Palestine

A note from the editor

Zoe Holman

From occupation to uprising

A friend from Gaza – now living in Europe after three attempts to leave the Strip – tells me how he only entered the territory of Israel, where his ancestral home lies, once in his life.

He was a child, on a bus going to visit his uncle in indefinite political incarceration in an Israeli prison. All the windows of the vehicle were blacked out so that its Palestinian passengers could see nothing of their journey; just the prison facility at their destination, and the open-air prison of Gaza they had travelled from.

The anecdote seems to capture all the mechanisms of erasure, displacement, coercion and collective punishment that have come to characterize the system of apartheid now enacted against Palestinians by Israel. But Palestine has many other faces. Palestinian culture endured for centuries before Israel’s foundation and under occupation, and has evolved in diverse forms of daily life, resistance and political consciousness.

Alongside the violent tools of Israeli domination, it is these myriad Palestinian experiences that this issue aims to reflect. Through voices from Gaza, the West Bank, Israel and the Palestinian diaspora, we consider how land, culture, geopolitics and the rising tide of Israeli extremism are shaping Palestinian lives and their continued struggle for justice.

Also in this edition, Richard Matoušek writes on how housing activists in São Paulo are taking back empty buildings, Amy Hall reports from Kenya on a landmark reparations case for Indigenous people and Subi Shah reflects with much-loved author Michael Rosen.

Zoe Holman for the New Internationalist co-operative.
www.newint.org

The big story

A woman crosses the Qalandiya check point, the biggest in the occupied West Bank, in 2014. Photo: Roger Garfield/Alamy

A woman crosses the Qalandiya check point, the biggest in the occupied West Bank, in 2014.

Photo: Roger Garfield/Alamy

From accord to apartheid

A new far-right Israeli government’s meddling with the supreme court has Jewish citizens up in arms. But the shredded freedoms of the Palestinian people under Israel’s thumb are still off the table. Zoe Holman looks at how the so-called ‘peace process’ has allowed Israel to deepen its colonial project and regime of control over Palestinian lives.

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The Big Story

Action & info

Action, and further reading on Palestine.

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The Facts

The Facts

Palestine - occupation & apartheid.

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A woman in Hebron laments the demolition of her home at the hands of Israeli forces in 2021.Photo: Mussa Qawasma/Reuters

Harvesting Oppression

Palestinian land is both a source of sustenance and symbol of resistance. Issam Adwan tells how agriculture is under attack by occupation.

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A Palestinian boy confronts an Israeli officer during a 2022 protest against Israeli settlements near the West Bank town of Qalqilya.Photo: Mohamad Torokman/Reuters

Sanctions mark II

Andrew Feinstein argues that the strategy that helped end South Africa’s apartheid must also be mobilized against Israel.

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A young girl in Gaza celebrates her birthday in the rubble of a house destroyed by Israeli bombardment in spring 2021.Photo: Mohammed Al-Zaanoun/Majority World

Gaza’s fragile ‘peace’

As Israel turns the screws on the strip’s population, Aziz Hamdi Al-Masry writes from Gaza about how armed factions tread a fine line to avoid an outright assault.

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Equal citizens, one state?

Equal citizens, one state?

Three decades on from the Oslo Accords, a growing number of voices from all sides are declaring the death of the two-state model. Zoe Holman talks to author and researcher Cherine Hussein about what the landmark agreement meant for Palestinians – and what solutions remain.

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A cartoon by Palestinian refugee Mahmoud Salameh, dedicated to the four children killed in a 2014 Israeli assault on Gaza while playing on the beach.Illustration: Mahmoud Salameh

The Art of Resistance

Frances Leach examines how culture has become another battlefront in occupied Jerusalem.

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Nighttime at the Mauá occupation in downtown São Paulo, taken on 14 September 2017. Housing activists moved into the derelict hotel ten years earlier, and renovated the building to house hundreds of families. Despite eviction attempts, the community remains today.Alf Ribeiro/Alamy Live News

‘I’ve painted the hallway red’

Activists in Brazil are taking on the housing crisis through mass-occupations. Richard Matoušek reports from São Paulo on how the formidable movement is building popular power to provide secure homes.

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Protesters wearing t-shirts reading ‘no walls’ play football during a demonstration against a meeting between Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and the former Italian interior minister Matteo Salvini in Milan, Italy, on August 28 2018. The two far-right politicians met to discuss plans for the creation of a pan-European ‘anti-migration alliance’.Photo: Piero Cruciatti/Alamy

No room at the inn

Decades of deadly border policies have transformed the Mediterranean into a watery grave – an inevitable outcome of project ‘Fortress Europe’. In 2002 Yasmin Alibhai-Brown took on the racism behind the anti-refugee sentiment.

