On Thursday of last week I accompanied Helle
Preisler, a young Danish woman in the
Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in
Palestine and Israel, as she went
to Abu Dis (a 40-minute walk from the Mount of Olives on the eastern
outskirts of Jerusalem) and taught English...
The Palestinian
people have voted and selected a new President. As expected, Mahmoud Abbas
(Abu Mazen) emerged victorious. Walking in Abu Dis, on the eastern
outskirts of Jerusalem, I noticed new changes at the Bawabe barrier, where
people walk through the garden of a monastery in order to access the city.
"This wall which I see here reminds me of the Bantustans which the
Apartheid regime in South Africa tried to create. It is my dream that one
day Israelis and Palestinians in their thousands will pull down this wall
which separates them".
"Khalil Mahmoud Ahmad Mohsen,
from the town of Abu-Dis, was arrested on 12 January 2005 and is awaiting
trial. He was shot by a Dumdum bullet in the left leg and a regular bullet
penetrated his right leg at time of arrest. He was left to bleed for about
one hour before he was transferred to a military camp near the village of
Yatta in Hebron District. Military authorities then transferred him to
Sirouka Hospital in southern Israel where he stayed for four hours. He was
taken back to the same military camp near Yatta and was left in the open
cold air until 8:00 Am the following morning. He was then transferred to
the 'Atzion detention station. There, authorities refused to admit him and
was taken to 'Ofar, a military detention compound near Ramallah. He stayed
there one day before he was transferred again to Ramla Prison Hospital."
The Grassroots Palestinian Anti-Apartheid
Wall Campaign, February 26th, 2005
A spider network of settler roads, bridges
and tunnels continue to surround Palestinians villages and towns further
ghettoizing them. The Occupation Forces have begun constructing 24 tunnels
for Palestinian use while they remain barred from settler-only roads. Such
roads, and the obligatory security zones which accompany them, separate
Palestinians from their lands, isolating villages and towns from each
other. Six tunnels are already completed, the rest under construction or
pending.
A new round of peace talks between Palestinians and Israelis
has just begun in the United States. The summer was one of
kite-flying, on the one hand in the form of indirect
contacts between the two sides so as not to further provoke
Palestinians sick of the Israeli Occupation and the
incompetence of the Palestinian Authority. On the other hand
threats came from Mahmud Abbas saying he would not
participate without a halt to settlement building and from
Benjamin Netanyahu saying he would only participate if no
preconditions were set.
Dear Tony,
Congratulations on your political memoir becoming an instant
bestseller. I’m in Iran and have the only copy in the
country. I can tell you, it’s so fiercely fought over, it’s
worth its weight in WMD’s. Note to Random House; have ‘A
Journey’ translated into Farsi and Arabic asap, it’ll fly
off the shelves in this part of the world…
"Where is the Palestinian Mandela?" pundits occasionally
ask. But after these latest Israeli-Palestinian peace talks
in Washington fail -- as they inevitably will -- the more
pressing question may be: "Where is the Israeli de Klerk?"
Will an Israeli leader emerge with the former South African
president's moral courage and foresight to dismantle a
discriminatory regime and foster democracy based on equal
rights?...
According to the Palestine Section of Defense for Children
International, each year, about 700 Palestinian children
from the West Bank are prosecuted in Israeli military
courts. Out of 100 sworn affidavits collected by lawyers in
2009, 69% of the children were beaten and kicked, 49% were
threatened, 14% were held in solitary confinement, 12% were
threatened with sexual assault, including rape, and 32% were
forced to sign confessions written in Hebrew, a language
they do not understand. Israel's treatment of detained
Palestinian children is considered to be torture by the
United Nations under international law...
Where there’s volatility, says Susan Gillespie, there’s also
opportunity.
Gillespie is vice president of special global initiatives
and director of the Institute for International Liberal
Education at Bard College, in the Hudson River Valley of New
York. Whereas other U.S. universities have established
overseas branch campuses bankrolled by oil-rich nations --
initiatives inspired in part by promises of profit -- Bard
has gone to places where resources are scarce but problems
are plentiful. Bard’s signature international initiative has
been to establish dual degree programs in countries that are
post-Communist, post-conflict or -- as in the case of its
partnership with Al-Quds University, a Palestinian
institution in East Jerusalem -- at the crossroads of
continuing conflict…
Once again
Uri Avnery is using his blog to criticize the Boycott,
Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.
Under the title "Red and Green," Avnery comments on the long
and interesting program recently broadcast on Israeli
Channel 10 on the growing international isolation of
Israel...
Lawrence
Davidson considers a recent Yale University conference on
anti-Semitism which, instead of engaging in an objective
discussion of an age old form of racism, ended up tying
itself to an ideological view of the world that is itself
racist and dedicating itself to the idea that any criticism
of Israel is anti-Semitic...
