Electronic Intifada : Development

Israeli physicists supply solar and wind power to Palestinian herders

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:54:20 PST

SUSYA, occupied West Bank (IPS) - Hundreds of impoverished Palestinian herders and farmers living in caves and tents in a remote area of the Palestinian West Bank have been provided free electricity due to the ingenuity of two Israeli physicists.

How Israel bought off UN's war crimes probe

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 11:33:43 PST

Israeli diplomats suggested on Sunday that Washington had promised the Palestinian Authority, in return for delaying an inquiry into accusations Israeli war crimes committed in the Gaza Strip, that the US would apply "significant pressure" on Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, to move ahead on a diplomatic process when the US envoy, George Mitchell, arrives in the region tomorrow. But, according to Israeli and Palestinian analysts, diplomatic arm-twisting was not the only factor in the PA's change of heart. Jonathan Cook reports.

Jerusalem Palestinians defining their own future

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 07:54:11 PST

OCCUPIED EAST JERUSALEM (IPS) - Almost a year ago a barely noticed event took place in Sawarha, a Palestinian neighborhood in the Israeli-occupied part of the city. On that November day, Israeli Jerusalemites were voting in a new mayor and a new city council. On that same day, in this neighborhood home to 25,000, people were ignoring the Israeli-run elections. Instead, they were focused on electing their own local council.

Gaza's water supply near collapse

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:06:25 PST

RAMALLAH, occupied West Bank (IPS) - The International Committee of the Red Cross has warned that Gaza's access to safe supply of drinking water could cease at any time. The World Health Organization (WHO) says outbreaks of disease could be triggered as a consequence.

No windows, pens in Gaza's classrooms

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 10:32:17 PST

GAZA CITY, occupied Gaza Strip (IRIN) - Some 1,200 students at al-Karmel High School for boys in Gaza City returned to class on 25 August without history and English textbooks, or notebooks and pens -- all unavailable on the local market. Severe damage to the school, caused during the 23-day Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip which ended on 18 January, has yet to be repaired. Al-Karmel's principal, Majed Yasin, has had to cover scores of broken windows with plastic sheeting.

Gaza mothers, newborns struggle under siege

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 13:25:38 PST

GAZA CITY, occupied Gaza Strip (IRIN) - Inadequate infrastructure, lack of equipment and a shortage of hospital staff are contributing to the deterioration of hospital care for mothers and newborns in Gaza, according to a July 2009 assessment by the World Health Organization (WHO) in Jerusalem. WHO attributes the dismal state of Gaza's healthcare system to the Israeli blockade since June 2007, when Hamas took over control of the territory.

In Gaza, only cancer sufferers get only painkillers

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 11:50:35 PST

GAZA CITY, occupied Gaza Strip (IRIN) - Arafat Hamdona, 20, has been confined to the cancer unit of al-Shifa, Gaza's primary hospital, since he was diagnosed with maxillary skin tumors in June 2008. Red lesions protrude from his face, his features are distorted and his eyes swollen shut. "He is only given pain killers," said Arafat's father, Faraj Hamdona, explaining that it is all al-Shifa has to offer.

Fatah conference leaves problems unresolved

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 10:24:11 PST

WASHINGTON (IPS) - Mahmoud Abbas, the 74-year-old leader of the Palestinian Fatah movement, registered a significant achievement in holding the movement's Sixth General Conference, which has been wrapping up its business in Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank this week. But veteran Palestinian analysts say Abbas's biggest internal political challenges still lie ahead.

Egyptian opposition condemns gas deal with Israel

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 12:09:57 PST

CAIRO (IPS) - Opposition figures and political activists have slammed a new deal to sell Egyptian liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Israel at what they say are vastly reduced prices. "Egyptian gas is being sold to Israel at prices far below the international average," Ibrahim Yosri, former head of legal affairs and treaties at the Egyptian Foreign Ministry told IPS. "This agreement is proof that the ruling regime is unconcerned with public opinion and is insistent on depriving the Egyptian public of its rightful national assets."

Cleaning up explosives in Gaza

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 09:40:41 PST

GAZA CITY, occupied Gaza Strip (IRIN) - The UN Development Programme (UNDP) has begun removing 600,000 metric tons of rubble and debris left over from Israel's winter invasion of the Gaza Strip. More than six months later, the most deadly threat to civilians emanates from unexploded ordnance in rubble and underground.

