Pro-Palestinian or Anti-Israel?

Pro-Palestinian groups and individuals in the US and Europe are doing Palestinians injustice by devoting all their energies only against Israel. There is a feeling in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that most of these groups and individuals are more interested in campaigning against Israel than helping the Palestinians.

Being pro-Palestinian does not necessarily mean that one also has to be anti-Israel.

The pro-Palestinian camp in the West should raise its voice against violations of human rights and media freedoms under the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. In the past few weeks, six Palestinian journalists, bloggers and cartoonists were arrested by security forces belonging to the Palestinian government in the West Bank.

Ailing woman journalist arrested, Government decrees new media controls

Sentenced two months later to 11 years in prision on charges
of collaborating with the Human Rights Defenders Centre.

Reporters Without Borders strongly condemns the arrest of Narges Mohammadi, a journalist and spokesperson of Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi’s Centre for Human Rights Defenders. She was detained in the northern city of Zanjan on 21 April after receiving an intelligence ministry summons and was transferred to Tehran’s Evin prison to serve a six-year jail sentence.

Gaza's Hamas rulers to introduce Hebrew

Many Palestinians see Hebrew as the language of the enemy.

High school students in the Gaza Strip may be taught Hebrew, the main language of Israel, beginning next year, according to a senior Hamas official in Gaza.

Gaza Strip Education Ministry undersecretary Ziad Thabet said Monday the government still needed to approve the decision, but it was likely to go ahead, and the government was already trying to find and train Hebrew teachers.

Thabet said students should be introduced to as many languages as possible. Hebrew is currently only offered as a university course in Gaza. Many Palestinians see Hebrew as the language of the enemy. However, Hebrew used to be widely spoken in Gaza, particularly by those who worked in Israel before it started, a decade ago, to block laborers from entry amid escalating violence.

The Associated Press

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The Arab Spring: Youth, Freedom and the Tools of Technology

The United Nations Human Rights Comittee afirmed that
bloggers have the same protections as journalists. 

Wielding mobile phones and computers, the young activists across the Middle East have altered the way the world approaches popular mobilisation, social networks and Internet freedom.

The Internet can be a transformational force for societies and individuals, allowing for organisation on a mass scale and the free flow of information. However, we must remember that the Internet and social media are tools that do not bring change themselves, but act as facilitators in spreading the ideas. 

Predicting Middle Eastern Politics

"I doubt the Muslim Brotherhood has had a victory but
tather see the parliamentary elections as basically fraudulent."

The Australian: In Egypt, Islamist parties now hold about 80 per cent of the seats in parliament. Given the majority of demonstrators in Tahrir Square were liberal secularists, has Egypt's Arab Spring been hijacked?

Daniel Pipes: No, because the liberals of Tahrir Square did not force Mubarak from power. The military took advantage of their mass demonstrations to dispatch a president it had had enough of, in large part because of his intent on handing power to his son, Gamal.

Julian Assange interviews Hezbollah leader on talk show premiere

Julian Assange made his debut as talk show host Tuesday as the first episode of "The World Tomorrow" aired on Russian TV channel RT. Assange's first guest was a bit of a "get": Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Hezbollah militia. The leader of the Syrian-backed group, which is classified as a terrorist organization in the U.S. and Europe, rarely gives interviews outside of the Lebanese Al-Manar TV channel, which is closely affiliated with Hezbollah.

U.S. Withdrawal a Blessing and a Curse for Afghans

"They don’t want more fighting and for that reason they will
accept any puppet government the U.S. will impose on them"

Though the United States’ announcement to pull its troops from Afghanistan by 2014 was celebrated by most Afghans as the imminent end of a protracted and controversial foreign occupation, there are lingering questions about the outcome of such a withdrawal.

Specifically, experts and lay people alike are asking whether it will make the country safer for democracy or more vulnerable than ever to violence and extremism. Others are sceptical that the country will ever be free of U.S. presence in a geographically strategic country, close to Iran, Pakistan and Central Asia. 

Iranian officials claim Israeli-backed terrorism team busted

Bombs, machine guns, military communications
gear and other equipament were reportedly seized.

Iranian state media reported Tuesday that a team of terrorist "devils" backed by Israel had been identified and arrested by Iranian security forces.

The Iranian Intelligence Ministry claimed it had busted "a major network of terrorism and sabotage," saying the group was planning attacks on Iranian targets, PressTV reported.

Tunisia's Youth and Their Fight for Freedom of Expression

After the fall of the Tunisian dictator, the debate
about censorship on the Internet resurfaced.

In Tunisia, a new debate is taking shape. Long suppressed by the authoritarian regime of former President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia's free expression movement for many years existed on the fringe, comprised of bloggers, software developers, media aficionados and expats whose frustration at Tunisia's Internet censorship and surveillance regime – in place for over a decade – fomented their activism.

Drone Technology Takes Off

Wars in the fourth dimension.

The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) held its conference this month in Israel for the first time. Do future wars by land, sea and air belong to robots? The modern battlefield pushes troops to their limit. Infantrymen haul heavy loads on their backs which hinders their combat performance. 

What if...Hamas controlled Gaza had human rights?

The Ceasefire is open to the opinion of its readers. If you have another position related to the issue discussed above, submit your article for editor@cessarfogo.com . After evaluation and approval of the submitted material, it will be submitted for publication.

Freeing Childhood From Prisons

98% were subjected to physical
or psychological violence...

Hamza has memories no 17-year-old should. "I was desperate. I didn't talk to anyone. I didn't want to go outside the house. I was very nervous. I'd be irritated with the simplest matters." Last year, Hamza was arrested in the middle of the night on suspicion that he threw stones at Israeli settlers near his school in the West Bank. He tells IPS that he was handcuffed and blindfolded, and beaten on the way to interrogation.