artikelen
Hieronder vindt u links naar belangrijke artikelen van vooraanstaande deskundigen en journalisten, die over het Israëlisch-Palestijnse conflict schrijven.
Another War, Another Defeat, John J. Mearsheimer, 26 januari 2009
Israelis and their American supporters claim that Israel learned its lessons well from the disastrous 2006 Lebanon war and has devised a winning strategy for the present war against Hamas. Of course, when a ceasefire comes, Israel will declare victory. Don’t believe it. Israel has foolishly started another war it cannot win. Lees verder...
Time Running Out For A Two-State Solution?, Robert Anderson, 25 januari 2009
It’s known as the "two-state" solution. But, while negotiations have been going on for 15 years, hundreds of thousands of Jewish settlers have moved in to occupy the West Bank. Palestinians say they can't have a state with Israeli settlers all over it, which the settlers say is precisely the idea. Lees verder...
The IDF has no mercy for the children in Gaza nursery schools, Gideon Levy, 15 januari 2009
The fighting in Gaza is "war deluxe." Compared with previous wars, it is child's play - pilots bombing unimpeded as if on practice runs, tank and artillery soldiers shelling houses and civilians from their armored vehicles, combat engineering troops destroying entire streets in their ominous protected vehicles without facing serious opposition. A large, broad army is fighting against a helpless population and a weak, ragged organization that has fled the conflict zones and is barely putting up a fight. All this must be said openly, before we begin exulting in our heroism and victory. Lees verder...
Israel’s Lies, Henry Siegman, 15 januari 2009
Western governments and most of the Western media have accepted a number of Israeli claims justifying the military assault on Gaza: that Hamas consistently violated the six-month truce that Israel observed and then refused to extend it; that Israel therefore had no choice but to destroy Hamas’s capacity to launch missiles into Israeli towns; that Hamas is a terrorist organisation, part of a global jihadi network; and that Israel has acted not only in its own defence but on behalf of an international struggle by Western democracies against this network. Middle East peacemaking has been smothered in deceptive euphemisms, so let me state bluntly that each of these claims is a lie. Lees verder...
Who will save Israel from itself?, Mark LeVine, 13 januari 2009
One by one the justifications given by Israel for its latest war in Gaza are unravelling. The argument that this is a purely defensive war, launched only after Hamas broke a six-month ceasefire has been challenged, not just by observers in the know such as Jimmy Carter, the former US president who helped facilitate the truce, but by centre-right Israeli intelligence think tanks. Lees verder...
The War in Gaza: Tactical Gains, Strategic Defeat?, Anthony Cordesman, 9 januari 2009
The Israeli-Hamas War, and there is little else that it can be called, has now lasted two weeks. Israeli jets have flown some 800 strike sorties, and the IDF has pushed deep into Gaza. Israel also continues to report tactical gains. The IDF spokesman reported that the fighting on the war’s 14th day continued the second phase of the ground operation throughout the strip, “with infantry, tank, engineering, artillery and intelligence forces operating in large numbers throughout the Gaza Strip, with the assistance of the Israel Air Force and Israel Navy.” Lees verder...
Israel: Boycott, Divest, Sanction, Naomi Klein, 7 januari 2009
It's time. Long past time. The best strategy to end the increasingly bloody occupation is for Israel to become the target of the kind of global movement that put an end to apartheid in South Africa. In July 2005 a huge coalition of Palestinian groups laid out plans to do just that. They called on "people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era." The campaign Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions – BDS for short – was born. Lees verder...
How Israel brought Gaza to the brink of humanitarian catastrophe, Avi Shlaim, 7 januari 2009
The only way to make sense of Israel's senseless war in Gaza is through understanding the historical context. Establishing the state of Israel in May 1948 involved a monumental injustice to the Palestinians. British officials bitterly resented American partisanship on behalf of the infant state. On 2 June 1948, Sir John Troutbeck wrote to the foreign secretary, Ernest Bevin, that the Americans were responsible for the creation of a gangster state headed by "an utterly unscrupulous set of leaders". I used to think that this judgment was too harsh but Israel's vicious assault on the people of Gaza, and the Bush administration's complicity in this assault, have reopened the question. Lees verder...
