NEW! No legitimate peace talks without elections 

This may only be Ahmed Qurei''s second attempt, albeit in as many months, at forming a government, but the cabinet ratified on November 12 is the fifth Palestinian government to be formed in the space of a year.

 Furthermore, the circumstances from which it arises have altered only negligibly from those surrounding all previous attempts.The still dominant unrepresentative ''old guard'' continues to rob the political system, and peace negotiators, of any legitimacy.

 Meanwhile, the continuing impasse provides both Ariel Sharon, Israel''s prime minister, and Hamas, the Islamist militant group, with justification for maintaining the status quo and pursuing their respective interests.... (the complete article)

NEW!National and International Day Against the Apartheid Wall in Palestine

...In Ramallah over 2,000 Palestinians participated in the demonstration which shut down the city center for two hours. Students, representatives from numerous parties, and residents from the city and surrounding villages gathered in the city center, the Manara, and marched through the main streets. Demands to tear down the Wall were accompanied by calls for the Palestinian Authority to cease “negotiations” until the Wall is torn down... 

...Vienna

Women in Black-Vienna held a vigil with speeches, information material, banners and photographs on the wall. The group collected over 2,600 signatures on a petition against the Wall that was turned into the Austrian Foreign Ministry...

 

(complement)

 

 

 

 

Tribute to Edward Said

It is with heartbreaking sorrow that the Palestinian National Initiative announce the tragic death of Edward Said who passed away today after eleven years fighting leukemia. At this time our thoughts and love are with his family. We wish them strength and courage and assurance that Edward will be a man forever remembered not only for his incredible achievements but for his remarkable qualities as a friend. Though words may do little at such a time to assuage the pain and grief something must be said to pay homage to a man and a life we should truly celebrate.

A man with great courage and clear conviction Edward Said was a shining light in a confused world. As a true intellectual giant, Said inspired all fields with his accomplishments. The passion which infused his intellectual abilities presented him as a man with clear visions to be greatly admired, trusted and respected.... (complement)

 

NEW!The Observer

The loss of Professor Edward Said, after an arduous battle with a demoralising illness he bore very bravely, will be unbearable for his family, insupportable to his immense circle of friends, upsetting to a vast periphery of readers who one might almost term his diaspora, and depressing to all those who continue hoping for a decent agreement in his Jerusalem birthplace. To address these wrenching thoughts in reverse order, one could commence by saying quite simply that if Edward's personality had been the human and moral pattern or example, there would be no 'Middle East' problem to begin with. His lovely, intelligent and sensitive memoir, Out of Place, was a witness to the schools and neighbourhoods, in Jerusalem and Cairo, where fraternity between Arabs, Jews, Druse, Armenians and others was a matter of course.. (the complete article)

 

Dreams and delusions

By EDWARD SAID

During the last days of July, Representative Tom Delay (Republican) of Texas, the House majority leader described routinely as one of the three or four most powerful men in Washington, delivered himself of his opinions regarding the roadmap and the future of peace in the Middle East. What he had to say was meant as an announcement for a trip he subsequently took to Israel and several Arab countries where, it is reported, he articulated the same message. In no uncertain terms Delay declared himself opposed to the Bush administration's support for the roadmap, especially the provision in it for a Palestinian state... (the complete article)

Preface to Orientalism

By EDWARD SAID

My argument is that history is made by men and women, just as it can also be unmade and re-written, so that "our" East, "our" Orient becomes "ours" to possess and direct. And I have a very high regard for the powers and gifts of the peoples of that region to struggle on for their vision of what they are and want to be.... (the complete article)

Rule by the Blind: Imperial Arrogance and the Vile Stereotyping of Arabs;

By Edward Said

The great modern empires have never been held together only by military power. Britain ruled the vast territories of India with only a few thousand colonial officers and a few more thousand troops, many of them Indian. France did the same in North Africa and Indochina, the Dutch in Indonesia, the Portuguese and Belgians in Africa. The key element was imperial perspective, that way of looking at a distant foreign reality by subordinating it in one's gaze, constructing its history from one's own point of view, seeing its people as subjects whose fate can be decided by what distant administrators think is best for them. From such willful perspectives ideas develop, including the theory that imperialism is a benign and necessary thing... (the complete article)

