gazafriends

Happy Birthday Free Gaza – Two years have passed since the week we landed in Gaza – August 23-August 28

Several months ago, a religious school in the illegal Israeli settlement of Immanuel was criticized for segregating white Jewish students from non-white Jewish students in classes.

Ethiopian Jewish student - not allowed to study at new school. Photo by Jewish Middlesex

Originally, the school was fined for this policy of racial segregation, because the school was state funded. Now, the Israeli education ministry has agreed with the white parents’ request to allow the school to continue with its racial discrimination under private funding.

[Read more]

Returning from the Friday demonstration in Al-Walaja in unbearable heat (new video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pftDUGV9RY) we note that the talks about the talks about the peace talks are to resume in Washington September 2nd.  The Obama administration decided not to spend any political capital challenging the Israeli lobby. In fact the US politicians want to blunt Republican criticism ahead of midterm elections by chalking out a diplomatic “success” in form if not in substance.  Direct talks will lead to more erosion of Palestinian rights especially when conducted in Israeli-occupied Washington between Abbas whose mandate as president of the Palestinian bantustan in the West Bank expired last January and Mr. Netanyahu, a known terrorist and war criminal leading the most extreme right-wing government in the history of the apartheid state of Israel.   I believe most Palestinians (Abbas included) are neither optimistic nor pleased about this development. But few of us believe it was necessary for Abbas to yield yet again.  Most (including large segments of Fatah) believe it is a huge mistake that just set back the real cause for peace. I challenge those who think otherwise to public debates on the issues.

An executive committee of the PLO representing various factions (who get paid through the same system) stamped its approval by a majority to the decision to go back to direct negotiations (and thus yield to the US pressure).  I would be curious to read any deliberations and hear from any dissenting voices who voted no (and not just say no to their cadre members).  The fig leaf that is used to save face for the officials going to fruitless negotiations is this statement from the Quartet:

“The Quartet reaffirms its full commitment to its previous statements, including in Trieste on 26 June 2009, in New York on 24 September 2009, and its statement in Moscow on 19 March 2010 which provides that direct, bilateral negotiations that resolve all final status issues should “lead to a settlement, negotiated between the parties, that ends the occupation which began in 1967 and results in the emergence of an independent, democratic, and viable Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with Israel and its other neighbors.”

Israel already rejected the notion of ending the occupation but are thrilled with the notion of direct negotiations without interference or “preconditions” between the occupier and the occupied.  After all, it takes two to agree and Israel holds all the power and all the cards and it can dictate what it wants in “direct, bilateral negotiations”.  The simple question is how TO GET A MODICUM OF Palestinian rights since the quartet even backed down on the simple demand of “suspending settlement activities” while negotiations go on (itself a retreat from the road map which requires dismantling all that was built illegally since 2002)? If you can’t get the rapist to even suspend the rape for a time, why would your demand only direct negotiations with his rape victim in a closed room? If we accept the notion that Netanyahu is restricted by his political coalition from even this small gesture of a suspension of illegal colonial activities (see Geneva conventions), then why would we expect that he will be able to offer anything bigger (like dismantling settlements or sharing Jerusalem, or allowing refugees to reclaim their land)? If we believe the US and its quartet are now more serious, then how come nothing was achieved from the indirect negotiations under their tutelage?

The Zionist movement stole 78% of Palestine and does not believe there is an occupation of the remaining 22%.  They already annexed 10% of the West Bank and also annexed the Golan heights.  They already put 500,000 colonial settlers in the best and richest lands in the West Bank.  They already steal 80% of the water from the West Bank.  They make billions off of the occupation and billions more from direct US aid tax-deductible donations from Zionists around the world.  What is the incentive to Israel to bilaterally negotiate an “end to the occupation that began in 1967” let alone deal with the more relevant and more significant issue of the ethnic cleansing committed in 1948 and still continuing in places like the Galilee and the Negev?

