A Dispatches documentary Gaza: The Killing Zone shows the shocking reality of seemingly ordinary Palestinians caught in the crossfire between Hamas and Israeli forces. Feels almost like a sci-fi movie about some fictional totalitarian regime. Hard to believe it's their everyday life. WARNING: contains scenes of graphic violence, which you may find disturbing.
posted on Jun 23, 2008 - View this thread

From Our Own Correspondent BBC journalist Alan Johnston gives his account of being kidnapped in Gaza for 114 days. Best in his own voice [mp3].
posted on Oct 26, 2007 - View this thread

Goodnewsfilter: BBC journalist Alan Johnston has been freed. He was kidnapped in March. He credits his release to the election of Hamas: ""The kidnappers seemed very comfortable and very secure in their operation until... a few weeks ago, when Hamas took charge of the security operation here."
posted on Jul 3, 2007 - View this thread

The Hamas-Fatah civil war seems to be winding down in Gaza. Meanwhile, Palestinian and Israeli bloggers discuss the idea that the West Bank will go into confederation with Jordan; leaving Gaza to the Egyptians.
posted on Jun 14, 2007 - View this thread

Kidnapped BBC Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston said that his captors have been treating him well in a video released today. There was no way to tell when the video was recorded. Mr Johnston was kidnapped on March 12 by Palestinian gunmen in Gaza City, and before today, had not been seen or heard from since. [Previously]
posted on Jun 1, 2007 - View this thread

Alan Johnston ,the only western journalist (BBC) in Gaza is still missing. Despite calls from various quarters , local protests , a first ever meeting between the UK gov and Hamas, and unprecedentated 'global media' co-operation. He seems as far from his family as ever.
posted on Apr 13, 2007 - View this thread

Vergangenheitsbewältigung, Israeli style? Amidst overwhelming public approval for the Gaza pullout, noted author David Grossman writes about the need for all Israelis to mourn today, in this Ha-Aretz editorial.
posted on Aug 15, 2005 - View this thread

A private foundation is investing $14m to purchase greenhouses in Gaza. Israeli settlers had originally planned to demolish their greenhouses instead of seeing them handed over to Palestinian farmers. Under a deal brokered by former World Bank President James Wolfensohn 80% of Gaza's greenhouses will be preserved and turned over to Palestinian management. It is, of course, a trap for the Palestinian Authority. The greenhouses are simply the most visible part of a supply chain that the Palestinians cannot possibly manage. Without agricultural knowledge, market expertise, water management skills, good roads, and all the other infrastructure of a modern state, the greenhouses will fail spectacularly. The Palestinian Authority will be exposed as incompetent and unable to run even a simple enterprise. This will cast doubt amongst Palestinians about the practicality of an independent Palestine.
posted on Aug 15, 2005 - View this thread

Disengagement: The Game The debate in Israel over the withdrawal from Gaza has found its way into, of all things, dueling cartoony Flash games. The first, the Wild West Bank, by proponents of withdrawal, has you removing settlers from the West Bank before they can establish settlements. The second, the "Disengagement Game" (click the square yellow button beside the picture), has you take the role of Ariel Sharon, whose political nickname is the "Bulldozer," as he uses his namesake (plus a club and a gaggle of pigs) to remove children protesting his policies. According to the creators of each, the first is supposed to be enlightening, the second purely entertaining. [Instructions inside]
posted on Aug 10, 2005 - View this thread

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said yesterday that Israel is on the verge of a civil war. The Israeli Knesset held an emergency session on Tuesday to discuss the growing threat of violence and anti-government assassinations--but this time, the anti-Sharon and anti-Likud threats are from the Israeli Right, not Left.

Angry settlers (who are about to become ex-settlers), egged on by a few extremist rabbis, oppose Israel's disengagement and pullout plan from Gaza (which is already underway) and the West Bank: "The General Security Service (GSS) believes that the next assassin of an Israeli Prime Minister is already here and is looking for an opportunity to strike. "This is not an academic possibility anymore. The danger is clear and present. A small core of settlers believes that Sharon is disengagement, and disengagement is Sharon, and they want to stop him," a GSS official told Channel 1 TV. "There are people who have already taken the decision that, come the day they are going to 'save Eretz Israel, that they are going to kill the PM or a minister, a defense official or a policeman." Ironically, the only people who oppose the pullout/disengagement plan even more than the settlers are Palestinians, who oppose it 65% to 34% in a new poll, down from a previous support of 73% in February. [more inside]
posted on Jul 6, 2004 - View this thread

