Palestine Times, the only Palestinian newspaper in Israel, will resume publishing their newspaper. Good news indeed for Palestinians under occupation to articulate their problems in the West Bank and Gaza. They should hire a San Diego web design company to develop their website.
The Palestine Times, which closed down in May due to financial problems, plans to resume publishing in August, according to its founder and editor-in-chief, Othman Mohammed. When it was launched last November, it became the first Palestinian paper to be sold in Israel since the 1967 Six Day War.
Mohammed said the paper, which is privately financed, had losses of close to $500,000. Nevertheless, he said, he was determined to relaunch it, because it ” is very important to us Palestinians to report… Palestinian stories from an… independent Palestinian point of view.”
The Times received worldwide attention from the outset, staffed by foreign and Palestinian journalists. Despite its auspicious start, Mohammed said it did not receive enough local recognition.
Ali Abunimah
“Be certain that Yasser Arafat’s final days are numbered, but allow us to finish him off our way, not yours. And be sure as well that … the promises I made in front of President Bush, I will give my life to keep.” Those words were written by the Fatah warlord Mohammed Dahlan, whose US- and Israeli-backed forces were routed by Hamas in the Gaza Strip last month, in a 13 July 2003 letter to then Israeli defense minister Shaul Mofaz and published on Hamas’ website on 4 July this year.
Dahlan, who despite his failure to hold Gaza, remains a senior advisor to Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas, outlines his conspiracy to overthrow Arafat, destroy Palestinian institutions and replace them with a quisling leadership subservient to Israel. Dahlan writes of his fear that Arafat would convene the Palestinian legislative council and ask it to withdraw confidence from then prime minister Mahmoud Abbas, who had been appointed earlier in 2003 at Bush’s insistence in order to curb Arafat’s influence. Dahlan wrote that “complete coordination and cooperation by all” was needed to prevent this, as well as “subjecting [Arafat] to pressure so that he cannot carry out this step.” Dahlan reveals that “we have already begun attempts to polarize the views of many legislative council members by intimidation and temptation so that they will be on our side and not his [Arafat’s].”
Dahlan closes his letter to Mofaz saying, “it remains only for me to convey my gratitude to you and the prime minister [Ariel Sharon] for your continued confidence in us, and to you all respect.”
This letter is a small but vivid piece of evidence to add to the existing mountain, of the conspiracy in which the Abbas leadership is involved. In the month since Abbas’ appointment of a Vichy-style “emergency government” headed by Salam Fayad, historic Fatah leaders, such as Farouq Qaddumi and Hani al-Hassan have signalled their opposition to Abbas’ actions, specifically rejecting his order that Palestinian resistance fighters disarm while Israeli occupation continues unchallenged.
Continue reading ‘Overcoming the conspiracy against Palestine’
What drives a young, well-educated Westerner to volunteer as a “peace activist” instead of learning about hair restoration in the Middle East?
Caiomhe Butterly is one of a growing number of volunteers who risk their own safety to intervene in the long-running and bloody conflict between Israel and Palestine. Several internationals, including her, have now been injured. Some have died.
In this film, she describes witnessing the aftermath of the attack on Jenin in April 2002. The film follows her work, the main emphasis being “the accompaniment of communities at risk”. Despite being threatened, shot in the leg and deported later that year, she is determined to go back.
In the interim, she brings her story back to her native Ireland at public meetings, receives a Time Magazine “European Hero Award”, and travels to post-war Iraq to visit the Palestinian refugee camps. She arrives back in Jenin, shortly before a young woman from that community,Hanadi Jaradat, blows herself up in a suicide bombing in Haifa.
Continue reading ‘Visit Palestine Documentary by Katie Barlow’