Interview,
The Electronic Intifada, 30 August 2010
As US
officials arrived in Jerusalem last week to meet with
Palestinian Authority and Israeli government officials, Nora
Barrows-Friedman interviewed Ramallah-based lawyer and
former PLO advisor Diana Buttu about this week's US-brokered
direct talks between the two parties for The Electronic
Intifada...
Prepared by Asem Khalil, new report entitled, "Impact of
Israeli Military Order No. 1650 on Palestinians' Rights to
Legally Reside in Their Own Country," accessed through the
following link:
Taking effect in April 2010, it defined all West Bank
residents as "infiltrators" (including native born ones),
requiring they get IDF-issued permits...
Al-Quds University is maintaining a joint
Israeli-Palestinian master's degree program with Haifa,
Hebrew and Tel Aviv universities, despite a decision taken
by its own University Council in February 2009 to distance
itself from Israeli academic institutions...
Build that mosque
The campaign against the proposed Cordoba centre in New York
is unjust and dangerous
Aug 5th 2010
The Economist
WHAT makes a Muslim in Britain or America wake up and decide
that he is no longer a Briton or American but an Islamic
“soldier” fighting a holy war against the infidel? Part of
it must be pull: the lure of jihadism. Part is presumably
push: a feeling that he no longer belongs to the place where
he lives. Either way, the results can be lethal...
I was one of those who chose to defy Israeli forces when
they attacked and took our Freedom Flotilla ships that were
trying to deliver desperately needed humanitarian aid to
civilian organizations in the Israeli blockaded Gaza Strip.
Most of us resisted, to varying degrees, for which we paid a
price -- in my case multiple beatings in two days of
captivity in Israel. At least nine paid with their lives...
Israel’s
violent attack on the Freedom Flotilla carrying
humanitarian aid to Gaza shocked the world. Hijacking
boats in international waters and killing passengers is,
of course, a serious crime...
Bestselling author Henning Mankell, who sailed on the
ships trying to break Israel’s Gaza blockade, shares his
diary of the journey with The Daily Beast: being
attacked by Israeli commandos, robbed of his
possessions, and finally deported back to Sweden.
On May 31, the
Israeli military attacked a flotilla of boats full of
civilians attempting to deliver humanitarian supplies to
the Gaza Strip. Reports indicate that at least nine and
as many as 16 of the activists on board were killed,
though details remain sketchy due to Israel's censorious
limitations on media coverage. Much of the U.S. media
coverage has been remarkably unskeptical of Israel's
account of events and their context, and has paid little
regard to international law…
President Daniel Ortega's office says
Nicaragua suspends its diplomatic ties
with Israel in protest to the Gaza
Flotilla attack.
Nicaragua has suspended its diplomatic ties with Israel
in protest at Tel Aviv's deadly attack against an aid
convoy heading for the besieged Gaze Strip.
"Nicaragua suspends from today its diplomatic relations
with the government of Israel," President Daniel
Ortega's office said in a statement on Tuesday.
The Managua government "underscored the illegal nature
of the attack on a humanitarian mission in clear
violation of international and humanitarian law," AFP
quoted Communications Chief Rosario Murillo as saying...
They are
threatened with drowning by the Egyptians and punitively
taxed by Hamas. Our correspondent meets the Palestinian
smugglers bringing oranges, car batteries and bottle tops to
a territory under siege
Israeli soldiers reveal the brutal truth of Gaza attack
Troops' testimonies disclose loose rules of engagement and
use of civilians as human shields. Palestinian houses were
systematically destroyed by 'insane artillery firepower'
By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem
July 15, 2009
The Independent, UK
US lifeline to Gaza
Americans have something to be truly proud of on this
Independence Day
9 - 15 July 2009
Issue No. 955
Al-Ahram Weekly
A Bush in
sheep's clothing
Obama's speech shows little real change. In most regards
his analysis maintains flawed American policies
Ali Abunimah
Thursday 4 June 2009
The Guardian
From Cairo with love
11 - 17 May 2009
Issue No. 951
Al-Ahram Weekly
The Arabs applauded Bush's vision of a Palestinian state
before the end of his term in office. Why expect anything
better from Obama, asks Azmi Bishara
Remembering Jenin
By Stephen Williams
11 May 2009
The Palestine Chronicle
The
paradox of Israel's pursuit of might
Forty years ago, I was enraptured by Israel's courageous
sense of mission. For me today, as for many, that
idealism has palled
Max Hastings
guardian.co.uk
Saturday 9 May 2009
Site content is posted by abudis.net. All intellectual
rights are stated, where possible. Should any information appear
incorrectly regarding sources or copyright, please let us know so that
corrections can be made. We apologize for any mistakes. Problems,
comments, or suggestions may be addressed to the editor: editor or the web-master: webmaster
