exists. Israel needs to be replaced with a democratic egalitarian state which recognizes equal rights for all its citizens
20 January, 2009
Why Israel Won't Survive
By Ali Abunimah
The dehumanization and demonization of Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims has escalated to the point where Israel can with full self- righteousness bomb their homes, places of worship, schools, universities, factories, fishing boats, police stations -- in short everything that sustains civilized and orderly life -- and claim it is conducting a war against terrorism. Yet paradoxically, it is Israel as a Zionist state, not Palestine or the Palestinian people, that cannot survive this attempted genocide
Israel’s Doctrine Of Destruction
By Jonathan Cook
Israel’s military strategy in Gaza, even in what its officials were calling the “final act”, followed a blueprint laid down during the Lebanon war more than two years ago
An MOU To Kill More Palestinians
By Dr. Akram Habeeb
The most recent MOU signed by Dr. Condi and Ms. Livne, one of the most notorious Israeli war criminals, stipulates that the American government helps in preventing weapons smuggling into Gaza. However, unfortunately this MOU does not stipulate that the American government stops sending weapons of mass destruction to Israel
Civilian Casualties In Palestinian/Israeli
Conflict Should Be Primary Concern
By Brian McAfee
The U.S. all too frequent blanket and blind support of Israel both diplomatically and in unrestricted arms sales indicates tacit approval and support for anything Israel does. We should voice our concern for decency and compassion for those caught in the crossfire and for an end to the state of siege Israel has put upon the Palestinians. Siege only causes resentment, uncalled for and unnecessary suffering, develops hatreds and prolongs conflicts
From Lebanon To Gaza: Israel's Déjà Vu
By Max Kantar
From a historical perspective, it's almost eerie to watch the events in Gaza unfold today as they closely mirror the patterns, motives, and propaganda that led to Israel's 1982 "Operation Peace for Galilee" invasion of southern Lebanon. A careful student of history and the ongoing crisis will find that all rhetoric and politics aside, Israel's motivations and aims haven't fundamentally changed over the past several decades
Gaza: The Franco-Egyptian Proposal
By Dr. Elias Akleh
Despite the collaboration of the Egyptian regime in choking and weakening Hamas government, and playing the Israeli proxy mediator role rather than supporting their Arab brothers against the Israeli genocide, Mubarak’s regime was abandoned and left exposed as a traitor, and was not given the chance to exonerate itself. Such is the fate of all so-called moderate Arab leaders. They are to be used and dumped when their usefulness expires
19 January, 2009
Israel To Keep Troops In Gaza
By David Walsh
A tense truce presently exists in the Gaza Strip after Israel’s declaration of a unilateral ceasefire Saturday night and Hamas’ announcement of a one-week ceasefire twelve hours later. An undisclosed number of Israeli troops still remain in Gaza however, and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has made clear there was no commitment, nor any timetable for a withdrawal. Nor is there any Israeli commitment to opening Gaza’s borders and ending the devastating blockade
Sacrificing Gaza To Revive Israel's Labor Party
By Smadar Lavie
How cynical are Israeli politicians that they have chosen to sacrifice the lives of innocent Gazan families to seek political advantage in the elections that will happen on 10 February. Not only has the Israeli regime sent its military machine to commit genocide in Gaza, it has also endangered the lives of its own citizens and soldiers. This, without even once trying to negotiate in good faith with the elected government of the Palestinian people
Shock, Awe, And A Belated Soul-Search
By Jerrold Kessel & Pierre Klochendler
"If only my three daughters will be the last victims of this horrible conflict," wept Dr. Ezzadin Abu Al-Aish, a Palestinian gynaecologist recovering from his wounds in Tel Aviv's Tel Hashomer hospital. An Israeli tank shell killed three of his nine children aged 20, 15 and 14 as well as a 14-year-old niece in their home in the Jebaliya refugee camp Saturday. Israel says its forces were responding to sniper fire
Compare pictures - facts and truth on the new holocaust
The Plot Against Gaza
By Jonathan Cook
Israel has justified its assault on Gaza as entirely defensive, intended only to stop Hamas firing rockets on Israel’s southern communities. Although that line has been repeated unwaveringly by officials since Israel launched its attack on 27 December, it bears no basis to reality. Rather, this is a war against the Palestinians of Gaza, and less directly those in the West Bank, designed primarily to crush their political rights and their hopes of statehood
16 January, 2009
Israeli Assault Injures 1.5 Million Gazans
By Jonathan Cook
This week the death toll in Gaza passed the 1,000 mark, after nearly three weeks of Israeli air and ground attacks. But surprisingly, no one has reported an even more appalling statistic: that there are some 1.5 million injured Palestinians in Gaza. How is is possible that such an astounding figure could have passed the world’s media by?