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Gathering vegetables for market in the Mau Forest, August 2008.Photo: Reuters/Finbarr O'Reilly

Now for implementation!

One year on from a landmark court ruling, the Ogiek of the Mau Forest are still waiting for reparations and collective land rights. Amy Hall reports from Kenya on a case that has the potential to change the lives of Indigenous people in East Africa and beyond.

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Opinion

View from Brazil

View from Brazil

Investigation into attack on democracy by Leonardo Sakamoto.

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View from India

View from India

Gandhi defiant, Modi rattled?

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View from Africa

View from Africa

Vaccines alone won’t stop malaria.

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Currents

A polling station in Santiago for the new constitutional assembly. Elections on 7 May put the far right in control of Chile’s constitutional rewrite process, marking a huge blow for the country’s progressive government.Photo: Ivan Alvarado/Reuters

Left out

Report from the election in Chile by Carole Concha Bell

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Illustration: Emma Peer

Introducing... Elly Schlein

The newly elected leader of Italy’s main opposition Italian Democratic Party (PD).

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First abortion...

First abortion...

Report from the US by James Greig.

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Shut up

Shut up

Report on criminalizing protest in Vietnam by Alessio Perrone.

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Sanctions impeded the flow of humanitarian aid reaching communities devastated by February’s catastrophic 7.8 magnitude earthquake in northwest Syria. Here rescuers huddle around homes reduced to rubble in Idlib, Syria, in its aftermath.Photo: Fadi Al-Shami/Majority World

Under embargo

Report on the effectiveness of sanctions on Syria by Matt Broomfield.

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A child in Lviv observes a car brought from Bakhmut to demonstrate the intensity of the conflict. Ukrainian children risk being forcibly separated from their families by Russian forces and as part of the Ukraine’s mandatory evacuation policy.Photo: Mykola Tys/SPA Image/Alamy

Taken

Graeme Green reports on the Ukrainian parents who have been separated from their children during the Ukraine conflict.

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Workers take on Meta

Workers take on Meta

Report from Nairobi by Anthony Langat.

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Illustration: Emma Peer

Reasons to be Cheerful

Mine no more; Write off; Stop the press.

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Regulars

Letters

Letters

Praise, blame and all points in between? Give us your feedback.

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Illustration: Sarah John

A journey through time

Stephanie Boyd experiences new life amid grief on a night voyage in the Peruvian Amazon.

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Borderlines

Borderlines

Sail away. Report on the humanitarian crisis in the central Mediterranean by Ben Cowles.

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Illustration: Emma Peer

Seriously?

Under the wheels. By Bethany Rielly.

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Illustration: Emad Hajjaj

Open Window

Two generals fighting in Sudan by Emad Hajjaj (Jordan).

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Country profile: Egypt

The photos, facts, and politics of Egypt.

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Cartoon History: Algeria Conquered

French rule in Algeria. Illustration by Ilya.

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Big Bad World

United Nations by P J Polyp.

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Photo: Sherbel Dissi

The Interview: Leila Khaled

Marta Vidal speaks with the Palestinian militant about the role of violence in the struggle for a better world.

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Photo: Lalo de Almeida

Southern Exposure: Lalo de Almeida

Highlighting the work of artists and photographers from the Majority World.

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Photo: Xinhua/Alamy

Hall of Infamy: Itamar Ben-Gvir

Israeli National Security Minister.

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Only Planet

Only Planet

Autonomous vehicles by Marc Roberts.

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Get wired: A vehicle recharging point at a motorway service station in Derbyshire, England.Photo: Transportimage Picture Library/Alamy

Temperature Check

Electric cars: climate saviours or eco-villains? Words – Danny Chivers.

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The Puzzler

Crossword Puzzle, Association Words and Wordsearch.

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Agony Uncle

Agony Uncle

Ethical and political dilemmas abound these days. This month: Workplace culture.

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Illustration: Andy Carter

What if...

The west stopped exporting second-hand clothing? Alice McCool imagines a world where countries are not left wearing the West’s cast-offs.

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Film, Book & Music Reviews

Mixed Media: Hot Docs

Mixed Media: Hot Docs

Highlights from the 2023 Toronto Festival by Richard Swift and Heather Macdonald.

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Mixed Media: Books

Mixed Media: Books

The Drinker of Horizons; Macunaíma; Out of Sri Lanka; Black Oot Here.

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Mixed Media: Film

Mixed Media: Film

Name Me Lawand; The Damned Don’t Cry.

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Mixed Media: Music

Mixed Media: Music

Such Ferocious Beauty; Mutations.

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Photo: David Levene

Spotlight: Michael Rosen

The former Children’s Laureate writer. Words by Subi Shah.

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