FFIPP Archives

Past News:

June, 2007:
* In this Gaza, nobody wins; Our leaders have only served to further Ariel Sharon's plan, and to de-legitimate our claim to self-government By Dr. Eyad Sarraj, director of the Gaza Community Mental Health Program and president of Faculty for Israeli-Palestinian Peace International, FFIPP-I
Dr. Sarraj lives in Gaza City.
June 19, 2007.
Article.
* Right to Education Student Committee Birzeit University, Right to Education Campaign, 21 June 2007 Statement
* Speech by Nurit Peled-Elhanan at the Tel Aviv Demonstration Commemorating 40 Years of the Occupation For forty years now, racism and megalomania have dictated our lives. Forty years during which mor...
Full Story (the Alternative Information Center in Jerusalem)
May, 2007:
* Open Letter to Education Minister Yael Tamir to Release the Palestinian Minister of Education and all those who have been unlawfully detained
May 28, 2007

From: FFIPP-I, Faculty For Israeli-Palestinian Peace International
To: Prof.Yael Tamir, Minister of Education
Cc: Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Amir Peretz, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni Petition.
signatures list1. signatures list2.
April, 2007:
* April 29, 2007: An open letter to Azmi Beshara from Juliano Mer Khamis of the Freedom Theatre of Jenin, April 29, 2007. Azmi, My Brother, You had the good sense to see what was coming-the security forces in cooperation with the judicial system of Israel decided to take steps against, what they call the "strategic threat", of the Palestinian citizens of Israel, and to do away with their leaders. They want to return us to the days of martial law-to fear, to the permits, to the dark cells of the security forces, to the era in which only collaborators could claim at least some of their rights.
Inside the 1967 borders, Israel was not yet employing the methods it now uses in the occupied territories. It did not execute people without trial, condone mass arrests, cause starvation, or destroy infrastructures. Now, as "the only democracy in the Middle East", Israel claims to function according to just and lawful means...
See complete text of the letter in English.
Letter in Arabic.
Letter in Hebrew.
* April 25, 2007: Gilad Sharon(son of former prime minister Ariel Sharon): Strip the citizenship of the Israeli Arabs of Umm al Fahm, Taibeh, Jaljulya, Kafr Kara... See April 25, 2007 article in Haaretz.
* April 5, 2007: We are deeply concerned about reports of outside interference into the tenure and promotion case of Dr. Norman Finkelstein, and that as a result he may not be awarded tenure from DePaul University. Please sign the petition: We Support A Fair Tenure Process for Dr. Norman Finkelstein. Petition.
See article: Harvard Law Professor Works to Disrupt Tenure Bid of Longtime Nemesis at DePaul U. By Jennifer Howard, The Chronicle of Higher Education April 5, 2007. Article.
* April 5, 2007: Israeli settlers set fire to a car in the occupied Palestinian village of Tel Rumeida on the Jewish holiday of Pesach. details.
March, 2007:






On Sunday evening, 12 March, the Israeli Army entered the village of Sayer, in the Hebron district, an area with a population of 22,000(AIC)
* A letter from occupied Nablus to a student friend in the US:
Written by a 19-year-old student at Al-Najah University who lives in the Old City of Nablus with his family. letter.

* March 26, 2007: hundreds of settlers from many settlements in the occupied West Bank and other Israelis engaged in a big march and came to stay for one day on land where the Homesh settlement was located. The settlement had been dismantled in 2005, when the Israeli Government ordered the dismantling of four settlements in the Jenin district. The settlers came under the protection of the Israeli military. They chanted that they will come back to the place, and that the action is a protest for the dismantling of the settlements. The settlers threatened that they will rebuild the there. Boaz Hatestni, one of the organizers of the march, said that "We will come back and there are 30 settler families ready to stay in Homesh." Saleh Hantooli, the mayor of the nearby Palestinian town of Selit Daher said "During the march, the Army closed all the streets between Tulkarem, Jenin and Nablus and all the roads in the area that link the villages. They prevented the farmers from reaching their fields in Jenin too. The settlers, during the march, raised a lot of slogans like this is our promised land and death to Arabs."(AIC)
* March 17, 2007: The FFIPP community is mourning the unexpected death of Tanya Reinhart on March 17th, 2007 in New York City. Tanya was a friend of many members of the FFIPP community. We send our condolences to Tanya's family and friends. Below we've posted a June 18, 2003, lecture Tanya presented at a peace conference in Tel Aviv organized by the Faculty for Israeli-Palestinian Peace. This audio production was made by William Seaman of the pdxjustice Media Productions.
Tanya's FFIPP lecture.
A link to pdxjustice Media Productions.
February, 2007:

An IDF soldier standing next to a group of Palestinians waiting to cross at a checkpoint near the West Bank city of Nablus on Sunday. (AP)

* Israeli Forces attack the city of Nablus. Reports from the Palestinian Body for Dialogue, Peace, and Equality (HASM).
Report 2/25/07.
Report 2/26/07.