Gaza: A New Middle East Indeed
By Ramzy Baroud
The world watched in horror as the drama unfolded. But Gaza fought back, withstood, resisted, and the language once again was altered. Arabs are now speaking of ‘victory’, hailing the ‘resistance’, singing the praise of the Palestinians in Gaza
Day 20 Of Israeli War On Gaza:
Death Toll 1100, Wounded 5100
By Sameh A. Habeeb
Israel targets hospitals, United Nations premises, Press offices, theaters and densely populated buildings in west of Gaza. Additionally, people are being used as human shields
Still Breathing In Gaza
By Caoimhe Butterly
And yet, in the face of so much desecration, this community has remained intact. The social solidarity and support between people is inspiring, and the steadfastness of Gaza continues to humble and inspire all those who witness it. Their level of sacrifice demands our collective response and recognition that demonstrations are not enough. Gaza, Palestine and its people continue to live, breathe, resist and remain intact and this refusal to be broken is a call and challenge to us all
14 January, 2009
Blueprint For Gaza Attack Was Long Planned
By Jonathan Cook
As the defence minister, Ehud Barak, admitted early on in the offensive the army had been planning the attack for at least six months. In fact, indications are that the invasion’s blueprint was drawn up much earlier, probably 18 months ago
Israel's War Of Deceit, Lies And Propaganda
By Uri Avnery
In this war, as in any modern war, propaganda plays a major role. Almost all the Western media initially repeated the official Israeli propaganda line. They almost entirely ignored the Palestinian side of the story, not to mention the daily demonstrations of the Israeli peace camp. The rationale of the Israeli government ("The state must defend its citizens against the Qassam rockets") has been accepted as the whole truth. The view from the other side, that the Qassams are a retaliation for the siege that starves the one and a half million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip, was not mentioned at all
Gaza Will Survive
By Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Is it useful to say something? Do our cries stop even one bomb? Does our word save the life of even one Palestinian? We think that yes, it is useful. Maybe we don't stop a bomb and our word won't turn into an armored shield so that that 5.56 mm or 9 mm caliber bullet with the letters "IMI" or "Israeli Military Industry" etched into the base of the cartridge won't hit the chest of a girl or boy, but perhaps our word can manage to join forces with others in Mexico and the world and perhaps first it's heard as a murmur, then out loud, and then a scream that they hear in Gaza
America’s Shame
By Paul Craig Roberts
Why does Israel have a right to exist, but Palestine doesn’t? This is the question of our time
Is Gaza A Testing Ground For
Experimental Weapons?
By Jonathan Cook
Concerns about Israel’s use of non-conventional and experimental weapons in the Gaza Strip are growing, with evasive comments from spokesmen and reluctance to allow independent journalists inside the tiny enclave only fuelling speculation
White Phosphorus Being Used
Against Gaza Is A War Crime
By Timothy V. Gatto
The claims that Israel is using white phosphorus against the Palestinians in Gaza are a crime against humanity. Imagine using a scattergun on a crowd to take out one criminal that may or may not be hiding amongst them. What would the reaction be if our government was to utilize this approach? The Israelis are in effect, using this method against innocent women and children
Israel Is Committing War Crimes
By George E.Bisharat
Israel's current assault on the Gaza Strip cannot be justified by self-defense. Rather, it involves serious violations of international law, including war crimes. Senior Israeli political and military leaders may bear personal liability for their offenses, and they could be prosecuted by an international tribunal, or by nations practicing universal jurisdiction over grave international crimes. Hamas fighters have also violated the laws of warfare, but their misdeeds do not justify Israel's acts
A Message From A Gazan To The World
By Mohammed Fares Al Majdalawi
In my house we can't get basic needs. No food. No bread. No fuel. No future. Yesterday, my father went to the bakery at 5 AM. He waited 5 hours to get one loaf of bread, which is not enough for my family because there are 11 of us. So today it was my turn. I went to all the bakeries -- all were closed
