Mel Frykberg

Mel Frykberg writes for Inter Press Service.

Israeli’s Peaceful Position Takes Courage

EAST JERUSALEM – A former captain in the Israeli Air Force, previously an ardent Zionist who lost many members of his family in the Holocaust, has been labeled a psychopath and denounced by many Israelis for the moral stand he has taken against the Israeli occupation. Yonatan Shapira, 38, was fired from his job, has … Continue reading “Israeli’s Peaceful Position Takes Courage”

Palestinians Earning a Living in No Man’s Land

EREZ BORDER CROSSING, Northern Gaza – Crossing through the metal-caged tunnel that leads from the Israeli side of the border into northern Gaza toward the Palestinian checkpoint, several groups of young Palestinian men and boys can be seen scavenging through piles of rubble. The twisted metal and shattered concrete are all that remain of Palestinian … Continue reading “Palestinians Earning a Living in No Man’s Land”

Israeli Police Given Protection for Killing

SHUAFAT, Occupied East Jerusalem – A peaceful morning is interrupted by the sounds of an Israeli helicopter circling overhead – often a sign of trouble on the ground. Later Sunday the news broke: a Palestinian man was shot dead in the village of Issawiya by Israeli paramilitary border police as he tried to enter Israel … Continue reading “Israeli Police Given Protection for Killing”

Israel Deports Peace Laureate

RAMALLAH – Irish Nobel Laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire was deported from Israel Tuesday after spending more than a week in detention at Tel Aviv Airport as she attempted to fight the deportation order. Last week four Israeli security men tried to force the Nobel Peace Prize winner to board an airplane after she arrived in … Continue reading “Israel Deports Peace Laureate”

Riots Grip East Jerusalem

SILWAN, Occupied East Jerusalem – Tension, the twisted carcasses of gutted vehicles, buses with smashed windows, smoldering dumpsters, streets riddled with rubber-coated steel bullets and empty cartridge cases, tear gas, and air thickened with black soot from burning tires marked the beginning of the fifth day of continuous rioting in East Jerusalem Monday. A Palestinian … Continue reading “Riots Grip East Jerusalem”

Palestinian Authority Has Its Back to the Wall

BANI NAIM, Occupied West Bank – The village of Bani Naim, near Hebron in the southern West Bank, was under curfew and sealed off by Israeli soldiers stationed in troop carriers and jeeps, as peace talks continued in Washington. The only way IPS was able to enter was by taking a circuitous route over a … Continue reading “Palestinian Authority Has Its Back to the Wall”

Media New Battleground for Palestinians and Israelis

RAMALLAH – Palestinians and Israelis are using the media as a new battleground in their war to win hearts and minds across the globe, even as the protracted conflict in the Mideast drags on with no apparent end in sight. Israel has led the way for decades with its slick and professional hasbara, or propaganda … Continue reading “Media New Battleground for Palestinians and Israelis”

Palestinian Patients Suffer From Hamas-Fatah Rivalry

RAMALLAH – Cancer patient Ahmed Abu Fuad needs chemotherapy to survive. Muhammad Subeh needs an eye transplant, while paramedic Alaa Sarhan desperately needs surgery to remove shrapnel from his body. But these Gazans are unable to leave the area to seek the required medical treatment elsewhere, and it is not because of the Israeli siege. … Continue reading “Palestinian Patients Suffer From Hamas-Fatah Rivalry”

Gazans Stitching Together a Living, Somehow

GAZA CITY – Just off Omar Al-Mukhtar Street, Gaza City’s main thoroughfare, in a narrow, sandy alley way is a little second-hand clothing shop. In the dimly lit store, with only intermittent electricity for some hours a day at best, sits a single battered and aging sewing machine. This is where Khaled Nassan, a father … Continue reading “Gazans Stitching Together a Living, Somehow”

In Palestine, Barriers Rise Between Ramadan Gatherings

AZZUN ATMA, Northern West Bank – For seven years Majda Abdul Qader Sheikh, 38, has not been allowed to visit the home of her parents, just a few hundred meters from her house. "I tried to get a special visitor’s permit for a quick visit during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan but I was … Continue reading “In Palestine, Barriers Rise Between Ramadan Gatherings”