The Palestinian president Yasser Arafat besieged by the Israelis in Ramallah since last December and imprisoned in his office since March 29 has repeatedly condemned suicide bombings that have killed innocent Israelis. It is time for the US president to condemn the latest Israeli indiscriminate violence against innocent Palestinians.

Violent attacks against innocent civilians are reprehensible. No one should be immune from criticism not even the United State’s strategic ally, Israel. Continue Reading »

As the world entered the 21 century with the goal of ending occupation, colonization and military rule, it is important to give these goals a practical application and not just lip service.

Today these are the goals of the Palestinian people wishing to end the Israeli occupation of their land and to establish a free Palestinian state. And while US President George W. Bush and his administration publicly support this call, the time has come to implement these universal rights in Palestine. This is the only way to end the present tragedy that has affected so many innocent people. Continue Reading »

One of the more popular Palestinian songs asks travelers where they are going and the answer is Ramallah. This town, built on a hill north of Jerusalem, has always been known as a Palestinian resort. Married couples from various Arab countries used to spend their honeymoon in this city. As a child, I remember fondly our regular visits to this city. Riding the swings in the Ramallah municipal park, renting bikes and eating Rukab’s ice cream, with its distinctive taste, are among the happy memories I have of this town. Continue Reading »

Six-year old Nadeen Khayyat woke up in the middle of the night terrified. Clutching to her grandmother this Palestinian child was petrified that the Israelis will shell her home. I had been staying at the Khayyat home Tuesday night in the center of Ramallah. My house on the edge of Ramallah was deemed by all my friends too dangerous. Continue Reading »

The elevator in the five-story, first-rate looking office building, in Ramallah was not operational on Wednesday. So instead, I took the stairs. And suddenly I discover one of the many secrets that make this surreal situation in this Palestinian town. Almost the entire staircase, rarely used by people, was littered with sleeping materials-blankets, foam mattresses- and the like. A few members of the Palestinian security forces with their weapons were on the first floor but the remaining floors had the bedding stuff but not the people. Apparently the members of the Palestinian security have concluded that a business building like that was safer than any other ‘official’ location in the city. Continue Reading »

The Israeli prime minister is angry. He has called for an urgent press conference to complain about the latest action by the multinational observer force in Palestine and Israel. The Israeli complaint is focused on the fact that these forces did not allow Prime Minster Ariel Sharon to leave Jerusalem for Tel Aviv even though Sharon had arrested his chief of staff Shaul Mofaz. Mofaz was wanted by the International Court of Justice for war crimes that took place in 2000 and 2001. Continue Reading »

By Ilan Ziv and Daoud Kuttab*

In 1993, following the signing of the Oslo accords, we collaborated on a joint Israeli-Palestinian documentary. By giving video cameras to three Palestinians and three Israelis, we set out to document the first year of the implementation of the ” peace process”.

Our “Peace Diaries” unfortunately became a record of the early violence that followed the signing of the Israeli /Palestinian accord. Among the scenes was the first suicide bombing in a small town, Afula, in the North of Israel and the killing of 29 Palestinian worshippers in a Hebron mosque by a Jewish settler. Continue Reading »

Yasser Arafat interrupted two television programs in the past week to make a simple point. It is difficult to uphold a unilateral cease-fire. Speaking from a prepared text to the Palestinian people on the occasion of Eid al Fitr Arafat reiterated the Palestinian Authority’s commitment to a cease-fire. Arafat’s impromptu comments to his people in Arabic on Palestinian TV were very telling. “Hold you fire even if the Israelis shoot at you,” he said in Arabic. A week earlier on Israel’s first channel Arafat was asked if he can promise the Israeli public that there will be no more suicide bombings.” We need to work together with you to be able to do that,” he told the Israeli interviewer. Continue Reading »

Ramallah – The unilateral cease-fire call by four armed Palestinian resistance groupings reflects the main contradiction of approaches between Israel and the Palestinian National Authority. Israel wants these organizations crushed while the Palestinian leader wants them coopted.

Israel considers Hamas, Jihad, and recently, the Fatah Tanzim to be terrorist’s organizations. And in Israel’s eyes they must be annihilated. Unable since the late 80s to crush these Palestinian militant organizations, Israel has been trying since the Oslo Agreement to have the Palestinian National Authority to do this difficult job. Continue Reading »

The mission of retired general Anthony Zinni, the new U.S. peace envoy to the Middle East, became more difficult after the weekend’s bloody suicide bombings and retaliatory shootings between Israelis and Palestinians. But if someone is looking for reasons for this upsurge of violence — and for the way out of it — one needs to take one step forward, not two steps back.

Let’s start with a look at the mistaken Israeli attempt to end the violence in the occupied territories without simultaneously working on a political solution. All foreign envoys to the region, as well as Israel’s own Foreign Minister, Shimon Peres, have been encouraging Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, to begin negotiations with Palestinians aimed at finding a political solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Continue Reading »