Birth Pangs of a New Palestine, Mouin Rabbani, 7 januari 2009
Fresh memories of Israel’s failed 2006 war on Lebanon have meant that – across the political spectrum – the last war is the standard against which virtually every aspect of the current one is being measured. Yet closer examination suggests that the more apt comparisons are with Israel’s 2002 invasion of West Bank cities and the 1982 invasion of Lebanon. These operations may also provide better indicators of what is to come in Gaza. Lees verder...
What You Don’t Know About Gaza, Rashid Khalidi, 7 januari 2009
Nearly everything you’ve been led to believe about Gaza is wrong. Below are a few essential points that seem to be missing from the conversation, much of which has taken place in the press, about Israel’s attack on the Gaza Strip. Lees verder...
Reigniting Violence: How Do Ceasefires End?, Nancy Kanwisher e.a., 6 januari 2009
As Israel and Palestine suffer a hideous new spasm of terror, misery, and mayhem, it is important to ask how this situation came about. Perhaps an understanding of recent events will afford lessons for the future. How did the recent ceasefire unravel? The mainstream media in the US and Israel places the blame squarely on Hamas. Indeed, a massive barrage of Palestinian rockets were fired into Israel in November and December, and ending this rocket fire is the stated goal of the current Israeli invasion of Gaza. However, this account leaves out crucial facts. Lees verder...
Offensive traumatises generation of children, Jonathan Cook, 6 januari 2009
Dr Tawhina admitted there was little in the current circumstances his staff could do. Their computers and records have been destroyed and they are working from home, largely without electricity, phones or the freedom to move about. Surveys in recent years have shown the rapid deterioration of the mental health of Gazans, especially children, who make up more than half of the Strip’s population. Lees verder...
Gaza: Der böse, böse Nachbar, Rolf Verleger, 5 januari 2009
Was würden Sie tun – so schrieb am 31.12. die israelische Geschichtswissenschaftlerin Prof. Fania Oz-Salzberger in der FAZ – wenn Ihr Nachbar immerzu Steine und Molotowcocktails auf Ihre Wohnung wirft? Würden Sie nicht irgendwann zum Gewehr greifen, um diesem Treiben ein Ende zu machen? Und wenn sich der Nachbar mit seinen Kindern umgibt, damit Sie ihn nicht treffen, würden Sie dann nicht irgendwann ein Gewehr mit Zielfernrohr nehmen? Lees verder...
As the Troops Enter, We Fear the Worst, Eyad El-Sarraj, 4 januari 2009
How much worse can it get? After a horrifying week, the Israelis have arrived once again at our doorstep. What now? Already we have experienced so much terror and want. When the Israeli strikes first began, my wife and I were worrying about lentils. She said we could not have lentil soup for lunch because there were no lentils in the shops. Nor any rice or flour. Suddenly there was a deafening noise, followed by a succession of blasts the likes of which I had never experienced. Our house was rocking, the windows rattling in their panes. Lees verder...
Bringing Hamas in from the cold, Arthur Neslen, 2 januari 2009
In November, Ahmed Yousef, the speechwriter and aide of Gaza's prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, claimed that U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's team had been in contact with the group during the U.S. election campaign. The Obama camp denied it, and Yousef now says the talks are on ice. But many of the incoming president's former and current foreign policy advisers favor some degree of U.S. engagement with the group. Lees verder...
Israel's Responsibility for the War in Gaza, Yacov Ben Efrat, 1 januari 2009
Why place the blame exclusively on Israel? The reason is simple: It was and is exclusively in Israel's power to prevent what has happened and is happening in Gaza. Its economic and military power is enormous compared to the PA's. During decades of occupation, however, Israel did all it could to thwart Palestinian development. While ruling Gaza, it trampled it into the poverty and backwardness we see today. This is a reality that the use of force cannot improve. Lees verder...
Palestine’s Guernica and the myths of Israeli victimhood, Mustafa Barghouthi, 31 december 2008
The Israeli campaign of ‘death from above’ began around 11 am on Saturday morning and stretched straight through the night into Tuesday. The massacre continues as I write these words. The bloodiest single day in Palestine since the War of 1967 is far from over following on Israel’s promise that this is ‘only the beginning’ of their campaign of state terror. Lees verder...
Trying to 'teach Hamas a lesson' is fundamentally wrong, Tom Segev, 29 december 2008
Channel 1 television broadcast an interesting mix on Saturday morning: Its correspondents reported from Sderot and Ashkelon, but the pictures on the screen were from the Gaza Strip. Thus the broadcast, albeit unintentionally, sent the right message: A child in Sderot is the same as a child in Gaza, and anyone who harms either is evil. Lees verder...
