Olivia Snaije interviews Mohammed Matter, one of the founders of Gaza Youth Breaks Out (GYBO) and known until a month ago as Abu Yazan. Matter discusses GYBO, life in Gaza and living under the Israeli attack this past summer.
Many Jewish Israelis want to believe that Palestinians will accept Zionism. They never will, nor should they, Israeli president Reuven Rivlin has said in his latest nod to “equality” for all under Israeli rule
Do settlements foster terrorism? State Department spox Jen Psaki suggested as much yesterday, saying Netanyahu’s push to build in East Jerusalem is “incompatible with peace.”
Mohammed Zakaria is leading an unprecedented campaign to create Jordan’s first community-built skate park. Zakaria is determined to provide a positive outlet for the youth of his city. “It’s not easy to be a young person in this part of the world,” he says. While warfare and revolts have upturned many neighboring cities, tensions over the flooding refugee population, high unemployment, and regional insecurity are rampant in Jordan. “Many of our skaters, and the new kids we hope to bring in to the park, come from broken homes or refugee families. We want to give them a healthy, free, accessible resource to enjoy life.” Plus, says Zakaria, “It’s going to be rad.”
It is astonishing that the reconstruction of Gaza, bombed into the Stone Age has tentatively only just begun two months after the end of the fighting. According to the United Nations, 100,000 homes have been destroyed or damaged, leaving 600,000 Palestinians – nearly one in three of Gaza’s population – homeless or in urgent need of humanitarian help. Aid agency Oxfam warns that at the current rate of progress it may take 50 years to rebuild Gaza. Where else in the world apart from the Palestinian territories would the international community stand by idly as so many people suffer – and not from a random act of God but willed by fellow humans? The reason for the hold-up is, as ever, Israel’s “security needs”. Gaza can be rebuilt but only to the precise specifications laid down by Israeli officials.
Students at the University of Exeter have voted overwhelmingly in support of a boycott of goods produced in illegal Israeli settlements. The referendum, which garnered 86% approval, generated the largest voter turnout in the history of the university.
Why did John Kerry meet with Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman when Lieberman has endorsed the transfer of Palestinian citizens from Israel? Rula Jebreal itemizes the country’s “hate policies” on the Int’l New York Times op-ed page and calls for a “civil rights movement.”
Haaretz reports: “A plan to build the first new Arab city in Israel since the establishment of the state will come before the National Planning and Building Council for approval next week. The city, to be built adjacent to the Arab community of Jdeideh Makr, which is just east of the northern coastal city of Acre, is planned for a population of 40,000. Planning for the new city, initiated by the Israel Lands Authority, the Housing and Construction Ministry and the planning administration in the Interior Ministry, has been in the works for the past four years in fulfillment of a 2008 cabinet decision.”
On Wednesday evening, Abdel Rahman al-Shaludi, 21, drove his vehicle at high speed into a crowd of Israelis on a light rail platform at Ammunition Hill in Jerusalem, wounding eight people. 3-month-old Israeli-American Chaya Zissel Braun died hours later, and Karen Yemima Muscara, an Ecuadorian woman in her twenties, died from her injuries last night. As the news of a terrorist attack spread, the Israeli public demanded the Netanyahu government punish East Jerusalem Palestinians. The day after the incident, Netanyahu convened with Aharonovich, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, Shin Bet Head Yoram Cohen, and police officials ordering 1,000 more police and troops from the border police, instructing them to “exercise Israeli sovereignty” over the occupied territory. This episode illustrates how anti-Arab racism in Israeli society — what Israeli President Reuben Rivlin recently called “sick” — makes it susceptible to manipulation of facts in order to advance the far right’s agenda.
A October 22 letter of support from Bishop Elizabeth Eaton, Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, to President Barack Obama regarding his policy towards Israel/Palestine avoids the real issues.