Posts Tagged ‘palestine’
The EU’s role in the Middle East
March 16th, 2010 • Film & Documentary, News
Tags: al jazeera, EU, inside story, israel, middle east, palestine
from Al Jazeera’s Inside Story:
Striving to make the European Union relevant to the Middle East peace process, Catherine Ashton, the new EU foreign policy chief, visits the region.
Beginning her trip in Egypt on Monday, she is scheduled to visit Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and the Palestinian territories over the course of the week.
It underscores the European Union’s efforts to better engage in the Middle East.
With an ambitious plan to meet key players in six countries, can the Europeans succeed in what the Americans have failed to achieve over decades? Will the current tension between the US and Israel help or hinder a real European role in Middle East peace process?
Inside Story is joined by Mustafa Barghouti, the general secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, Richard Youngs, the director general of Fride, a think tank focusing on EU policy. He was previously an analyst at the UK Foreign Office.
Also joining the programme is David Mack, a scholar at the Middle East Institute and a former US ambassador to the UAE.
Don’t forget to join the recent action over the EU and Israel…
Edward Said’s Daughter’s Visit to Gaza
March 15th, 2010 • News
Tags: edward said, najla said, palestine, play
Najla Said, reads from her play “Palestine”, of her life changing visit to Gaza as a teenager, with her Palestinian activist father, the late Edward Said, after he learned he had leukemia.
Read more…
- Interview with IMEU…
- Counterpunch: Do People Know How Much We Hurt?
- NYT Review: Identity Found: On West Side via West Bank
URGENT APPEAL: Defence for Children International
February 24th, 2010 • Action, News
Tags: abuse, child, Defence for Children International, palestine, prisoner, shame
On 11 February 2010, at least 17 children were arrested from the Al Jalazun Refugee Camp in the middle of the night by Israeli soldiers.
The children and their families report the use of excessive force during the arrests, and ill-treatment and coercion during subsequent interrogations. The children were interrogated in the absence of a lawyer and family member, and the interrogations were not video recorded. The children are accused of throwing stones, and in some cases, Molotov cocktails at Israeli soldiers in 2009 and 2010. The children are being prosecuted in military courts.
Read more at DCI-Palestine…
Documentary: Mother Courage
February 22nd, 2010 • Awareness, Film & Documentary
Tags: checkpoint, israel, mother courage, palestine
A powerful and moving documentary about the women of Machsom (Checkpoint) Watch:
A fresh perspective from those who know best: mothers. These Israeli women risk their lives monitoring life at the checkpoints in the West Bank. We see them learn to get to grips with their core beliefs, true motivations and fears, in a bold insight into the troubled Middle East.
Every morning and afternoon, shifts of Israeli women go out to some 30 checkpoints within the West Bank and on the seam-line between Israel and Palestine, to monitor and document IDF and Border Police conduct, whilst attempting to protect basic Palestinian human rights.Known as Machsom Watch, they are a dedicated group of Jewish mothers focused on monitoring and recording how the Israeli soldiers treat Palestinians and reporting the results of their observations to the widest possible audience, from decision-makers to the general public.
“Our strength is in our weakness. We come unguarded and offer trust and belief in people. We offer some kind of innocence and just want to bring it back to this tormented place” says one member of the activist group.
Shown on Al Jazeera’s Witness. Originally from Journeyman Pictures in 2008.
Plight and Flight of Palestinian Christians
December 23rd, 2009 • Awareness, News
Tags: arab, bethlehem, christian, palestine
Palestinians can be Christians too
by Dr Hanan Chehata
The “Palestinian problem” is usually perceived to be a “Muslim” problem; a conflict between the Jews and the Muslims and, for the most part, it is. However, it is easy to forget that amidst all of the politics and international wrangling there is another small but extremely important group who also have a deep rooted and valid claim to what is undoubtedly the most disputed “Holy Land” in the world. It may only constitute an extremely small minority of the entire population (estimates range from anywhere between 2.3%-1.5%)1 but the Palestinian Arab Christians living in Palestine/Israel also have a legitimate historical and spiritual claim to the land. After all, Palestine was the birthplace of Jesus Christ, the land in which he spent his short 33 year life and even shorter term of ministry and, according to Christianity, the place of his crucifixion and resurrection as well. Ever since the time of Jesus there has been a permanent presence of Christianity in the Holy Land. Not only is it a spiritual hub to which Christians from all over the world flock for pilgrimage and prayer, particularly during Christmas and Easter, but it has also been a home to countless Christians of numerous denominations for almost two thousand years.
However, in the last few decades there has been a perceptible exodus of Christians from the Holy Land. As the number of Jewish settler-colonists from all over the world has increased, the number of Christians living in the region has declined sharply. Whereas a few decades ago the number of Christians in Bethlehem, the city in which Jesus was born, was estimated to be around 70%, now they constitute well below a third of the total population.
