May 29, 2012

RAMALLAH, May 29 (Xinhua) -- A shipment of diesel donated by Qatar for Gaza's power plant will enter the Gaza Strip on Sunday, weeks after being stuck at Egyptian warehouses, a Palestinian official said Tuesday.

Nazmi Muhana, the head of the Palestinian borders and crossings body, said that an agreement was reached between the Palestinian National Authority, Israel and Egypt on the delivery of the fuel.

UN official criticizes Israel over ongoing Gaza blockade

The UN official responsible for Palestinian refugees said Tuesday that Israel [16] has been too slow to relax its blockade of Gaza [17], which has devastated the isolated economy and failed to achieve its security goals.

After deal, Israel still jailing Palestinians without charge

RAMALLAH (Reuters) -- An Egyptian-brokered deal that ended a mass hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails has failed to meet hopes that Israel would change its policy of detention without trial.

In the two weeks since some 2,000 inmates agreed to end their hunger strike, more than 25 prisoners have either been rearrested after their release or had their six-month "administrative detention" terms renewed, Palestinian officials said on Monday.

Palestinian Airlines resumes flights after 7 years

MARKA AIRBASE, Jordan – Palestinian Airlines is back in the skies after being grounded for seven years by the deepening enmities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Once hailed as a symbol of Palestinian statehood dreams, the carrier is a tiny operation, with just two 48-seat turboprop planes, two weekly flights and a borrowed hub in Egypt.

But Palestinians say just being on the map again is what matters.

People Power for Peace

June 5, 2012 marks the 45th anniversary of the start of the Six-Day War. One of us experienced the war in Jerusalem at the age of 11, and the other in Beirut at age 4, yet it haunts us to this day. The war led to the ongoing Israeli military occupation that has come to define the conflict. It has lessened neither the fears of the triumphant Israelis, nor those of the defeated Arabs; the mindset of confrontation that produced the war still haunts the region.

The frayed truth of Operation Magic Carpet

In Israel's collective memory, the aliyah from Yemen is remembered as a rescue: Jews were whisked from oppression and replanted safely in the Land of Israel.

When the next intifada breaks out, Netanyahu will have only himself to blame

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's sword-polishing hasn't frightened the Iranians, according to recent reports about last week's nuclear talks in Baghdad. Foot-dragging by Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei opposite the six world powers has been accompanied by an attempt to strengthen the Iranian foothold in Lebanon.

Use your imagination

Okay, for the sake of argument, let’s say all those (on the right and the left) who say it is too late for the two-state solution are correct. Let’s agree that the Oslo idea was nice in theory but in reality is/was not implementable. History, so far, is on their side; after all of the years of negotiations and attempts, there is no Palestinian state next to Israel.

Op-Ed: When Israel lacks leadership, we should speak up

When a family member behaves self-destructively, what do you do? Do you become an apologist, an enabler, or do you call him out? Do you blame everyone else but him, or do you intervene? Do you sit back and just hope things will improve on their own, or do you take urgent action?

U.N.'s Much-Reviled But Helpful Agency

On a recent Sunday morning, I paid a visit to a women’s community center in Zeitun, an outlying neighborhood in Gaza City that is run by United Nations Relief and Works Agency. It was packed. Behind one curtain, several middle school girls were getting an English lesson to supplement their formal instruction. In another room, women in their 20s were learning how to write a résumé and cover letter. Behind another door was a group of mothers getting assistance on how to help their children with homework.

Palestinian dimension in Egypt's presidential poll

Khaled Ali, a lawyer and a candidate in the Egyptian presidential elections, has said that any settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, even one that would force Israel to pull back to its pre-1967 borders, will not satisfy him. Another candidate, Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, vowed to amend the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel if he were elected.

'Artists should not boycott other artists'

As a fierce May sun scours Tel Aviv's Bauhaus-style "White City", it's cool down in the compact "cellar" theatre of Habima.

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