MER Article Olives, Stones and Bullets On the evening of November 17, the villagers of Hares called and asked people from Gush Shalom to please come there. This Palestinian village is cut off from the world. The army is blockading it -- no one is allowed to enter or leave. The olives, the only product of the village, are going to rot on Uri Avnery • 4 min read
MER Article Israel's Accountability for Economic Warfare As Israel escalates the military conflict in the occupied Palestinian territories, brushing aside criticism of excessive force by the United Nations and human rights groups, it is tempting to conclude that international law is irrelevant to the real struggle being waged on the ground with bullets an Roger Normand • 9 min read
MER Article Under Siege By mid-November, Israel had imposed over 50 days of closure on the whole of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Palestinian persons and goods were refused entry into Israel, or exit from the confines of the Occupied Territories. Mobility within Palestinian-controlled areas was also curtailed. According to Leila Farsakh • 10 min read
MER Article International Law and the al-Aqsa Intifada Though the Israeli government and the US media persist in describing the second Palestinian intifada as a security crisis or a disruption to the "peace process," in international law, Palestinian resistance to occupation is a legally protected right. For 33 years, Israel has administered a military occupation of Richard Falk • 8 min read
MER Article Hebron Under Curfew As I sit here writing on October 30, 2000, I hear voices outside -- a rare occurrence these days. Our apartment is in H2, the Israeli-controlled part of Hebron. In 1997, an interim agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) split Hebron in two. 100,000 Palestinians live in H1, admin Natasha J. Krahn • 4 min read
MER Article Anatomy of Another Rebellion Anyone watching the widespread clashes that engulfed the Occupied Territories in October and November 2000 must experience a sense of deja vu. The dramatic elements seem like a restaging of events twelve years ago. Young men armed with stones face the mightiest army in the Middle East, mothers mourn, nationalist Rema Hammami, Salim Tamari • 30 min read
MER Article From the Editor (Winter 2000) Langston Hughes famously asked, "What happens to a dream deferred?" As Hughes might have predicted, young Palestinians' long-deferred dreams of self-determination exploded this fall in a new intifada -- an uprising against both the Israeli occupation and the Oslo "peace process" that has done The Editors • 3 min read
Current Analysis On Hold As Florida recounts distracted the international media, Israeli tanks and helicopters continued to bombard towns and villages throughout the West Bank and Gaza. Following the bombing of a settler bus, Israel launched a massive strike on Gaza November 20, in which helicopter gunships, boats and tanks shelled Gaza City, Jabaliya, Adam Hanieh • 5 min read
Current Analysis The Peres-Arafat Agreement: Can It Work? Within hours of the November 2 announcement that PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and the Israeli Minister of Regional Cooperation, Shimon Peres, had agreed to implement the understandings reached between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) at the October Sharm al-Sheikh summit, Israeli soldiers sho Mouin Rabbani • 7 min read
Current Analysis Shows of Solidarity Forever Egyptian President Husni Mubarak and his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Asad will convene an Arab summit in Cairo this weekend to formulate a common stance against the harsh Israeli response to the ongoing Palestinian uprising in the Occupied Territories and within Israel. The summit, the first in ove Isam al-Khafaji • 6 min read
Current Analysis After the Sharm al-Sheikh Summit Details of the understandings reached between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority (PA) President Yasser Arafat are trickling slowly out of Sharm al-Sheikh, the Egyptian resort where President Bill Clinton convened an emergency international summit October 16. The Israelis and the PA say they will both take Mouin Rabbani • 5 min read
Current Analysis The Iron Fist in the Peace Process Televised images of Israeli combat soldiers killing unarmed Palestinian children and helicopters strafing Palestinian neighborhoods have publicly exposed the Israeli military force that undergirds and shapes the Oslo process. Roger Normand • 5 min read