There are many complicated reasons for this exodus, including the rise of Zionist extremism and economic hardships caused by discriminatory Israeli policies.
Read more…
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Don’t forget to contact a Church and organise a screening of Bethlehem: Hidden from View
The Absurdity and Intention of Israeli Policy
December 22nd, 2009 • 1 comment Awareness, News
Tags: gaza, israel, khan younis, palestine, policy, refugee, uk
One family’s powerful and moving story.
by Mohammad Alsaafin
Khan Younis Refugee Camp
I am a Palestinian refugee, from the village of Fallujah which lies between Gaza, Hebron and Asqalan. I’ve never been allowed to visit Fallujah; my grandparents were exiled from there in 1949 (a year after the founding of Israel) and took refuge in the Gaza Strip. My father and I were both born in the Khan Younis refugee camp-he a few years before Gaza was occupied by Israel, and I in 1988, a month after the outbreak of the first intifada. My dad married a woman from the West Bank-they had met and fallen in love while they were both studying at Birzeit University, and when I was two years old we emigrated to the UK where he received his Phd.
Fourteen years later, in 2004, we all returned to Palestine to live in Ramallah. Now British citizens, my parents were determined that my three siblings and I would forge a stronger connection to our homeland than we ever could living abroad. At first, the transition was made easier by the fact that our foreign passports gave us the freedom of movement that was denied to other Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. For me, this reality was shattered when in late 2005 I attempted to cross the River Jordan from the West Bank to visit my aunt in Amman. The Israeli border agents told me that I could not pass, because I had an Israeli issued Gaza ID. Under Israeli military rules, this meant that I could not ‘legally’ be present in the West Bank because the Israeli occupation had mandated that Palestinians from Gaza could not enter the West Bank, and Palestinians from the West Bank could not enter Gaza. This policy had been in force since the early 1990’s, but was applied with increasing severity after the outbreak of the second intifada.
I lived the next four years under constant fear of arrest by the Israeli military, because that would have resulted in almost certain deportation to Gaza, and isolation from my family. For those four years, I never left the confines of Ramallah, so as to avoid the Israeli checkpoints on every one of the town’s entrances-but even this couldn’t give me a sense of security because I had to commute daily to Birzeit University, on a route frequently patrolled by Israeli forces from the nearby settlement of Bet El.
Soy Palestino – a musical-comedy journey into Cuba’s politics
December 15th, 2009 • Awareness
Tags: cuba, documentary, film, music, palestine
From Al Jazeera’s Witness
When Osama Qashoo, a Palestinian filmmaker, travelled to Cuba in 2007, he arrived at a time of feverish political uncertainty as Fidel Castro suddenly seemed to be on the point of stepping aside. When Osama introduced himself as a Palestinian to the Cubans, people looked at him in disbelief. He soon discovered that Havana had its own Palestinians – mostly poor black migrants without any documents.
In fact, he found that in Cuba, “Palestino” is a term of racist abuse used to describe the people coming from the rural east of the island to the capital, Havana. He decided to embark on a journey to discover whether the Palestinians of Cuba had anything in common with his own people back home.
The first “Palestino” Osama met ran off with his notebook and the struggle to retrieve it led to a unique friendship with an extraordinary man.
Louisito is a singer and musician who lives in a small wooden box on wheels, covered with instruments made from junk. He entertains other homeless “Palestinos” with songs and comic routines. Louisito had not been home to see his mother for seven years, and so they set off together to meet his family in the east of the island, Cuba’s Palestine.
On a musical-comedy journey into Cuba’s politics, Osama Qashoo lifts the lid on this untold aspect of Castro’s Cuba. Inadvertently, and purely as a result of introducing himself as a Palestinian, Osama had stumbled on a hidden underclass in this staunchly socialist society.
Launch of Historic Palestine Kairos Document
December 13th, 2009 • Events, News
Tags: amos trust, history, Just Peace for Palestine, Kairos, palestine, press release
LAUNCH OF HISTORIC PALESTINE KAIROS DOCUMENT BY PALESTINIAN CHRISTIAN LEADERS
JERUSALEM/LONDON, 8 DECEMBER 2009
Call by Palestinian Christians for a just peace inspired by anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa
- 11 December 2009 is the launch of the Palestinian Kairos document, “A moment of truth: A word of faith, hope and love from the heart of Palestinian suffering”.
- 15 senior inter-denominational Palestinian Christian leaders co-author this historic call, 24 years after South African theologians published their Kairos Document.
- Christian initiative calls the Israeli occupation a “sin”, urges Western Church to “stand alongside” the “oppressed”, including use of boycott and disinvestment.
As Christmas approaches, the Western Church looks towards Bethlehem and remembers not just the events of 2,000 years ago, but also today’s ‘little town’ and the Palestinian Christians living under Israeli occupation.
Read more »
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.
