Here is a blog chronicling life under Israeli occupation.

Raising Yousuf: a diary of a mother under occupation

Bread runs out in face of Israeli closure Walking around Gaza today, one would have thought there was a war looming (well, I guess we are in a perpetual state of low-intensity war, but still). Most bakeries throughout the city were closed by mid-afternoon, with the only remaining ones jam-packed with customers, lines extending out to the streets till late at night. The reason: flour stocks have officially run out in Gaza due to a 44-day and going-strong Israeli-imposed closure of the only commerical crossing for goods and humanitarian supplies. Palestinians in Gaza consume around 350 tons of flour per day, but all flour mills have shut down due to the depletion of wheat stocks, and bakeries are working through their last bags of stored flour. As word of the shortage spread, residents flocked to bakeries-in many cases bringing their own bags of flour with them.

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  thanks to 'Just World News' by Helena Cobban

Interview with Zahhar

AP is reporting today that Mahmoud Zahhar, one of the co-founders of Hamas, "most likely will be named foreign minister, according to a preliminary list of Cabinet ministers given to The Associated Press by officials in Hamas and the PFLP." So I thought I should quickly write up the interview I conducted with Dr. Zahhar in his mosque-side Gaza home, after the end of evening prayers on March 6. In it, he oozed self-confidence, and a determination that the Hamas government would not be making the kinds of concessions to Israel and the west that were what, in the view of many Hamas supporters, had led Mahmoud Abbas's Fateh Party into such a non-productive and humiliating dead end. Zahhar described a Hamas program that for the next two years would focus on rebuilding the Palestinians' own society as much as possible, while quite possibly redirecting Gaza's economic links away from Israel and towards Egyp--, and that would not necessarily involve any negotiations at all with Israel. At one point, when I asked if Hamas could do anything to help reassure Israelis, he answered flatly, "They should be scared, because whenever they felt a sense of security they felt it would be okay to make aggressions... When they felt insecurity, was when they withdrew. And that was a big victory for us."

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Colonization of Palestine Precludes Peace
by Jimmy Carter

For more than a quarter century, Israeli policy has been in conflict with that of the United States and the international community. Israel’s occupation of Palestine has obstructed a comprehensive peace agreement in the Holy Land, regardless of whether Palestinians had no formalized government, one headed by Yasir Arafat or Mahmoud Abbas, or with Abbas as president and Hamas controlling the parliament and cabinet.

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  thanks to Politics in the Zeros

Sa'adat kidnap boosts Olmert's election campaign

There are many reasons for the raid on Jericho prison. One of them is the Israeli election. Palestinians know from experience that before every election Israel becomes more brutal. The latest poll conducted by Ha'aretz shows a serious increase in the support for Kadima and its leader Ehud Olmert. Another reason is to send Hamas a message: They will not be accepted and the agreements between Israel and the previous PA are no longer valid. The arrival of Israeli tanks just twenty minutes after the withdrawal of the British and American guards from the prison shows that Israel is not the only one sending this message. This comes as yet another slap of blatant contradiction in the face, as the EU and the US have been consistently demanding that Hamas respect all previous agreements with Israel.

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No Immunity
Israel's Policy of Targeted Assassination

Gangland violence is making us safer. That's the message we hear today from Israel's Defense Minister, Shaul Mofaz, who not only defended the practice of "targeted assassination" but threatened to use the controversial tactic against Palestine's new Prime Minister-designate, Ismail Haniya.

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The Missing Word
Have Israelis Given Up on Peace?

In English, a "four-letter word" is a rude expletive. It is a vulgar description of a sexual act or organ, and an educated person will not use it. Now it appears that in the Hebrew language, too, there is a four-letter word, which a decent person will not use, especially not in an election campaign. A (politically) correct person will avoid it at all costs. That word is Peace (which in Hebrew consists of four letters).

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