UPDATE FROM THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA

electronicIntifada.net

6 February 2006

REINVENTING LIFTA Malkit Shoshan and Eitan Bronstein, 6 February 2006

The Jewish state uses Jerusalem to define itself in the ever expanding city. All buildings, including new ones, have to be made of stone in order to show the eternal Jewish presence, in this process Jerusalem’s Palestinian past is being appropriated. Malkit Shoshan, director of FAST (the Foundation for Achieving Seamless Territory), and Eitan Bronstein, director of Zochrot, examine the ways in which planning is being used to create this fantasy heritage for Israel, at the expense of Palestinian culture. The village of Lifta, which lies just outside Jerusalem, has been abandoned since the Israeli army drove out the last of its Palestinian inhabitants in 1948.

electronicintifada.net/v2/article4457.shtml

SECOND ATTACK IN 24 HOURS: ISRAEL ASSASSINATES TWO PALESTINIANS IN GAZA PCHR, 6 February 2006

On Sunday evening, 5 February 2006, Israeli Occupation Forces extra-judicially executed two members of the al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Islamic Jihad, in Gaza City. This attack came less than 24 hours after a similar attack, also in Gaza City, which left 3 members of the Fatah movement dead. This escalation in violence represents a confirmation of the Israeli official statement vowing to continue to search for and target activists of Palestinian factions. on Sunday, 5 February 2006, IOF aircrafts launched two missiles at two civilian cars that were traveling near the Doula building in the densely populated al-Zaytoun neighborhood in the southeast of Gaza City.

electronicIntifada.net/v2/article4461.shtml

ISRAEL AIR ATTACK IN GAZA KILLS THREE PALESTINIANS PCHR, 5 February 2006

On Sunday morning, 5 February 2006, Israeli forces extra-judicially executed three members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of the Fatah movement. Israeli aircrafts attacked a car, in which two of the victims were traveling towards the hospital. They were evacuating a person who had been wounded, when Israeli aircrafts attacked a sports club in the densely populated Tal al-Hawa neighborhood in the south of Gaza City. The club was totally destroyed and one of its members, 30-year-old Hani Tal’at al-Qayed, was seriously wounded. When two members of the club offered to help and evacuate Qayed, their car was hit by a missile launched from an Israeli aircraft. The three men were immediately killed.

electronicIntifada.net/v2/article4456.shtml

THE THIRD INTIFADA Sam Bahour, 4 February 2006

Welcome to the third Palestinian intifada. The first was with stones, the second a mix between non-violent and more violent means, and this one via a ballot box. With Hamas’ landslide victory in the Palestinian elections breaking years of political stagnation, we are witnessing, right before our eyes, a chapter of history being made. In an attempt to make sense of the rapidly moving situation following the elections, I pose the following for consideration. Three ironies, three potential failures and three challenges.

electronicIntifada.net/v2/article4455.shtml

A PARLIAMENT OF PRISONERS Toufic Haddad, 4 February 2006

Most attention surrounding the 25 January 2006 election has focused upon the sweeping victory of Hamas at the polls, and with good reason. But there are other aspects to this year’s election that will also leave permanent impressions upon the future of Palestinian national activity. Among the 132 Palestinians who won seats in the Legislative Council, 15 of them are prisoners. 14 are imprisoned in Israeli jails, and one sits in a Palestinian administered jail in Jericho, with CIA and British Intelligence oversight. 11 of them are affiliated with Hamas, 3 with Fateh, and one with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

electronicIntifada.net/v2/article4454.shtml

AID CUTS WILL HIT PALESTINIANS Christian Aid, 3 February 2006

The Middle East Quartet said on Monday that a new Hamas-led government must commit to non-violence, recognise Israel and accept current peace agreements, or it could lose the financial support it receives from the international community. Christian Aid is deeply concerned about the potentially crippling effect on Palestinian household economies if this aid was cut. Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories is the main cause of Palestinian poverty. While aid is a necessary lifeline for the Palestinians, it can only address the symptoms of the occupation rather than bring about a lasting solution to poverty.