Remember Gaza: One Of History's
Terror Bombing Victims
By Stephen Lendman
Remember Gaza - immortalized as one of history's terror-bombing victims. World outrage demands an end to this and the prosecution of its perpetrators. We stand together in solidarity. Today we're all Gazans. We're all Palestinians
09 January, 2009
The Brutal Face Of Israel’s “Total War” On Gaza
By Bill Van Auken
While Israel has sought to conceal the atrocities that it is carrying out against Gaza’s civilian population, reports of aid workers and testimony of survivors have provided a searing picture of the carnage unleashed by its military assault
Too Much To Mourn In Gaza
By Eva Bartlett
An on the spot report from United Nations-administered al-Fakhoura school in Jabaliya, which was bombed by Israeli forces, killing at least 40 displaced people who were taking shelter there
An Unnecessary War
By Jimmy Carter
I know from personal involvement that the devastating invasion of Gaza by Israel could easily have been avoided
US Weaponry Facilitates Killings In Gaza
By Thalif Deen
The devastating Israeli firepower, unleashed largely on Palestinian civilians in Gaza during two weeks of military siege, is the product of advanced US military technology.The US weapons systems used by the Israelis -- including F-16 fighter planes, Apache helicopters, tactical missiles and a wide array of munitions -- have been provided by Washington mostly as outright military grants
Nowhere Is Safe From Israel's Bombing
By B'Tselem
Osama Musa Suliman al-Nabahin, 37, married with two children, is a treasurer in the Palestinian Authority and a resident of Johr al-Dik, in Deir al-Balah district. His testimony was given to B'Tselem's Musa Abu Hashhash by telephone on 4 January 2009
08 January, 2009
Death Toll 710, 3200 Injured In Gaza
By Sameh A. Habeeb
Day 12 of Israeli War On Gaza
Gaza Under Fire
By John Pilger
Every war Israel has waged since 1948 has had the same objective: expulsion of the native people and theft of more land. But why are we in the west silent on this truth?
Watching The War On BBC
By Muhammad Idrees Ahmad
The gap between the alternate reality that the BBC inhabits and the reality on the ground witnessed and relayed by independent media is so great today that it has compelled John Pilger to write: 'For every BBC voice that strains to equate occupier with occupied, thief with victim, for every swarm of emails from the fanatics of Zion to those who invert the lies and describe the Israeli state's commitment to the destruction of Palestine, the truth is more powerful now than ever.'
Media Eyeless In Gaza At Key Moment
By Jim Lobe & Ali Gharib
Consumed by coverage of the Nov. 4 presidential election, U.S. mainstream media ignored a key Israeli military attack on a Hamas target that some Palestinians claim marked the effective end of the ceasefire between the two sides and set the stage for the current round of bloodletting
The Only Exit From Gaza Is Death
By Dan Lieberman
Israel, for 60 years, has used security considerations as a reason for warfare and has not gained ‘security.’ Either Israel is using the wrong tactics to achieve security or security is a cover for other objectives
Fact And Law- Checking The Wall Street Journal
And Alan Dershowitz
By Franklin Lamb
Professor Dershowitz in seeking to exempt Israel from the requirements of International Law has consistently argued that since Israel has not signed the Rome Statute and has not submitted to the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, that Israel is not bound by the Rome Statute's International Law as noted below. He errs in his interpretation of the Rules of International Law and is quite mistaken that the provisions of the Rome Statute do not apply to Israel
Of Israel, Gaza, Grief, And Victimhood
By Mark Karlin
May the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton have the courage to bang some heads on both sides and provide a future of opportunity and a future without the threat of more blood and death to the young Israelis and Palestinians. They deserve to live in peace
07 January, 2009
Two Schools Housing Refugees
Shelled In Bloodied Gaza
By Al Mezan
