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Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines ~ |
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Land, property theft & destruction / Ethnic cleansing / Apartheid
Lauding planned government task force to approve construction on
private Palestinian land, Likud MK says Israel must advance Jewish
settlement out of a recognition that the West Bank 'belongs to us.'
Settlers Set Fire to 300 Olive Trees in Bruqin
SALFIT, October 13, 2011 (WAFA) – Jewish settlers from the settlement of
Brukhin Thursday set fire to about 300 olive trees in the town of
Bruqin, in the northern West Bank, according to Bruqin mayor Ikrimah
Samara. He said the fire engulfed about 150 dunums of Palestinian land
adjacent to the settlement of Brukhin. One of the land owners told WAFA
that a number of Palestinian farmers saw a group of settlers in the
area the moment the fire occured. The settlers were seen leaving the
area and returning to the settlement after residents and farmers
arrived in the area to put out the fire. Samara said that settlers, a
few days ago, burnt 120 dunums of land and about 45 decades-old olive
trees adjacent to Ariel, an industrial area in Salfit. The settlement
of Brukhin is one of the settlement outposts which has become with
time, and with the expansion of settlements, a large one at the expense
of lands that belong to several Palestinian families. It is composed
of more than 80 houses.
link to english.wafa.ps
After decade of demolitions, Susiya shepherd will continue to herd
On 10 October an Israeli army jeep filled with Israeli soldiers and a
representative from the District Coordination Office (DCO) drove down
the dirt track roads from the neighboring military base towards the
small village of Susiya. The purpose of this visit was to serve yet
another demolition order, the third since late August this year, to
Muhammed Musa Muranam and his family.
http://palsolidarity.org/2011/10/after-decade-of-demolitions-susiya-shepherd-will-continue-to-herd/
The Israeli military ordered villagers to stop picking olives on
their own land in Burin, near Nablus, today. The soldiers refused to
give a reason for suspending the harvest. “It is nothing to do with us,
we just get orders from our superiors,” they said. Villagers from Burin
were picking olives on their land high up in the hills, near the
illegal Israeli settlement of Yitzhar. At around 8 AM Palestinian
farmers and ISM activists entered the land closest to the settlement,
and after just a few minutes an Israeli security truck was visible on
the hilltop next to the land. Four soldiers arrived in an armoured
vehicle at around 8:30 AM and instructed villagers to immediately stop
picking olives in the area. They stated that villagers must ask for
permission and would only be given three days to finish picking all the
olives on their land. The farmers continued the harvest further away
from the settlement.
link to palsolidarity.org
On Monday, the Popular Campaign Against the Walls and Settlements
launched the ‘You Are Not Alone’ campaign to support farmers in 150
Palestinian villages. These villages, adjacent to the Apartheid Wall
and settlements, have witnessed the increasing frequency of attacks by
Jewish settlers and Israeli occupation forces. Every year, these
villages experience confrontations and attacks on farmers. Their
harvests are often stolen, their trees butchered, and their lands burned
to the ground. The occupation forces also prevent many Palestinian
villagers from reaching their lands through the construction of security
barricades and check points.
October 10th 2011: Beit Ommar farmers met today to discuss problems
they are facing due to the occupation. The agenda addressed many
serious problems, including land confiscation, land rehabilitation and
problems on land adjacent to settlements.
Restriction of Movement
This morning the pupils and teachers from Qutuba School protested
against the treatment of teachers at checkpoint 56. When, for the second
day running, the teachers were not allowed to use the checkpoint gate
that they usually use, they refused to pass through. In response at 8
AM the school closed, and the pupils came out to take their lessons
outside of the checkpoint. Addressing the children at the beginning of a
lesson one teacher said, ”Until the teachers are allowed to pass
around the checkpoint we will have our lessons here.”
Israeli Violence Against Palestinians
Settlers Attack Qurtuba School Students Studying On Israeli Roads
A group of settlers again attacked students of Qurtuba School in Hebron
on Thursday, October 13, the Palestinian News Agency (WAFA) reported.
link to www.imemc.org
Extremist Jews Beat Palestinian Teenager in Jerusalem
JERUSALEM, October 13, 2011 (WAFA) – Extremist Jews Thursday severely
beat a Palestinian teenager, Mohammad Maghribi, 15, in the East
Jerusalem neighborhood of Musrara, according to a WAFA reporter. He said
that extremist Jews severely beat Maghribi all over his body, when an
Israeli police car arrived at the scene but did not arrest any of them.
