Archive for News
Sami Awad speaks on Palestine
November 19th, 2009 • News
Tags: Churches for Middle East Peace, Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding, Holy Land Trust, Sami Awad, US
Dr Sami Awad is the Executive Director of the Holy Land Trust.
This presentation on the future of Palestine was delivered at an Executive Briefing sponsored by Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding (EMEU) at the Capitol Visitors Centre, Washington.
Ambassador Warren Clark speaks on Palestine
November 19th, 2009 • News
Tags: ambassador, Churches for Middle East Peace, Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding, US, video, warren clark
Ambassador Warren Clark is the Executive Director of Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP).
At this Executive Briefing sponsored by Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding (EMEU) Amabassador Clark speaks about the Israel-Palestine conflict and the role of the US Administration.
About the Olive Oil from Palestine
November 17th, 2009 • News
Tags: business, occupied, olive oil, palestine, territories, zaytoun
How Palestinian olive oil broke down a barrier
Heather Gardner-Masoud
Occupied territories aren’t the best backdrop for business…or are they?
Heather Masoud tells Anna Simpson about the world’s first fair trade oil.
From the steep terraces of Jenin to the heights of Gilboa, you hear the sound of strings and stamping feet. It’s just a murmur at first, but with every beat there’s more vigour as the dabke takes off. The leader waves his beads like olives in the breeze, and local kids gather round. Their cousins have journeyed home, the harvest is in, and the festivities have begun.
For Mohammed Isa of the Anin Co-op for Olive Oil Production, there are more reasons to celebrate the harvest this year than in the past. For the first time, his oil will be sold with Fairtrade certification. This means he’ll sell more of it, at a higher price, to a wider clientele – and so be able to invest in next year’s production. And he’s proud, too, to be part of the world’s first initiative for fair trade olive oil.
“Olive oil was seen as a developed country product, so it wasn’t on the fair trade radar”
When Heather Masoud and Cathi Pawson first contacted the Fairtrade Foundation about Palestinian olive oil, back in 2004, they didn’t get much of a response. “It was seen as a developed country product – from Italy or Greece,” explains Masoud, “so it wasn’t on their radar.”
Zaytoun
The two women, who originally met through a permaculture course, had just returned from a spell as peace volunteers in the West Bank. They’d both been struck by the prevalence of the olive tree – “there are terraces everywhere!” – and its central role in Palestinian culture. But they had also met olive farmers who were unable to access markets due to restrictions on movement imposed by the Israeli occupation – and were determined to do something constructive.
Read the rest of this article at Forum for the Future…
Palestinians in Statehood Warning
November 5th, 2009 • News
Tags: abbas, bbc, clinton, erekat, palestine, peace, ramallah, settlements
Abbas (L), Erekat (R)
Saeb Erekat says it is a “moment of truth ” for President Abbas
Palestinians might have to abandon the goal of an independent state if Israel continues to expand Jewish settlements, the chief Palestinian negotiator said. At a news conference in the West Bank, Saeb Erekat said it was a “moment of truth” for President Mahmoud Abbas.
He said it might be time for Mr Abbas to “tell the truth” that a two-state solution “is no longer an option”. But Israel rejects a one-state solution as a demographic time-bomb that would make Jews a minority in the country. It may be time for President Abbas to “tell his people the truth, that with the continuation of settlement activities, the two-state solution is no longer an option”, Mr Erekat said in Ramallah.
Clinton row
His comments came as the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, sought to defuse Arab anger after she praised Israel at the weekend for making “unprecedented” concessions on settlement-building in the occupied West Bank.
Clinton tries to keep peace alive
Speaking in Cairo after talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Mrs Clinton reiterated Washington’s call for an end to Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank. She had earlier praised the Israeli offer to temporarily limit construction in West Bank settlements to 3,000 additional housing units.
But Mr Erekat dismissed the offer, saying it only opened the door to more settlements in the next two years. “Israel has the choice, settlements or peace,” he said. Mr Erekat said Palestinians had made a mistake in the last round of talks by agreeing to negotiate without insisting that Israel settlement building be stopped, but he said this time would be different.
The alternative left for Palestinians was to “refocus their attention on the one-state solution where Muslims, Christians and Jews can live as equals”, he said.
He suggested that President Abbas might not stand for re-election if the two-state solution were no longer an option, the BBC’s Bethany Bell reports from Ramallah. In its push to restart peace talks, US President Barack Obama’s administration initially demanded a complete freeze on Israeli settlement building. But Israel has refused a total halt, particularly in East Jerusalem, where the Palestinians want to locate the capital of a future state.
In September Washington changed tack, pushing for a resumption of negotiations and saying it demanded no preconditions for the talks – a move which disappointed the Palestinians. After meeting Mrs Clinton, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit appeared to have softened his stance on the settlements issue.
Despite backing the Palestinians’ demand for a total freeze last week, he called for a resumption of talks.
“We have to concentrate on the end game and we must not waste time adhering to this issue or that as a start for the negotiations,” he said.
