Israel/ Palestine

By Ben Tavener – IMEMC/PNN – Venezuela will boost its diplomatic representation in Palestine to full embassy status, according to the Venezuelan minister for foreign affairs. “Following instructions from President Nicolás Maduro, we will raise our representation in the heroic Palestinian states to embassy level,” Delcy Rodríguez announced on social media Thursday evening. Venezuela is […]

Apartheid

World Bank Warns of Total Collapse of Economy in Gaza

contributors

IMEMC | — The World Bank will be presenting a report to the bi-annual Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC) meeting on May 27, 2015 in Brussels that highlights the Gaza Strip’s economic status under Israel’s blockade. In 2014, Gaza’s unemployment rate reached 43%, the highest in the world. The youth unemployment in Gaza is at […]

Apartheid

Digital Militarism: Israel’s Occupation in the Social Media Age

contributors

by JULIE POUCHER HARBIN, EDITOR, ISLAMiCommentary — Q & A with REBECCA STEIN: Digital Militarism: Israel’s Occupation in the Social Media Age (Stanford University Press, April 2015), by scholars Adi Kunstman and Rebecca Stein, has been called “a pioneering book, showing how information and communication technologies have turned into wartime arsenals, and the Internet and […]

Apartheid

Israel Pushes Negev Bedouin Palestinians into a Corner

contributors

By Ari Heistein | (Informed Comment) | – Israel’s latest move to demolish a Bedouin village and replace it with homes for Jewish citizens is no surprise to anyone familiar with the state’s policies in the Negev. Beginning in the 1970s, the State of Israel launched a campaign to push the Negev Bedouin from […]

Apartheid

Who does Jerusalem belong To?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – Far right Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu commemorated Israel’s “Jerusalem Day” with a speech in which he said, “Jerusalem was always the capital of the Jewish people only, and no other,” and warned that Muslim terrorism menaced it. Jerusalem, Daru Shalem, was founded sometime between 6500 and […]

Apartheid

Illegal Israeli Squatters uproot hundreds of Palestinian olive trees near Hebron

contributors

HEBRON (Ma’an) – Israeli settlers destroyed and uprooted hundreds of olive saplings in the Palestinian town of al-Shuyoukh northeast of Hebron in the southern West Bank. Local activist Ahmad al-Halayqa told Ma’an that about 80 acres of land planted with olive saplings had been vandalized by Jewish settlers from nearby illegal settlements and outposts. This […]

Apartheid

Palestinian Christians, under Pressure, Honored by Pres. Abbas as they welcome New Saints

contributors

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — In the run up to Pope Francis’ canonization of two Palestinian nuns, President Mahmoud Abbas praises Palestinian Christians for the “distinctive dimension” their community and history gives to the Palestinian struggle. “On this holy occasion we would like to express appreciation to our Palestinian Christian brothers for their steadfastness and effective contribution […]

Apartheid

Palestinian Catastrophe Day: Injuries as Israeli Soldiers Attack Peaceful Nil’in Protest

contributors

By Saed Bannoura | (IMEMC News) | – More than 1,200 Palestinians, accompanied by Israeli and international peace activists, marched in the weekly protest in Ni’lin village on Friday, near the central West Bank city of Ramallah, marking the 67th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (May 15 1948). Five Palestinians were shot, and dozens more […]

Christianity

Palestinians welcome Pope’s Recognition of their State

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole The Arabic press widely and favorably reported the news that the Vatican has recognized Palestine as a state in a new treaty with it, despite a strong protest from Israel. The recognition was of Palestine within 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as its capital. It came as part of a treaty between the […]