Maghribi was transferred to hospital where his condition was described
as moderate. To be noted, areas in West Jerusalem are recently
witnessing a major escalation of Jewish attacks on Palestinian
residents, particularly those who work in the western part of the city.
link to english.wafa.ps
Israeli Soldier Captured on Video Shooting Palestinian Youth in Beit Ummar
An Israeli soldier fired at a Palestinian youth, injuring him in the
shoulder, in the village of Beit Ummar north of the West Bank city of
Hebron, the Palestinian news agency Ma’an reported yesterday.
link to www.imemc.org
Israel increases use of bullets, tear gas against journalists
JERUSALEM (IPS) - As media freedoms throughout the occupied West Bank
and Gaza continue to decline, human rights groups are urging that
powerful governments put pressure on Israeli and Palestinian security
forces to respect and facilitate the ability of journalists to do
their work.
Jewish far-right groups responsible for a series of arson attacks
on West Bank mosques over the past year broke dangerous ground last week
when they turned their attention for the first time to holy places
inside Israel. A mosque was torched, followed days later by an attack on
Muslim and Christian graves. In each case the settlers left their
calling card - the words "Price tag", indicating an act of revenge -
scrawled on their handiwork.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Detainees
Israeli occupation police revealed today that they have arrested a
Palestinian man in Nazareth on suspicion of planning attacks against
Israeli targets.
Israel: Arab Spring forced us to accept Hamas's demands for freeing Shalit
After losing all hopes for rescuing imprisoned Israeli soldier Gilad
Shalit Israel has apparently agreed to accept virtually all Hamas's
conditions for a prisoner swap deal..
Nael al-Barghouthi: we are soldiers returning to their bases with high spirits
The longest serving captive Nael al-Barghouthi congratulated the
Palestinian people on the conclusion of the exchange deal with the
Israeli occupation.
RAMALLAH (Reuters) -- Left out of a prisoner swap between Hamas
and Israel, the Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti must now wait for a
different type of deal to get him out of the Israeli jail where he is
serving multiple life sentences. It may never happen. Hamas's indirect
negotiations with Israel to exchange the soldier Gilad Shalit for 1,000
Palestinians in Israeli jails were seen over the last few years as
Barghouti's best hope of release.
A daughter of a former prisoner who spent 33 days on hunger strike
writes from the Gaza Strip, urging international solidarity with the
Palestinian hunger strikers in Israeli jails.
Hip-hop band DAM supports Palestinian prisoners’ actions with new track
Yesterday, Palestinian hip-hop band DAM released a new track ‘A Letter
From a Prison Cell’ to support the Palestinian prisoners in their
hunger strike.
link to palestinianprisoners.blogspot.com
Palestinian militants set to release video documenting Shalit's Gaza captivity
Spokesman for Strip-based Salah al-Din Brigades, which participated in
Shalit's 2006 abduction, says recording will prove the IDF soldier was
treated fairly.
link to www.haaretz.com
Gaza
Living with the enemy in the Gaza Strip
Yousef Bashir, 22, lives with a bullet lodged near his spine. “When I
imagine myself without the bullet in my back I ask myself would I be the
same?” he said. “That bullet talks to me and I talk to it everyday. It
is a very personal thing that I go through,” he continued. “I know
that it was put there to destroy my life. I look at it and I say I am
not destroyed yet.” Bashir has very personal ties to the Israeli
occupation of the Palestinian territories. He grew up in the Gaza Strip
next to the Israeli settlement Kfar Darom, which was evacuated in
2005. The battle lines ran right through his house. When the second
Palestinian Intifada broke out, Israeli soldiers moved into his home.
Bashir was 11 years old at the time. His father, Khalil Bashir, refused
to leave the house and so the family - Yousef Bashir, his grandmother,
parents and his siblings - spent five years living with the soldiers,
who occupied the top two floors.
Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions / Solidarity / Activism
BDS: Israeli & Palestinian Journalists Discuss Revolutions in DC
This event is
being promoted as a dialogue event about Arabs, when in reality the
panel is made up of all but one Israeli. While most Palestinians
in Gaza or the West Bank cannot even travel to seek urgent medical care,
much less to talk about their blogs, it seems patently unfair that
Israelis are able to travel the world to discuss Arab issues with the
privilege afforded to them because of their Israeli or other North
American passports. A cursory search on the internet did not net any
evidence indicating that any of the Israeli participants support boycott
of the Zionist state or condemnation of Zionism as a racist ideology.
