Why has Israel remained quiet in the face of increasingly harsh international criticism of its legal policy towards Palestinians in the West Bank? By now, many in the international community are aware of a Palestinian baker from the northern West Bank who embarked on a 66-day hunger strike in protest against detention by Israeli forces.
Non-violent methods being used by Palestinians and their international supporters are helping to reframe the conflict from a discussion of peace vs. violence, into a struggle for rights under Israeli occupation. Next week, a group of young Palestinians will board Israeli settler buses in the West Bank with the intention of traveling to East Jerusalem. [...]
Addressing the Palestinian people from Ramallah, Palestinian Authority (PA) leader Mahmoud Abbas announced last week that the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) would seek recognition in the United Nations Security Council of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders with Israel. More than 100 countries, including South Africa, are expected to back Palestine’s claims for statehood [...]
Ramallah– As a cool breeze engulfed Ramallah on Friday evening, crowds of Palestinians poured into the city’s recently renamed Yasser Arafat Square to watch Palestine Liberation Organisation chairperson and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas officially submit Palestine’s bid for full membership of the United Nations. Throughout the West Bank, special gatherings were held in squares [...]
There is an old joke about two stocky Austrian men walking down a street in Vienna. One of the men turns to the other with an open newspaper and says, “Here you can see again how a totally justified anti-Semitism is being misused for a cheap critique of Israel!” Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek often uses [...]
Jun 252011
Published in The Mail and Guardian South Africa On Sunday June 5, hundreds of Palestinians gathered outside the Qalandia checkpoint separating Jerusalem and Ramallah. They were part of an unarmed demonstration marking the anniversary of Israel’s takeover of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967, known as Naksa Day. Simultaneously, thousands of Palestinians descended [...]