“I don’t remember a white flag…” – Testimony from the soldier, S., a member of the IDF’s Givati Brigade, who shot at a group of Gazan civilians fleeing the war that had suddenly erupted near the home they had been sheltering it, as reported in Haaretz today. A woman, head of a family, died on [...]
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Filed under: Gaza, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians
Coming up to the second anniversary of the ferocious launch of the IDF’s 22-day Operation Cast Lead against Hamas targets in Gaza on 27 December 2008, war is in the air again. Those now stunned by the apparent death of the present peace process may be willing, at this point, to entertain another strike against [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Gaza, Human Rights, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians
Here, from the Institute for Palestine Studies TV (yes!) is an interview with an American professor (of Palestinian origin, apparently) about describe the disgraceful Qalandia [Qalandiya] checkpoint — or “border terminal” — between Jerusalem and Ramallah. Asked to try to describe this large and terrible checkpoint for those who have never seen it, Professor Helga [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Human Rights, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians
Just before the extremely unusual coincidence of the total lunar eclipse last night as the winter solstice begins [this happened the last time over 400 years ago, while the next one will be in 2094 according to NASA, and big changes are predicted], the Israeli Air Force launched airstrikes against various targets in Gaza to [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Gaza, Human Rights, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians
In continuing confirmation of our previous reporting about the Israeli government’s new appreciation for international law, the Israeli Foreign Ministry is now making an effort to explain the significance of the agreement it reached last Friday afternoon with Cyprus on how to delimit their overlapping maritime rights. The Israeli FM explained in an email to [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Cyprus, Israel, Law of the Sea Convention
This will not be my opinion — so far, I’m slightly more inclined to give Julian Assange some other job title [though for now, I could accept his latest choice, which is "Editor in Chief" of WikiLeaks]. UPDATE: But, Assange is renewing his membership in the Australian journalists’ union, the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Human Rights, Journalism and Journalists
Maan News Agency is now describing itself as a “Media NGO”. Probably only in Palestine would such a phrase be heard… This self-description appears in an ad that the Bethlehem-based Maan (or Ma’an) News Agency has published on the EnglishPal [Pal for Palestine] website, here. The ad is titled: “Executive Producer for Media NGO in [...]
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Filed under: Blogging, Journalism and Journalists, Palestine & Palestinians
The IDF has announced its “goodwill gestures that will be implemented for the Christmas holiday … from Sunday, December 19th 2010 until Thursday, January 20th 2011 [i.e., through the Catholic, Orthodox and Armenian celbrations of Christmas]: * Christian Palestinian residents of the Judea and Samaria [West Bank] Region (regardless of age) will be permitted to [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Gaza, Human Rights, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians
The first negotiated Israeli decision — negotiated, not imposed — was announced today from Cyprus. The Associated Press reported from the Cypriot capital Nicosia this evening that “Cyprus and Israel signed an accord Friday demarcating their maritime borders to facilitate a search for mineral deposits in the east Mediterranean where huge natural gas reserves have [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Cyprus, Israel, Law of the Sea Convention
George Mitchell is still going through the motions. On his way back to the USA after a more-or-less useless visit to the region, he met yesterday in Brussels with Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s “Foreign Minister” (the exact title is High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy). Ashton is also Vice-President of the European [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Human Rights, Israel, Middle East Peace Process, Negotiators and negotiations, Palestine & Palestinians, Quartet, USA