Philly Remembers Al-Nakba... 60 Days for 60 Years

It is inspirational to find Palestine richly meditated in poetry. Two new poetry collections provide a robust testament to that -- One collection is by the Palestinian-American poet Sharif S. Elmusa, Flawed Landscape, and the other is made of selected works by various poets edited by Remi Kanazi, Poets for Palestine. Atef Alshaer reviews for The Electronic Intifada.

The Alternative Information Center (AIC) wrote a critical letter to the British PR firm, Ananchi, which was hired by the Israeli Foreign Ministry for a new campaign to give Israel a public relations facelift. 6 October 2008 Fiona Gilmore, Chairperson Acanchi Fax: +44(0)207 287 8600 Dear Ms. Gilmore, The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported today that you and the company you founded, Acanchi, have been hired by the Israeli Foreign Ministry to develop a brand for Israel that is “disconnected from the Arab-Israeli conflict […] (and) that focuses instead on Israel’s scientific and cultural achievements.” As a joint Palestinian-Israeli organization working for a just peace and secure life for Palestinians and Israelis, we are most concerned by this report. Acanchi’s website notes that you embark on a “rigourous journey of discovery” when defining a brand for a country. We trust that comprehensive research methodology dictated that this journey included meetings with representatives of the more than 5.5 million Palestinians living under Israeli occupation in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, in addition to the 25,000 residents of the occupied Syrian Golan Heights. It is impossible to understand our local reality without meeting with Palestinian civil society and political leaders. For more than 40 years, Israel has violated the most fundamental human rights of the Palestinian people—their right to life, freedom of movement, freedom of association and the right to their own sovereign state. These ongoing human rights violations are implemented through the violent force of the Israeli military and the crushing bureaucracy of the Israeli “civil administration” that governs the occupied Palestinian territories. This is the reality in which we live. There is obviously more to Israeli society and its daily experiences than the occupation of the Palestinian territories, but the occupation is the shadow under which everything else necessarily exists. By acting to associate Israel with things other than the Israeli-Arab conflict, you would unfortunately be directly contributing to the ongoing violations of Palestinian human rights and a prolongation of the conflict. Until we all—Israelis, Palestinians and the international community—deal with reality here as it truly is and not as public relations campaigns may like it to be, we have no chance to create a just and secure peace in the region. Accordingly, the Alternative Information Center (AIC) (www.alternativenews.org) would be pleased to arrange meetings and discussion for you and your staff with various representatives of Palestinian grassroots civil society, in addition to Israeli and Palestinians working together for peace and justice and marginalized Israeli communities impoverished by global trends and political processes that do not take their voices into account. Without peace and justice for everyone in the region, there can be no true prosperity and development for either Israelis or Palestinians. Thank you for your attention and we look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, Connie Hackbarth Executive Director

The Hamas-dominated Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), decided on Monday that president Abbas' term in office ends officially on January08, 2009, therefore Abbas becomes an illegal president of the Palestinian Authority.

British PR firm, Ananchi, which focuses on corporate branding for countries in need of a public relations facelift, was hired by the Israeli Foreign Ministry for a new campaign. Haaretz (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1026633.html)reports today that the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has signed a contract with British public relations firm, Acanchi (www.acanchi.com (http://www.acanchi.com/)), to develop a brand for Israel that is “disconnected from the Arab-Israeli conflict […] (and) that focuses instead on Israel’s scientific and cultural achievements.” Acanchi, which describes itself as believing that “success for a country, city or region brand can be achieved by discovering, defining and channeling this chi into a brand positioning that reflects the core truths of a place,” claims to embark on a “rigorous journey of discover” in deciding upon a brand. Ido Aharoni, the Israeli Foreign Ministry official in charge of this program, noted that “even those who recognize that Israel is in the right are not attracted to it, because they see it as a supplier of bad news. The conclusion is that it is more important for Israel to be attractive than to be right.” Israel is neither attractive nor right, and no amount of fantasy public relations can change reality: Israel is an occupying country that violates the most fundamental human rights of the Palestinian people, and has done so for more than 40 years. Write to Fiona Gilmore of Acanchi and tell her she cannot airbrush the Palestinian people or the ongoing Israeli occupation out of reality. By doing so, she would be directly contributing to a prolongation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the daily violation of Palestinian individual and national rights. Only by directly confronting and dealing with reality as it truly is, can justice and a joint and secure life for Palestinians and Israelis ever be achieved. Fiona Gilmore Acanchi 32-34 Great Marlborough Street London W1F 7JB United Kingdom Tel: +44(0)207 287 4600 Fax: +44(0)207 287 8600 Email: info@acanchi.com (mailto:info@acanchi.com)

