Ikhwanweb :: The Muslim Brotherhood Official English Website

Rachel’s Grove vulnerable in Bethlehem

The deep blue fleecy sky tells a story of idyllic holiday destinations. We are with Abed Rabo from Deheisheh refugee camp, Bethlehem, on our way to his land. With support from the Olive Tree Campaign from the Joint Advocacy Initiative, Abed Rabo has planted olive trees to send a clear message to Israel that the land it wants to confiscate for "Greater" Jerusalem is his land...

The PeaceMaker

I have succeeded in making peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. In an interview preceding the Annapolis Conference, Palestinian Authority (PA) negotiator Saeb Erakat claimed that peace could be delivered in half an hour..

A break in the siege

It is 4:30 Friday morning and al-Arish’s souq is alive and packed with people. When asked where they are from, the inevitable reply with a broad grin is "I am from Palestine!" This sleepy Egyptian resort town nestled in the middle of the northern Sinai coast has been virtually transformed over the past 48 hours by a massive influx of Palestinians from Gaza...

Closure turns Gaza’s streets into sewers

A stream of dark and putrid sludge snakes through Gaza’s streets. It is a noxious mix of human and animal waste. The stench is overwhelming. The occasional passer-by vomits. ..

Gaza scrambles for supplies as border forced open

Three kids, their mother and their aunt hurried towards the Salah al-Din gate in southern Gaza on Wednesday.The mother, in her early thirties, explained in a rush, "We are heading to al-Arish [the Egypt border town] to follow my mom and brother who entered today after the borders were reopened."..

Video: The looting of Nahr al-Bared camp

In May 2007 the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, home to around 40,000 Palestinian refugees, became the site of a three-month battle between the Lebanese army and the extremist group Fatah al-Islam that had established itself in the camp. During the fighting over 40 Palestinian civilians..

Palestinians in Lebanon seek right of return

We know when we start a campaign we work for an achievable goal," declares Wafa Yassir, the energetic head of Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), which runs programs for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. ..

Down goes the wall

Last night I received a text message from my dear friend Fida: "It’s coming down -- it’s coming down!" she declared ecstatically. "Laila! The Palestinians destroyed [the] Rafah wall, all of it. All of it not part of it! Your sister, Fida."..

The Islamist opposition online in Egypt and Jordan

An October report from Reporters without Borders indicates that the level of media freedom in both Egypt and Jordan has deteriorated over the past year following the jailing of several journalists and political activists in both countries...

Italians awaken to Palestinian pain

Several Italian civil society groups will mark the World Social Forum’s global day of action Saturday by pledging support for Palestinians..

No rights, little mercy

Seventy-six-year-old Mustapha al-Jamal goes door to door, looking for help in finding medicines for his son. At home, the 53-year-old son Yahya al-Jamal lies back, staring at the ceiling. By his side, an oxygen cylinder keeps him going for now. ..

Top EU official backs Israel’s crimes in occupied Gaza

A top European Union official has offered full backing for Israel as it continues its illegal blockade of fuel, food, medicine and other vital supplies to the occupied Gaza Strip that has led to a growing humanitarian crisis...

Gaza’s last gasp

By now, people watching their news programs around the world would have caught a glimpse of Gaza City in candle-lit darkness. A pretty sight indeed if it were not for the fact that most of the people in the Gaza Strip will have to depend on these candles as their only source of light now that the power plant servicing much of Gaza’s population has shut down completely. There is no fuel to keep the plant running because Israel has imposed a complete lock-down of this most densely popula..

US stymies Security Council action on Gaza

Despite intensifying calls for international pressure to address the fast deteriorating situation in the Gaza Strip, observers and some diplomats say the UN Security Council has proved as ineffective as it has been for many years concerning issues related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict...

Sword dancing while Gaza starves

A staggering disparity in images has emanated from the Middle East over the past two weeks. While US President George W. Bush received a warm welcome during his tour of the Persian Gulf, Israel pounded Gaza killing over 40 Palestinians, nearly half of them civilians. Bush participated in sword dancing ceremonies, watched the prowess of hunting falcons,..

What Bush left behind

Since US President George W. Bush’s visit to this part of the world, at least 38 Gazans were killed and another 1,500 were injured as a result of Israeli military attacks. This escalation of violence came right after Bush’s trip to Israel and Ramallah, as Israel enjoyed an obvious green light from the US as the Arab and Islamic world sat by and watched...

Rights org: Gaza situation potentially disastrous

At approximately 8:00pm on Sunday, 20 January, the Gaza Strip power plant ran out of fuel and shut down, plunging the Gaza Strip into darkness. The closure of the Gaza power plant, in addition to Israel’s continued, tightened siege on the Gaza Strip, will have a catastrophic effect on the 1.5 million residents of Gaza, who are already suffering chronic shortages of fuel, medicine and some basic food stuffs. The director of Gaza’s main hospital, al-Shifa, describes the current situation..

Gaza power cuts leave people cold physically, metaphorically

The Israeli government decided earlier this month to permit the Gaza Strip to import industrial diesel -- in similar quantities to those permitted prior to the fuel import restrictions imposed in October 2007 -- but the impoverished enclave continues to suffer from power cuts...

The Grand Jury and the persecution of Dr. Abdelhaleem Ashqar

Ever since his sentencing on 21 November, I have been ruminating on the extreme injustice perpetrated on Abdelhaleem Ashqar by the US government and the federal court in Chicago culminating in a draconian sentence of 135 months for nonviolent acts of civil disobedience. Dr. Ashqar, a Palestinian and a former professor of business administration at Howard University, was acquitted this past February by a federal court jury of participation in an alleged racketeering conspiracy charged a..

An American President and the outposts of Zion

This week US President George W. Bush embarks on a tour of some of the US’ Middle East allies, including his first visit while in office to Israel. The trip has been presaged by a lot of media guesswork about what exactly Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will discuss, and one of the likely topics will apparently be the so-called "illegal outposts."..