Delusions of victory in Gaza, Zvi Barel, 28 december 2008
As of yesterday, politicians and the public at large have been enthralled by a new prospect: that of a wide-scale military operation in the Gaza Strip. Such a prospect answers all their heart's secret wishes: Avenging the rocket fire by Gazan militants, reclaiming Israel's prestige, delivering a fatal blow to Hamas, providing payback for Israel's 2005 pullout from Gaza, sending a strong message to Iran, an implicit one to Hezbollah, and also showing the government's concern for its citizens and scoring some points with the electorate ahead of the elections. Lees verder...
Invoking the Holocaust to Defend the Occupation, John Mearsheimer, 9 december 2008
For American readers, the great virtue of Avraham Burg's important new book is that he says things about Israel and the Jewish people that are hardly ever heard in mainstream discourse in the United States. It is hard to believe how stunted and biased the coverage of Israel is in the American media, not to mention the extent to which our politicians have perfected the art of pandering to the Jewish state. Lees verder...
Jewish "refugee" lobby seeks to eclipse Palestinian losses, Jonathan Cook, 4 december 2008
A broad coalition of Jewish lobby groups has made a series of breakthroughs this year in its campaign to link the question of justice for millions of Palestinian refugees with justice for Jews who left Arab states in the wake of Israel's establishment 60 years ago. Referring to these Jews as the "forgotten refugees" and claiming that their plight is worse than that of exiled Palestinians, the campaign has scored political successes in recent months in Washington, London and Brussels. Lees verder...
A bone in America's throat, Jeff Halper, 10 november 2008
Even before the voting began, Israeli politicians and pundits were asking: Will an Obama Administration be good for Israel? "Be good for Israel" is our code for "Will the US allow us to keep our settlements and continue to support our efforts to prevent negotiations with the Palestinians from ever bearing fruit?" For Americans the question should be: Will the Obama Administration understand that without addressing Palestinian needs it will not be able to disentangle itself from its broader Middle Eastern imbroglios, rejoin the community of nations and rescue its economy? Lees verder...
Holocaust's unholy hold, Avraham Burg, 16 november 2008
What really matters here is the all-important spirit of Trauma, the true basis for so many of our country's life principles. In Israel, the darkest period in human history is always present. Regardless of whether the question at hand is of the future relations between Israel and our Palestinian neighbors in specific and the Arab world in general, or of the Iranian atomic threat and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, it always comes down to the same conversation. Every threat or grievance of major or minor importance is dealt with automatically by raising the biggest argument of them all – the Shoah – and from that moment onward, every discussion is disrupted. Lees verder...
Let's hope Obama won't be a 'friend of Israel', Gideon Levy, 9 november 2008
The march of parochialism started right away. The tears of excitement invoked by U.S. president-elect Barack Obama's wonderful speech had not yet dried, and back here people were already delving into the only real question they could think to ask: Is this good or bad for Israel? One after another, the analysts and politicians got up - all of them representing one single school of thought, of course and began prophesizing. Lees verder...
Apartheid Route, Boaz Okon, 10 oktober 2008
You enter Hebron from Kiryat Arba. If you are Jewish. You ride on the “Zion road,” as the soldiers call it, or “Wadi el-Nasra,” as it is known to the Palestinians. From there you slide down to the Tomb of the Patriarchs, through what the Jewish settlers call King David Street and the Palestinians call Shuhada (“martyrs”) Street. But here the streets of the names do not mean a thing. They are an intangible decoration, deception and even a lie, because you travel on only one route: apartheid route. Lees verder...
Kostwinners van 14 in de Jordaanvallei, Simone Korkus, oktober 2008
In de Jordaanvallei profiteren kolonisten van de armoede onder Palestijnen door kinderarbeiders in te zetten. De omstandigheden zijn gevaarlijk, werktijden lang, de betaling slecht. De kolonisten (en Palestijnse koppelbazen) schenden de wet. Maar behalve een kleine Israëlische vakbond lijkt dat weinigen te interesseren. Lees verder...