On Saturday 4 October two international human rights observers accompanied a Gazan fishing boat in its daily work, important not only for the fishermen’s families but also for the Palestinian economy in general, especially in the besieged Gaza Strip. When the fishing boat was at about 8 nautical miles from the ...

window.document.getElementById('post-3489').parentNode.className += ' adhesive_post'; Israeli forces marked the beginning of the olive harvest season by forcing Palestinian farmers from their lands in Tell. After the recent rain in Palestine, the 2008 Olive Harvest Campaign was launched today, ten days earlier than planned. For more information on the campaign please click here On Sunday ...

Report by Popular Committee Against the Wall in Bilin To view website click here Friday 3/10/2008 The residents of Bil’in, joined by international and Israeli activists, gathered to demonstrate against the Apartheid Wall and settlement building on the 3rd October. The protesters raised the Palestinian flag and banners to commemorate the Eid, calling ...

The non-violent resistance continues in Ni’lin, as the demonstrations are consistently taking place against the apartheid wall. On Friday, October 3rd, around 200 people participated in the weekly prayer demonstration that followed the Friday prayer in the fields of the village. After the prayer took place at noon; village residents, ...

To view original article, published by the Maan News Agency on the 3rd October, click here Ni’lin - Ma’an – Settlers near Ramallah in the central West Bank and Hebron in the south clashed with Palestinians and peace activists as they sought to harvest olives from areas confiscated by Israel. Both ...

To view original article, published by the Maan News Agency on the 3rd October, click here Jewish settlers are committing hundreds of acts of violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, Israel’s chief military officer in the occupied West Bank said on Thursday. Settlers are also escalating attacks on Israeli soldiers who ...

There has been a noticeable surge in attacks by Israeli settlers throughout the West Bank over the past few months, with a large percentage of those attacks coming from the illegal settlements in the Nablus region. Residents of the Palestinian villages in this region have borne the brunt of ...

Within 48 hours of Yahya Atta Rayahin Bani Minnah’s death, the official Israeli statement on the cause of death changed considerably. As documented in previous report, the Israeli army physician who was present at the scene of the murder told the mayor of Aqraba, Mr Jabr, directly that the ...

On Saturday 27 September settlers from the illegal outpost of Itamar settlement, to the east of Nablus city, executed 18 year old shepherd Yahya Atta Rayahin Bani Minnah from Aqraba village. Yahya Minnah had left the village of Aqraba in the early morning along with a number of other shepherds to ...

window.document.getElementById('post-3381').parentNode.className += ' adhesive_post'; Farm Against Apartheid With rapidly escalating levels of settler violence in the West Bank, the International Solidarity Movement is issuing an urgent call for volunteers to participate in its 2008 Olive Harvest Campaign. The olive tree is a national symbol for Palestinians. As thousands of olive trees have been ...

In August, the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, the international watchdog organization, asked three Israeli companies to respond to a report by an Israeli non-governmental organization that protested the treatment of Palestinian workers at West Bank settlement industrial parks. EI contributor Adri Nieuwhof reports on how Israeli companies profit from the exploitation of Palestinian labor in West Bank settlement industrial parks.

RAMALLAH, West Bank (IPS) - An Israeli police commander has called them "provocateurs," "militants," and "lawbreakers." Earlier in the year the Israeli army decided that their presence in the city of Hebron, 30 kilometers south of Jerusalem in the Palestinian West Bank, constituted a security threat and banned them from the city, stating that any member of the organization caught there would be expelled forthwith.

A new report by the Palestinian Sports Foundation 'Atlas' contends that the Israeli government is in violation of the International Olympic Charter, due to the Israeli military's ongoing targeting of Palestinian athletes.

Israeli Foreign Minister, in charge of forming the new Israeli government, Tzipi Livni, stated on Sunday that peace talks with the Palestinians should resume as planned in the Annapolis summit and added that “so far nothing has been agree upon until an agreement on everything is reached”.

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns the attack, and subsequent humiliations, of former Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) member, Rafat al-Najjar (65), his wife, son and brother-in-law by the Palestinian police in Khan Younis.

According to eyewitness reports, recent Israeli invasions have included soldiers digging up graves in Jenin and desecrating copies of the Qu'ran, the Muslim holy book, by tearing it apart and throwing it in the toilet in several different cities.