May 17, 2012

Generations of Jabareens, a Palestinian family, were born in the cave hewn into the rugged hillside just a few miles from the Green Line delineating the occupied West Bank from Israel. Over the decades, the cave has acquired a few comforts, including generator-run electricity, a door offering protection against the elements, and a toilet installed at the expense of the British government.

Israel ranked alongside Iran as one of countries with most negative global influence

Israel has been ranked in the top four countries that most negatively influence the word, according to a global public opinion poll conducted by the BBC.

The poll, which surveyed citizens from 22 countries around the world, places Iran in first place, with 55 percent of those surveyed rating it as a negative country. Pakistan ranked second with 51 percent, and in joint third place were Israel and North Korea, with 50 percent of respondents negatively evaluating both countries.

The Palestinian tragedy mustn't be used to spark a Jewish one

Not a day goes by when I don't think about their tragedy. How can I not? When I walk around the beautiful Jerusalem neighborhood I've lived in half my life, their houses gaze at me. When I stroll through Jaffa's alleyways, their absence strikes me. When I hike in the Judean Hills, the ruins of their villages won't let go of me. The vanishing fig trees, the wilting prickly pear cactuses, the debris.

The Palestinians were here and the Palestinians are no longer here, and their tragedy is an inseparable part of me. The Nakba is flesh of my country's flesh.

Israel has to change the way it views Palestinian prisoners

Palestinian society, like every society waging a struggle for national liberation, feels a special responsibility toward those of its sons and daughters who have sacrificed their lives or their freedom for the collective. Palestinians consider the people we call "terrorists" or "murderers" as "freedom fighters" and "national heroes." In many cases, as in South Africa and Northern Ireland, it was prisoner leaders who effected reconciliation.

Chilling effect of the Nakba Law on Israel's human rights

By rejecting the petition calling for the repeal of the Nakba Law in January of this year, the High Court of Justice ignored the violation of human rights inherent in the danger that institutions may now preemptively refuse to fund activities that involve the exercise of free speech, for fear of financial sanctions.

Inside Out: Nakba lessons

Palestinians and their supporters commemorated Nakba Day on Tuesday, marking the 64th anniversary of what they refer to as the “catastrophe” of the fall of Palestine and the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem. In the course of the War of Independence in 1948-9 hundreds of thousands of Palestinians lost their homes and livelihoods, and subsequently found themselves unable to go home.

Many of the refugees and their descendants still live in squalid refugee camps across the Middle East, clinging to a dream of a personal return and national restoration.

Time for a new deal for administrative detainees

Back in 1997, not long after I joined the B’Tselem staff, one of the first projects I was assigned was to research the issue of administrative detention.

I collected hundreds of individual detention orders and pored over hundreds of transcripts from administrative detention appeal hearings. What struck me most about Israel’s use of administrative detention was the sense that the system functioned like an assembly line, issuing cookie-cutter detention orders.

Israel Must Recognize Israel

The Israeli judiciary today reaffirmed [25] that Israel is the only country on earth that does not recognize itself. 

Prisoners and the wounded, crossing borders

Article Author(s): 

Jamal Muqbel

Media Outlet: 

Bitterlemons

Article Type: 

Opinion

Date: 

May 17, 2012

Source Link(s): 

http://www.bitterlemons.org/inside.php?id=239 [26]

About four years ago, a friend of mine told me about a meeting between Israelis and Palestinians near the Dead Sea. I really did not want to get involved at all, but my friend said to me, "Just come with me and you do not have to talk or participate."

Ice cream in Gaza

Article Author(s): 

Amr Ezzat

Media Outlet: 

Egypt Independent

Article Type: 

Opinion

Date: 

May 15, 2012

Source Link(s): 

http://www.egyptindependent.com/opinion/ice-cream-gaza-please-copyedit-and-publi... [27]

In 2008, stifled by an Israeli blockade exacerbated by a weak Egyptian position, Gazans barged through Egypt’s borders to get needed supplies of food and other products.

At the time, some Egyptians sympathized with our brothers in Gaza, while others condemned their act, saying their break-in violated Egypt's sovereignty. In response I published an article in my blog titled “Crossing the lines,” in which I mocked those who were more angered by the Palestinians’ transgression of the borders than they were by their suffering and suppression. 

Israel's Image Revisted

Article Author(s): 

Aaron David Miller

Media Outlet: 

Foreign Policy

Article Type: 

Opinion

Date: 

May 16, 2012

Source Link(s): 

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/05/16/israels_image_revisted?page=0,0 [28]

Writing in the Wall Street Journal this week on the occasion of Israeli Independence Day, Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren penned a powerful op-ed [29] on the erosion of Israel's image.

His conclusion: Israel's image has deteriorated in large part because of a "systematic delegitimization of the Jewish state."

Is Israel united in obstruction?

Article Author(s): 

Hussein Ibish

Media Outlet: 

NOW Lebanon

Article Type: 

Opinion

Date: 

May 15, 2012

Source Link(s): 

http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=396608 [30]

The new coalition government suddenly formed last week by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the new leader of the Kadima party, Shaul Mofaz, remains something of a mystery. It is essentially a deal between two men, not two parties. Only Netanyahu and Mofaz really know the terms under which they joined forces.
 

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