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              Palestinian cartoonist Khalil Abu Arafeh is no Fatah loyalist. In his early years he supported the left-wing Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Abu Arafeh’s brother Khaled was elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council on the pro Hamas Reform and Change List. Abu Arafeh’s political cartoons in the largest daily <em>Al Quds</em> are often seen as a reflection of the general mood of Palestinians in the occupied territories.
Abu Arafeh captured much of the Palestinian pulse on Monday with his cartoon on the latest controversy involving the leaked Palestinian negotiating papers. <a href=”http://web.alquds.com/docs/pdf-docs/2011/1/25/page18.pdf” target=”_hplink”>He depicts an older Palestinian man </a>holding the hand of a young boy; they are caught in some attacks on Palestinians. On the left side, Israeli bulldozers knock down houses, under the caption “Israeli mubasher”. On the right side, arrows are puncturing the old man’s back; the caption reads “Jazeera mubasher”. Mubasher means direct, and also applies to the television term for live broadcast.
                    			 
            	          
	         
      	        
            
            
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              We must speak out
By Daoud Kuttab, International Herald Tribune
For years, the Palestinian struggle for freedom and liberation from a foreign military occupation was criticized as two-faced. The late Yasser Arafat was dubbed a terrorist in sheep’s clothing; his attempts to simultaneously use military and political means to accomplish Palestinian goals were rejected by the Western world.
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              By Daoud Kuttab
The choices facing Palestinian leaders as they try to navigate their responsibilities while the 44-year-long Israeli occupation continues are difficult.
Some Palestinian activists of the Islamic Hamas movement were detained by the Abbas-Fayyad government in a general crackdown against armed resistance movements that sees attempts by the Palestinian Authority to apply the rule of law in the occupied territories as part of the Palestinian leadership’s commitment to the international community. Of course, in return for this, the Israelis were obliged (according to the roadmap) to freeze all settlement activities as the two parties prepare for peace talks that are aimed at ending the occupation and creating an independent, viable and contiguous Palestinian state. Continue Reading »