Article of Interest: The â??newâ? Occupation scheme to ensure Palestinian rights continue to be negated and violated: the â??Convergence Planâ?. The plan is Israelâ??s latest attempt to legitimize the Palestinian ghettos, to permanently annex territory in the west of the West Bank, seal Palestinians in from the east, and surround a series of Palestinian Bantustans… [continue]

Global Voices: Al-Nakba (or â??the catastropheâ??), the day Israel declared its independence on May 14th 1948, has been the main topic of this past week. For many Palestinian bloggers Al-Nakba means remembering this important moment in history, which set the stage for an ongoing struggle and tragedy; where both past and present are commemorated side by side… [continue]

Article of Interest: More than 4000 Palestinian children have been arrested since the start of the current Intifada on 28 September 2000. Today, there are 405 students still in detention camps and have been suffering all kinds of torture, bad treatments and living under difficult medical and psychological circumstances by Israeli army and intelligence. [here’s another article of interest]

An article of interest entitled “Advocating the Rights of Women and Minorities” in the Saudi daily Arab News. I was shaking my head by the end of the first paragraph. If only they had wedding invitations in the Dark-Ages eh?

Jordan yesterday sent 400 tonnes of food aid to the West Bank and Gaza Strip for the second time in a fortnight amid reports of shortages in the cash-stra-pped Palestinian territories. Continue reading ‘Jordan Sends Aid to Palestine’

Article of Interest: The Egyptian Tourist Authority this week launched a new Website, but the domain name, www.Egypt.travel, like all others in the Arab world, is in English, not Arabic. That may change in the coming years, however, experts tell United Press International’s The Web column, as interest in Internet usage is growing in the Arab world, and authorities consider the creation of Internet addresses made up of Arabic alphabet characters, not just ones from the English language.

Article of Interest: Her name was Akaber Adbelrahman Zaid and she was on her way to a doctor’s clinic to have stitches removed from her chin. Instead she received a barrage of bullets to the head, when an undercover Border Police unit opened fire on the car in which she was travelling with her uncle. [Also Related]

This past week Jason Jones on The Daily Show paid a visit to Denmark after the cartoon controversy to find out more about the country that has “inflamed global tension”. It’s quite revealing and informative; a look in to Danish imperialism. Watch Part One & Part Two

Baghdad Burning has been longlisted for Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction among 19 books in contention. It makes you wonder about the essential role blogs have now played in documenting history through a first hand account. Especially in the Middle East where freedom of speech is limited.

Of all the places in the world to become a ghetto. Meanwhile: draw up your own borders and let the Palestinians just sort of, discover it on their own.

I was reminded of this scene from Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, mainly for the cruel punishment and the way it relates to some themes in the play. The people of Gaza are being punished, one pound of flesh at a time.

â??The Palestinians are on the verge of a humanitarian crisis, as the UN warns, not just because of food shortage caused by Israeli closures but also because their agriculture-dependent territories are being sliced from the main water resources by the Israeli separation wall. Continue reading ‘No Water, No Life’

An article of interest: The war in Iraq has come to Amman, and the evidence is everywhere. At Jordan’s Queen Alia airport, on the outskirts of the capital, I deplaned with a stout American man wearing a Harley-Davidson T-shirt. Waiting for him just inside the gate was a tiny Arab man, a driver, holding up a sign with black-marker block letters: DYNCORP - the controversial American security contractor that is still funneling men into Iraq.

Security, of course, is big business. In the airport’s main terminal (near computer screens tracking the arrivals and departures of the newly revitalized Iraqi Airways) a billboard for Asbeck Armoring of Bonn, Germany, carries the words: “When driving to Iraq, be sure to go armored!”

This is one of them: One day before Valentine’s Day, ‘Annan’s father went to his 13-year-old son’s school in Beitunia, Ramallah, and only found his oldest boy’s jacket and backpack on the school grounds. Along with four other boys ranging from the ages of 11 to 14, ‘Annan had been arrested by Israeli soldiers who gave him a beating that was evidenced in the bruises seen by his parents when they were finally able to see him only briefly during ‘Annan’s 15-minute court hearing two days later.

In 2005, a group of student photographers from Birzeit University and Al-Najah University came together to work on the Right to Education Photography Project. Their aim was to document student life and the obstruction of Palestinian education under military occupation, through the artistic expression of their own ideas and experiences. Their
photographs have now become an exhibition and a book, which were recently launched Birzeit University, and will tour Palestinian and international venues throughout 2006. Also check out the new “Right to Education” campaign poster. Pretty cool.

A Photostory by way of Electronic Intifada: Jonathan Cook explores Israeli extremists’ attack on Nazareth’s most famous Christian church, which goes virtually unreported, and the reactions of Nazarenes. Thank God for cameras eh?