A panel discussion about Arabs should be composed of a panel made up
of Arabs, not 5 Israelis and 1 Arab that happens to work for them.
Lupe Fiasco holding a Palestinian flag throughout his powerful performance of Words I Never Said in front of millions in the 6th Annual BET Hip Hop Awards warms my heart. Sami Kishawi @ Sixteen Minutes to Palestine says
of Lupe's nationally televised performance: Watch this stunning
performance and smile. The Palestinian cause is a people’s movement
that will continue to grow in popularity. We are mainstream and we will
stay that way. I smiling and Sami's right. http://mondoweiss.net/2011/10/lupe-fiasco-
performs-with-a-palestinian-flag-and-occupy-wall-street-shirt-at-the-2011-bet-hip-hop-awards.html
Tunisian Fencing Champion Refuses to Face Israeli
Tunisian fencer Besbas Azzah refused to face her Israeli counterpart
Naomi Mills in the final match of the World Fencing Championships,
citing her support for the Palestinian case. The sports website Koora
said Azzah, the African champion and 2008 Olympic semi-finalist, would
give up on her dream to win the gold medal by withdrawing from the
final. She reportedly came up to the fencing platform and did not defend
herself, suffering five hits from Mills, who was declared the
champion. Mills then collapsed in tears, according to Koora. On October
4, Algerian judoka Mariam Mousssa refused to face Israeli Shahar Levi
in the knockout rounds of the Judo World Cup, endangering her chances
at qualifying for the 2012 London Olympics. Algeria has never official
recognized the state of Israel and Tunisia suspended relations in 2000.
Intifada Association announcement on interruption of Israeli ambassador speech and detention of its members
Tonight, members of the Intifada Association, supported by other
solidarity activists, staged a peaceful protest raising the Palestinian
flag during the first public speech of the Ambassador of the Israeli
Apartheid in Greece, Arie Mekel. The Ambassador s speech was held in a
conference organized by a host of pro-zionist entities (HEL.C.E.I.A.,
R.I.E.A.S., Defencenet). Many Greek parliamentarians attended the
conference. When the Israeli Ambassador stepped up on the podium, the
members of the Intifada Association raised a Palestinian flag and
expressed their solidarity to Palestinians with mottos such as “Free
Palestine”, “Solidarity to Hunger Strikers”, “End torture in Israeli
prisons”, and “Boycott The Israeli Apartheid”. Αgroup of undercover
policemen intervened and violently expelled the two activists from the
conference room, only to surrender them to a police unit outside the
building where the conference was taking place.
For the fifteenth day in a row, our brave political prisoners
continue their open-ended hunger strike in Israeli prisons, challenging
the walls of silence and international complicity, and refusing
indignation and the persistent violations of their rights. While today
marks the historic UN day of solidarity with South African political
prisoners, the UN, under US hegemony, has turned its back on the plight
of Palestinian political prisoners, including hundreds of child
prisoners, languishing under severe hardships in Israel’s
notoriously inhumane prisons. This put the moral burden on
international civil society to act, by applying effective pressure on
Israel to release all Palestinian and Arab political prisoners and to
respect their internationally recognized rights in the meanwhile.
"More than 200 professors and students from Sweden have signed on
to a call for an academic boycott of Israeli institutions. The boycott
petition was initiated by the Action Group for the Boycott of Israel at
the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. According to the
petition, “Israeli academic institutions are deeply complicit in
Israel’s occupation of Palestine. They cooperate closely with the
security-military establishment. They offer advice to military
intelligence and assist in developing weapon technologies for the
Occupation forces. So far, none of the Israeli academic institutions
have dissociated themselves from the occupation regime, or condemned the
entrenched system of discrimination of Palestinians.”
"Some people have been wondering why the word 'normalization' is
being used by pro-Palestine movements more and more frequently. Many
seem to be puzzled by this word, not knowing exactly what is meant by
it. What probably strikes them the most is that this expression, based
on the word 'normal' which ordinarily has a positive connotation, is
used in this context as something that is looked down upon or even
despised. It therefore seems important to clarify what it means, why it
is seen as negative, and what its role is in the oppression and
dispossession of the Palestinian people.