electronicIntifada.net/v2/article4458.shtml

POLITICS, LANGUAGE AND THE PALESTINIANS Saree Makdisi, 3 February 2006

After Hamas’ election victory, the organization’s exiled leader Khaled Meshal wrote an article that was printed in several western newspapers. EI contributor Saree Makdisi says “what was refreshing about Meshal‚s piece was his use of a defiant language of struggle˜one appropriate to their desperate circumstances˜rather than the meaningless, empty, bankrupt language all but handed to current and previous Palestinian leaders by a team of American and Israeli script-writers.” Makdisi writes that whether one disagrees with Hamas or not, the article reminds us of the importance of redefining the Palestinian struggle and the language used to shape it.

electronicIntifada.net/v2/article4452.shtml

MUNICH, OR MAKING BAKLAVA Joseph Massad, 3 February 2006

“The best baklava is made by the Arabs in Jaffa,” insists the Mossad case officer to his chief agent in charge of assassinating those Palestinians Israel claims planned the Munich operation of 1972. Besides being excellent baklava-makers, we learn little else in Steven Spielberg‚s film “Munich” about Jaffa‚s Palestinians, the majority of whom were pushed into the sea by Zionist forces in May 1948. Columbia University professor and EI contributor Joseph Massad examines Spielberg’s film and finds that it continues a tradition started by Otto Preminger’s 1960 film “Exodus,” and ultimately serves to justify rather than question Israeli terrorism and violence.

electronicIntifada.net/v2/article4449.shtml

WEEKLY REPORT ON HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS PCHR, 3 February 2006

This week, Israeli forces killed three Palestinians, including a mentally-handicapped child. At least 13 Palestinian civilians, including a child were wounded. Israeli forces conducted 27 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank. Israeli forces raided Palestinian homes and 53 civilians, including six children were arrested. Israeli forces transformed six Palestinian homes into military outpost. Israel continues to impose a total siege on the occupied Palestinian territories. Israeli forces have imposed severe restrictions on movement. Despite international criticism, Israel continues to construct the Apartheid Wall. Israeli forces razed land in Hebron. Israeli settlers continue attacks on Palestinian civilians and property. Israeli forces demolished two Palestinian homes in Bethlehem.

electronicIntifada.net/v2/article4448.shtml

THE END OF A POLITICAL FICTION? Adam Hanieh, 2 February 2006

Hamas’s landslide victory in the January 25 elections for the 132-seat Palestinian Legislative Council is an unprecedented turning point for politics in both Palestine and the broader Middle East. Arguably for the first time since the establishment of Israel in 1948, an official administrative power in the West Bank and Gaza Strip has strong popular support and is not directly beholden to Israeli or Western interests. The Hamas victory helps to dispel the myths surrounding the negotiations of the last decade. Hamas’s victory expressed a political sentiment and desire for a real alternative to the Oslo straitjacket. The Hamas leadership clearly recognizes this and has shown little inclination to implement far-reaching social changes along religious lines.

electronicIntifada.net/v2/article4447.shtml

WASPR DELEGATION DIARY 6 STUCK AT ERETZ CROSSING, HAVING COFFEE WITH KAREEM Dr. Bill Dienst, 2 February 2006

Have I been blacklisted? What will happen when we are separated from the rest of the group? After fumbling through my bags on the terminal floor to find the gifts going into Gaza, I am flabbergasted, and a bit panicky. I am sent back to the desk to pick up a piece of paper so I can disembark on the Israeli side of the checkpoint. I feel nervous. I leave the desk and then return, thinking that the soldiers have not given me back my passport. They say they can’t find it, and after a cold sweat, I discover it in my shirt pocket, right where it belongs! Part of the art of living in this part of the world is being appropriately paranoid, without being excessively so. We all miss the mark at times. That goes for Israelis, Palestinians, and also human rights activists.

electronicIntifada.net/v2/article4396.shtml

WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS Laila El-Haddad, 1 February 2006

Yesterday, after a trip around Bait Hanun, Gaza’s northern breadbasket, I headed to the Erez Crossing to give some journalist friends a lift. They were headed to Jerusalem, where they were based, and to where I am I unable to travel.I hadn’t been to Erez in a while, namely because there is no point. I am forbidden from entering the West Bank based on the arbitrary decision of some official in the Israeli security matrix. Or maybe not so arbitrary. Because obviously with a pen in one hand, a dirty diaper in the other, I am a very real and potent threat to the Israeli security establishment.

electronicIntifada.net/v2/article4446.shtml

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