Daily life in Gaza: Some 1,200 students at al-Karmel High School for boys in Gaza City returned to class on 25 August without history and English textbooks, or notebooks and pens – all unavailable on the local market. Severe damage to the school – caused during the 23-day Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip which…
Showing all posts tagged Gaza
Ignoring Gaza is so much easier
Two pieces of news about Gaza that should shock the world and reveal our complicity. This: A UN report published Tuesday says poverty in the Gaza Strip has deteriorated to levels unseen since 1967. The UN trade and development agency says 90% of Gaza’s residents are currently beneath the poverty line and rates the damages…
Palestinian democracy through the barrel of a gun
I reported yesterday on the Western-backed Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad speaking about his vision for a Palestinian state by 2011. Hasan Abu Nimah and Ali Abunimah, writing in The Electronic Intifada, tell us what that “state” may look like: Fayyad aims to project an image of a competent Palestinian administration already mastering the craft…
Drop rose-coloured views to lift Gaza peace hopes
My following article appears in today’s Canberra Times newspaper: Hussam Abuayish lives in Gaza’s Johrel-Deik district near the Israeli border. With yellow teeth and nervous demeanour, the 24-year-old told me in July of an Israeli missile that landed near his family home a month before. His sister died and he remains in pain because of…
Arab killing is a Jewish commandment
After the recent Gaza war, reports emerged that rabbis instructed religious soldiers to kill Arabs in the name of God. Fundamentalism is being bred in the West Bank and the Israeli state is more than happy to support it. The BBC reports that military rabbis are expanding their reach: I visited an orthodox Jewish seminary…
One state, two state”¦who cares so long as there’s a solution?
My following article appears in today’s Crikey: US President Barack Obama has consistently stated that he imagines a two state solution in the Middle East, with viable Jewish and Palestinian nations alongside each other. Israel, in a clear sign of who runs the show, announced last week that it intended to continue building colonies in…
Why are the American public not shown the real Palestine?
So who is blame for this dismal poll result? A majority of Americans support Israel and blame Hamas and the Palestinian Authority (PA) for the conflict and humanitarian crisis in Gaza, according to a new poll commissioned by The Israel Project. Americans blame the PA for the current conflict in Gaza (56 percent to 18…
Gaza may be becoming a tinder-box
With ongoing reports about extremist activity in the Gaza Strip – and we shouldn’t preclude black-ops by the Israelis to exaggerate the supposed threat – this is unwelcome news: The leader of an al-Qaida-inspired group in the Gaza Strip revealed on Sunday that his men recently tried to assassinate former US president Jimmy Carter and…
Black is white and Israel is a pure nation
Sometimes it’s important to understand the mindset of Zionist extremism, its profound hatred for Arabs and belief in Jewish exclusivity. George Gilder, “the world’s foremost technology futurist”, published an essay in July in the journal of the neo-conservative American Enterprise Institute. Its message? At the heart of anti-Semitism is resentment of Jewish achievement. Today that…
How one Western government is showing the way against apartheid
The recent decision of the Norwegian Finance Minister to divest from an Israeli company deeply involved in the occupation is celebrated by Ilan Pappe (and rightly so): The significance of this alas, short lived exposure of what lies behind the apartheid wall and the fences that encircle the West Bank and the Gaza Strip stems…