The Israeli army shelled an UNRWA [the United Nations agency for Palestine refugees] school that was inhabited by 600 civilians who had to evacuate their homes in northern Gaza, killing six people. The attacks caused damage to two hospitals and destroyed the Civil Defence station in Rafah. Between 2:30pm yesterday and 1pm today, Israeli attacks killed 96 people. At least 22 were children and seven were women
Day 11 Of Israeli War On Gaza
By Sameh A. Habeeb
Death toll 620, injured 3000 and most of them Civilians
Israel’s Aim: To Make The Gazan Prison
Even More Secure
By Jonathan Cook
It is a gross misunderstanding of what is unfolding in Gaza to believe Israel’s motives are capricious. The politicians and generals have been preparing for this attack for many months, possibly years -- a fact alone that suggests they have bigger objectives than commonly assumed
The Logic Of Rage (A Chronicle of the War in Gaza)
By George Capaccio
In the silence of this room where one candle safely burns, I think of Gaza and the flames that won’t die down, the cries that go on burning night after deafening night, the blood that pumps from an endless wound, the tears that will smolder for years to come in hearts reduced to blackened pits. And I see the planes with devout precision delivering sermons of bloody hell. The wounded, the dying fall like ashes from a single flame mere bombs can’t blow out. It is a flame born of a people’s struggle for the right to exist on their own ancestral land, free of the oppressor’s crushing claim
The Quartet's Hypocrisy And Failure
In Occupied Palestine
By Stephen Lendman
The Middle East Quartet includes the US, EU, Russia and the UN. It was formed in 2002 to seek "comprehensive security reform," mediate the Israeli-Palestinian "peace process," address Occupied Palestine's deepening humanitarian crisis, among other stated objectives. On September 25, 21 aid and human rights organizations issued a damning report on the Quartet's performance
Obama, Palestinian Children And Israel’s Terror
By Ghali Hassan
During his visit to Israel on July 2008, President-elect Barack Obama told the media: “If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters [Malia, 10 and Sasha, 7] sleep at night, I’m going to do everything in my power to stop that. I would expect Israelis to do the same thing.” However, on the slaughter of Palestinian children by Israeli forces, Obama has failed to condemn Israel and seems to espouse sickening contradictions
06 January, 2009
89 Children And 30 Women
Amongst Gaza's Dead
By Al Mezan
On the 10th day of its aggression on the Gaza Strip, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) has seriously escalated its military operations, targeting mostly civilian targets, particularly homes. Air strikes and artillery shells hit tens of homes. IOF also targeted medical facilities and ambulances. A Civil Defense team was hit as it tried to fight a fire following the bombardment of a clinic. So far, 89 children And 30 women are killed in the attack
Day 10 Of Israeli War On Gaza
By Sameh A. Habeeb
Death toll 600, injured 2800, New "Nakhba" & Refugees
Gaza: The Death And Life Of My Father
By Fares Akram
For Fares Akram, The Independent's reporter in Gaza, the Israeli invasion became a personal tragedy when he discovered his father was one of the first casualties of the ground war
Israel Rains Fire On Gaza With Phosphorus Shells
By Sheera Frenkel & Michael Evans
Israel is believed to be using controversial white phosphorus shells to screen its assault on the heavily populated Gaza Strip yesterday. The weapon, used by British and US forces in Iraq, can cause horrific burns but is not illegal if used as a smokescreen
Fallujah By The Sea: Aping America,
Israel Unleashes Chemical Weapons In Gaza
By Chris Floyd
The Israeli military is reportedly using napalm-like white phosphorus shells in its all-out attack on Gaza. The phosphorus in the smoke-emitting shells causes agonizing, unquenchable burns, sometimes searing flesh right down to the bone
Civilians Flee Homes In Encircled Gaza
By Mel Frykberg
Civilians are fleeing their homes as Israel continues to blanket-bomb a now encircled Gaza
In The US, Gaza Is A Different War
By Habib Battah
To understand the frustration often felt in the Arab world over US media coverage, one only needs to imagine the same front page had the situation been reversed. If an Israeli woman had lost five daughters in a Palestinian attack, would The Washington Post run an equally sized photograph of a relatively unharmed Palestinian woman, who was merely distraught over Israeli missile fire?
