Israel crushes local dissent, attacks global criticism
RAMALLAH (IPS) — Israel is lashing out at international criticism and attempting to crush local dissent in what appears to be growing sensitivity to reproach of its policies. A Palestinian patient undergoes dialysis treatment at the kidney department of Shifa hospital in Gaza City January 19, 2010. One year after Israel's...Harsher Gaza war looming on horizon?
RAMALLAH — According to several prominent Palestinians and Israelis, another major Israeli military assault on Gaza, even harsher than last year’s Operation Cast Lead, is imminent. But will this change anything and have the underlying causes behind the previous bloody war been addressed? A Palestinian woman poses with a...
Cancer – the deadly legacy of the invasion of Iraq
January 16th, 20100 Reprinted from New America Media Forget about oil, occupation, terrorism or even Al Qaeda. The real hazard for Iraqis these days is cancer. Cancer is spreading like wildfire in Iraq. Thousands of infants are being born with deformities. Doctors say they are struggling to cope with the rise of cancer and birth defects, especially in...
A second Gaza war around the corner?
January 16th, 20100 Moathe Abu Rabeeh (R), a 13-year-old Palestinian boy who lost his leg during the three-week offensive Israel launched last year, uses his laptop at his house in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip December 22, 2009. December 27 marked one year since the start of a three-week offensive Israel launched in Gaza during which more...
U.S. poised to increase aid to Yemen
January 9th, 20100 WASHINGTON (IPS) - In the wake of a botched Christmas Day airliner bombing claimed by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the direction of what used to be called the "global war on terror" settled on Yemen this week, with the United States slated to escalate economic and military assistance to the country's beleaguered...
Egypt blocks aid to Gaza
January 9th, 20100 SOMETHING ODD, almost bizarre, is going on in Egypt these days. About 1400 activists from all over the world gathered there on their way to the Gaza Strip. On the anniversary of the "Cast Lead" war, they intended to participate in a non-violent demonstration against the ongoing blockade of Gaza, which makes the life of 1.5 million...Cruise missile attack in Yemen kills 49 civilians
Given what a prominent role "terrorism" plays in our political discourse, it's striking how little attention is paid to American actions which have the most significant impact on that problem. In addition to our occupation of Iraq, war escalation in Afghanistan, and secret bombings in Pakistan, President Obama late last week ordered...Hard line on Hizbullah clashes with political reality
WASHINGTON (IPS) — Lebanese President Michel Sleiman visited Washington last week for his first visit with President Barack Obama. The meeting was a quick one, tucked in amongst the myriad of domestic issues that are demanding Obama's attention. Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah speaks via a giant screen...
Trouble in north and south of Yemen
December 18th, 20090 SANAA— Facing growing international concern that Yemen is becoming a new haven for Al Qaeda operatives, Yememi security forces struck back hard this week against suspected militants. In separate attacks, they arrested 17 Al Qaeda suspects and killed 34, including a top leader and four operatives who had planned suicide bombings abroad,...Report: Human rights deteriorated throughout Arab World in 2009
NEW YORK — Human rights abuses in Arab countries increased throughout the Middle East and North Africa during 2009, according to the annual report of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, released earlier this week. Egypt and Syria were singled out as leading offenders in the torture report. ...Lebanon not ready for radical reform
In attempting to reform their state, the Lebanese fear the unraveling of their nation. President Obama was well briefed on Lebanon's fragile, "national unity" government when he received Lebanese President Michel Suleiman on December 14 at the White House. Vehicles are seen in a traffic jam along a main road after a heavy...
Dispute over veil spreads across Egypt
December 12th, 20090 CAIRO — A decision by the government to ban the veil in some academic institutions has reignited debate about personal rights. "The niqab (Islamic face veil) is certainly one of the more extreme manifestations of Islam," Hossam Bahgat, director of the Cairo-based Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights tells IPS. "But according to...Lebanese tension is expressed in demand for reform
The Lebanese have worked hard to rebuild their country after a fifteen-year civil war that ended in 1990. They do not seem ready now to take radical steps of reform. A Lebanese government official carries a ballot box in a polling station in Beirut ahead of last June 7th’s parliamentary elections. In order of size, the three...
