Fri, 13 Jun 2008 05:08:54 -0400 http://ramallahonline.com/ RamallahOnline Powered Site en-us http://ramallahonline.com/images/logo.gif http://ramallahonline.com/ marouf@gmail.com http://ramallahonline.com/Article66.html Palestinian National Initiative Ramallah, 10-06-08: PNI leader, Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi MP, today welcomed steps towards restoring national unity currently being taken by President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leaders, and stressed that this new initiative cannot be missed. He underlined that the democratic process ? free and fair elections, respect for the separation of powers and the rule of law, and the equality of all Palestinians before the law - was the key to restoring national unity. Fri, 13 Jun 2008 05:08:54 -0400 http://ramallahonline.com/Article65.html By Genevieve Cora Fraser He was my taxi driver In East Jerusalem So proud of his wife and children His home “Everyone knows me Write to me From America Sun, 01 Jun 2008 02:40:24 -0400 http://ramallahonline.com/Article64.html Al-SnowBar is a Palestinian Garden Pool Restaurant & Bar resort located in Ramallah city in the central West Bank adjacent to al-Bireh. Its approximately 10 kilometers (6 miles) north of Jerusalem. The resort is a haven surrounded by pine trees, offering a peaceful and quiet environment. Landscaping and layout of the land is the work of Master landscaper Ameen Marouf. During the day families can relax and enjoy both good food and swimming. Al-SnowBar offers a full restaurant with its own personal chef, full bar service, and argyleh (hooka) service. Al-SnowBar is soon to be offering a basketball court. A wide range of parties from Jazz nights, weddings, exclusive parties, and DJ nights are common features and attractions at Al-SnowBar. Visitors enjoy the relaxing night life in comfortable seating or stay warm by the bonfire. Thu, 29 May 2008 09:05:23 -0400 http://ramallahonline.com/Article63.html May 15, 2008 marks the 60th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, when Palestinians were forced from their homes and ethnically cleansed en masse in a premeditated and organized campaign carried out by armed Zionist militia. Historical accounts indicate that the forced migration of Palestinians from their homeland had been planned well in advance. The establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 was built on the violations of the rights of the Palestinian people. After widespread massacres and killings, more than 700,000 Palestinian civilians were brutally uprooted from their homes, villages and towns, and forced to become refugees in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and surrounding Arab countries. In addition, thousands of other Palestinians were internally displaced within the land subsequently occupied by Israel. Thu, 15 May 2008 08:28:27 -0400 http://ramallahonline.com/Article62.html Palestinian National Initiative Ramallah, 28-04-08: "A sickening tragedy" was how Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi MP, Secretary General of the PNI described the killing of a mother and her 4 children in an Israeli military attack on the Gaza Strip this morning. The deaths have brought the number of Palestinians killed by the Israeli military since Annapolis to 418, including 59 children. Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:53:01 -0400 http://ramallahonline.com/Article61.html Ramallah, 24/04/08: "Thousands of lives are at stake in Gaza. Israel's siege is pushing a whole society towards collapse." This was how Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi MP, Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative, today described the situation in the Gaza Strip, which has reached dramatic levels following the latest Israeli fuel cuts. Food assistance for 650,000 Palestinians is about to stop, 50,000 vaccines for babies are at risk of being spoiled, and sanitation services for half a million inhabitants have been halted. Mon, 28 Apr 2008 11:00:13 -0400 http://ramallahonline.com/Article60.html Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, 19 April 2008 Sixty years after the Naqba, the catastrophe, Palestinians are still without a state. They are living under occupation, many are in refugee camps, others are scattered around the world, and a part of the Palestinian people are no more than second class citizens in Israel itself. The Palestinian struggle to achieve freedom and independence is therefore firstly a struggle to exist as a people. In this endeavour, resistance is essential. Resistance through memory, resistance through unwavering demands for their rights, resistance against open or covert attempts to displace them and take their land from them. Mon, 28 Apr 2008 10:59:35 -0400 http://ramallahonline.com/Article59.html Jeff Halper Friday, April 11, 2008 It was another of those routine tragedies that are never publicized. At eight in the morning we at ICAHD (the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions) received a call that the Border Police, Israeli police and Jerusalem Municipality bulldozers were massing below the Palestinian village of Anata, poised to begin another day of home demolitions. We never know of demolitions ahead of time. The Israeli authorities responsible for demolishing Palestinian homes – the municipality and the Ministry of Interior in Jerusalem, the “Civil” Administration in the West Bank and the army – do not provide advanced warning to us or, indeed, to the families themselves. Tens of thousands of Palestinian families