Postscript to Oslo: The Mystery of Norway's Missing Files, Hilde Henriksen Waage, herfst 2008
This September marks the fifteenth anniversary of the signing of the Oslo Accord that was expected to bring peace to the Middle East. It is doubtful that the date will be widely celebrated. By now it is clear that the 13 September 1993 Declaration of Principles, though it resulted in the creation of a Palestinian self-governing authority, failed to lead to peace. For the Palestinians, it resulted in the parceling of the West Bank, the doubling of Israeli settlers, the construction of a crippling separation wall, a draconian closure regime, and an unprecedented separation between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Lees verder...
Israel is Eliminating the Green Line, rapport Peace Now, augustus 2008
Over 1000 new buildings are being constructed in the settlements, in which approximately 2,600 housing units, according to Peace Now’s calculations (aerial photographs and field visits). Approximately 55% of the new structures are located to the east of the constructed Separation Barrier. Lees verder (pdf)...
Time to change strategy, interview met Eyad Sarraj, 18 augustus 2008
bitterlemons: As things stand, what are the chances of a two-state solution? Sarraj: First we must understand the strategy of Zionist leaders and institutions. I think there is general agreement on the Zionist side not to allow for the creation of a sovereign, independent and contiguous Palestinian state. This is seen as too dangerous to Israel. Lees verder...
He is the son of all of you, Mourid Barghouti, 16 augustus 2008
A hot midday on a hillside overlooking Ramallah, a blue sky with some bashful, short-lived clouds and Palestinian flags everywhere, side by side with his photo - and the voice of Mahmoud Darwish reciting his own poetry came pure and powerful through the huge loudspeakers and covered the whole landscape. In the middle of the courtyard of Ramallah's Cultural Palace, where he'd given his last poetry reading a few weeks ago (at which he read "The Dice Player"), the empty grave was waiting for the body of the poet. Lees verder...
The Anger, the Longing, the Hope, Uri Avnery, 16 augustus 2008
One of the wisest pronouncements I have heard in my life was that of an Egyptian general, a few days after Anwar Sadat's historic visit to Jerusalem. We were the first Israelis to come to Cairo, and one of the things we were very curious about was: how did you manage to surprise us at the beginning of the October 1973 war? The general answered: "Instead of reading the intelligence reports, you should have read our poets." Lees verder...
The land of unchecked settler harassment, Avi Issacharoff, 7 augustus 2008
The carcass of a butchered donkey is still lying in the olive grove of the Sufan family. Every single week since mid-June, the family, whose home is on the southern edge of the village of Burin, near Nablus, has suffered harassment by settlers living in outposts near the settlement of Yitzhar. Lees verder...
'Worse than apartheid', Gideon Levy, 18 juli 2008
I thought they would feel right at home in the alleys of Balata refugee camp, the Casbah and the Hawara checkpoint. But they said there is no comparison: for them the Israeli occupation regime is worse than anything they knew under apartheid. This week, 21 human rights activists from South Africa visited Israel. Lees verder...
The general of onions and garlic, Gideon Levy, 13 juli 2008
Here is the "next thing" in the war against terror: the war against hairdressers. After Hamas took over half the Palestinian people, in no small measure because of Israel's policies, after we tried to fight Hamas with weapons and siege, destruction and killing, mass arrests and deportations, the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet security service have invented something new: a war on shopping malls, bakeries, schools and orphanages. First in Hebron, now in Nablus. The IDF is closing beauty salons, clothing stores and clinics, and even one dairy farm, all on the pretext that they are connected to Hamas, or the rent they pay is given to a terror organization. Lees verder...
From triumph to torture, John Pilger, 2 juli 2008
Two weeks ago, I presented a young Palestinian, Mohammed Omer, with the 2008 Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism. Awarded in memory of the great US war correspondent, the prize goes to journalists who expose establishment propaganda, or "official drivel", as Gellhorn called it. Mohammed shares the prize of £5,000 with Dahr Jamail. At 24, he is the youngest winner. His citation reads: "Every day, he reports from a war zone, where he is also a prisoner. His homeland, Gaza, is surrounded, starved, attacked, forgotten. He is a profoundly humane witness to one of the great injustices of our time. He is the voice of the voiceless." Lees verder...