Initially we heard that Abbas will never go to the negotiations unless Israel stops building in its colonial settlements in the 22% of Palestine that some are still dreaming will become a “state”.  In an interview with CNN after the US announcement of resumption of negotiations with no preconditions, Saeb Erekat said that he “hoped” that with the direct negotiations beginning, that Netanyahu will extend the “moratorium on building” in the settlements in the West Bank (supposedly set to expire in September).  Today there are nearly 500,000 colonial settlers living in the West Bank and there was no moratorium worth the hasbara/propaganda created about it. So I would like to ask why is he now begging for renewal of a “moratorium” that was no moratorium? This is the same Erekat who told us repeatedly that  the partial moratorium is a ruse.   Colonial settlement construction continued and still moves with speed as we speak. I would love the opportunity to take Mr. Erekat or anyone who has eyes to see around Palestinian villages and show them what is actually happening on the ground.  In my area in Har Gilo and Har Homa, colonial settlement building activity did not even take a breather.  Actually, there was an acceleration last month in buildings in Har Gilo (on top of Beit Jala) and in building the wall that will make Al-Walaja a concentration camp pending finally ethnically cleansing what remains of this village population.

Yes, I know all the arguments for going back to negotiations.  They go along these lines: we tried different forms of resistance, the balance of power is tipped completely to the Israeli side which is supported by the US (thanks to the Israel lobby), the European governments are not showing backbone, blah blah blah.  One high ranking Fatah official said we have nothing left but negotiations. I am sorry, but if the leaders in Vietnam or Algeria or South Africa made similar defeatist statements, these countries would never have achieved their freedoms. If our leaders have lost faith in their cause, they should step aside and let those who have a positive message lead.  If we are going to achieve an emasculated statelet by endless negotiations with such leaders reaping the rotten fruits falling down from the tree after 130 years of struggle, then we do not want such statelet.

Leaders should first of all accept responsibility for their mistakes and level with their own people.  The biggest mistake in the past 20 years has been this road of Oslo which ended the search for justice and reclamation of Palestinian rights to replace it with a road of “security for Israel” (the occupying power), positions and autonomy and an endless negotiations and “process”.  The process could/would somehow(if all Israeli conditions are met) lead to state that will be less than the state of Zululand.

I could be too harsh in my statements.  But should we not expect expert opinion on issues that are existential? Should we not at least expect consistency on the part of our supposed leaders who are really not experts in any area of international law or diplomacy?  For example, they told us repeatedly that the reason for asking for settlement freeze is because as we negotiate, Israel has made a Palestinian state impossible with continued eating away what is left of Palestine. Now Palestinians have access to 8.3% of the land of Historic Palestine and this is shrinking (the Bantustans in the Galilee, Negev, Gaza and WB).  Since Israel continued to build everywhere even after they announced a “partial settlement building moratorium”, why do you agree to go back to negotiations?  If Netanyahu and all his ministers say there is never going to be a compromise on Jerusalem (illegally annexed by Israel according to International law), how will you force his government to change its mind?  And how will you deal with the fact that Israeli politicians of all stripes say Palestinian refugees can’t return to their homes and lands and must instead be settled elsewhere (including the already over-crowded West Bank and Gaza of which half the population is refugees and displaced persons)?  Is compromise now defined as you can bring any issues to the table of bilateral negotiations to which the occupiers already said they will just say no?

Our “leaders” knows that not only they had to cave in to go back to the negotiations but that further concessions are required to continue to fund their Bantustan economy (and VIP status) from Western donors and Arab countries beholden to the West.  So why do they try to give out the notion that bilateral negotiations can succeed under such circumstances? If you can be threatened with a cut-off of aid to go back to fruitless negotiations, why do we believe that you can resist pressure to cut off aid unless you give up on Jerusalem or the refugees? Palestinian negotiators already are not allowed to raise the issue of treatment of Palestinians inside the state of Israel where Israel is demolishing whole villages.  So many further concessions are needed to maintain the privileges of running the autonomy areas with money from the West and compliant Arab states?  I believe at this stage, three more concessions were needed: a) to return to endless direct and public negotiations that prop-up the Israeli government (and could break the increasing isolation of this pariah state) , b) to retract the very mild measure of boycotting settlement products and refrain from supporting International investigations into Israeli war crimes or legal proceedings to hold it accountable, and c) to continue to suppress local resistance in all its forms.

Some might dispute this and claim that the PA supports popular resistance (and suppresses armed resistance).  But unfortunately the facts of the last year tell a different story. Could they please come to places like Beit Sahour, Beit Jala, and Jayyus and explain to the people what had happened to end the popular resistance in those and dozens of other places? Could they explain why popular resistance  in many places that used to be costly to the occupation is now ritualized media stunts.  Could they meet with people who engage in real popular resistance regularly and are volunteers and not paid employees of the PA and ask them what are the challenges they face? The answers would be scandalous.

