By Amira Hass, Haaretz, 11 April 2010

A new military order aimed at preventing infiltration will come into force this week, enabling the deportation of tens of thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank, or their indictment on charges carrying prison terms of up to seven years.

When the order comes into effect, tens of thousands of Palestinians will automatically become criminal offenders liable to be severely punished.

Given the security authorities’ actions over the past decade, the first Palestinians likely to be targeted under the new rules will be those whose ID cards bear home addresses in the Gaza Strip – people born in Gaza and their West Bank-born children – or those born in the West Bank or abroad who for various reasons lost their residency status. Also likely to be targeted are foreign-born spouses of Palestinians.

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By Matthew Rothschild, The Progressive, 10 April 2010

Here’s a new one.

A 12-year-old anti-war protester, Frankie Hughes, refused to leave Sen. Tom Harkin’s office in Des Moines on April 7, so not only was she charged with trespassing, but her mother was charged with “contributing to the delinquency of a minor.”

Frankie and her mother, Renee Lynn Espeland, are members of the Catholic Worker community in Des Moines.

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Hasan Abu Nimah, The Electronic Intifada, 9 April 2010

As more people recognize that the “peace process” has come to an unbridgeable impasse, there is debate. Some, especially those who prospered from the path of failed negotiations, argue that there is no alternative to continuing with the US-brokered “peace process.” Others intimate that a third intifada might be the solution and there have even been warnings of regional war. Others still suggest the Arab states should withdraw their eight-year old Arab Peace Initiative.

Neither war, nor an intifada — in the sense of a violent Palestinian response to Israel’s unrelenting violent aggression — are the only alternatives. Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas, recognized by foreign powers as the head of the Palestinian Authority, has constantly expressed strong opposition to any armed resistance against the occupier, and has frequently condemned and ridiculed resistance. And, after ignoring them for years, Abbas and his colleagues have lately started to endorse and even associate themselves with the nonviolent struggle of Palestinians in the West Bank, which are always met with Israeli aggression and brutality.

This however is not the only kind of nonviolence I see as a possible alternative: there is also a political option. It is important to recognize first that all efforts to settle the century-old conflict caused by the Zionist invasion of Palestine have failed because they were unjust, arbitrary, distant from legality, and did nothing to right fundamental wrongs.

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Hungary’s far right on verge of election gains

Krisztina Morvai, member of the European Parliament and presidential candidate of Jobbik, Hungary's far-right wing party, sits in front of members of the controversial Hungarian Guard.

BUDAPEST, Hungary — A far-right party in Hungary is on the verge of winning second place in Sunday’s parliamentary elections, appealing to those hard hit by the economic crisis and angry about the presence of Gypsies in the country.

If Jobbik becomes the main opposition party, it would mirror gains made by the far right across Europe in recent years.

[Read the article]

From the Feuilletons
Die Welt 03.04.2010

The situation in Hungary looks very sinister indeed. Viktor Orban’s right-wing populist Fidesz Party is expected to win 60 percent in the general election on April 11th – with the far-right Jobbik party scooping a further 20. Hatred is constantly being stirred up against Jews, homosexuals, Roma and prominent intellectuals, the literary academic and writer Lazlo F. Földenyi tells Paul Jandl: “Not long ago a weekly paper published an article calling on the population to destroy the works of Imre Kertesz, Peter Esterhazy, Peter Nadas and György Konrad, to borrow their books from the libraries and destroy them. It was meant as some sort of book burning. This paper has close ties to Victor Orban. It is symptomatic of the mood in the country in general. Anyone who speaks critically about Hungary is branded a ‘nest fouler’. People know that these writers are held in high regard abroad and this makes them nervous. Even Orban recently made a speech in which he railed against the ‘star intellectuals’.”