News from Within: Palestine/Israel Podcast - Till the Last Drop: The Palestinian Water Crisis in the West Bank, Hydrogeology and Hydropolitics of a Regional Conflict

On June 12^th 2007, at the Daila center in West Jerusalem, Clemens Messerschmid, presented the first of a two-part lecture series sponsored by the Alternative Information Center, titled "Till the Last Drop: The Palestinian Water Crisis in the West Bank, Hydrogeology and Hydropolitics of a Regional Conflict." Mr. Messerschmid is a German hydrogeologist who has worked for many years on international water projects in the West Bank.

He introduced the physical settings of water resources in the region and their extremely asymmetrical allocation between the Palestinians and Israelis.

In addition, he gave an introduction to the hydrogeology of the shared aquifers and an overview of the historical development of their utilization, focusing on the years of overt occupation between the 1967 War and The Oslo Interim Agreement of September 1995.

News from Within: Palestine/Israel Podcast - Binational Currents in Israel and Palestine on the Anniversary of 40 Years of Occupation

On 12 June, the Alternative Information Center (AIC) spoke with Michael Warschawski, longtime Israeli political observer and analyst, as well as co-founder of the AIC, about understanding binationalism in both an Israeli and Palestinian context, against the backdrop of 40 years of occupation. We spoke to him about the Israeli/Palestinian peace movement in the light of the larger struggle against globalization and  neo-colonialism, as well as discuss some issues regarding the future of the peace movement in Israel, including one of its more controversial figures, Tali Fahima.

News from Within: Palestine/Israel Podcast - Israel's Missed Opportunities for Peace: From the Six-Day War of June 1967 to the Present

This week marks the 40^th anniversary of the Six Day War of June 1967, which resulted in Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Golan Heights. As time has passed and the occupation has become an increasingly permanent reality, the question remains as to why peace has continued to be unattainable for Israel. Many claim that even the June 1967 War was a direct consequence of Israel’s inability or unwillingness to accept the comprises that peace requires. 

On Monday, the 4^th of June, 2007, we spoke with long-time Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery at his home in Tel Aviv. Mr. Avnery, who was born in Germany in 1923 and moved to Mandate Palestine at the age of ten, is an Israeli journalist and former Knesset member. 

We discussed his assessments of the political context before and after the ’67 War, missed opportunities for negotiation during this period, his involvement in 1970 in an indirect communication between the Egyptian leader Gamel Abd-al-Nasser and the Israeli government, in which Nasser made clear that he was ready to make peace and establish both diplomatic and commercial relations with Israel, and finally, we spoke of the ongoing situation today on the eve of the war’s anniversary.

News from Within: Palestine/Israel Podcast - The Experience of Administrative Detention Prisoners in Israeli Prisons

Ahmad Abu Haniya, the Youth Project Coordinator for the Alternative Information Center, was released from administrative detention on 14 May 2007, after two years of imprisonment without any trial or formal charges being brought against him.

Ahmad was detained at an Israeli military checkpoint on his way to work on 18 May 2005 and placed in administrative detention, which is imprisonment without charge or trial. As with all of the approximately 800 Palestinian administrative detainees currently being held by Israel, Ahmad and his attorney were not even permitted to know the accusations against him. 

During his time in prison, Ahmad was adopted as an appeal case by Amnesty International, and supported by the American National Lawyers Guild.  

The detention of Ahmad and so many other Palestinians, blatantly violates international humanitarian law, which permits administrative detention only as an exceptional and highly regulated measure. Administrative detention violates the fundamental right to liberty and due process, and has been used by Israel as a tool to oppress political activists in Palestine who struggle non-violently against the Israeli occupation and for a just peace between Palestinians and Israelis.

We spoke with Ahmad on the 21^st of May, one week after his release from prison, at the offices of the AIC in Beit Sahour.