I am making three challenges here to all those who will be negotiating with Israeli politicians. 1)  I challenge you to come and tie yourself to an Israeli bulldozer (or sit in front of one) in an act of civil disobedience, and 2) I challenge you to convene panels of independent experts (not those profiting) in every major Palestinian population center to discuss the direction of Oslo accords and what has transpired in the last 20 years, and 3) based on 1 and 2, speak truth to the people.  Much more sacrifices will be needed and are coming from our people with or without honest leadership. Would it not be more dignified and more likely to give us freedom if we have to do without the foreign aid for one or two years?

And sorry, past good deeds 20 years ago do not give ANYONE the right to give up on Palestinian rights.  In international law, even duly elected leaders of occupied people cannot give away their people’s rights.  Our lives are nothing compared to 5,000 years of our people’s history in this land.  And even the struggle against Zionism has already lasted 130 year including life times of many who “negotiated”.  Who now remembers Hassan Dajani who tried to accommodate with the British occupation because of a balance of power.  History will not be kind to those who give-up on their own people.  We the common people, must take matters into our own hands. ولا يغير الله ما بقوم حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم

Confucius added “To know what is right and not to do it is the worst cowardice.”

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Other relevant articles on this subject

Peace Talks in the Shadow of Demolitions

While President Barack Obama pressures Palestinians to re-engage in direct peace talks, and Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu loftily counsels President Mahmoud Abbas not to miss the opportunity, recent demolitions within the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel continue unabated and unaddressed. According to OCHA, July and August have marked the highest number of demolitions this year. As of the end of July, OCHA reports Israeli forces have destroyed over 230 structures effectively displacing and/or affecting over 1,100 Palestinians, including 400 children since the beginning of 2010.

http://www.badil.org/en/press-releases/135-2010/2555-press-eng-024

Analysis by Israeli Paper Haaretz: Netanyahu has won, for now

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/analysis-netanyahu-has-won-for-now-1.309294

Economic emptiness in Palestine and Israel  By Sam Bahour

http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/115149-economic-emptiness-in-palestine-and-israel-

RAMADAN KAREEM  FROM THE NETANYAHU AND OBAMA ADMINISTRATIONS by Jeff Halper

http://www.icahd.org/?p=5994

Palestine: Occupied, Divided, Isolated, Oppressed and Unaided by Stephen Lendman

http://www.uruknet.de/?p=68971

And as always, come visit us in occupied Palestine…

Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD

A Bedouin in Cyberspace, a villager at home

http://www.qumsiyeh.org

Professor, Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities

Chairman of the Board, Palestinian Center for Rapprochement Between People, http://www.pcr.ps

Should Israel be encouraged to enact legislation guaranteeing equal rights for all of its citizens as part of any peace agreement with the Palestinians?

Israel’s systematic discrimination against Arabs was highlighted recently when Donna Shalala, University of Miami president and former Health and Human Services secretary, was detained for three hours, grilled and subjected to an extended luggage search upon her departure from Israel.

Shalala, of Lebanese Arab descent and a long-time supporter of Israel, had visited the country with other university leaders at the invitation of the American Jewish Congress, but had stayed beyond the planned itinerary for several days. It seems evident that, despite her stature, she was a victim of profiling.

But the indignities that Shalala suffered pale in comparison to those faced by the 1.3 million Palestinian citizens of Israel on a daily basis, and not just at the airport.

Adalah, the Legal Center for Minority Rights in Israel, counts more than 35 Israeli laws explicitly privileging Jews over non-Jews. Other Israeli laws appear neutral, but are applied in discriminatory fashion. For example, laws facilitating government land seizures make no reference to Palestinians, but nonetheless have been used almost exclusively to expropriate their properties for Jewish settlements.

Consider what it would be like if:

• Our Constitution defined the union as a “white Christian democratic state?”

• Our laws still barred marriage across ethnic-religious lines?

• Our government appointed a Chief Priest, empowered to define membership criteria for the white Christian nation?

• Our government legally enabled immigration by white Christians while barring it for others?

• Our government funded a Center for Demography that worked to increase the birth rates of white Christians to ensure their majority status?

These examples all have parallels in Israeli practices.

While Israel’s Palestinian citizens have rights to vote, run for office, form political parties and to speak relatively freely, they remain politically marginalized. No Palestinian party has ever been invited to join a ruling coalition. In recent years, Palestinian politicians and community leaders have been criminally prosecuted or hounded into exile.