live with demolition orders on their homes, some 22,000 in East Jerusalem alone, where fully a third of Palestinian homes face demolition at any time. When we received word of preparations for a demolition that morning, however, we knew precisely which home would be targeted first: that of the Hamdan family, the elderly parents their married son and daughter-in-law with their five children, and an unmarried son. It was a home we had rebuilt for the second time in last summer’s ICAHD work camp, when Israeli and international peace activists joined with local Palestinians to rebuild as an act of political resistance to the Occupation. Mon, 28 Apr 2008 10:55:08 -0400 http://ramallahonline.com/Article58.html Uri Avnery NEXT MONTH, Israel will celebrate its 60th anniversary. The government is working feverishly to make this day into an occasion of joy and jubilation. While serious problems are crying out for funds, some 40 million dollars have been allocated to this aim. Tue, 15 Apr 2008 06:14:34 -0400 http://ramallahonline.com/Article57.html Ramallah, 12-04-08: The killing of 8 Palestinians - including 4 children - and 3 Israelis in separate attacks yesterday has brought the number of Palestinians and Israelis killed since Annapolis to 350 and 18 respectively. Among the victims are 44 Palestinian children. Tue, 15 Apr 2008 06:13:07 -0400 http://ramallahonline.com/Article56.html By RAMZY BAROUD I still vividly remember my father's face - wrinkled, apprehensive, warm - as he last wished me farewell fourteen years ago. He stood outside the rusty door of my family's home in a Gaza refugee camp wearing old yellow pyjamas and a seemingly ancient robe. As I hauled my one small suitcase into a taxi that would take me to an Israeli airport an hour away, my father stood still. I wished he would go back inside; it was cold and the soldiers could pop up at any moment. As my car moved on, my father eventually faded into the distance, along with the graveyard, the water tower and the camp. It never occurred to me that I would never see him again. Tue, 15 Apr 2008 06:10:54 -0400 http://ramallahonline.com/Article55.html U.S. LABOR AND GAZA New York City Labor Against the War March 23, 2008 New York City Labor Against the War joins the Congress of South Africa Trade Unions in denouncing Israel's recent massacres in Gaza, the victims of which include at least 130 Palestinians -- half of them civilians, including dozens of women and children -- since February 27. http://www.petitiononline.com/Gaza/petition.html Tue, 01 Apr 2008 08:41:16 -0400 http://ramallahonline.com/Article54.html By Ali Abunimah Palestine Center Fellow Since Hamas won the legislative elections in the Occupied Palestinian Territories in January 2006, the United States has attempted to isolate the Islamist resistance movement in Gaza while propping up the leadership of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his defeated Fatah faction in Ramallah in the hope of reversing the election result and restoring Fatah to power. This fit the U.S. strategy of fostering so-called “moderate” regimes in the region, allied with the United States and dependent on it to a greater or less extent, and confronting indigenous forces such as Hamas in Palestine and Hizballah in Lebanon, which the United States portrays as being mere extensions of regional rival Iran. Sun, 16 Mar 2008 06:55:11 -0400 http://ramallahonline.com/Article53.html Dear friends, Education is a RIGHT!! I highly urge you all to watch this documentary about how Palestinians are struggling, NON- VIOLENTLY, to get a basic education and remain sane in this insane reality of Israeli occupation. Nablus is in the West Bank. Multiply what you see here by 100 and you can start to imagine the Gaza and Hebron reality. Sadly, my American subscribers would never have had the chance to see this when it was aired because the US' "free" media does not allow Al-Jazeera International to air in the US. Consider showing this in a public venue (local library, city council, to your local newspaper editorial board, etc.) in your city. Saluting teachers worldwide and free media, Sam Sun, 16 Mar 2008 06:49:44 -0400 http://ramallahonline.com/Article52.html Dear all, I just would like to draw your attention that Al-Haq’s documentary, In the Spider’s Web, is available online on YouTube with English and French subtitles. In the Spider's Web is a total of 47-minute long documentary produced in 2004 by Al-Haq and directed by Hannah Musleh. The film is part of Al-Haq's campaign to stop collective punishment practiced by Israeli occupying forces against Palestinian civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Through In the Spider's Web Al-Haq provides an overview of these punitive measures against the Palestinian civilians. While the film mainly addresses the accounts of two women, it also highlights the impact that collective punishment has on the whole civilian population. The film also takes the audience to a girls' school in Hebron, where it shows a typical day in the lives of these students. The documentary also seeks to capture and relay some of the disastrous implications of the continuing construction of the Annexation Wall and the further expropriation of land for its construction. --Sam Bahour Sun, 16 Mar 2008 06:48:27 -0400 http://ramallahonline.com/Article51.html "I Came, I Saw, I Destroyed!" WHAT HAPPENED this week is so infuriating, so impertinent, that it stands out even in our familiar landscape of governmental irresponsibility. On the near horizon, a de facto suspension of hostilities