Nasrallah: Sectarianism impeding democracy
December 4th, 20090 BEIRUT — Hizbullah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah said on Monday the major problem facing Lebanon's political regime was political sectarianism, which hindered the establishment of a true democracy. He also stressed the continued need for the resistance, given the absence of a strong Lebanese state. Lebanon's Hizbullah...Palestinians building institutions of statehood
RAMALLAH (IPS) — The Palestinian Authority (PA) appears to be successfully countering the Israeli government's refusal to work towards a two-state solution to end the decades-long conflict. A Palestinian demonstrator uses a tennis racket to return an empty tear gas canister at Israeli soldiers during a protest against the......
U.S. urged to increase aid and involvement in Yemen
WASHINGTON (IPS) — As President Barack Obama ponders escalating Washington's military and political investment in Afghanistan, a think tank close to his administration is urging Washington to ramp up U.S. aid and involvement in strife-torn Yemen, as well. Children sit outside a tent in al-Mazraq camp in the western Yemeni...Palestinian children face daily settler attacks getting to school
AT TUWANI, West Bank (IPS) — Being able to travel to school in relative safety is something children all over the world take for granted. But, for Palestinian children living in the shadow of the ubiquitous and illegal Israeli settlements dotting the West Bank, simply walking to school can be a terrifying......
Israeli Jews and the one-state solution
"Anyone who rejects the two-state solution, won't bring a one-state solution. They will instead bring one war, not one state. A bloody war with no end." — Israeli President Shimon Peres, 7 November 2009. A Palestinian child looks out of a window during the demolition of a house in the Arab neighborhood of Isawiyeh in east...Iraqi MPs to reconsider vote law
Iraq's parliament is to meet at the weekend to decide whether to amend a crucial election law vetoed by the vice-president. Ayad al-Samarie, the parliamentary speaker, said MPs would meet on Saturday to discuss Tariq al-Hashemi's veto and could send it back to the three-member presidency council for approval without changes. "We have...
House demolitions go on
November 19th, 20090 OCCUPIED EAST JERUSALEM — "Make sure your father gets this," the municipal inspector tells a ten-year-old boy at the gate of the concrete house in an alleyway in the Al-Bustan quarter of Silwan, a Palestinian neighborhood right under the shadow of the walled Old City. A Palestinian woman sits next to belongings removed from her...
Lebanon rivals form unity government
November 18th, 20090 Members of Lebanon's new cabinet pose for an official group photo at the presidential palace in Baabda, November 10, 2009. PHOTO: Dalati Nohra BEIRUT - Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri formed a new unity government on Monday that includes two ministers from Hizbullah. Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri......
Beirut’s Shi’a bastion revives after ’06 war
BEIRUT — The sprawling Shi'a suburb of south Beirut has made a comeback after the destruction wreaked by Israel during 2006 fighting, a symbol of the community's resilience at a time when its political patron, Hizbullah, is seeking a greater voice in Lebanon's government. Women walk in the Dahiyah district. The district,...
Abbas: I’ll not seek re-election
November 7th, 20090 Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has said he will not run in presidential elections he has called for in January, saying he had had enough after years of frustration fighting for an independent homeland. "I have told our brethren in the PLO ... that I have no desire to......
Egypt makes cultural clout count
CAIRO (IPS) — Egypt has long been recognized as the cultural trendsetter of the Arabic- speaking world. Despite recent challenges to this role with the advent of satellite television, experts say that contemporary Arab culture remains largely defined by Egyptian literature, music, film and television. Iconic Egyptian...Lebanese banks flourish as ailing world looks on
BEIRUT — A healthy suspicion of the subprime market appears to have paid off, as Lebanese banks flourish in the face of the global economic crisis. A recent report released by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) on the Lebanese banking sector said that Lebanese banks are continuously attracting inflows of deposits, which in current......