Madison-Rafah Journal

This past weekend, the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation began a month-long advertising campaign in New York City to raise awareness about the 60th anniversary of the Nakba.

Over the course of the next month, more than 1,000 of these posters will be displayed on the streets of Manhattan, educating New Yorkers about the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948 and the right of return for Palestinian refugees.

Hadeel Abukwaik, standing, an engineering software instructor in Gaza, was in disbelief over losing her Fulbright grant. (Ali Ali/European Pressphoto Agency, for The New York Times)

ETHAN BRONNER, The New York Times, May 30, 2008

GAZA — The American State Department has withdrawn all Fulbright grants to Palestinian students in Gaza hoping to pursue advanced degrees at American institutions this fall because Israel has not granted them permission to leave.

Israel has isolated this coastal strip, which is run by the militant group Hamas. Given that policy, the United States Consulate in Jerusalem said the grant money had been “redirected” to students elsewhere out of concern that it would go to waste if the Palestinian students were forced to remain in Gaza.

A letter was sent by e-mail to the students on Thursday telling them of the cancellation. Abdulrahman Abdullah, 30, who had been hoping to study for an M.B.A. at one of several American universities on his Fulbright, was in shock when he read it.

(Read on …)

Ramallah: Allan Richardson stands in the empty office where he plans a call center for Palestine's second mobile network. (Joshua Mitnick)

Joshua Mitnick, The Christian Science Monitor, May 28, 2008

Mobile phone service in Gaza Strip and the West Bank could spur investment – and bolster prospects for peace.

Ramallah, West Bank - After getting Iraq's first post-invasion cellular phone network operational in four months, Allan Richardson expected that launching the second Palestinian mobile service would be easy.

But nearly a year and a half after arriving here, the chief executive officer of Wataniya Palestine Telecom is still waiting for Israel to release cellular frequencies.

(Read on …)

(AP Photo/Dunkin' Donuts)

MARK JEWELL, Associated Press, May 29, 2008

Dunkin' Donuts has pulled an online advertisement featuring Rachael Ray after complaints that a fringed black-and-white scarf that the celebrity chef wore in the ad offers symbolic support for Muslim extremism and terrorism.

The coffee and baked goods chain said the ad that began appearing online May 7 was pulled over the past weekend because "the possibility of misperception detracted from its original intention to promote our iced coffee."

In the spot, Ray holds an iced coffee while standing in front of trees with pink blossoms.

(Read on …)

Mehdi Lebouachera, AFP, May 28, 2008

Nobel Peace laureate Desmond Tutu on Wednesday plunged into the harsh reality of the conflict in Gaza where a tearful Palestinian family recounted losing loved ones in an Israeli attack and the ruling Hamas movement expounded its hardline stance.

The South African cleric, heading a team of UN human rights observers, listened to members of the Assamna family tell of a 2006 Israeli shelling of their village that killed 19 civilians, including eight children, while they were sleeping.

On the top floor of the Assamna's bombed home, the glass in the windows is gone and there is a hole in the ceiling and the blue sky can been seen through the rusted iron frame of the house.

(Read on …)

AFP, May 27, 2008

Thousands of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank risk being displaced as the Israeli authorities threaten to tear down their homes and in some cases entire communities, a UN agency said on Wednesday.

"To date, more than 3,000 Palestinian-owned structures in the West Bank have pending demolition orders, which can be immediately executed without prior warning," the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a report.

"At least 10 small communities throughout the West Bank are at risk of being almost entirely displaced due to the large number of pending demolitions orders," OCHA said.

(Read on …)

Posted by guevaragz on YouTube, January 01, 2007

This clip is taken from the film The Frontiers Of Dreams and Fears by Mai Masri. It's about refugees in Lebanon meeting with their families and relatives from occupied Palestine after the liberation of the South in Lebanon. They are meeting at the border where the fences are created by the Israelis between Lebanon and Palestine.

I can't talk about why and what this movie is about. You see for yourself and judge how shattered the families are, and how it feels to see someone you love on the other side and you can't even hug them, while you know that none of you had done anything to deserve such a treatment except that you're Palestinian.

Sorry for the delay between audio and video, but it's the only version I have.

(Read on …)