Ramallah

By Al Jazeera Staff in Middle East on February 4th, 2011
Photo by AFP

From our headquarters in Doha, we keep you updated on all things Egypt, with reporting from Al Jazeera staff in Cairo and Alexandria.  Live Blog: Jan28 - Jan29 - Jan30 - Jan31 - 

By Al Jazeera Staff in Middle East on January 25th, 2011
The grafitti reads: "Al Jazeera are spies" and "Al Jazeera = spies for israel"

Palestinian Authority loyalists have vandalised the Al Jazeera office building in Ramallah in reaction to the release of The Palestine Papers.

A small group of protesters had gathered in front of the building in the main square of the West Bank town on Monday.

By Sherine Tadros in Middle East on May 5th, 2010
Photo by AFP

On, off and now on again... well almost.

The so-called “proximity talks” between Israel and the Palestinians have already experienced more ups and downs than the new Rock ‘n’ Rollercoaster ride at Disney World.

They’ve also received a lot of criticism from politicians, analysts and almost everyone else who cares enough to still be following this story.

Why? A simple dictionary definition shows how farcical these talks are.

Proximity means “close, near, adjacent, and next to”. These talks, if and when they happen, won’t even see the two sides in the same building, let alone in the same room, or around the same table.

So what is so proximal about them? It’s certainly not their stances.

The term was invented by the Obama administration to describe what they were already doing.

By Nour Odeh in Middle East on March 26th, 2010

Palestinian workers are hard at work, paving the main Ramallah-Birzeit road ... Hot asphalt pouring on the road, fumes spreading their intoxicating effect, in preparation for a smooth, world-class highway. It's all courtesy of US taxpayer dollars. Through the aid agency USAID, the Obama administration is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on projects in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

This year, USAID plans to spend $153m on infrastructure projects in the West Bank alone. That includes the construction of up 180 kilometres of roads. It's a considerable jump from the $65m the agency spent on similar projects in 2009.

falling-money.jpg

By Nour Odeh in Middle East on March 14th, 2010
Photo from Reuters

Palestinian women clash with Israeli soldiers at the Qalandia checkpoint between Ramallah and occupied East Jerusalem.

To the south, Israeli soldiers clash with youth in Beit Ummar, near Hebron.

These are the latest manifestations of boiling tensions in the area, sparked by Israel's announcement of large-scale settlement expansion in Occupied East Jerusalem.

Israel has kept the West Bank under lockdown since Thursday night, the punitive measure only serving to increase tension and draw international attention to the devastating potential of a lost political horizon in the region.

By Nour Odeh in Middle East on November 19th, 2009
settlements.jpg
 
 
They are illegal, a contravention of the Fourth Geneva Convention, "dangerous", "concerning"; they are Israel's illegal settlements, built forcefully on occupied and mostly privately-owned Palestinian land.
 
The Israeli settlement regime has occupied forty per cent and counting of the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

Successive Israeli governments have offered Israeli settlers financial, logistical, and security support to create this reality that has now driven Palestinians to the brink of despair.

By Nour Odeh in Middle East on October 21st, 2009

Yasser_Arafat2.jpg

Driving through Ramallah morning traffic is a nightmare. A town of 30,000 inhabitants, this number almost quadruples at the beginning of every business day. This town has become the center of political and commercial life for many Palestinians, so by seven in the morning, driving through Ramallah's old, windy, and narrow roads is more like a circus show.

By Nour Odeh in Middle East on October 10th, 2009

Circus.jpg

Boy scouts drummed and marched, filling the air in Ramallah with smiles today. Children watched on in amusement, unbothered by the gloomy political atmosphere in the country.

Al-Manara Square, Ramallah’s hallmark roundabout, was joyous for an hour. Members of the mobile circus put on a show that had a few dozen children giggling. And passersby took a break from their daily routine to look on.

It was an art show of solidarity with Occupied East Jerusalem - where the show was carried next - and the boy scout drums in Ramallah saw them off.

Drums of another kind

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