Adri Nieuwhof, Electronic Intifada, 27 October 2009

Photo: Scott Weinstein Israel’s wall next to Har Homa settlement in the West Bank

Several Western pension funds and financial managers hold shares in two Israeli banks: Bank Hapoalim and Bank Leumi. Both banks operate in and offer loans to finance illegal settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian and Syrian territories.

Bank Hapoalim, Israel’s largest bank, was established in 1921 by the Israeli trade union Histadrut and the World Zionist Organization. It was nationalized in 1983 but privatized again in 1996. Founded in 1902 and originally named the Anglo-Palestine Bank, Bank Leumi is Israel’s second-largest bank. Both banks have branches in the settlements of Gilo and Pisgat Ze’ev, located in the occupied West Bank. Bank Hapoalim also has branches in the Ramot settlement in occupied East Jerusalem as well as the occupied Golan Heights. Meanwhile, Bank Leumi maintains branches in the settlements of Ma’ale Adumim, Oranit, Kiryat Arba, all in the occupied West Bank, and Katzrin in the Golan Heights.

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Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendler, Electronic Intifada, 30 October 2009

Photo: Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions. Destroyed Palestinian home.

Sur Baher, occupied East Jerusalem (IPS) – “We knew something bad was about to happen when we saw the roadblocks being thrown up, and police everywhere. It soon came down the grapevine — the Israelis were demolishing more houses.”

Naim Awisat, an East Jerusalem Palestinian community leader and entrepreneur, drove quickly down America Way (the winding old valley road that links the city’s southern neighborhoods of the Holy Basin with the walled Old City and its holy sites) to Salaa, a rundown quarter at the heart of the wadi.

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Daily Star by Dalila Mahdawi, Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Photo: Stefan Christoff Wires over the street in Ein El Hilweh

BEIRUT: Most Palestinian refugees in southern Lebanon believe greater interaction with their Lebanese neighbors would help dismantle the prejudices and misconceptions that abound between the two communities, a recent report said.

The report, entitled “Community Perspectives on Protection: A Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices Analysis of Palestinian Communities in Southern Lebanon,” also found Palestinians endured high levels of familial and community violence because residents of formal camps and informal gatherings lack the necessary space and institutions where they can otherwise release their frustration.

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photo essay by photographer Claudia Espinosa

Photo: Claudia Espinosa. DAM performs in Montreal with Narcicyst

Hundreds gathered in Montreal for the ninth Artists Against Apartheid concert featuring DAM, the celebrated Palestinian hip-hop group, who took the stage in Montreal for the first time at Café Campus.

Joining DAM at the concert was Montreal-based Iraqi hip-hop artist the Narcicyst, along with MCs from the celebrated local hip-hop group Nomadic Massive

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October 2009 Independent by Kate Allen

Photo: Israeli settlement in Palestine currently under construction.

In the 1968 film “The Swimmer”, starring Burt Lancaster, the hero hits on the idea of getting home by swimming the length of various pools owned by his rich friends in a leafy north-eastern US state.

Captivated by the sight of a string of luminous blue pools stretching into the distance, he embarks on this crazy scheme in what becomes a symbolic plunge into his own fractured psyche. It turns out that Ned, Lancaster’s character, has forgotten what has happened in his own life. The swimming pool plan slowly reveals itself as a disastrous attempt to recover his home and loved ones.

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report Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting FAIR – October 2009

Photo: Palestinians in the West Bank protesting against Israeli occupation.

The Obama administration’s push to freeze Israeli construction of illegal colonies in the West Bank has brought the settlement question back to the fore of media coverage.

On July 27, Time published a rather long piece by Nina Burleigh on Israeli settlements under the headline “Two Views of the Land.” The first view was Israeli: The Katzes, very normal, gentle people readers can identify with (they’re even from New York!), “consider themselves law-abiding citizens” and do earnest and upstanding things like “publish a small community magazine and take part in civic projects. Sharon raises money for charity by putting on tap-dancing and theater shows.” There was a smiling family portrait, and a picture of settlers playing in a swimming pool with their kids. They “don’t think their town is an obstacle to peace.”

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Monday Oct. 26 2009 Reuters by Nidal al-Mughrabi.

Photo: Displaced Palestinian youth in Gaza Strip winter 2009.

Gaza, Oct 26 – Gaza schools damaged by Israeli bombing will be exposed to the cold and rain this winter unless Israel relaxes its blockade to permit the import of windows, doors and building materials, officials said.

Officials of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and Gaza’s Education Ministry say thousands of pupils face “darkness and cold” this winter in poorly lit and sparsely furnished schoolrooms.

Ministry spokesman Khaled Radi said more than 170 schools that suffered some damaged in the three-week Israeli offensive from Dec. 27 to Jan. 18 had not yet been repaired.

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Sarah Irving, Electronic Intifada 26 October 2009.

Photo: Nanjing subway station, Shanghai, China.

George Habash, the late leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), called China Palestine’s “best friend.” Indeed, he was on an official PFLP visit to China when the conflict between Palestinian forces and the Hashemite Kingdom erupted in Jordan in 1970, the events later known as “Black September.”

Habash had good reason to appreciate China’s friendship at the time. According to Dr. Yukiko Miyagi of the UK-based Centre for the Advanced Study of the Arab World (CASAW), one characteristic of the People’s Republic’s policy toward the Arab states and political movements in the 1960s was high-profile support for the Palestinian liberation movement.

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photo essay by Valérian Mazataud

Photo: Valérian Mazataud. Israeli occupation forces launch teargas at protests, Nil’in.

Palestinian protests in opposition to Israel’s ‘separation barrier’ or apartheid wall have spread across the West Bank in recent years, as popular protest committees have formed in multiple cities, many holding weekly demonstrations as in Bil’in and Nil’in villages.

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Download report from Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign

Photo: Valerian Mazataud Child at protests in Bil’in, Palestine.

It has been five years since the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued its advisory opinion on the Wall in the occupied Palestinian territory – where they held in a unanimous opinion that it was illegal and should be dismantled. No significant advance in the situation on the ground has been achieved, and the Wall construction continues relentlessly. Instead, since the Court started its hearings in February 2004, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have intensified repression of the affected villages struggling against the Wall, killing the first activists.

The gaze of the international community must now turn not only to the illegality and injustice of the Wall, but also to the plight of those still attempting to resist its construction. In villages across the West Bank, local residents have formed committees and taken on a campaign of mass popular resistance to the Wall, engaging in weekly, and even daily, demonstrations. These communities have faced a staggering level of repression and violence from the Israeli authorities. It is the aim of this report to investigate that repression and to determine its true extent and nature.

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