What's New on EI?
This page offers an extended What's New? section that lists the latest additons to EI in reverse chronological order, with descriptive summaries and thumbnail images.
Lebanon :
Human Rights/Development:
Army "under tremendous pressure" but still united
Report, Electronic Lebanon, 14 May 2008
BEIRUT, 13 May (IRIN) - The army's pledge to use force if necessary to impose law and order puts the only fully functioning national institution into the centre of Lebanon's violent crisis. But although strained, analysts say the military remains united. "There is no civil authority in the country now, so the army is under tremendous pressure," said Timor Goksell, a security expert and former spokesman of UN peacekeeping forces who coordinate with the military in south Lebanon.
[MORE]
Palestine :
Human Rights:
Gaza lives being put at risk
Report, PCHR, 14 May 2008
As the grueling Gaza fuel crisis continues, so does the strain on local public transport services, including ambulances, across the Gaza Strip. Approximately 15 percent of local public services are operating across Gaza, whilst up to 90 percent of private cars remain off the roads, and all of Gaza's 450 fuel stations remain closed. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights speaks with medial professionals working under siege. [MORE]
Lebanon :
Opinion/Editorial:
Bush tour diminished by Hizballah show of force
Jim Lobe, Electronic Lebanon, 13 May 2008
WASHINGTON, 12 May (IPS) - While this week's trip by US President George W. Bush to Israel, Saudi Arabia and Egypt was never conceived as a triumphant "victory lap" around the region, the swift rout of US-backed forces by Lebanon's Hizballah Friday has provided yet another vivid illustration of the rapid decline in Washington's influence in the Middle East during his tenure. [MORE]
Lebanon :
Diaries: Live from Lebanon:
Behind Beirut's Sport City
Rami Zurayk, Live from Lebanon, 13 May 2008
Najwa cleans the houses of the rich in Beirut. She lives with her son in the limbo spreading between the Stadium (Cite Sportive) and the Sabra Palestinian camp. Sociologists often refer to the Palestinian camps in Lebanon as a "space of exclusion": the laws governing life in the camps are different from those governing life in the rest of Lebanon. Najwa's neighborhood is an exclusion from the exclusion: no laws apply there. Rami Zurayk writes from Beirut. [MORE]
Lebanon :
Human Rights/Development:
Lebanon violence moves outside of Beirut
Report, Electronic Lebanon, 13 May 2008
BEIRUT, 12 May (IRIN) - Sporadic clashes between pro- and anti-government forces continued on 12 May in areas around the northern port city of Tripoli and the eastern Bekaa Valley as the Arab League announced mediators would arrive in Beirut on 14 May. A security official reported Shia Hizballah gunmen had clashed with supporters of the government around Masnaa, the main border crossing into Syria in the Bekaa valley. [MORE]
Palestine :
Opinion/Editorial:
Remembering 1948 and looking to the future
Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 13 May 2008
This month Israel marks the 60th anniversary of its founding. But amidst the festivities including visits by international celebrities and politicians there is deep unease -- Israel has skeletons in its closet that it has tried hard to hide, and anxieties about an uncertain future which make many Israelis question whether the state will celebrate an 80th birthday. EI co-founder Ali Abunimah comments.
