IMEU : Analysis

Building and weeping (Shlomy Zachary, Haaretz)

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 02:00:03 PST

Now, it's official: Palestinian property in the West Bank no longer enjoys constitutional protection. This is what could be gleaned from Defense Minister Ehud Barak's decision, made casually but without any legal basis, that houses in the settlement of Ofra, which were built on stolen, private Palestinian land, in violation of both international and local law, will be permitted to remain in place.

Privately run checkpoint stops Palestinians with 'too much food' (Amira Hass, Haaretz )

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:33:10 PST

A West Bank checkpoint managed by a private security company is not allowing Palestinians to pass through with large water bottles and some food items. Machsom Watch discovered the policy, which Palestinian workers have also confirmed. The Defense Ministry stated in response that non-commercial quantities of food were not being limited. It made no reference to the issue of water.

Nobel Laureate 'abducted' by Israeli Navy (Mel Frykberg, Inter Press Service)

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 02:38:15 PST

Twenty-one international human rights workers were seized by Israeli naval frigates in international waters Tuesday as their boat 'The Spirit of Humanity' tried to carry humanitarian aid to Gaza. The human rights workers, including former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and Irish Nobel Peace laureate Mairead Maguire, and nationals from 11 other countries were part of the Free Gaza Movement (FGM) efforts to break Israel's naval and border blockade of Gaza.

Israeli doctors accused of flouting ethics (Jonathan Cook, The National)

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 02:00:45 PST

Israel's watchdog body on medical ethics has failed to investigate evidence that doctors working in detention facilities are turning a blind eye to cases of torture, Israeli human rights groups claim. The Israeli Medical Association (IMA) has ignored repeated requests to examine such evidence, the rights groups said, even though it has been presented with examples of Israeli doctors who have broken their legal and ethical duty towards Palestinians in their care.

A fundamental difference of understanding (Ghassan Khatib, Bitterlemons.org)

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 02:00:59 PST

Israelis need to understand that Palestinians are coming from a position that is based entirely on international law. In other words, the Palestinian position cannot and will not veer from the specific rights that United Nations Security Council resolutions as well as international legality guarantee Palestinians.

Walking miles in Palestinian feet (Claire Messud, The Boston Globe)

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 02:30:35 PST

I recently returned from a literary festival that was to have opened and closed in Jerusalem; but which, to our surprise, opened in France and closed in the United Kingdom. You might well ask how a bunch of novelists and nonfiction writers could be so dangerous as to require a military-ordained ban in a democratic country. I can't tell you; except that our literary festival had the word "Palestine" in its title.

Deal on Gaza makes headway (Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendler, Inter Press Service)

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 02:00:34 PST

Under a complex twin-pronged initiative from the U.S. and Egypt, Israel's hard-line government is moving towards backtracking on two major planks of its policy in the occupied 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.

A journalist beaten - one year later (Mohammed Omer, Agence Global)

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 02:27:24 PST

June 26, 2008 is a day I will never forget. That day I was detained, interrogated, strip searched, and tortured while attempting to return home from a European speaking tour, which culminated in independent American journalist Dahr Jamil and I sharing the Martha Gellhorn Journalism Prize in London - an award given to journalists who expose propaganda which often masks egregious human rights abuses.

Recovery battle for Gaza war injured (Heather Sharp, BBC News)

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 02:32:06 PST

Yahya Abu Saif, 20, smiles lopsidedly as his brother steers his wheelchair along the narrow, rutted alley to his home. It is nearly six months since an Israeli missile strike on a mosque left him close to death. His right leg was amputated and his left side left paralysed by shrapnel that pierced his skull. When the BBC visited him in February, the trainee teacher struggled to speak even a few despairing words as he gazed ahead into a life of dependence on others.

An earthquake deferred (Bitterlemons.org)

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 02:00:50 PST

Political Islam will remain and be relatively unaffected. The wealth and richness of political Islam will stay, but it is moving to the center. There is more moderation, there is less the language of take-it-or-leave-it. This was something that was reflected in the speech by Ismail Haniyeh, next to Jimmy Carter, when he said Hamas would accept a state on the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital and the return of the refugees.