Exile, Exclusion, and Isolation – The Palestinian Exile Experience, Karen Koning Abuzayd, 24 juni 2008
The horrors of World War II gave impetus to a quest for universal peace, justice and human dignity, with the United Nations at the fore. It is a disturbing commentary on our quest that as we commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Palestinians mark six decades of what they refer to as the Nakbeh, or catastrophe, with many languishing in conditions of exile, exclusion and isolation. Lees verder...
Quiet is muck, Gideon Levy, 22 juni 2008
A great disaster has suddenly come upon Israel: The cease-fire has gone into effect. Cease-fire, cease-Qassams, cease-assassiations, at least for now. This good, hopeful news was received in Israel dourly, gloomily, even with hostility. As usual, politicians, the military brass and pundits went hand in hand to market the cease-fire as a negative, threatening and disastrous development. Lees verder...
A dubious Israeli spring in Europe, Gideon Levy, 15 juni 2008
How pleasant it is to be an official representative of Israel in Europe right now. It hasn't been so pleasant for a long time. And not just because of the spectacular spring in the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris, the crowded pubs in Athens or the young people sunbathing nude in Stockholm. This is about the fresh sympathy for Israel blowing in from almost every capital. French newspapers went all out for our 60th anniversary, Israeli women soldiers starred on the covers of magazines, and even the Swedish papers lost a little of their interest in the Palestinians' suffering, which had for years won such deep sympathy. Lees verder...
Beyond the make-believe of negotiations, Arjan El Fassed and Ali Abunimah, 4 juni 2008
Just days before heading off to the United States this week, Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert approved the construction of an additional 900 Jewish-only homes in occupied Jerusalem. Indeed, barely a week has passed since last November's gala relaunch of peace talks at Annapolis without Israel announcing new colony projects on occupied land. Since the media handshake orchestrated by the Bush Administration, construction continues in a hundred settlements across the West Bank and settler caravans have been transported to sites east of Israel's illegal West Bank wall. Lees verder...
And the winner is ... the Israel lobby, Pepe Escobar, 3 juni 2008
They're all here - and they're all ready to party. The three United States presidential candidates - John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Madam House speaker Nancy Pelosi. Most US senators and virtually half of the US Congress. Vice President Dick Cheney's wife, Lynne. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Embattled Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. And a host of Jewish and non-Jewish political and academic heavy-hitters among the 7,000 participants. Lees verder...
Rethinking Israel after sixty years, Jeff Halper, mei 2008
Israeli Independence Day 2008, marking the sixtieth anniversary of the rise of the Jewish State on the ruins of Palestinian society, should be cause more for sober reflection and reevaluation than for celebration. Lees verder...
Declaration of refusal to perform military service, Udi Nir, 14 May 2008
A few months ago I met a few Palestinian youths, face to face, for the first time. As a person who has been long engaged in study of and active resistance to the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories and as an activist devoted to preventing human rights violations in the world in general, I did not expect to hear anything that would be unknown or surprising at that meeting. Indeed, the stories I have heard from those youths about the Israeli military's activities in the areas administered by the Palestinian Authority, as horrifying as they were, did not surprise me at all. But the look in the eyes of one Palestinian girl, as she was telling these painful stories, touched me and brought up feelings I had not experienced before. Lees verder...
A human rights crime, Jimmy Carter, 8 mei 2008
The world is witnessing a terrible human rights crime in Gaza, where a million and a half human beings are being imprisoned with almost no access to the outside world. An entire population is being brutally punished. Lees verder...
Isolating Hamas Reinforces Hard-Liners' Stance, Mohamad Bazzi, 20 april 2008
The debate over whether Israel and the West should negotiate with Hamas often misses a crucial point: Hamas is an important political and social force, and no settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is possible without its involvement. More important, the West’s strategy of isolating Hamas is backfiring – and not just because it has failed to turn Palestinians against the group. Lees verder...
Our reign of terror, by the Israeli army, Donald Macintyre, 19 april 2008
The dark-haired 22-year-old in black T-shirt, blue jeans and red Crocs is understandably
hesitant as he sits at a picnic table in the incongruous setting of a beauty spot somewhere in Israel. We know his name and if we used it he would face a criminal investigation and a probable prison sentence. Lees verder (pdf)
Manifest Destiny? Uri Avnery, 14 april 2008
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. But the nation is in no mood for celebrations. It is gloomy. Lees verder...
There Are No Checkpoints In Heaven, Ramzy Baroud, 5 april 2008
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. Lees verder...