[MORE]
Palestine :
Diaries: Live from Palestine:
Gaza residents queue overnight for cooking gas
Rami Almeghari, Live from Palestine, 13 May 2008
Gaza's 1.5 million residents need at least 300 to 350 tons of cooking gas on a daily basis, yet according to al-Khozendar, Israel is important less than half the necessary fuel. The shortage of gas has further restricted the movement of Palestinians in Gaza throughout the region, causing motorists to improvise their means of fuel and paralyzing the transportation sector. Late January of this year Israeli Prime Minister stated that "We will not let the residents of Gaza lead a comfortable and pleasant life" so long as rockets are fired from the Strip, EI correspondent Rami Almeghari writes from Gaza. [MORE]
Palestine :
Opinion/Editorial:
Forget the two-state solution
Saree Makdisi, The Los Angeles Times, 12 May 2008
There is no longer a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Forget the endless arguments about who offered what and who spurned whom and whether the Oslo peace process died when Yasser Arafat walked away from the bargaining table or whether it was Ariel Sharon's stroll through the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem that did it in. Saree Makdisi comments. [MORE]
Palestine :
Journalists in Danger:
West Bank journalists detained by PA intelligence
Report, PCHR, 12 May 2008
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) strongly condemns the distention of three Palestinian journalists and a columnist by the Palestinian General Intelligence Service in Bethlehem and Qalqilya towns in the West Bank on Thursday, 8 May 2008. PCHR believes that such arrests constitute an attack on press freedoms and the right to freedom of expression, which are ensured by the Palestinian Basic Law and international human rights instruments. [MORE]
Lebanon :
Human Rights/Development:
Washington rallies behind embattled Lebanese government
Khody Akhavi, Electronic Lebanon, 12 May 2008
WASHINGTON, 12 May (IPS) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pledged her administration's support for the Lebanese government Friday in the aftermath of Hizballah's takeover of West Beirut, accusing the Iranian-backed group of "killing innocent civilians" in a bid to "protect their state-within-a-state." Three days of intense clashes between government and opposition supporters last week left at least 18 people dead and 38 wounded [MORE]
Palestine :
Diaries: Live from Palestine:
Photostory: Total occupation, a journey around Hebron
Eddie Vassallo, Live from Palestine, 12 May 2008
With 400 hard-line religious settlers packed tightly amidst more than 160,000 Palestinians in the center of Hebron's Old City, violence is not a probability, it is a given. Add to that the nearly 2,000 Israeli troops assigned to "protect" the settlers and you can begin to understand how peace is a little more than a word in this part of the West Bank. Eddie Vassallo's pictures tell a story of occupied Hebron. [MORE]
Lebanon :
Diaries: Live from Lebanon:
The time zones of Lebanon
Rami Zurayk, Electronic Lebanon, 11 May 2008
This is what I have to say about the latest series of political speeches in Lebanon: Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah speaks as if there is no future, but March 14 government coalition leaders Walid Jumblat, Saad Hariri and Fouad Siniora speak as if there is no past. For Nasrallah, the past performance and actions of the Loyalists is the only reference point. Rami Zurayk writes from Beirut. [MORE]
Palestine :
Human Rights:
Report: Ethnic cleansing continues in Jaffa
Report, Arab Associatoin for Human Rights, 11 May 2008
A new report from Arab Association for Human Rights documents the danger of eviction facing the Palestinian residents of the Ajami neighborhood in Jaffa and reveals the true motives behind this process. For these residents, ethnic cleansing did not end in 1948. It continues to this day, albeit by different means. The process being implemented in Jaffa (and in other locations in Israel) amounts to the "quiet transfer" of the Palestinian residents.
[MORE]
Lebanon :
Human Rights/Development:
Hizballah, in opposition, takes charge
Mona Alami, Electronic Lebanon, 11 May 2008
BEIRUT, 10 May (IPS) - At least 11 people are dead and 30 injured during ferocious gun battles pitting opposition Shia Amal and Hizballah fighters against members of the Sunni Future Movement, which is part of the majority March 14 alliance in government. As the opposition's militia men clamped down on government headquarters, the balance of power seems to have been shifted permanently in the Land of the Cedars. [MORE]
Lebanon :
Opinion/Editorial:
Lebanon in crisis: an interview with editor Samah Idriss
Stefan Christoff, Electronic Lebanon, 10 May 2008
Lebanon is currently facing a major political crisis, as armed battles have erupted in multiple districts of Beirut between pro-government and opposition forces forces led the Lebanese resistance movement Hizballah. Hizballah-led opposition forces took control of West Beirut, and handed certain areas over to the Lebanese army as the political standoff in the country continues. Stefan Christoff speaks with editor Samah Idriss in Beirut about the tense situation in Lebanon.
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