The recent conviction of ten University of California students of
two misdemeanor counts of disrupting and conspiring to disrupt a speech
given by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren on 8 February 2010, points to
the stifling of free speech and academic work and inquiry in the
university. Three of the Irvine 11 are students at the University of
California, Riverside, and two of these UCR students have been my own:
Taher Herzallah and Shaheen Nassar. Both were studious, inquisitive, and
engaged, modeling for others, in their behavior, what being a
university student ought to be about. I will even say, if memory serves,
that I may in fact have been interrupted by them, and by other
students, on more than one occasion. Yet this interruption is neither
negative nor privative: it does not prevent or hinder speech or thought,
but it gives place to them. It is not that interruption stalls the
university, but that there will have been no university without the
interventions, provocations, and interruptions of our students.
Alex Odeh’s murder, 26 years ago, was an early sign of Southern California’s treatment of Palestinian dissent
Today is the 26th anniversary of the murder of Alex Odeh in Southern
California. Odeh -- the ADC West Coast director -- was targeted because
he spoke up on behalf of Palestinians, earning him the hate of the
extremist Jewish Defense League (JDL). But what must be most noted
about this case, is that even today, no one has been prosecuted for this
hateful killing, a terrorist act that took place on US soil because of
events related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This is a failure
of the state and in keeping with a Southern California tradition of a
hostility to Palestinian dissent. I outline some of this history in
this week's The Nation where I compare the recent conviction of the "Irvine 11" to the 20-year witchhunt against the "LA 8":
Diplomatic / Political Developments
Turkey seeks Israeli arrests over flotilla raid
Turkish media reports prosecutor seeking arrest of 174 Israelis allegedly involved in 2010 Navy raid on Gaza-bound ship.
No problem– Obama’s State Dep’t spokesperson is married to Romney’s neocon foreign policy adviser
Here is a crazy story no one is talking about that is evidence of the
Israel lobby's role in our politics. Last week, Mitt Romney announced a
foreign policy team that includes Robert Kagan, a neocon who pushed for
the Iraq war.
U.S. and Mideast News
Human rights organisation says Canada must prosecute former US president during October visit for "authorising torture".
Mistrial declared in case of Egyptian blogger
Maikel Nabil has been on hunger strike for 45 days in protest of his three-year sentence for criticising the military.
(Beirut) – Clashes in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Provinceshow the
urgent need for Saudi officials to stop arbitrary arrests of peaceful
protesters, relatives of wanted persons, and human rights activists,
Human Rights Watch said today. Interior Ministry officials said that
the clashes, which broke out in ‘Awwamiyya, a Shia town, on October 3,
2011, and continued into the next day, injured 11 security personnel
and three citizens, two of them women. Sources on the ground told Human
Rights Watch that the likely trigger was the arrest on October 2 of
two elderly residents of ‘Awwamiyya – Hasan Al Zayid, in his 70s, and
Sa’id al-‘Abd al-‘Al, in his 60s – to pressure their sons to give
themselves up to the police. The sons were wanted in connection with
peaceful demonstrations from February to June in the Eastern Province.
link to www.hrw.org
UAE: Families’ Plea to Free Activists
The families of five activists jailed six months ago for “publicly
insulting” United Arab Emirates (UAE) officials made a joint plea on
October 9, 2011, to the country’s rulers to stop the activists’ trial
and release them. (Abu Dhabi) – The families of five activists jailed
six months ago for “publicly insulting” United Arab Emirates (UAE)
officials made a joint plea on October 9, 2011, to the country’s rulers
to stop the activists’ trial and release them, Human Rights Watch said
today.
link to www.hrw.org
Peeved at Russia’s Security Council veto derailing a Western-sponsored
resolution against Syria last week, U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice
implicitly accused the Russians of protecting the beleaguered government
of President Bashar al-Assad primarily to safeguard their lucrative
arms market in the Middle Eastern country.
Israeli pundits argue that the Tartus naval base under renovation
would facilitate Russian espionage and observation of the Israeli army
and its different means of combat and channels of communication.
Suicide bombers, attacks hit Baghdad police, 28 dead (Reuters)
Reuters - Suicide bombers and roadside blasts targeted police across
Baghdad Wednesday, killing at least 28 people and wounding dozens on
the second day of serial bombings in the Iraqi capital in less than a
week.
U.S. / Saudi Fabrications on Iran
The Lede Blog: Experts Question Alleged Terror Plot's 'B-Movie' Qualities
Just 24 hours after American officials announced that they had disrupted
an Iranian plot that sounded like a rejected Quentin Tarantino script
-- centering on an Iranian-American used-car salesman's failed attempt
to hire a Mexican drug cartel to assassinate Saudi Arabia's ambassador
in Washington -- a number of prominent American experts on Iran have
suggested that Iran's government might not have been behind the scheme
at all.