was taking shape. The Egyptians had made great efforts to turn it into an official cease-fire. The flame was already burning visibly lower. The launching of Qassams and Grads from the Gaza Strip into Israel had fallen from dozens a day to two or three. Sun, 16 Mar 2008 06:44:07 -0400 http://ramallahonline.com/Article50.html By Sonia Nettnin, RamallahOnline.com Director John Halaka’s film, The Presence of Absence in the Ruins of Kafr Bir’im is a historical narrative about the Palestinian village Kafr Bir’im; and the ethnic cleansing of Palestine during the 1948 Catastrophe. "The ruins of the Palestinian village Kafr Bir'im, located in Northern Galilee. In 1953 Israel's Supreme Court ruled the 1,050 Palestinian villagers had the right to return to Kafr Bir'im. However, Israeli forces barred the villagers from entering by declaring the area a military zone. A few days later, Israeli forces destroyed the village. How did this impact Palestinians and what does it mean for Palestinians today?" (Photo courtesy of John Halaka). Shot on location amid Kafr Bir’im’s ruins and cemetery, located in Northern Galilee, Halaka interviews Ibrahim Essa, an elder Palestinian man and poet, who survived Al-Nakba, the Arabic word for the Great Catastrophe. At the age of fourteen, Essa, his family and over 800,000 Palestinians from 531 Palestinian villages were forced to flee their homes by European Zionist forces. The 1,050 Palestinians from Kafr Bir’im fled to cities such as Nablus, Haifa, Acre, Jerusalem; and they fled to neighboring countries, such as Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. After months of seeking refuge throughout the region, the Essa Family traveled back to a village called Jish, which is near Kafr Bir’im. The villagers who tried to force their return to Kafr Bir’im were sent to jail, fined in Israeli court and expelled to a refugee camp called Jenin. In 1953, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled the 1,050 Palestinian villagers had the right to return to Kafr Bir’im, but Israeli forces barred the people from entering by declaring the area a military zone. A few days later, Israeli forces destroyed the village. Halaka focuses on the stone ruins of houses, wild grass, flowers, shrubs, and bushes that sway in the wind. When he confesses that the stone ruins and the trees spoke to him, his footage brings this feeling home. The ruins are evidence of a people and their village society once alive. The phrase, “the presence of absence,” is about villages such as Kafr Bir’im, but it is a symbol for the feelings of Al-Nakba survivors and generations thereafter. Every Palestinian family has an Al-Nakba life experience that they share with their children and grandchildren. Essa tells Halaka that his family came to Kafir Bir’im around 700 years ago. Together the village members cultivated the land with fruit trees and crops, such as lentils, beans and wheat. The Essa Family’s goats and cows grazed the land. Today, only Israelis yield the fruits from the trees and grow crops in kibbutz nurseries. The cows that graze the land belong to Israelis. As for Palestinian-Israelis, they are barred from rebuilding and living in their native village. Although European Zionists claimed the British Mandate of Palestine as barren, Halaka’s use of numerous, archival photographs in a slideshow format, along with Essa’s life experiences, prove this Zionist claim untrue. As narrator, Halaka shares extensive historical, political, social, and cultural background information about Palestine. For example he explains the Romans forced the Jews dispersion from their land approximately 2,000 years ago (also known as the first Jewish-Roman War, or The Great Revolt). After the birth of the State of Israel in 1948, Halaka demonstrates how Israeli law (for example, Absent Property Law established in 1950), overlapped with the ethnic cleansing of the Arab population by Israeli forces. As a result, the occupation of Israeli forces and the implementation of Israeli law that discriminated against the Palestinians and favored colonialism for Jewish settlers facilitated the Judaization of the land. Another interesting fact is prior to the European Zionist invasion, Palestinian Muslims, Christians and Jews lived together as a diverse society in Palestine. Essa recalls the history of Palestinian families dividing land plots in Kafr Bir’im, which was predominantly a Christian community. Families helped newcomers marry. However, he did not talk about the different economic classes of people within Palestinian society, such as landowners and farm workers. The overall, life changing event for all Palestinians was the European Zionist invasion. Sat, 01 Mar 2008 11:03:53 -0500 http://ramallahonline.com/Article49.html Uri Avnery WHICH OF the two men is the leader of the greatest power on earth and which is the boss of a small client state? A visitor from another planet, attending the press conference in Jerusalem, would find it hard not to answer: Olmert is the president of the great power, Bush is his vassal. Olmert is taller. He talked endlessly, while Bush listened patiently. While Olmert anointed Bush with flattery that would have made a Byzantine emperor blush, it was quite clear that it is Olmert who decides policy, while Bush humbly accepts the Israeli diktat. And Bush's flattery of Olmert exceeded even Olmert's flattery of Bush. Sun, 13 Jan 2008 19:06:03 -0500 http://ramallahonline.com/Article48.html Bush’s Visit: Triumph of Form over Substance By Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD Special to PalestineChronicle.com The President’s visit to the Middle East this week will show once and for all that status quo lives on under the attempt to validate the old saying that an ounce of image is worth a pound of performance. In this case the image came seven years too late. In public appearances the Bush administration claims it supports “the road map for peace”. In 2218 words that “map” lacks any mention of human rights and International law. But even with this shortcoming, it calls for total freeze on settlement activities including so called “natural growth”. Israel simply refuses to abide by this. Bush sent a letter to assure Israel that some settlements will be exempt since they would stay with Israel under any final deal. In so doing, Bush himself undermined his own “road map”. It is not surprising that US policy evolved from describing settlements as illegal to “obstacles” to “unhelpful” and finally to Jewish neighborhood that will remain part of the Jewish state. Thu, 10 Jan 2008 09:46:22 -0500 http://ramallahonline.com/Article47.html By Sam Bahour U.S. President George Bush landed in Israel yesterday on his first Presidential trip to the country. He participated in a press conference in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in what both men termed a “historic” and “monumental” occasion. After listening to both so-called leaders make their opening comments and fielding questions from journalists, the only groundbreaking revelation I could register was that the naiveté of President Bush, either real or a charade, only served the agenda of one party in the region - Hamas. The radical Islamists at Hamas could not have recruited a better cheerleader for their movement if they tried. Thu, 10 Jan 2008 09:44:39 -0500 http://ramallahonline.com/Article46.html Israel's Strategy for Permanent Occupation By JEFF HALPER One may well think that the struggle inside the Jewish community of Israel is between those of the political right, who want to maintain the settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank so as to "redeem" the Greater Land of Israel as a Jewish country, and those of the left who seek a two-state solution with the Palestinians and are thus willing to relinquish enough of the "territories", if not all, in order that a viable Palestinian state may emerge. Sun, 02 Dec 2007 09:18:22 -0500 http://ramallahonline.com/Article45.html By Stephen Lendman PalestineChronicle.com November 27 at Annapolis kicks off the latest Israeli-Palestinian Middle East peace process round that may be an historic first. It's the first time in memory the legitimate government of one side is excluded, and that alone dooms it. Like previous rounds, it's more pretense than peace, and as Jonathan Steele puts it in his November 16 Guardian column "The Palestinian path to peace does not go via Annapolis....so what do....Palestinians do next....In their decades-long bid for justice, they have tried everything:" armed struggle to compromise, but nothing works and the reason is simple. Their sincerity isn't matched by Israel, the West, other Arab states and the US most of all with all the muscle in its hands to push or constrain Israelis to be serious and fair. That's the problem. How can one side negotiate in good faith without a willing partner. Sun, 02 Dec 2007 08:59:51 -0500 http://ramallahonline.com/Article44.html By Ramzy Baroud PalestineChronicle.com A once profound and widely read commentator recently claimed he no longer writes about the Palestine/Israel conflict because "Palestinians are killing each other". Feeling his words have ceased to carry weight he simply decided not "to take sides". Sun, 02 Dec 2007 08:46:59 -0500 http://ramallahonline.com/Article43.html UN agencies have been informed by Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) and Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials that all crossings into the occupied Palestinian territory will be standardized by the end of 2007 by which time much of the construction of the Barrier will be completed. Already, UN agencies are seeing increasing restrictions at crossings into the West Bank similar to those already in place into Gaza. This Fact Sheet explains how existing and planned restrictions will seriously impair the ability of humanitarian organisations to operate. Thu, 20 Sep 2007 19:58:05 -0400 http://ramallahonline.com/Article42.html Foreign Agents The American Israel Public Affairs Committee from the 1963 Fulbright Hearings to the 2005 Espionage Scandal By Grant F. Smith Book Review by Terry Walz CNI Staff Many citizens concerned by the undue influence of the Israel lobby are dismayed by the action of the US Congress that adopts resolution after resolution favoring Israel with nary of word about its failure to make peace with the Palestinians, whose land it inhabits, or with its neighbors, whose borders it abutts. Last year Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer, two professors from prestigious American universities, began a public debate on the power of the lobby - a cause long advocated by the Council for the National Interest - giving hope that a public airing of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), its work, financing, and political connections would help Americans understand the gross misdirection of Middle East foreign policy over the last forty years. Grant F. Smith's new book, Foreign Agents, decisively pushes this debate forward and shows just how brazen and criminal the lobby has acted since its beginnings. Wed, 12 Sep 2007 10:23:07 -0400