Israeli Army officers attacking a Bedouin man while his house is destroyed south of the West Bank city of Hebron on Wednesday, February 14, 2007. (AP in Haaretz)
* Internationals, Palestinians and Israelis protest against the Wall in Bil'in. 16 activists hurts by Israeli security forces. Article in Guardian, 2/24/07. Article in Guardian, 2/23/07.
Article in Haaretz, 2/23/07. Article in Haaretz, 2/25/07.

Photos: IDF troops blasting Palestinian, Israeli and foreign activists with water cannons during clashes at a weekly anti-separation fence protest in the West Bank village of Bil'in, 2/23/07 (AP in Haaretz)
* Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, GCMHP, Condemns the Diggings near Al-Aqsa Mosque and Warns of the Ramifications of Agitating Muslims' Feelings . Press Release.
* An article by Joschka Fischer on president Bush's new strategy for Iraq.
Joschka Fischer was Germany's foreign minister and vice chancellor from 1998-2005. A veteran leader in the Green Party, he is now a visiting professor at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School. Article.
* A plea for peace from a bereaved Palestinian father, by Bassam Aramin. Message.
January, 2007:
* Terrible News:
Abir Aramin, the 10 year old daughter of Bassam Aramin from Combatants for Peace was killed by Israeli troops during her school's recess. We express our deepest condolences to the Aramin family.
We ask faculty and students world wide to condemn this action by the Israeli army and the general practice of firing in the vicinity of schools without regard for the lives of young Palestinian children. We call upon the Israeli army to punish those who are responsible for this tragedy and stop killing Palestinian children. In 2006, 140 Palestinian children were killed by the Israeli army, almost triple the number killed in 2005.
This practice must end. article(haaretz). article(bbc).
November, 2006:
* FFIPP Gaza Emergency Call
GAZA EMERGENCY CALL.
List of Current Signers.
Ad in Al-Quds Nov 25, 2006.
Ad in Ha'arets Nov 22, 2006.

* Press Release : A message of Peace from Gaza to the international community from Dr. Eyad El Sarraj, President of Faculty for Israeli-Palestinian Peace - International, November 10, 2006. Statement.

* Israel issues last permits to foreigners, splitting families.
URGENT press release from A Grassroots Campaign for the Protection of Foreign Passport Holders Residing in and/or visiting the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
A Statement by the Israeli Committee for Right of Residency.
"I Want to Keep my Wife" by Ghassan Abdullah, Ramallah.

* A letter from Maro Kevorkian Papouras about the painful and humiliating experience at Tel-Aviv airport of her mother, Hebrew University faculty member Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, on November 17, 2006. Letter.

* Urgent Call from Palestinian NGOs Network (PNGO) to end the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, 5/11/2006. Statement.
October, 2006:
* Statement by Presidents of Palestinian institutions of higher education on Israel's restrictions on foreign citizens entering the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Statement.
Article in the Israeli press. Article

* Judith Butler, member of the board of directors of FFIPP-USA, will deliver the ninth annual Eqbal Ahmad Lecture at Hampshire College. The lecture, "Universality and its Paradoxes: Hidden Histories of Post-Zionism", will be held on October 24 at 4 p.m. at Robert Crown Center. Information.

September, 2006:
* Emeregency situation in Gaza: UK press report on Gaza. Israeli press report on Gaza.

* Following a visit to the Gaza Strip, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel warns: Humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip, September 4, 2006. More information. Physicians for Human Rights-Israel.

*In a pre-dawn raid on Friday, September 8, 2006, Israeli security forces closed down the offices of Ansar al-Sajin (The Prisoners' Friends Association), an NGO registered under Israeli law which offers support to Palestinian political prisoners. Report.

* A question sent to the European Council concerning the closure of Rafah Crossing Point and the role of the European Observers there by Luisa Morgantini, Chair of the Development Committee - European Parliament, September 15, 2006. Text.


August, 2006:
* In recent months Israel is denying to Palestinian residents, holders of foreign passports the right to Entry/Re-Entry to the West Bank, including people who had lived there for decades and who have there their homes, spouses, children and in some cases grandchildren. This measure hurts many faculty and their spouses in the West Bank. A campaign against this discriminatory, unjust and cruel measure by the Israeli state was kicked off this week in Jerusalem. Details on the campaign. Btselem Report


July, 2006:
* A civic action cosponsored by UMASS Anti War Coalition and the Faculty for Israeli-Palestinian Peace-5 Colleges, Northampton,July 27,2006 . Civic Action Flyer.

* Statement on the war in Lebanon by Workers in the Public Cultural Sphere in Lebanon.Read statement.


May, 2006:
* A joint statement by the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme and the Faculty for Israeli-Palestinian Peace-International on the siege of 1.4 million people in Gaza. Read the statement.