Holocaust In Gaza
By Rohini Hensman
The regular attacks, combined with a blockade which deprived Palestinians in Gaza of food, fuel, potable water, medicines and educational materials, was the slow-motion shoah which had been taking place up to December 27. The full-scale bombing which began on that date is surely the ‘bigger shoah’ promised by Vilnai, and, according to Israeli reports, it was being planned as long back as February
Fact And Law Checking The Wall Street Journal
And Alan Dershowitz
By Franklin Lamb
In his January 3, 2009 article in the Wall Street Journal entitled, Israel's Policy Is Perfectly 'Proportionate, Professor Dershowitz, defends Israel's operation "Molton Lead " and while doing so consistently misstates the Facts and the Law
Picking Up The Pieces In Gaza
By Alice Gray
Perhaps Israel's leaders would do well to remember that terrorism has not only a physical but also a psychological infrastructure, an infrastructure that they are building even as they destroy tunnels and rocket launching platforms; that desperate people will resort to desperate measures, that suffering breeds hatred and hatred breeds revenge
05 January, 2009
Civilian Casualties Mount
As Israeli Army Slices Through Gaza
By Chris Marsden
Israel is engaged in direct conflict with Hamas fighters in the Gaza Strip, after its long-expected ground invasion began Saturday. Verifiable accounts of the fighting are scarce, because Israel continues to refuse access to foreign journalists even after its Supreme Court issued a ruling that allowed a "limited number" into Gaza
Molten Lead In Gaza
By Uri Avnery
This war is a writing on the wall: Israel is missing the historic chance of making peace with secular Arab nationalism. Tomorrow, It may be faced with a uniformly fundamentalist Arab world, Hamas multiplied by a thousand
Day 9 Of Israeli War On Gaza
By Sameh A. Habeeb
Death toll 450, injured 2350, disastrous humanitarian situation
Do Israeli Pilots Feel Happy Killing
Innocent Women And Children?
By Fida Qishta
A Palestinian in Gaza chronicles life under Israeli bombardment
The Gaza Ghetto Uprising
By Joseph Massad
The Gaza Ghetto Uprising will mark both the latest chapter in Palestinian resistance to colonialism and the latest Israeli colonial brutality in a region whose peoples will never accept the legitimacy of a racist European colonial settlement in their midst
Scared But Steadfast In Gaza
By Rami Almeghari
I found that my neighbors are dealing very patiently with what is happening right now. They don't have any place to go and are staying close to their homes, expecting that the worse has yet to come. However, they are saying that they will remain steadfast in their homeland and neighborhood and homes, even if Israel destroys Gaza completely
Trapped, Traumatized And Terrorized
By Laila El-Haddad
Live Free or Die. The motto of the State of New Hampshire, probably one that few Americans are familiar with, has never rung truer. And how similar it is to the feeling of ordinary Palestinians in the Gaza Strip now, trying merely to survive day to day, longing for a life free of Israeli occupation and terror
Testimony: Five Girls In One Family
Killed By Israeli Bombing
By Samira Tawfiq Said Balousha
Samira Tawfiq Said Balousha, 36, married with nine children, is a homemaker and a resident of Jabalya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. Her testimony was given to B'Tselem's Muhammad Sabah by telephone on 30 December 2008
Israeli Lies
By Dr. Elias Akleh
The naked truth is that Zionist Israel, since it illegitimate bastard birth, has been a Goyim-ophopic, genocidal psychopathic, land occupying, mass murdering, child slaying, terrorist state
Global Human Rights Groups Protest
Slaughter In Gaza
By Stephen Lendman
As Israel slaughters Gazans, world outrage continues to resonate - on city streets, by solidarity activists, and by human rights groups globally
Gaza: Time For Vociferous Outrage
By Joseph Levine
Suppose Hamas terrorists were hiding out in Tel Aviv (or Los Angeles, or London, for that matter -- the exercise is equally illuminating applied to the U.S. and or any other "civilized" Western state). Would an assault of the sort we have seen against Gaza even be contemplated?