All We Hear is Radio Gaza. For the first time, Palestinians have taken to English language radio programs produced in the occupied territories. The show has its bias, of course, but all news does, of course.
posted on Jun 3, 2004 - View this thread

Israeli army bulldozes, kills American protester. Rachel Corrie, 23, of Olympia, Washington was killed in the Gaza Strip on Sunday when an Israeli Army bulldozer ran her over while trying to destroy a house in the Palestinian settlement of Rafah. Rachel was one of eight Palestinian Solidarity volunteers from the US and Great Britain at the scene, who were gathered in front of the house of Dr. Samir Masri, which was slated for demolition. Rachel Corrie was a leading organizer of the Olympia Movement for Justice and Peace, and was a senior at Evergreen State College, majoring in International Studies. She was also a talented writer, documenting her experiences in Palestine and Gaza.
posted on Mar 16, 2003 - View this thread

"A play? In Gaza? About feminism? With Palestinian actresses? Unbelievable!"
posted on Oct 23, 2002 - View this thread

The far right's success in setting the national agenda is provoking an identity crisis for Israel. Radical settlers are effectively in the driver's seat and are redefining Zionism in terms that threaten the future of a Jewish state. Meanwhile, demographics is a hotter issue than ever in Israel, as Israelis on the right and left struggle with the questions "Can Israel be a Jewish and democratic state? Is there any such animal?" [More inside.]
posted on Jun 28, 2002 - View this thread

Non-religious Israeli settlers are financially trapped, argues a sympathetic Tel Aviv University professor. He slams Ha'aretz Daily for constantly urging Jewish settlers to just move out, "as if people who somehow managed to buy a cheap housing unit in a settlement could simply leave it behind and buy another house somewhere else." Seems that for a lot of settlers, financial benefits like reduced income taxes and generous loans are more important enticements than appeals to biblical righteousness. Too bad the "doubly cheated" and heavily villified settlers can't get any financial help when they decide to move back. The solution? "Jews in America and world-wide should therefore use their money to support settlers who wish to leave the occupied territories and return to Israel."
posted on Jun 25, 2002 - View this thread

A Good Summary, albeit in the form of a NYPost Editorial, as to why Israel should ignore 95% of the criticism it gets regarding it's current policy towards negotiating withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza. President Bush: are you listening?
posted on Mar 18, 2002 - View this thread

The US dedication to blocking peace. “It was the second time in less than a year that the United States had used its veto power to effectively kill a resolution that would create a monitoring mechanism for the protection of Palestinian civilians.”
posted on Dec 15, 2001 - View this thread

Gaza Diary by Chris Hedges It's generally not the best idea to post links about the Palestine/Israel conflict, as each day's news can be debated ad infitum by various sides. However this Gaza Diary is a stunning personal look into the ravages of war and occupation. Written by the New York Times Mideast Bureau Chief, and published in Harper's in October, it's a meditative reflection on the ways the human spirit can be twisted by conflict, and how a reporter (even a seasoned one) responds to the demons of war. Well worth your time.
posted on Nov 16, 2001 - View this thread

Missles hit Gaza. Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat called it here. "If Sharon goes ahead and cancels [the cease-fire talks], that means he has other plans and we know those other plans -- they involve tanks, shelling and assasinations."
posted on Sep 15, 2001 - View this thread

Occupied territories no longer "occupied" on TV news The turmoil in the Middle East has been a top international story on television news since fighting broke out in the West Bank and Gaza. But amid the constant flow of footage showing violent confrontations between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers, a central fact of the conflict has been missing from almost all network TV coverage: The West Bank and Gaza are occupied territories. The right to use force to resist foreign occupation is universally recognized and enshrined in international law. via thewebtoday
posted on Nov 14, 2000 - View this thread

On October 15thThe Guardian had for its editorial "If Palestinians were black, Israel would now be a pariah state subject to economic sanctions led by the United States. Its development and settlement of the West Bank would be seen as a system of apartheid, in which the indigenous population was allowed to live in a tiny fraction of its own country, in self-dministered 'bantustans', with 'whites' monopolising the supply of water and electricity. And just as the black population was allowed into South Africa's white areas in disgracefully under-resourced townships, so Israel's treatment of Israeli Arabs - flagrantly discriminating against them in housing and education spending - would be recognised as scandalous too.

Expanding on this description, Noam Chomsky gives an account of Israel's shift from coercive diplomacy to using direct force in implementing its "final status map". That is, the cantonization, containment and control of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
posted on Oct 29, 2000 - View this thread