Leverett on al Jazeera: Thin U.S. Charges of Terror Plot Escalate Tension with Iran
Hillary Mann Leverett appeared on al Jazeera, please see video link
above, shortly after news broke that the Obama Administration has
accused Iran of trying to arrange the assassination of Saudi Ambassador
to the United States, Adel al Jubeir.
Why Iran assassination plot doesn't add up for Iran experts
The US has blamed the specialist Qods Force in an Iran assassination
plot. But those who track the group say the plot doesn't reflect the
careful planning, efficiency, and strategy the Qods Force is known for.
Criminal Mastermind Behind Saudi Terror Plot Was Failed Texas Used-Car Salesman, Richard SilversteinNo
sooner was Eric Holder’s press conference done at which he trumpeted
the government’s penetration of a Massive Plot to assassinate Saudi
Arabia’s ambassador to the U.S., than progressive bloggers and
journalists like Spencer Ackerman, Glenn Greenwald and Prof. Muhammad Sahimi began to take it apart for its sheer lameness and lack of credibility. Greenwald, for example, notes that the Washington Post itself,
a credulous backer of the administration’s claims, conceded that the
key conspirator, Manssor Arbabsiar, seemed a hapless fellow who couldn’t
even run a business, let alone conduct a sophisticated plot to murder
one of the most high profile diplomats in Washington DC.
Iranian Terror Plot: Fake, Fake, Fake
Fake, fake, fake – I’m talking about the latest anti-Iranian propaganda
coming out of Washington, which claims the Iranian Revolutionary Guards
were involved in a “plot” to take out the Saudi ambassador to the US
and blow up both the Saudi and Israeli embassies.
US authorities linked Iran to a plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to the
US. Few contests have defined the modern Middle East like that between
Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Occupy Wall Street
NEW YORK — New York police arrested four people Wednesday during
an Occupy Wall Street rally outside a skyscraper housing JP Morgan
Chase bank. About 100 people took part in the protest, chanting “we are
99 percent” and “tax the rich!” The protest quickly dispersed after
the arrests, an AFP journalist said. The Occupy Wall Street protest
started September 17 with a camp in a small square in the New York
financial district to highlight what demonstrators say is greed and
corruption in the country’s business and political elites. Although the
sit-in demonstration numbers only a few hundred people, swelling to
several thousand during marches, it has struck a powerful note among US
politicians and the media. Smaller sister demonstrations have also
popped up in cities across the country. On Wednesday, the latest
high-profile figure to react to the protests was Vikram Pandit, chief
executive officer of Citigroup Inc. In sympathetic comments, he said he
found the protestors’ complaints “completely understandable.” “Trust
has been broken between financial institutions and the citizens,”
Pandit said at a Fortune magazine breakfast. “I’d be happy to talk to
them anytime they want,” he said in the comments posted by Fortune.
Police arrest ‘Occupy D.C.’ protesters in Senate building
Capital Hill police have arrested Occupy DC protesters trying to place banners on a U.S. state office building, according to local NBC affiliate in Washington D.C. The protesters were able to enter the third senate office building, known as the Hart building,
and laid down signs saying “End War Now” and “People for the
People.” Police immediately placed them under arrest the minute they put
down the signs. WATCH: Video from local NBC affiliate in Washington
D.C., which appeared on October 11, 2011.
Iraq Veterans at Occupy Wall Street Decry Financial Crisis Soldiers Face Returning Home
Protesters at Occupy Wall Street include veterans of the U.S. military,
many of whom are struggling with their multiple deployments to Iraq
and Afghanistan, mental and physical trauma and illness, and the
hardships of pulling their lives back together when returning to
civilian life. "It’s no secret that a lot of veterans are facing
unemployment, homelessness, and a lot of other issues that are dealing
with the economy," says Jose Vasquez, executive director of Iraq
Veterans Against the War.
Occupy Wall Street Organizer: Protest Expands Despite Police Effort to "Silence" Demonstrators
Now in its fourth week, the Occupy Wall Street encampment has attracted
thousands of demonstrators who continue to tackle the challenges of
self-organizing and building a movement. As their numbers swell and the
media debates who they are, the Democracy Now! team packed up our gear
and headed to Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan to hear people speak for
themselves. We first talk to Justin Wedes, an organizer with Occupy
Wall Street. He describes how New York City police have arrested people
for peacefully demonstrating and exerting their free speech rights.
