Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Jessica Purkiss
-
The enchanting sound of Le Trio Joubran reaches London as band play to a packed audience
Le Trio Joubran, a Palestinian band comprising of three brothers from Nazareth, played to a packed audience at the Barbican, London on Sunday night. They sang alongside renowned Algerian singer Souad Massi whose music mixes Arabic sounds with rock and folk influences alongside Portuguese Fado and African soul. They did...
-
Gaza economy on the 'verge of collapse' as the international community fails to deliver on aid promises
Today in Brussels, the World Bank will present its devastating report on the economic situation in Gaza before the bi-annual meeting of the ad hoc liaison committee, a forum of donors which coordinates international donor support for the Palestinians. The report comes almost a year since the beginning of...
-
EU plan will not stop desperate people trying to reach safety
The European Union is seeking UN approval to use military action to target smuggling networks which are operating out of Libya. The proposal is in response to the increasing number of deaths in the Mediterranean; crossing the Mediterranean from Libya has become the most popular route for migrants and...
-
Israeli right-wing coalition can give hope to the creation of a Palestinian state
As his election campaign drew to an end, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that a Palestinian state would not be established on his watch and promised increased settlement construction. He was re-elected. Netanyahu then formed the new coalition government. The agreement on a new coalition government – made...
-
US drone strikes have traumatised a generation of Yemenis and will push them towards militancy
A year ago today, Hussein Ahmed Saleh Abu Bakr, a labourer, was travelling to work in Al-Bayda, central Yemen, with 11 colleagues including family members when a drone struck the car. When the attack was over, Hussein emerged from where he had taken cover to look for the other...
-
HRW report highlights mistreatment of children in Israeli settlement farms
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has published a report entitled: “Ripe for Abuse: Palestinian Child Labour in Israeli Agricultural Settlements in the West Bank”. The 74-page report is based upon interviews with 38 children and 12 adults in Palestinian communities in the Jordan Valley. Of these children, 33 had dropped...
-
Why losing Yarmouk is not necessarily bad for Assad
For the past week, fighting has intensified around Yarmouk, a Palestinian refugee camp in the suburbs of Damascus. A squad from ISIS stormed into the southern side of the camp from the area of Hajar Al-Aswad which directly borders the camp, clashing with the Palestinian brigade Aknaf Beit Al-Maqdis....
-
Residents of Yarmouk still caught in the crossfire
For the past week, fighting has intensified around Yarmouk, a Palestinian refugee camp in the suburbs of Damascus. The Islamic militant group ISIS launched an attack on the camp on Wednesday; the capture of Yarmouk would represent the group’s deepest foray into Damascus and establish fighters just five kilometres...
-
Why we should vote for Palestine in the UK general elections
On 7 May, the British public will cast their votes in the UK general elections. Groups such as the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) are trying to ensure Palestine is a key issue in the elections and are encouraging voters to vote for candidates who support the freedom and self-determination...
-
Kurds mark 27 years since chemical attack amid fresh allegations of chlorine gas
Twenty-seven years ago on Monday, an estimated 5,000 Kurds perished in one of the world’s worst chemical attacks. In 1988, the Kurdish town of Halabja in Iraq, close to the border of Iran, was near the front lines during the final throes of the fighting in the protracted eight-year...
-
Is what Israel does really apartheid?
Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is drawing to an end. This is an international series of events that seeks to raise awareness about Israel’s apartheid policies towards the Palestinians and to build support for the growing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign. Defining Israel as a state which practices apartheid often...
-
Censored voices of Israeli soldiers become uncensored in documentary 50 years later
Voices censored by the Israeli army for nearly 50 years can finally be heard in powerful documentary that recently premiered in the Sundance Film Festival. After an initial introduction “Censored Voices” leads into grainy footage showing the triumphant return of Israeli soldiers from the 1967 war. The streets are lined...
-
The settler organisations appropriating Palestinian land and property in East Jerusalem
When Israeli settlers turned up at Rafat Sub Laban’s family home last week it was not entirely unexpected. The settlers had arrived with a lawyer to demand the family vacate the property immediately. The Sub Labans have been embroiled in a legal battle to hold onto their house for...
-
In the name of security, Israel is creating a generation of frustrated youths and a legacy of insecurity
Under the 1993 Oslo Accords, the Gaza Strip and West Bank were defined as two territories of a single unit, between which Palestinians should be permitted to move freely and trade goods without restrictions. This never worked out. Israel began applying restrictions, especially limiting the travel between the two...
-
Water running dry for Palestinians as Israel turns off the taps
In the northern Jordan Valley last week, Israeli forces destroyed a 1,000 metre pipeline built to provide water to Palestinian communities. In East Jerusalem, tens of thousands of Palestinians have been cut off from a regular supply of running water for nearly a year. In Gaza, the water infrastructure has...
-
Libya talks gain urgency
If further evidence was needed to demonstrate the desperate situation in Libya, the attack by ISIS on a hotel in Tripoli last week was it. Ever since the ousting of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 the country has descended into chaos. Thousands are dead, towns have been wrecked...
-
Leaders from countries that persecute journalists march for freedom of speech in Paris
Around 40 world leaders joined more than one million people in a massive rally in Paris in support of freedom of speech and in honour of the 17 people killed in terrorist attacks last Wednesday. The attendance of the leaders was supposed to be a show of solidarity and unity,...
-
Gaza's power crisis claiming lives
Three year old Amr Al Habeel and his older brother Khalid, four, were sleeping when the fire that took their lives broke out in their bedroom last week. The cause of the fire is unclear; some reports state it was started by a candle and others report a short...
-
Netanyahu’s recruitment of the Hebdo attack
On Wednesday two gunmen attacked the offices of Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical magazine, killing eight of the publication’s journalists, including its chief editor, along with four other people, including a maintenance worker, a visitor and two police officers. Paris is mourning the tragic incident, and condolences have flooded...
-
Gaza: A crossroads of civilisations
In 201 BC King Antiochus captured Gaza. Polybius, a Greek Historian of the Hellenistic Period (period of ancient Greek and eastern Mediterranean history) recounted the incident in his work The Histories, which covered the period of 264–146 BC in detail. He wrote: “It seems to me both just and proper...
-
Will the Palestinian leadership really halt security cooperation with Israel?
Palestinian Authority minister Ziad Abu Ein died on Wednesday after attending a protest against the separation barrier in a village near Ramallah, West Bank. Palestinian and Jordanian doctors who performed the autopsy on Abu Ein said he died of tear gas inhalation, blunt force and a lack of immediate...
-
The port that could turn the tide for Gazans
In 1993 the Oslo Accords were signed. They were meant to lead to an end to the Israeli occupation and the birth of a sovereign Palestinian state. The Oslo Accords also permitted the construction of a seaport in Gaza. An empty piece of land, turned into mud by the recent...
-
A series on statelessness: Palestinians fleeing death and destruction in Syria are unwelcome visitors in host countries
This November marked 60 years since the 1954 United Nations convention which first promised to tackle the issue of statelessness was adopted. Today however the problem is far from resolved and being stateless – not considered a national of any state-effects at least 10 million people worldwide. To mark...
-
Counter-terrorism and security bill: necessary or draconian?
The Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill, introduced to the Commons yesterday, is intended to counter the threat posed by Islamic State (Isis) and the increasing number of Britons travelling to Iraq and Syria to fight on its behalf. The date for its second reading in Parliament – the first opportunity...