Tony Blair And Getting To The Endgame In Palestine, Chris Patten, 1 april 2008
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has many positive attributes, including great charm. He will need all his skills to address the bewildering range of global tasks that he has taken on since being shoehorned out of office by his dour successor, Gordon Brown. His initial daytime job, after running Britain, was to bring peace to the Middle East by helping establish the governing institutions of a Palestinian state. Lees verder...
Praten met Hamas, Sietse Bosgra & Paul Aarts, april 2008
Voor een succesvolle vredesregeling met Israel is een van de belangrijkste vereisten dat die getroffen wordt door een Palestijnse regering die op brede steun van de Palestijnse bevolking kan rekenen. Alleen zo’n regering kan eventuele pijnlijke concessies aan haar achterban verkopen en kan garanderen dat de gemaakte afspraken worden nageleefd. Dat betekent dat de islamitische beweging Hamas weer deel moet uitmaken van het politieke proces in Palestina en het mogelijk toekomstige vredesakkoord zal moeten onderschrijven. Lees verder (pdf)
The Gaza Bombshell, David Rose, april 2008
After failing to anticipate Hamas’s victory over Fatah in the 2006 Palestinian election, the White House cooked up yet another scandalously covert and self-defeating Middle East debacle: part Iran-contra, part Bay of Pigs. With confidential documents, corroborated by outraged former and current U.S. officials, David Rose reveals how President Bush, Condoleezza Rice, and Deputy National-Security Adviser Elliott Abrams backed an armed force under Fatah strongman Muhammad Dahlan, touching off a bloody civil war in Gaza and leaving Hamas stronger than ever. Lees verder...
I'm not a traitor, interview met Ilan Pappe, 15 maart 2008
Controversial historian Ilan Pappe left Israel last year after his endorsement of an academic boycott of Israel exposed him and his family to death threats. Now a professor in England, Pappe maintains that a cultural boycott on his homeland is the only way to end the occupation. Lees verder...
No room for two states, Hassan Nafaa, 10 februari 2008
Is there truly hope for the establishment of a viable, sovereign Palestinian state living side-by-side with Israel in peace? Sadly, I doubt it very much, at least in the foreseeable future, in view of current local, regional and international conditions. The creation of a Palestinian state should not be regarded as an end in itself, but rather as a means for resolving a long and complex historical conflict. Lees verder...
Power to the (Palestinian) People!, Jeff Halper, 23 januari 2008
The people of Palestine have done it again, taking their own fate in their hands after being let down by their own "moderate" political leadership and, indeed, the entire international community in their struggle for freedom. Early this morning they simply blew up the wall separating Gaza from Egypt, breaking a siege imposed on them by an Arab government in collaboration with Israel. Lees verder...
Israel's Settlement-Policy Stumbling-Block in the Middle East Peace Process, Paul J.I.M. De Waart, 15 december 2007
According to Israel's Guide to the Mideast Peace Process, charges regarding the illegality of Israeli settlements in the 1967 Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) have no foundation in international law. Peace efforts between Israel and Palestine will have no chance of success as long as Israel uses its prolonged military occupation to promote and protect its annexation-in-disguise of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. John Dugard has passed on this hard truth consistently as Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the OPT. The international community should take the same hard line towards the Guide as it has done towards the Hamas Charter. If it wants to establish a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, it should not allow Israel to bend the truth any more in respect of the legality of the Israeli settlements in the OPT as Hamas has done in respect of the illegality of Israel. Lees verder...
The grim reality in Gaza, Mohammed Omer, 10 december 2007
Traffic in the Gaza Strip slowed to a trickle last week, and this week medical centres have scaled back treatment in the medicines and sustenance-destitute Strip.
"Israel’s decision is a death penalty: our reserve of fuel is almost zero and it may very likely run out by the end of today," said Khaled Radi, Ministry of Health spokesman for the dismissed Hamas government. Lees verder...
Dignity Denied, rapport International Committee of the Red Cross, november 2007
Throughout the occupied Palestinian territories, in the Gaza Strip as well as in the West Bank, Palestinians continuously face hardship in simply going about their lives; they are
prevented from doing what makes up the daily fabric of most people's existence. The Palestinian territories face a deep human crisis, where millions of people are denied
their human dignity. Not once in a while, but every day. Download hier het rapport van het ICRC (pdf).
