RAMALLAH — "I’m sick with worry about my daughter. I’m afraid of what they are doing to her. She has done nothing to deserve this. If they have anything against her, why don’t they bring her to trial?" Yehiya Al Shalabi asked IPS rhetorically. Hana Al Shalabi, 27,...
Palestinians Prepare for Massive Uprising
BEIT UMMAR, West Bank - Leading members of the Palestinian Popular Committees in the West Bank plan massive civil unrest and disobedience against the Israeli occupation authorities come September when the Palestinians take their case for statehood to the UN. "We...
‘Flytilla’ Debacle Another PR Nightmare For Israel
BEN GURION AIRPORT, Tel Aviv — Confused foreign tourists arriving at Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport on Friday would be forgiven for thinking that a terrorist attack was about to take place. Hundreds of armed Israeli soldiers and police spread throughout the...
A Zionist Fights for Palestinian Rights
JERUSALEM — To many people, Rabbi Arik Ascherman would appear to be a contradiction in terms. He is an ardent Zionist and religious Jew who believes that God made a covenant with the Jewish people and the Land of Israel. But the core of Ascherman’s Zionist ideology...
Palestinian Children Targeted as Israel Crushes Unrest
SILWAN, Palestine - "Father please help me! Don't let them take me away," screamed 12-year-old Ahmed Siyam as approximately 50 heavily armed Israeli soldiers and police dragged the handcuffed and blindfolded boy away. Last month Ahmed was pulled out of his...
Time Running Out for Two-State Solution
RAMALLAH - Time is of the essence if the implementation of a two-state solution to end the protracted Israeli-Palestinian conflict is to succeed. Changing demographics both within Israeli and Palestinian society could render this impossible, with a one-state solution...
Settlers See New Support From Obama
The leader of Israel’s most right-wing government since the establishment of the Jewish state 63 years ago, has returned to Israel with his popularity surging since talks with U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington. A survey carried out by the Israeli daily Haaretz...
Egypt-Gaza Border Remains Closed to Trade
Despite the Egyptian revolution, which ousted Israeli ally and former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, and despite Israel's claim to have eased the blockade on Gaza following last year's bloody clashes on the ill-fated Mavi Marmara flotilla, the coastal territory's...
Nakba Anger Points to Third Intifada
QALANDIA, Occupied West Bank—Israeli confidence that Nakba Day, marked by the Great March on May 15 in the occupied Palestinian territories, Israel, and neighboring Arab countries, would remain under control has backfired badly. Nakba, or "catastrophe," Day on May 15...
Fatah-Hamas Honeymoon Could Face Problems
RAMALLAH—Despite the euphoria surrounding the recent signing in Cairo of the groundbreaking unity accord between Palestinian rivals Fatah and Hamas, ending their four-year feud, numerous obstacles remain that could impinge on the implementation of a unity government....