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GENERAL ONLINE RESOURCES
Click on any link
A sounding-off board, mainly for radical American academics and intellectuals, which prefers its opinions barbed. It can be overburdened with alternative Americana but among the reams of articles are usually a few gems.
A great British site run by two Davids, Cromwell and Edwards, that concentrates on exploding the myth that we have a free press in the West. Their arguments - convincingly illustrated in their regular media alerts with examples drawn from British reportage and commentary - is that the mainstream media, even ostensibly leftwing media, adopt an agenda shaped by the interests of the major corporations that control their revenues (ie advertising).
A roundup of articles, mainly from the radical and online media, taking a self-conscious, but usually credible, alternative view of world events, including from often neglected parts of the globe.
ISRAEL-PALESTINE ONLINE RESOURCES
An invaluable resource for journalists, writers, activists and those who just want to hear a wider range of voices on events in the Middle East. Includes articles by independent journalists, reports by international agencies and local and international human rights groups, diaries from Palestinians, and eye witness accounts of Israeli atrocities from foreigners “embedded” with the Palestinians.
Jews for Justice for Palestine A site run by British Jews opposed to the occupation of the Palestinian territories and in favour of the greater democratisation of Israel. Although it prefers Jewish writings, it includes a well-selected list of background information in the section “Understanding the conflict” and a good weekly news round-up under “News/latest”.
An exhaustive website about the hundreds of Arab villages destroyed in 1948. The best feature is a geographically listed guide to each of the villages, with information on the date of its ethnic cleansing, the Israeli army operation in which it was attacked, the amount of land owned by the village and its population, where the survivors are now, and which Israeli settlements have been built over the village. Refugees also have a noticeboard on which they can leave stories, messages and photographs.
Palestine: Information with Provenance A site started by a professor at Cork University in the Republic of Ireland collecting articles on the Middle East that gained early notoriety by including in the entry for each writer a classification of his or her ideological and ethnic affiliations (in an attempt to underscore the greater weight given to Zionist and Jewish views in the mainstream media). An invaluable daily read for Middle East addicts.
Slick, well-designed site dedicated to disseminating information about the wall Israel is building, mostly on occupied land, to create ghettos for the Palestinians. Has plenty of analysis and features, as well as other resources for activists.
Established in 1996, Adalah (“Justice” in Arabic) is a legal organisation dedicated to protecting the human rights of Israel’s Arab minority, mainly through legal challenges in the courts. It publishes an informative monthly newsletter on its website, as well as off-line its annual “Review” in Arabic, Hebrew and English which carries articles by leading lawyers and academics on key issues facing the minority.
Arab Association of Human Rights
(HRA)
Arab Centre for Alternative Planning
The website of the lobby group of the same name, which is trying to win recognition for those Arab communities the Israeli state refuses to recognise, commonly known as the “unrecognised villages”. There are some 100,000 Arab citizens living in such communities, including 75,000 Bedouin in the Negev. The website includes historical and statistical information on the unrecognised villages.
Galilee Society
I’lam
Ittijah is the umbrella organisation for all the non-profit groups working for the Arab minority, helping to coordinate their activities. The website includes several factsheets and a regular newsletter providing details of forthcoming activities by its members.
Mada
Mossawa
An organisation dedicated to analysis of Israeli policy towards marginalised communities, including women, Mizrahi Jews and Arab citizens. The website includes comparative data in the “Social Gaps” section, as well as analysis reports.
Association for Civil Rights in Israel
The veteran Israeli human rights organisation, founded in the late 1980s during the first intifada, which regularly embarrasses the Israeli government by publishing detailed reports highlighting the gross abuses of Palestinian rights by the Israeli army.
A small, leftish Israeli peace group whose English website often seems little more than a platform for the journalism of its ageing founder, Uri Avnery. That said, Avnery, who in his youth was a militant Zionist, understands Israeli politics intimately and writes with a great deal of insight.
A low-profile, hands-on human rights organisation that tries to help Palestinians suffering at the hands of the military authorities. The website has details of violations of Palestinian property and residency rights, restrictions on freedom of movement and illegal detention.
Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICADH) Jeff Halper’s organisation, dedicated to opposing the demolition of Palestinian homes in the occupied territories (unfortunately, ICAHD has resisted extending its work to opposing similar policies inside Israel against the country’s Palestinian minority). The website includes Halper’s precise analysis of Israeli policy in the occupied territories, “The Matrix of Control”.
Slightly unpredictable website run by a small group of Israeli women who stand witness at some of the dozens of Israeli checkpoints across the occupied territories. Their monthly summaries of what they record always make for shocking reading.
New Profile Public Committee Against Torture in Israel The Israeli courts prohibited the Israeli security services’ longstanding policy of torturing Palestinian captives in a ruling in September 1999. PCATI, which helped lobby to end torture in Israeli detention centres, publishes press releases on its website detailing the treatment of prisoners that gives the lie to Israeli assurances that torture has stopped.
The website of Israel’s only Jewish organisation commemorating the Nakba. Zochrot regularly stages events where Jews and Arabs “return” to villages destroyed in the 1948 war to erect signposts marking the loss of the villages, usually only to face great antagonism from local Israeli Jews. Most pages on the site are in Hebrew but there are a few articles and reports in English.
JOINT ARAB AND JEWISH ISRAELI ORGANISATIONS
Sikkuy
Taayush (“Coexistence” in Arabic) is a joint Israeli Arab and Jewish organisation that, uniquely, confronts racist Israeli policies wherever they occur: ie without making a distinction between the two sides of the Green Line. Its website has reports of past activities and information about forthcoming events.
JOINT ISRAELI AND PALESTINIAN ORGANISATIONS
Alternative Information
Centre
A prisoners’ support group based in Ramallah. The website includes detailed information on Israel’s arrests policy, and updates on the situation of Palestinian prisoners.
Established in 1998, Badil is a resource centre and advocacy group on the issue of the right of return for Palestinian refugees. Its website includes historical and legal documents, statistics, and solutions for implementing a right of return.
Defence for Children International – Palestine Section Advocacy organisation dedicated to improving the situation of Palestinian children being harmed by the occupation.
A veteran Palestinian legal human rights groups based in Ramallah. The website includes press releases on land expropriations, settler violence, house demolition, and curfews, as well testimonies of Palestinians who have suffered such abuses.
Health Development Information and Policy Institute (HDIP) Mustafa Barghouti’s research organisation which aims to improve Palestinian health care planning and provision in the face of military occupation. The website includes useful factsheets.
Human rights organisation based in Jabaliya refugee camp, Gaza, concentrating on the issues of education, health, housing and the environment. Its website is stuffed with press releases and reports.
A media centre set up by the PLO belatedly in 2001 to promote the Palestinian narrative and disseminate writings sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.
An online “information clearinghouse” run by HDIP which is designed, according to the website, to tell the “other side of the story”. Has an archive of news articles and commentaries on wide-ranging topics, as well as maps and well-researched factsheets.
Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs (Passia) Founded by Palestinian academics in East Jerusalem in the late 1980s, Passia promotes research into Palestinian issues, including Jerusalem, with seminars, conferences and publications (including its famous diary). Website tends towards blandness.
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights Set up in 1995, the PCHR monitors human rights abuses, offering a perspective from Gaza. The website offers fact sheets, statistics, press releases and weekly reports.
Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group (PHRMG) A slightly chaotic website for Bassem Eid’s PHRMG which is best known for its running tally of Palestinian deaths at the hands of the Israeli army, as well as providing information on human rights abuses committed by the Palestinian Authority. The website includes Eid’s regular writings and the organisation’s intermittent publication “The Palestinian Human Rights Monitor”.
Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees (UPMRC) Another Mustafa Barghouti outfit, a charity run by doctors and health care professionals to alleviate suffering under the occupation. Website includes details of Palestinian deaths caused by lack of access to medical services and Israeli attacks on ambulances and doctors, as well as appeals for medical aid
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Jonathan Cook News Archive, last updated on Friday, 31 October 2008 |