"The reaction has been—and I think the whole world sees it now—that
every time that you try to silence peaceful protests, you just get an
explosion of new support. And I think that’s what’s happened. And it
really bares sort of naked the truth about who theNYPD serve and
protect. And if that’s not the people… then we have a problem."
Hip-Hop Artist Immortal Technique: No More Free Passes for Our Government
Among the many artists supporting the Occupy Wall Street encampment is
the hip-hop artist Immortal Technique. He shares his impressions of the
protesters’ demands and performs his song "Toast to the Dead." "People
say, 'You know what? I want concrete solutions. I want people held
accountable for what they did wrong,'" Immortal Technique says. "'I want
governments to realize that they're not just going to get a free pass
for their horrific record of human rights, even if you’re supported by
America, because we have deals to exploit your natural resources.’ I
think that that’s what people are genuinely concerned with here."
Iraqi-American Musician Stephan Said Performs at Occupy Wall Street
We speak with Iraqi-American singer-songwriter and activist Stephan
Said, who joined Occupy Wall Street after working with the the antiwar
movement since the 1990s. "I have been raised an all-American guy who
had to deal with the fact that my family was being bombed in the first
and biggest war of globalization," says Said. "I had to realize from the
very beginning that the only way to stop it was to create this
movement that all humanity has always waited for, for a more equal
world." He also performs his song "Take a Stand," from his new album. link to www.democracynow.org
‘Occupy Chicago’ crashes Mortgage Bankers Association party
On Tuesday night, a party for Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) members
was greeted by “Occupy Chicago” protesters, who chanted “banks got
bailed out, we got sold out.” The party was hosted by the Chicago
Mercantile Exchange at Union Station. The protesters gathered at the one
of the entrances of the building near where the party was being
held. “Occupy Chicago” began on September 23, when around 20 people
gathered at Willis Tower and then marched to the Federal Reserve Bank to
show their solidarity with the “Occupy Wall Street” protesters in
lower Manhattan.
Tiananmen protest leader thrilled by ‘Occupy Boston’ demonstration
Chai Ling, former commander-in-chief of the 1989 Tiananmen Square
student movement, on Wednesday visited “Occupy Boston” protesters to
provide them with encouragement. “Without pressure to provide a public
space for these protests to continue, the movement will not be
sustained,” she said in a statement. “This lack of organization also
plagued the Tiananmen Square movement early on and reminds me so much
of what we went through.”
Silencing Occupy Wall Street and criticism of Israel through demonization, Ali Abunimah
What do the efforts to silence criticism of Israel and the attacks on Occupy Wall Street have in common?
Naomi Klein on Occupy Wall Street: Compassion is a radical act
Naomi Klein, a reporter whose work has been featured in Rolling
Stone, The Atlantic and The Guardian, among others, as well as in her
best-selling books “Shock Doctrine” and “No Logo,” has been reporting
on today’s key activist causes: Occupy Wall Street and the Keystone
Pipeline. Klein sat down for an interview with Thom Hartmann to explain
her participation in the social justice and environmental movements.
Analysis / Op-ed
The US Congress has voted to freeze aid to the Palestinian
Authority worth $200 million. The common theme of the freeze is the
disruption of activities that might reinforce the Palestinian
Authority’s (PA) drive for statehood.
'The Arab Spring ... is the commencement of the Third Intifada on a transnational, pan-Arab and pan-Muslim scale.'
Cairo — Little is written about Palestinians who have been living
in Egypt for more than half a century. For generations of Palestinians,
Egypt has been their only home — and place of exile — an Egypt they
love and hate. Generations of Palestinians have grown up fearing
Egyptian security forces. They fear leaving Egypt and not being able to
return and fear daily discrimination in education, work, and health.
Palestinians lived in Egypt while the ruling party incited Egyptian
public opinion against everything Palestinian, a strategy employed to
distract Egyptians from their own repression. These developments
created a Palestinian-Egyptian identity that is both distorted and
confused, reflecting Palestinian fears of displacement and deportation.
In the wars currently waged on the backs of the Arab revolutions,
one particular term stands out in the lexicon of Arab politicians and
their columnist and media acolytes: the phrase ‘convergence of
interests,’ which has made a big comeback.
Bernard-Henri Levy stuck his nose into the business of the Arab
Spring from the outset. The French philosopher with Zionist leanings
made an appearance in Tahrir Square, visited Benghazi to support the
rebels, and organized a conference in support of the Syrian uprising in
Paris. Al-Akhbar asked several Arab intellectuals for their opinions.
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