Monthly Archive for September, 2006
It is already happening. The occupiers are punishing Palestinians for their democratic choice in February early this year and preventing those with American or other foreign passports from entering either the West Bank or Gaza. A small sample of the stories [1] [2] [3]
What kind of nation would impose silly laws like this and prevent the right of movement of any individual into any territory, if not a terrorist nation? What kind of nation have the right to prevent people from entering a territory which is not even related to their own, if not an occupying nation? Why is Israel getting away with such crimes and yet if other nations were to do something similar to this, they will be slapped with all kinds of UN resolutions and world sanctions?
Palestine: Music of the Intifada (1989). Full .mp3 album, list of songs are as follows. All songs are in Arabic.
01 Sabaya Al Intifada - Min Al Mukhayyam Toulad Al Ru’aya
02 In A’d Rifaki - Al Raba’yye
03 In A’d Rifaki - Al Kassam Al Filistini
04 Al-Amal Ashabi - Jirah Lan Tamout
05 Abnaa El-Balad - Ajrass Al Intisar
06 Palestinian Student Karmel Group - Al Intifada Was Jabal Al Thawra
07 In A’d Rifaki - Kulluna Fil Tareeq
08 Palestinian Student Karmel Group - Watani Laysa Hakiba
09 Muhiddine Al Bagdadi - Al Fajir
10 Sabaya Al Intifada - Jabal Al Zaytoun
11 Al-Amal Ashabi - Bism Ilhurriya
12 Sabaya Al Intifada - Ummi Al Habiba
13 Muhiddine Al Bagdadi - Al Hegran
14 In A’d Rifaki - In A’d Rifaki
To download the album, get the torrent here [requires a Bittorrent client]
Elodie Guego, Forced Migration Review, 6 September 2006
Israel is close to implementing a long-term plan to transform the demographic structure of annexed East Jerusalem. Policies to revoke the residency permits of Palestinian Jerusalemites and to Judaise the city have been described as ethnic cleansing.
After victory in the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel annexed East Jerusalem - that part of the city that had been under Jordanian rule since the end of the British Mandate in 1948 - together with an additional 64 square kilometres which had been part of the West Bank. Jerusalem thus became Israel’s largest city and was declared to be its ‘united and eternal capital’. The international community, led by the UN, has continuously denounced this act of unilateral annexation, arguing it is a violation of the fundamental principle in international law prohibiting the forcible acquisition of territory. The international community has consistently considered East Jerusalem to be an occupied territory, thus akin to the West Bank and Gaza.
Their support of the Palestinian claim to East Jerusalem was bolstered by the fact that at the time of occupation Palestinians constituted the majority of residents in this sector of the city. Israel has engaged in a demographic battle to secure Israeli sovereignty over the whole city. For almost four decades successive governments have implemented policies designed to transform the city’s population structure and ensure the numeric superiority of Jews. Until the construction of the Wall in and around East Jerusalem, these objectives were pursued through a series of discriminatory regulations to reduce the Palestinian population by rendering their lives increasingly intolerable and encouraging the growth of Israeli settlements in Palestinian neighbourhoods. Today the approximately 230,000 Palestinian Jerusalemites represent around 30% of Jerusalem’s total population.
Continue reading ‘“Quiet transfer” in East Jerusalem nears completion’
Ghassan Khatib
The narratives that inform Palestinians and Israelis are important and dangerous components of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that are rarely touched upon by those who are trying to bring it to an end.
Their respective narratives have been used liberally by both sides for all kinds of purposes: first, as a tool for incitement and to secure political support and consensus as well as increase the hostility necessary to continue the fighting. Second, narratives have been used in order to justify each party’s position to the outside world. This is especially important in light of the fact that the two sides, to different extents and during different phases of the conflict, have been heavily dependent on external support, whether from governments or public opinion.
The differences in the two narratives are very deep and serious. They encompass the whole array of historical, religious, cultural and political facets of the conflict. It is difficult to see a serious reconciliation process and lasting peace agreement succeed without dealing with these contradicting narratives in a way that will allow both sides to agree on a growing number of issues, thus reducing the number of issues they disagree on.
Some elements from outside the establishment in Israel have recently gone through a process of serious revision of parts of the Israeli narrative, particularly vis-a-vis the historical aspect. Many of the “new historians” in Israel have now revealed the lies that were erected to serve political ends in the official and non-official narratives of Israelis regarding especially the establishment of the state of Israel.