Egyptian opposition branded "terrorist"

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 16:17:19 PST

CAIRO (IPS) - The Egyptian government is now accusing the Muslim Brotherhood of links to Palestinian resistance groups and of establishing "global networks." Recent months have seen a host of government accusations -- which critics say are fabricated -- against opposition groups it claims have ties with Hamas, Hizballah, and the ever-elusive al-Qaeda. "The government is making up so many charges of 'terror networks' and 'Islamist cells' that it's hard to keep track of them all," Islamist lawyer Montasser al-Zayat told IPS.

Palestinians in Israel forced to study Zionist anthem

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 08:14:00 PST

A leading Arab educator in Israel has denounced the decision of Gideon Saar, the education minister, to require schools to study the Israeli national anthem. Officials announced last week that they were sending out special "national anthem kits" to 8,000 schools, including those in the separate Arab education system, in time for the start of the new academic year in September.

Israel's plan to wipe Arabic names off the map

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 12:02:54 PST

Thousands of road signs are the latest front in Israel's battle to erase Arab heritage from much of the Holy Land. Israel Katz, the transport minister, announced this week that signs on all major roads in Israel, East Jerusalem and possibly parts of the West Bank would be "standardized," converting English and Arabic place names into straight transliterations of the Hebrew name. Jonathan Cook reports.

Drug addiction on the rise in besieged Gaza

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 04:31:40 PST

GAZA CITY, occupied Gaza Strip (IPS) - They are little white, yellow or green pills and are available almost anywhere. At the pharmacies or in the market, they are accessible, addictive and cheap. "I take them because it makes me forget, at least for a little while, that I'm in Gaza," says Abu Alaa, a resident of the strip and father of four. "There is no alternative." Looking to escape years of war, searing poverty and an unrelenting economic blockade, medical officials in the Gaza Strip say residents have developed a serious addiction to the narcotic painkiller Tramadol.

Egypt close to brokering Hamas-Fatah agreement

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:41:54 PST

JERUSALEM (IPS) - Under a complex twin-pronged initiative from the US and Egypt, Israel's hard-line government is moving towards backtracking on two major planks of its policy in the Occupied Palestinian Territories -- resisting demands for a blanket freeze on all settlement building in the West Bank, and acquiescing in the end of its tight siege of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

Israeli banks accused of Holocaust profiteering

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 04:17:56 PST

Israel's second-largest bank will be forced to defend itself in court in the coming weeks over claims it is withholding tens of millions of dollars in "lost" accounts belonging to Jews who died in the Nazi death camps. Bank Leumi has denied it holds any such funds despite a parliamentary committee revealing in 2004 that the bank owes at least $75 million to the families of several thousand Holocaust victims. Jonathan Cook reports.

Political arrests may derail unity talks

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:30:57 PST

RAMALLAH, occupied West Bank (IPS) - Egyptian mediators have set 7 July as deadline for final Palestinian reconciliation talks in Cairo. The Egyptians say time is running out, and if there is no progress in July, they will no longer be prepared to arbitrate. Continued political detention and abuse of Palestinian prisoners by Hamas in Gaza and by the Fatah-affiliated Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank could, however, derail the talks before they even begin.

Palestinian in Israeli parliament: "We resist politically"

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:10:21 PST

"We don't live in the territories, we cannot throw stones and we cannot participate in the legitimate resistance against occupation," Haneen Zoabi, a Palestinian member of the Israeli Knesset (parliament) told Stu Harrison of Green Left Weekly. "We participate in the struggle so our own position as citizens. Our unique role is a political resistance and not, for example, an armed resistance."

Health risks on Gaza's coast

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 18:33:42 PST

GAZA CITY (IRIN) - The World Health Organization (WHO) in the Gaza Strip, in conjunction with the Gaza health ministry, began a public awareness campaign this week to warn swimmers and fishermen of raw sewage discharges, and the potential dangers. Signs were placed in seven areas along Gaza's 42-km-long coastline where untreated sewage is being dumped directly in the sea, according to WHO officer Mahmoud Daher in Gaza.

Obama talks democracy, endorses dictatorship

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 09:15:43 PST

CAIRO (IPS) - Egyptian officials are lining up to praise US President Barack Obama's address to the Islamic world delivered in Cairo last Thursday. But local campaigners for political reform say the speech was disappointingly light on the issues of democracy and human rights. "Obama spoke very briefly and in very general terms on these two subjects," opposition journalist and reform campaigner Abdel-Halim Kandil told IPS. "Despite the hype, Obama's speech was little more than an exercise in public relations."