Avraham Burg: Apostate or Avatar, John F. Mahoney, oktober-november 2007
Avraham Burg is the author of a new book, “Defeating Hitler,” and the subject of a recent – and provocative – article in The New Yorker magazine. In these publications Burg announces the end of the Zionist enterprise. Want to know, he asks fellow Israelis, why Palestinians blow themselves up in our restaurants? Look at how we treat them. Think our dependence on U.S. dollars and weapons is good? Think again. Want to keep a Jewish majority in our country? No problem. Expel the Arabs or wall them up into Bantustans. Lees verder… (Ook beschikbaar als pdf.)
The Great Middle East Peace Process Scam, Henry Siegman, 16 augustus 2007
When Ehud Olmert and George W. Bush met at the White House in June, they concluded that Hamas’s violent ousting of Fatah from Gaza – which brought down the Palestinian national unity government brokered by the Saudis in Mecca in March – had presented the world with a new ‘window of opportunity’. (Never has a failed peace process enjoyed so many windows of opportunity.) Lees verder...
Palestine: a policy of deliberate blindness, Régis Debray, augustus 2007
Dennis Ross, formerly the United States envoy to the Middle East, admitted back in 2000 that mistakes had been made in the 1978 Camp David accords: the diplomatic process had not taken enough account of developments on the ground, especially the settlements. The number of Jewish settlers in the Palestinian territories doubled from 1994 to 2000. As many Israelis have settled in the West Bank since the Oslo accords of 1993 as in the previous 25 years. With an international conference again being discussed, it would be a mistake to continue to ignore the real state of affairs. Lees verder...
Weapon of the weak, Ghada Karmi, 13 juli 2007
In conflicts, boycotts are the weapons of the weak. Their chief importance lies in their ability to raise public awareness and arouse disapproval. Yet, going by the paranoid reaction to the academic boycott of Israel, it might as well have been a declaration of nuclear war. No peaceable action in recent times has provoked so much anger and hostility as this British-based boycott. Lees verder...
Not only territory, but viability, Jeff Halper, 8 juli 2007
On paper, the headlines sounded promising, even stirring. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, it was reported, told Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas at their meeting in Jericho that he would push for the establishment of a Palestinian state as "fast as possible" on “the equivalent to 100 percent of the territories conquered in 1967.” Lees verder...
Slouching Toward A Palestinian Holocaust, Richard Falk, 7 juli 2007
There is little doubt that the Nazi Holocaust was as close to unconditional evil as has been revealed throughout the entire bloody history of the human species. Its massiveness, unconcealed genocidal intent, and reliance on the mentality and instruments of modernity give its enactment in the death camps of Europe a special status in our moral imagination. Lees verder...
How could Blair possibly get this job?, Robert Fisk, 24 juni 2007
I suppose that astonishment is not the word for it. Stupefaction comes to mind. I simply could not believe my ears in Beirut when a phone call told me that Lord Blair of Kut al-Amara was going to create "Palestine". I checked the date--no, it was not 1 April--but I remain overwhelmed that this vain, deceitful man, this proven liar, a trumped-up lawyer who has the blood of thousands of Arab men, women and children on his hands is really contemplating being "our" Middle East envoy. Lees verder...
Our Second Biggest Mistake in the Middle East, Alastair Crooke, 18 juni 2007
‘The situation in Gaza is dangerous, and the danger is that Hamas will take over and turn Gaza into “Hamastan” – into a kingdom of thugs, murderers, terrorists, poverty and despair.’ This was the reaction of Ephraim Sneh Israel’s deputy defence minister, to Hamas’s seizure of a number of key security institutions in Gaza... Lees verder...
Moderne slavernij op de West Bank, Simone Korkus, juni 2007
De Israëlische Muur heeft industrieparken op de Westbank (deze maand exact veertig jaar bezet) populair gemaakt onder Israëlische ondernemers. Reden: door de enorme werkloosheid zijn duizenden Palestijnen bereid voor een schijntje aan de slag te gaan. ... Lees verder...
UITGELEKT: Rapport van VN-gezant De Soto, mei 2007
“The steps taken by the international community with the presumed purpose of bringing about a Palestinian entity that will live in peace with its neighbour, Israel, have had precisely the opposite effect.” Dit schreef de Peruviaanse diplomaat Alvaro de Soto in een vertrouwelijk rapport. Van juni 2005 tot 7 mei 2007 was De Soto bij de Verenigde Naties de speciale coördinator voor het Midden-Oosten vredesproces. Op 13 juni lekte zijn spraakmakende rapport via de Britse krant The Guardian uit. Download hier het hele rapport van De Soto (pdf).