THE ROAD MAP IN A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE;

By Naseer Aruri

... Doubtless, the invasion of Iraq has created impetus for the revival of US diplomacy in the Palestine-Israel arena, but why should that diplomacy be more successful now when the imbalance of power in favor of Israel and the US has reached unprecedented proportions? It behooves all those interested in peace and reconciliation to reflect on the real causes of diplomatic failure since 1969. Embracing yet another US plan at a time when the “peace process” is in need of total overhauling and a genuine restructuring, would substitute a palliative for a remedy.. (the complete article)

A Place for Our Dream?;

By Mustafa Barghouthi

... We must surmount divisions and embrace democracy as the means of resolving all our differences. Diversity should become a source of vitality, not division... As difficult as it looks, I'm fully confident that there is a place for our dream; there is a place for peace and for Palestine. (the complete article)

The Meaning of Rachel Corie; of Dignity and Solidarity;

By Edward said

What Rachel Corrie's work in Gaza recognized, however, was precisely the gravity and the density of the living history of the Palestinian people as a national community, and not merely as a collection of deprived refugees. That is what she was in solidarity with... (the complete article)

Dr Mustafa Barghouti Outlines The Goals Of Al mubadara; In A Talk At The Bahrain National Museum, In Manama.

... The appointment of Mahmoud Abbas as Prime Minister is seen as a big step forward in decentralising the power of the Palestinian Authority. But his position is seriously undermined by the fact that he has not been elected by the Palestinian people... (details)

Archaeology of the roadmap;

By Edward said

It is some solace to think that, while formal negotiations and discussions go on, a host of informal, un-coopted alternatives exist, of which NPI and a growing international solidarity campaign are now the main components... (the complete article)

 Interim is forever;

By Mustafa Barghouthi

The Palestinians must not give up their quest for true national independence. It would be a shame to give up such a quest when independence is at hand. The Palestinians have to insist on an independent state with full sovereignty and control over its borders, crossing points, water, and wealth. This should happen without going through an interim phase. Interim, in Israel's terms, is forever. Interim arrangements will only serve to alleviate some pressure, but eventually the crisis will go back to square one -- this is what happened in Oslo. .... (the complete article)

The Arab Condition;

By Edward Said

To such a display of power I would have thought that an unprecedented alliance between Arab rulers and people represented the only possible deterrence. But that, clearly, would require an undertaking by every Arab government to open its society to its people, bring them in so to speak, remove all the repressive security measures in order to provide an organized opposition to the new imperialism.... (the complete article)

- The Road Map: A Peace Plan or Another Palliative? By Naseer Aruri

The premise of the latest plan is that the 36-year old impasse is not caused by an abnormal, illegal and severely repressive occupation, but by the Palestinian resistance to that occupation.  Thus, in exchange for ending the resistance, Israel would be expected to normalize life for the Palestinians, as if the occupation is normal while resistance is abnormal.... (the complete article

)

- Al-Nakba; By Hesham Tillawi

SAFSAF- a Palestinian village- 52 men tied with a rope and dropped into a well and shot. 10 more were killed. Women pleaded for mercy, three were raped, and a girl aged 14 was raped. Another 4 were killed. This was a scene from 1948... (the complete article)

- Give Us Back Our Democracy Americans Have Been Cheated and Lied To;

By Edward Said

Besides, what does it mean to liberate and democratize a country when no one asked you to do it and when, in the process, you occupy it militarily while failing to preserve law and order? What a travesty of strategic planning when you assume 'natives' will welcome your presence after you've bombed and quarantined them for 13 years... (the complete article)

- Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi Resigns from the Leadership of the Palestine People’s Party.

...He stated that this decision was taken to enable him to devote his political efforts to the Palestinian National Initiative. (more details)

- Al Mubadara participates in the commemoration of Rachel Corrie.

- The occupation don't allow activists to reach Ofar military detention center! 

(details in pictures)

Visitors Since 17 /10/ 2002