Los Angeles Review of Books, January 20, 2013 On the last day of the semester at Al-Quds University in the West Bank, I entered the classroom to find the usual graffiti on the whiteboard, save for an odd symbol. It was a triangle filled with curlicues, topped by two circles with dots in the middle. …
Al Jazeera English, November 7, 2012 To Westerners and Palestinians, Gaza “is hell”, says Ali Batha. “It’s a scary place … It’s the last place in the world [people want to go].” There’s Gaza’s 30 per cent unemployment rate, and the Israeli blockade that restricts imports and exports. Clean drinking water is increasingly scarce. Fuel …
IRIN, August 2, 2012 At a glance, the latest data on post-assistance food security in the West Bank and Gaza Strip – released by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) last week – seems to warrant optimism. 2011 was the second straight year in …
The New York Times, March 8, 2012 Might Israel attend the meeting about a nuclear weapon free Middle East in Finland? Certainly. Just like it has “participated” in the peace process–with no real intention of making concessions. In both cases, there are no consequences for Israel sticking to its agenda. So why would Israel budge? …
Inter Press Service, January 22, 2012 An elderly Palestinian woman spent last week on hunger strike to protest violent attacks by Israeli settlers. Hana Abu Heikel went on the hunger strike on behalf of her family after settlers burned the family car during the previous weekend. Since Israeli settlers moved into the houses surrounding the …
The Huffington Post, July 26, 2011 Maan News Agency, July 28, 2011 The flotilla was intended to challenge the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, a closure that has been decried as a violation of international law. While Israel prevented the boats from reaching the Gaza Strip, the initiative was successful in bringing media attention …
Maan News Agency, May 25, 2011 On May 17, two days after the Nakba day protests, the Economist ran an article titled, “Here comes your nonviolent resistance.” The writer pointed out that the demonstrations that took place on May 15 were in the spirit of the First Intifada which was, by and large, nonviolent. My …
Maan News Agency, January 27, 2011 The Huffington Post, January 28, 2011 Earlier this week, Al Jazeera revealed the Palestine Papers — 1,600 internal documents that give a behind-the-scenes look at Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Since then, Middle East analysts, observers, and op-ed writers have been talking about the usual doomsday scenarios: the collapse of the peace …
The Huffington Post, May 29, 2010 Destroyed houses, tent camps, clouds of white phosphorous–these were just a few of the images of Gaza included in the video that accompanied Amnesty International’s annual human rights report, which was released yesterday. The report covers 2009, including Operation Cast Lead, which began in late December 2008 and ended …
The National, January 16, 2010 Banners strung from lampposts across Jerusalem welcome the winter participants of Birthright, a programme that brings college-aged Jews, most of whom are American, to Israel for a free 10-day tour. Funded by wealthy Jewish philanthropists and the Israeli government, the trip takes participants to sites that have historical importance to …