Etnische zuivering die nooit is gestopt, interview van Eildert Mulder met Ilan Pappe in Trouw, 2 februari 2007
Eens was Ilan Pappe een gewone Israëlische jongen, die dacht dat de Palestijnen in 1948 vrijwillig hun land hadden verlaten. Nu spreekt hij, als historicus, van een etnische zuivering, die nooit is gestopt. „Veiligheid boven alles stellen kan niet. Ik wil geen Zuid-Afrikaanse Boer worden.” Lees verder...
De verdeelde hoofdstad, artikel van correspondent Alex Burghoorn in de Volkskrant, 3 juni 2006
De afscheidingsmuur rondom Jeruzalem is bijna af. De Israëlische hoofdstad ‘verjoodst’ volgens plan ten koste van de Palestijnse bewoners. ‘Het is een puur demografische berekening om zo veel mogelijk Palestijnen buiten te sluiten.’ Lees verder...
Punishing the innocent is a crime, Jimmy Carter, 7 mei 2006
Innocent Palestinian people are being treated like animals, with the presumption that they are guilty of some crime. Because they voted for candidates who are members of Hamas, the United States government has become the driving force behind an apparently effective scheme of depriving the general public of income, access to the outside world and the necessities of life. Lees verder...
Avoiding Failure with Hamas, Robert Malley, 10 april 2006
Can Hamas change? For European officials in the midst of formulating policy toward the Palestinian Authority the only answer they can offer at the moment is a resounding maybe.
In a dizzying fluctuation between the conciliatory and the confrontational, the Islamist movement has more or less maintained a cease-fire; its government has suggested respect for past agreements with the caveat that these must serve Palestinian interests; and officials hint that one day they would accept a two-state solution... Lees verder...
Back to 1967 - Hamas' failure to recognise Israel will not be an issue if Palestine itself is recognised, Alastair Crooke, april 2006
On the face of it, the Hamas refusal to recognise Israel seems singularly perverse; plainly Israel “exists”! Tel Aviv is a large modern city that shows no sign of any imminent slide into the sea. To us in the west, this posture has the taint of ideological backwardness which we often associate with Islamist movements whom we find curiously at odds with modern
reality. Hamas, however, is neither stuck in the past nor unable “to do politics”. Lees verder...
The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, John J. Mearsheimer en Stephen M. Walt, maart 2006
U.S. foreign policy shapes events in every corner of the globe. Nowhere is this truer than in the Middle East, a region of recurring instability and enormous strategic importance. Most recently, the Bush Administration’s attempt to transform the region into a community of democracies has helped produce a resilient insurgency in Iraq, a sharp rise in world oil prices, and terrorist bombings in Madrid, London, and Amman.
With so much at stake for so many, all countries need to understand the forces that drive U.S. Middle East policy. The U.S. national interest should be the primary object of American foreign policy. For the past several decades, however, and especially since the Six Day War in 1967, the centerpiece of U.S. Middle East policy has been its relationship with Israel. Download hier dit spraakmakende onderzoek van twee vooraanstaande Amerikaanse professoren (pdf)
UITGELEKT: Jerusalem and Ramallah Heads of Mission – Report on East Jerusalem, uitgelekt in november in 2005
East Jerusalem is of central importance to the Palestinians in political, economic,
social and religious terms. Several inter-linked Israeli policies are reducing the
possibility of reaching a final status agreement on Jerusalem, and demonstrate a
clear Israeli intention to turn the annexation of East Jerusalem into a concrete fact... Download hier dit uitgelekte rapport van Europese topdiplomaten, dat door hun eigen regeringen in de doofpot is gestopt. (pdf)
Israëls grote bouwoffensief tegen de Palestijnen, artikel van correspondent Oscar Garschagen in NRC, 15 oktober 2005
Het vredesproces tussen Israël en de Palestijnen ligt stil. Intussen is Israël hard aan het bouwen in zijn nederzettingen op de bezette Westelijke Jordaanoever en aan de veiligheidsmuur eromheen die het karakter van een grens krijgt. Lees verder...
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