IMEU : From the Media

European Commission: Taxpayers paying price of settlements (The Associated Press)

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:58:56 PST

The European Commission says Israel's settlement policy helps strangle the Palestinian economy and makes the Palestinian government more dependent on foreign aid. In an unusually harsh statement Monday, the commission said that "it is the European taxpayers who pay most of the price of this dependence."

Palestinian youngsters make music in former prison (Reuters)

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:57:42 PST

Ramzi Abu Redwan says he remembers waiting in the halls of Al-Fara'a prison as a boy, holding his grandfather's hand and staring up at the walls as he waited to see his father, jailed by Israel. Now, those same walls echo, not with the footsteps of Palestinian prisoners, but with music and children's laughter. The prison, just outside the West Bank city of Nablus, was used in turn by the British, Jordanians and Israelis.

Israeli city councilor: 'I wish all the Arabs would disappear' (Ma'an News)

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:46:25 PST

Israeli prosecutors on Sunday ordered police to investigate a Nazareth city councilor for incitement to racism, according to news reports. Upper Nazareth City Councilor Ze'ev Hartman had in April responded to a question about his personal greetings for Israel's Independence Day by wishing "all the Arabs to disappear," the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz reported.

Barak: Gaps with U.S. remain over West Bank settlements (Haaretz)

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:44:35 PST

In an attempt to bridge the divide between Jerusalem and Washington over the issue of West Bank settlement construction, Defense Minister Ehud Barak met with U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell in London for over three hours on Monday. Most of the meeting took place in private, though Mitchell and Barak were later joined by the defense minister's team of consultants as well as by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's aide, Yitzhak Molko.

Minister calls for housing partition (Jonathan Cook, The National)

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 00:12:48 PST

Israel's housing minister called for strict segregation between the country's Jewish and Arab populations last week as he unveiled plans to move large numbers of fundamentalist religious Jews to Israel's north to prevent what he described as an "Arab takeover" of the region. Ariel Atias said he considered it a "national mission" to bring ultra-Orthodox Jews into Arab areas.

Palestinians: Normalization with Arab world not at our expense (Ali Waked, Ynet News)

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 00:09:14 PST

"Israel is trying to open up to the Arab world 'at the expense' of the Palestinians by using hollow initiatives," the Palestinian Authority said on Sunday in response to Israel's hopes to normalize relations with Arab nations in return for ordering a temporary freeze of all construction in the West Bank. The PA called the Israeli plan an attempt to shirk the commitments it made to the Palestinians.

Music event puts global spotlight on Palestinians (Omar Karmi, The National)

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 00:08:25 PST

It is not often Palestinians get a chance to see best- selling international artists up close and personal. Once a year, however, the Palestine International Festival offers exactly such an opportunity, and, judging by the packed outdoor venue at the Ramallah Cultural Palace on Friday, it is an opportunity people are keen not to miss. So keen, in fact, that tickets to see the popular Iraqi singer Ilham al Madfa'i, who recently signed up with Virgin Records, were oversold.

A life in ruins (Peter Beaumont, The Guardian )

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 00:05:58 PST

In the immediate aftermath of Israel's bloody three-week war with Hamas in January, Peter Beaumont travelled to Gaza and met the Palestinians devasted by the death of their families and the destruction of their neighbourhoods. Six months later he returns to find they are still waiting - to rebuild both their homes and their lives.

Settlers slowly kill Bedouin way of life (Omar Karmi, The National)

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 00:03:56 PST

Ibrahim Ahmed Abu Dahouk remembers when he could walk the seven minutes to his brother's house in the nearby village of Bidu. He remembers when he could herd his sheep into Jerusalem or over to Ramallah. He remembers when all he saw on the horizon on a clear day was the Mediterranean to one side and the mountains of the Jordan Valley to the other.

Cancer trauma inspires Palestinian film (Mohammed Harmassi, BBC News)

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 00:01:19 PST

A woman from Gaza stands at an Israeli check-point. We can only see her back but it is clear that in shame she opens her top to a female Israeli soldier to show that her breasts have been removed in an attempt to beat cancer. Despite this, she is refused entry to Israel on security grounds. This is the climactic scene from the first major Palestinian attempt at an animated movie and it is based on a true story.