The US has decided to be ‘flexible'
regarding its once touted call for a total Israeli freeze on the expansion
of its occupied territories' settlements, all illegal under international
law.
Upon finding out that I am
Palestinian, many people I meet at college in the United States are
eager to inform me of various activities that they have participated in
that promote "coexistence" and "dialogue" between both sides of the
"conflict," no doubt expecting me to give a nod of approval. However,
these efforts are harmful and undermine the Palestinian civil society
call for boycott, divestment and sanctions of Israel -- the only way of
pressuring Israel to cease its violations of Palestinians' rights.
A year ago, 44 ordinary people from 17 different countries sailed to Gaza in two small wooden boats. We did what our governments would not do -- we broke through the Israeli siege. During the last year the Free Gaza Movement has organized seven more voyages, successfully arriving to Gaza on five separate occasions.
On 2 August 2009, after cordoning off part of the Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in east Jerusalem, Israeli police evicted two Palestinian families (more than 50 people) from their homes; Jewish settlers immediately moved into the emptied houses. Although Israeli police cited a ruling by the country's supreme court, the evicted Arab families had been living there for more than 50 years. The event – which, rather exceptionally, did attract the attention of the world media – is part of a much larger and mostly ignored ongoing process.
I was gliding along the Massachusetts Turnpike, enjoying a summer Sunday in the Berkshires, thinking I was on vacation, when I got an urgent cell phone call from a news anchor at one of the nation's most progressive radio stations. "Will you comment on today's news from Israel?" he asked.
"What news?" I was on vacation from the world and its problems.
I first
knew Ezra Nawi as the man with the roses. He was not a florist. He was a plumber, a
gentle Jerusalemite who would show up every Friday at French Square, his rucksack brimming with
bouquets of long-stemmed roses. He would cross the moat of Friday traffic to
where we stood: 20 or so women, wearing black and holding little hand-shaped
signs that read, "Stop the Occupation" in Hebrew, Arabic and English. Smiling,
Ezra would slowly circle the low wall on which we perched, stopping to hand a
rose to each and every one of us.
At the top of the hill, a few dozen meters from where a house now stands, there used to be an irrigation pool for the village citrus groves. I swim every morning at the municipal swimming pool built on the ruins of the village irrigation pool. Palestinian Jaffa oranges grew in the now-vanished groves. My house stands there now. The land was "redeemed," as land acquisition was called in Zionist propaganda.
Why is the murder of gays in Israel
different from all other anti-gay violence? That's the question I asked myself after
a gunman killed two and injured fifteen at a gay youth center in Tel Aviv. As
the father of a young gay man, I was horrified. As a Jew, I was appalled.
Much of the debate about US
President Barack Obama's push for Middle East peace resembles the
proverbial argument about whether the glass is half full or half empty.
But even a full glass is not very useful if you need to fill an entire
reservoir.
A common assumption is that earlier American administrations were
insufficiently "engaged." Obama's early moves, including the
appointment of former Northern Ireland mediator George Mitchell as his
envoy, have therefore been widely welcomed.
JERUSALEM - The Israeli military has ordered 14 criminal probes into the conduct of soldiers during the war on the Gaza Strip at the turn of the year, the Jerusalem Post reported on Thursday.
It said the military is currently reviewing close to 100 complaints from a number of sources, including from soldiers who took part in the devastating 22-day operation on Gaza, as well as Palestinians and human rights groups.
The military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.
