IMEU : Analysis

Electing Apartheid: How the Settlers Impact the Vote in Israel (Yousef Munayyer, Permission to Narrate)

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 00:35:07 PST

As Israel moves toward another election on 22 January 2013, a right-wing Israeli government has announced even more colonial expansion projects in recent days. To better understand the reasoning behind this move, you have to understand the relationship Israeli political parties have with the settlement enterprise and the overlapping political interests they share.

Palestine Scores Overwhelming Victory in World Body (Thalif Deen, Inter Press Service)

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 09:18:18 PST

Amidst thunderous applause - and the ceremonious unfurling of a Palestinian flag in the General Assembly hall - the U.N.'s highest policy-making body Thursday voted overwhelmingly to elevate Palestine from an "observer" to a "non-member state". The final vote was 138 in favour against nine opposed, with 41 abstentions.

7 hurt in new breach of Gaza ceasefire (Ma'an News Agency)

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 19:44:54 PST

Israeli forces on Wednesday shot and injured seven Palestinians near the border in the central Gaza Strip, medics said. Seven people were shot at east of al-Maghazi and al-Bureij refugee camps and transferred to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. One man sustained serious injuries, medical officials told Ma'an. An Israeli military spokeswoman said "rioters" damaged the border fence and tried to enter Israel. She said soldiers acted to distance them "according to the rules of engagement" which can include opening fire.

Thankful to be alive in Gaza: My family's story of survival (Hani Almadhoun, Mondoweiss)

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 19:30:19 PST

My two-year-old nephew Omar had been confined to a small apartment with six other screaming children and their families since Israel began its bombardment of the Gaza Strip eight days ago. Shortly after a ceasefire was announced on Wednesday, he and his parents returned to our family home in Bait Lahia. My mother, who I spoke to over the phone, said that the first thing that Omar did was rush up the stairs in search of his most prized possession: his bike.

Gaza's 96 dead include farmers, water sellers and the girl next door (Amira Hass, Haaretz)

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 07:50:55 PST

Farmers on their way to sell vegetables in the marketplace, vendors of purified drinking water and people who just happened to live too close to the targets of Israeli air strikes were among the 34 Palestinians estimated to have been killed in Israel Defense Forces attacks in the past two days alone.

Gaza's Health Crisis and Israel's Crimes Against Humanity (Juan Cole, Informed Comment)

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 07:42:01 PST

Israeli air strikes for the past 6 days have killed over 100 Palestinians in Gaza, many of them women and children; one strike deliberately targeted a media building that Israeli government knew to house journalists. Medics announced Monday that they are running out of key medicines (Gaza is under Israeli blockade). Military strikes are also interfering in the delivery of medical and other aid by international organizations in the Strip.

Attacks on Gaza Unite Palestinians (Jillian Kestler-D'Amours, Inter Press Service)

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 07:47:16 PST

Dozens of Israeli tanks slowly made their way south on the back of flatbed trucks along Israel's Road 6 highway Sunday. Emblazoned with Stars of David and Hebrew letters, and carrying frayed Israeli flags, the movement of these tanks has left many believing that Israel will soon launch a large-scale ground operation into the Gaza Strip. "I see (the tanks) every day. It hurts me because I know they are going to kill children," 20-year-old Mohammad Eghbariya told IPS at the computer store where he works in Umm Al-Fahm, a Palestinian city in Israel's northern triangle area.

Another Palestinian family killed in new Israeli airstrike (Ma'an News Agency)

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 07:36:46 PST

An Israeli airstrike on a home in the northern Gaza Strip killed a family of four on Monday evening, as Israel shelled the coastal enclave for a sixth day. Four-year-old twin boys Suhaib and Muhammad were killed instantly when their home in Beit Lahiya was hit by an airstrike. Their parents Foad Hijazi and Amna Hijazi died in hospital. Eighteen people were reported injured in the attack.

Why Gaza must suffer again: The four guilty parties behind Israel's attack (Jonathan Cook, Mondoweiss)

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 07:05:23 PST

A short interview broadcast by CNN late last week featuring two participants - a Palestinian in Gaza and an Israeli within range of the rocket attacks - did not follow the usual script. For once, a media outlet dropped its role as gatekeeper, there to mediate and therefore impair our understanding of what is taking place between Israel and the Palestinians, and inadvertently became a simple window on real events.

After Israeli operation, Gazans brace for the worst (Amira Hass, Haaretz)

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 07:16:20 PST

Immediately after the identity of the dead man became known, about half an hour after the Israeli aircraft hit Ahmed Jabari, panic-stricken residents of the Gaza Strip starting preparing for the worst. They gathered at gas stations to get gasoline and cooking gas, and at bakeries to make sure they had enough bread for the days to come. Some of them said over the phone that everyone was hurrying home while the Israel Defense Forces was bombing different sites in the Strip, and they could see that Israeli aircraft movement was brisk.