Nadim Rouhana, social psychologist and director of Mada al-Carmel (a center studying Palestinian citizens of Israel) reports: “Our empirical research reveals that many Palestinian citizens are alienated from the Israeli state. At a deep psychological level, the daily message conveyed in Israeli public discourse is: `You are not one of us. You don’t belong here. You are permanent outsiders.’ Imagine: we, whose families have lived here for centuries, hear this even from recently immigrated Jewish Israeli politicians.”

Palestinian rights are not respected in the Israeli legal system. Israel has no written constitution, only “Basic Laws” that were enacted piecemeal over time. None enshrines equality, and efforts by Palestinian lawmakers in Israel’s Knesset to add an explicit guarantee of equal rights have been rebuffed.

The 1948 Israeli Declaration of Independence promised equal rights to all citizens in a Jewish state, and has occasionally been cited by the Israeli High Court. But a declaration of independence does not play the same legal role as a constitution or basic law. As students of American history know, the U.S. Declaration of Independence held that “all men are created equal” but failed to provide legal leverage to dismantle slavery, or to empower women to vote. Equal rights were only installed by the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, and women’s suffrage only by the 19th Amendment. Lacking the necessary tools, the Israeli High Court has failed to consistently protect equal rights for Palestinian citizens.

Shalala’s treatment in Israel was, no doubt, demeaning. The incident’s effect nonetheless will be constructive if it serves to alert more Americans to Israel’s discrimination against its Palestinian citizens — and creates pressure on Israel to adopt equal rights for all. Only then will durable peace prevail in the Middle East.

George Bisharat is a professor at Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco. Nimer Sultany is a civil rights attorney in Israel and doctoral candidate at Harvard Law School.

[Read more]

Gaza flotilla video mashup Internet Killed Israeli PR from Matthew Doye on Vimeo.

via Ali Abunimah

Chris Hedges made these remarks Thursday night in New York City at a fundraiser for sponsoring a U.S. boat to break the blockade of Gaza. More information can be found at www.ustogaza.org.

When I lived in Jerusalem I had a friend who confided in me that as a college student in the United States she attended events like these, wrote up reports and submitted them to the Israel consulate for money. It would be naive to assume this Israeli practice has ended. So, I want first tonight to address that person, or those persons, who may have come to this event for the purpose of reporting on it to the Israeli government.

I would like to remind them that it is they who hide in darkness. It is we who stand in the light. It is they who deceive. It is we who openly proclaim our compassion and demand justice for those who suffer in Gaza. We are not afraid to name our names. We are not afraid to name our beliefs. And we know something you perhaps sense with a kind of dread. As Martin Luther King said, the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice, and that arc is descending with a righteous fury that is thundering down upon the Israeli government.

[Read more]

gazafriends
6 August 2010

David Rovics has written an evocative song called “All Aboard the Mavi Marmara.” The Free Gaza team has added images in tribute to the nine brave men on board who gave their lives in pursuit of justice for the Palestinians.

This is our tribute to the men. They had names and families and children. They dreamed their dreams just as the Palestinians do.

Israeli commandos took all of that away from them by murdering them… 31 shots, most through the head and the back. The world needs to remember them. The world needs to remember the Palestinians who Israel kills every day. “All Aboard the Mavi Marmara” will be a song you will sing in your head for days. The images, we hope, you will never forget.

We sail again in the fall. Help us make that happen.

Greta Berlin, Co-Founder, The Free Gaza movement
witnessgaza.com
www.freegaza.org
http://www.flickr.com/photos/freegaza

Saturday, August 07, 2010
Israeli Consul Spins Attack on Flotilla
By Greta Berlin
Co-founder, Free Gaza Movement

Once again, Israel commits war crimes against a civilian population on board six ships in international waters then whines that it is the victim of a PR smear.

Journal Staff Writer Lloyd Jojola’s interview with Asher Yarden, consul general of Israel to the Southwest, proves they think they can spin the story of piracy at sea to sympathetic journalists who will ask no probing questions, but merely spout back what the apologists say.

So let’s look at the facts instead of Israel’s spin.

1. We were in international waters, 65 miles off the coast of Israel on our way to deliver supplies to the people of Gaza that Israel refuses to allow into Gaza.

2. The people on board all six boats were attacked by Israeli terrorists, not just the Mavi Marmara.

3. International law says Israel’s siege on 1.5 million Palestinians is illegal, and that is the main reason we were sailing, to break Israel’s illegal blockade.