The Politics And Propaganda Of
The US-Israeli War On Gaza
By Max Kantar
Baseless presuppositions and propaganda about Palestinian rejectionism and Israel's moral [scrupulousness] aside, Israel is savagely massacring hundreds of Palestinians with American weaponry for a reason as old as dirt, the naked desire for hegemony; for power over the weak, to guarantee that there will be no peace that recognizes Palestinian rights as equal to Jewish rights
The Only Nation That Can Do No Wrong
By Jim Taylor
Because the rights that European and North American nations demand for Jews do not seem to extend to Palestinians. Or perhaps more accurately, in a perversion of the Golden Rule, the western world looks the other way when the nation of Israel does unto others as others have done unto them
03 January, 2009
Obama's Deadly Silence
By Ali Abunimah
As more than 2,400 Palestinians have been killed or injured -- the majority civilians -- since Israel began its savage bombardment of Gaza on 27 December, Obama has maintained his silence. "There is only one president at a time," his spokesmen tell the media. This convenient excuse has not applied, say, to Obama's detailed interventions on the economy, or his condemnation of the "coordinated attacks on innocent civilians" in Mumbai in November
Letter To Bush On Gaza Crisis
By Ralph Nader
The least you can do in your remaining days at the White House is adopt a modest profile in courage, and vigorously demand and secure a ceasefire and a solidly based truce. Then your successor, President-elect Obama can inherit something more than the usual self-censoring Washington puppet show that eschews a proper focus on the national interests of the United States
Day 7 of Israeli Agression On Gaza
By Sameh A. Habeeb
Death toll 435, injured 2300, disastrous humanitarian situation
In Gaza, Targeting A Nation
By Rami Almeghari
Unidentified Palestinians are being victimized for the sake of unidentified objectives. Israel claims it is targeting Hamas, while in fact, it is targeting whoever and whatever in Gaza. For the past seven days, Israeli air raids completely devastated scores of civilian ministerial buildings, municipal premises, charities, universities, schools, homes and mosques
Israel's Righteous Fury And Its Victims In Gaza
By Ilan Pappe
Every half an hour a news bulletin on the radio and television describes the victims of Gaza as terrorists and Israel's massive killings of them as an act of self-defense. Israel presents itself to its own people as the righteous victim that defends itself against a great evil. The academic world is recruited to explain how demonic and monstrous is the Palestinian struggle, if it is led by Hamas
Israel Violates International Humanitarian Law
By Prof. Richard Falk
statement by Prof. Richard Falk, United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories
The Politics Of Israeli Extermination Campaign
By James Petras
Because of the unconditional support of the entire political class in the US, from the White House to Congress, including both Parties, incoming and outgoing elected officials and all the principle print and electronic mass media, the Israeli Government feels no compunction in publicly proclaiming a detailed and graphic account of its policy of mass extermination of the population of Gaza
Blaming The Victims - The Dominant Media
Vilify Hamas
By Stephen Lendman
The blame game - no one plays it better than the dominant media, and they're at it again over Gaza. Expect no comments below in their spaces, yet honest journalism would headline them
02 January, 2009
More Suffocating Bombings Claim
Lives Of Children, Women
By Sameh A. Habeeb
The scale of Israeli war escalated today by hitting more targets in various places across the occupied Gaza. The army opened the new year with more attacks in Gaza leaving more people dead
The Real Goal Of The Slaughter In Gaza
By Jonathan Cook
Israel apparently hopes to persuade the Hamas leadership, as it did Arafat for a while, that its best interests are served by co-operating with Israel. The message is: forget about your popular mandate to resist the occupation and concentrate instead on remaining in power with our help
The Day That Changed The Middle East
By Dr Salim Nazzal
Regardless of the outcome of the mass murder continuing in Gaza, the region won’t be the same as it was prior to December 27. Israel and the United States have presented Palestinians and Arabs with more evidence that the language of power is the only language which the US and Israel understand; this will, no doubt, move the region towards more militarization and revenge
If Hamas Did Not Exist
By Jennifer Loewenstein
The lifeblood of the Palestinian National Movement flows through the streets of Gaza today. Every drop that falls waters the soil of vengeance, bitterness and hatred not only in Palestine but across the Middle East and much of the world. We do have a choice over whether or not this should continue. Now is the time to make it
Is The UN Complicit In Israel's Massacre In Gaza?
By Omar Barghouti
A friend forwarded to me the most original greeting for the New Year: "I wish in 2009 a horrible year for all war criminals and their accomplices." I could not but think of whether some United Nations officials can be counted among such "accomplices."
Shiv'a In Gaza: December 2008
By Deb Reich
I am an American-Israeli Jewish woman of 60 living now in an Arab town in Israel and working for Jewish-Palestinian-Arab-Israeli reconciliation. I have two friends in Gaza and I will tell you how we came to be acquainted
Gaza And Hamas: A One-Way Street
By Timothy V. Gatto
I can understand the angst that Palestinians’ feel when innocents are killed by an enemy that doesn’t care. Let that be the message that comes out of Gaza. Try a winning strategy of non-violence. That takes more courage than to give into anger and present the Israelis with an excuse to commit genocide