4. As members of civil society, we have the right to hold Israel accountable for war crimes and crimes against humanity since governments refuse to stand up to Israeli illegal actions, and

5. We have the right to self defense if attacked, defending our friends, families and boats.

We faced a highly armed militia that deliberately attacked us in the early morning hours. Their commandos murdered us, beat us, dragged us into a port where we had no intention of going, deprived us of lawyers for hours, stole all of our equipment and tapes, lied about the audiotapes they issued, and are now lying about some so-called video tapes made in Turkey. The men who were killed ranged between 33-61 with one American Turkish young man of 19 who wanted to be a doctor who was shot five times in the head and back. There are autopsy reports available … and there are descriptions of who they were, why they were going and how many times they were shot on our website at www.freegaza.org.

Your reporter never asked the tough questions of this Israeli mouthpiece.

Why didn’t the Navy wait until morning? Why did they attack a civilian caravan in international waters? Why did they murder nine men with 31 bullets, many to the head? Why did they maim and wound people on board the other boats, several of them beaten so badly they had broken bones?

Why not ask for the truth instead of Israel’s spin? Why believe this man, Asher Yarden, when people can hear the testimony of those passengers who were on board, many of them threatened with bodily harm?…

Who are you going to believe? A decorated U.S. war veteran, Ann Wright, who participated in the flotilla and recently spoke in Albuquerque, as reported in the Journal, or a mouthpiece for Israel?

View on ABQjournal.com

The Greater Toronto Workers’ Assembly
Herman Rosenfeld and Carlo Fanelli

At the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century, the Left around the world is undergoing reformation. As the Great Recession has vividly demonstrated, more than three decades of neoliberal capitalism have eroded many of the significant gains won in the immediate decades following World War II. From wage and benefit concessions to reductions in social services, in an openly anti-union political climate, it is now being demanded that the working class pay for a crisis which it did not create. With the impasse of the anti-globalization and other new social movements that burst onto the scene in the early 2000s, coupled with the inability of many historically progressive unions, trapped in erstwhile social democratic parties, to mobilize their membership base, the Left is in a period of experimentation.

There have been important developments: the emergence of explicitly anti-capitalist parties such as Die Linke (The Left) in Germany, the Left Bloc in Portugal, and the New Anti-capitalist Party in France; the re-emergence of working class discontent in the streets of Greece, Spain, and Italy; and a left tide throughout Latin America. What about North American developments, however? A June 2010 article by Robert McChesney and John Bellamy Foster discusses the weak state of progressive forces in the United States and their inability to translate significant support for their political positions into commensurate political influence. This article updates reports on attempts in Toronto to build an anti-capitalist political movement bringing together trade unions and working class communities, first published in the pages of Relay: A Socialist Project Review and Monthly Review.[1]

[Read more]

They said it couldn’t be done, that Americans couldn’t raise money fast enough to buy a boat to join Freedom Flotilla 2 in the fall. But never underestimate American determination in the face of Israeli intransigence and brutality. The launch of the US Boat to Gaza began last night in New York, and Free Gaza was there to participate.

Listen to Col. Ann Wright’s eloquent speech, then watch our TWITTER page for the next video uploads.

And this is just a beginning, as witnessgaza.com gets ready to go live for events across the US and across Europe.

“The Audacity of Hope” is more than just a book title. It is a call to everyone who believes in justice for Palestine… that there is hope, that civil society will do what governments refuse to do, that we will sail again and again until Palestinians gain the human and civil rights that have been denied to them for 62 years.

WE SAIL UNTIL PALESTINE IS FREE.
–
Greta Berlin,
witnessgaza.com

via Mazin Qumsiyeh

– 3 August 2010
via alexropus

Today (Wednesday) was another honorable and painful chapter in the struggle of the village of Al-Walaja.  Apartheid soldiers assaulted children and adults protesting peacefully, injured many, and arrested six Palestinians.  The destruction of the beautiful ancient village land was stopped for over 1.5 hours.  I was especially touched by the courage of Omar and his two children, one of them was hit by a soldier with his gun on top of his head.  Please see this video and be both angered and inspired by the courage of the Walajans.  The villagers need our support in many ways especially to demand Israel release those they abducted.  Come join us PLEASE and act.

Watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K_-gpgTy_8

Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD

A Bedouin in Cyberspace, a villager at home

http://www.qumsiyeh.org

Professor, Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities

Chairman of the Board, Palestinian Center for Rapprochement Between People, http://www.pcr.ps

Beirut/Jerusalem/Damascus/Washington/Brussels, 2 August 2010: The Israeli-Lebanese border is exceptionally calm and uniquely dangerous, both for the same reason: fear that a new round of hostilities would be far more violent and could spill over regionally.

Drums of War: Israel and the “Axis of Resistance”,* the latest report from the International Crisis Group, examines developments since the indecisive 2006 confrontation. It focuses on the de facto deterrence regime that has helped keep the peace: all parties now know that a next conflict would not spare civilians and could escalate into broader regional warfare. However, the process this regime perpetuates – mutually reinforcing military preparations; enhanced military cooperation among Iran, Syria, Hamas and Hizbollah; escalating Israeli threats – pulls in the opposite direction and could trigger the very outcome it has averted so far.

“Today, no party can soberly contemplate the prospect of a war that would be uncontrolled, unprecedented and unscripted”, says Peter Harling, Crisis Group’s Project Director for Iraq, Lebanon and Syria. “But underlying dynamics of the logic of deterrence carry the seeds of a possible breakdown”.

Should hostilities break out, Israel will want to hit hard and fast to avoid duplicating the 2006 scenario. It will be less likely to distinguish between Hizbollah and the Lebanese government and more likely to take aim at Syria – because it is both a more vulnerable target and Hizbollah’s principal supplier of military and logistical support. Meanwhile, the Shiite movement is bolstering its military might and, as tensions have risen, the so-called “axis of resistance” that it and its allies form has intensified security ties. Involvement by one in the event of attack against another no longer can be dismissed as idle speculation.

Beneath the surface, in short, tensions are mounting. The key to unlocking this situation is to restart meaningful negotiations between Israel on the one hand and Syria and Lebanon on the other. Short of that, it is hard to see why any of the actors would alter its calculations or how the underlying roots of the conflict (Syrian and Lebanese fears regarding Israel; Israeli anxiety at Hizbollah’s ever-growing arsenal) might be addressed.

Prospects for such a development remain at best uncertain, so shorter-term steps are needed to minimise risks of renewed hostilities. UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which was adopted in the wake of the 2006 fighting, has played an important part in maintaining quiet but has lost momentum. Reviving it requires pushing for an agreement leading to Israel’s withdrawal from the northern (Lebanese) part of Ghajar village and bolstering the size and capacity of Lebanon’s armed forces in the South. More effective consultative mechanisms between the parties in conflict also would help defuse tensions, clarify red lines and minimise threats of an accidental confrontation.

“Lebanon’s problems for the most part are derivative of and tied to broader regional tensions”, says Robert Malley, Crisis Group’s Middle East and North Africa Program Director. “Until serious efforts are mounted to tackle these wider issues, the risk of conflict will persist. In the meantime, the world should cross its fingers that fear of a catastrophic confrontation will continue to be reason enough for the parties not to provoke one”.

To support our work in the Middle East and around the world, please click here.

The International Crisis Group (Crisis Group) is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organisation covering some 60 crisis-affected countries and territories across four continents, working through field-based analysis and high-level advocacy to prevent and resolve deadly conflict.

Moments before the destruction of the Bedouin village of al-Arakib, Israeli high school age police volunteers lounge on furniture taken from a family's home. Photo by Ata Abu Madyam of Arab Negev News.

[Read more]

numandu

Rachelle Ferrell – “I can explain” live au théâtre antique de Vienne le 12 juillet 2001.

Gaza’s top Tawjihi student felt like she broke the siege against her with determination and the light from her mobile phone, she told Ma’an the day she received the news of her success.

Asma Amin Tubasi from Rafah remembers her father telling her to stop studying using the old oil lamp after a series of accidents in the Gaza Strip saw children injured and homes burned due to unsafe fuel smuggled in from Egypt.

“She would study 18 hours a day, and she has made me so proud today, scoring 99.4 on the literary stream of the Tawjihi, the highest score in all of Gaza,” her father said.

[Read more]

The Real News:

War as we have never been allowed to see it before: more than 90,000 secret files reveal alleged “execution squads” and an apparent plot to kill the Afghan president. Wikileaks editor Julian Assange speaks to Channel 4 News about the biggest military leak in history.

Channel 4 News has seen the classified documents but has been unable to independently verify their authenticity.

[Read more]