Let us hope that the civilians in Gaza are not alienated just because of a radical fundamentalist.The EU plans to resume direct economic aid to the Palestinian Authority to support the new Fatah-led government, foreign policy head Javier Solana says.
The EU is the biggest donor to the PalestiniansBut direct payments will not resume for the moment as the EU wants to see proper financial mechanisms in place.
President Mahmoud Abbas named an emergency cabinet excluding Hamas after it seized control of the Gaza Strip.
The EU and US imposed an embargo on the previous government after the Islamist group's election victory 18 months ago.
Mr Solana's comments came after Israel said it would be prepared to ease economic sanctions now that Hamas played no official role in the Palestinian government.
In Gaza, there were reports that the territory's 1.3 million residents faced shortages of food and other essential supplies.
But an Israeli fuel company, Dor Alon, said it had restored normal fuel supplies to the Gaza Strip after Palestinians protested against an earlier suspension, a move the company said had been co-ordinated with the Israeli military.
'Direct relationship'
Speaking before a meeting of foreign ministers in Luxembourg, Mr Solana said the EU would be prepared to make some direct payments to the government of the new Palestinian Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, in the future.
Mr Fayyad, widely respected among international organisations and donors, served as finance minister in the previous administration.
"No doubt part of it will go through the account that when he was minister of finance he had established and he will have kept as prime minister, so it will be a direct relationship with the government," Mr Solana said.
"It is very important that he is able to construct a budget, and through that budget he will be able to help both people in Gaza and the West Bank."
Mr Solana added that the EU also planned to deliver economic aid to Palestinians in Gaza, but this would be channelled through the UN or an existing Temporary International Mechanism that bypasses Hamas.
"In order to help the Palestinian people in Gaza, we will need some mechanism that cannot be direct support," he said.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
EU plans direct Palestinian aid
Finally, the Palestinians are receiving some aid.
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Fiesta Feminista 2007
Sorry for the long delay in posting. I've been rather busy the past two weeks. Anyhow, I attended Fiesta Feminista for the past two days, an event/conference held in University Malaya that brings all feminists in Malaysia together on a single platform. It wasn't a wholly feminist event however; there were several exhibition booths there by NGOs like Malaysian Aids Council (that gave out free condoms), Beautiful Gate foundation, Amnesty International, Centre for Independent Journalism etc.
The theme of Fiesta Feminista is Embracing Diversity. Indeed, there were many elements of FF that encouraged diversity. Many of the sessions held had Bahasa Malaysia/ sign language translation services. There were many participants on wheelchairs as well, not to mention a transvestite I noticed going into a woman's bathroom. True diversity, indeed.
I attended a session on Women, human rights and democracy, where the speakers spoke on CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women) and religious conversion issues in Malaysia. Basically, CEDAW is an international treaty that promotes equality between women and men. If a government ratifies it, that means the government is obligated to follow the terms of the treaty. However, it's not legally binding. So, the most CEDAW can do if a particular government doesn't obey the terms of the treaty is just to put pressure on the government to obey it. Malaysia is one out of the 185 countries in the world that has ratified it since 1995. And has Malaysia actually obeyed CEDAW? Basically, a lot still needs to be done in terms of making laws in Malaysia more gender-sensitive. Marital rape, for example, is not recognized in Malaysia due to the sharia law.
The other session that I attended was a reading session: Young Women Speak Out by WWRP-AWAM, where four young women read out mostly original fictional writings. As they didn't use a mike, it was slightly difficult to hear them in the lecture hall. One young woman spoke on her unpleasant experiences of being the 'school slut', while another read out a rousing short story about a girl who was date-raped by her boyfriend.
There was also one funny performance during lunchtime where they dressed a tomboy up in a linen shirt, pink scarf, and slim-cut men's jeans--with a sign next to her saying Lelaki Lembut. Next to her, was a tall skinny guy in a vest and khaki pants, with a sign beside him saying Perempuan Kasar. Then, the facilitators, who called themselves a 'Gender Correctional Facility' made fun of the tomboy, saying that s/he wasn't man enough because s/he was wearing a pink scarf. Then, they proceeded to strip her, leaving her to wear a blue man's shirt and putting a dumbell in her hand. She was now Lelaki Sejati. The guy next to her was the funniest--they made him put on a spaghetti-strap, a skirt, and heels! Poor guy could barely walk. He was now Perempuan Murni.
Overall, Fiesta Feminista was an enlightening event. My only quibble is the food--dinner on Saturday evening only consisted of a small portion of fried rice with a little veggies and fishballs inside. That's it! But, I would not hesitate to go for their next event. There were a lot more men there than my initial expectations.
The theme of Fiesta Feminista is Embracing Diversity. Indeed, there were many elements of FF that encouraged diversity. Many of the sessions held had Bahasa Malaysia/ sign language translation services. There were many participants on wheelchairs as well, not to mention a transvestite I noticed going into a woman's bathroom. True diversity, indeed.
I attended a session on Women, human rights and democracy, where the speakers spoke on CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women) and religious conversion issues in Malaysia. Basically, CEDAW is an international treaty that promotes equality between women and men. If a government ratifies it, that means the government is obligated to follow the terms of the treaty. However, it's not legally binding. So, the most CEDAW can do if a particular government doesn't obey the terms of the treaty is just to put pressure on the government to obey it. Malaysia is one out of the 185 countries in the world that has ratified it since 1995. And has Malaysia actually obeyed CEDAW? Basically, a lot still needs to be done in terms of making laws in Malaysia more gender-sensitive. Marital rape, for example, is not recognized in Malaysia due to the sharia law.
The other session that I attended was a reading session: Young Women Speak Out by WWRP-AWAM, where four young women read out mostly original fictional writings. As they didn't use a mike, it was slightly difficult to hear them in the lecture hall. One young woman spoke on her unpleasant experiences of being the 'school slut', while another read out a rousing short story about a girl who was date-raped by her boyfriend.
There was also one funny performance during lunchtime where they dressed a tomboy up in a linen shirt, pink scarf, and slim-cut men's jeans--with a sign next to her saying Lelaki Lembut. Next to her, was a tall skinny guy in a vest and khaki pants, with a sign beside him saying Perempuan Kasar. Then, the facilitators, who called themselves a 'Gender Correctional Facility' made fun of the tomboy, saying that s/he wasn't man enough because s/he was wearing a pink scarf. Then, they proceeded to strip her, leaving her to wear a blue man's shirt and putting a dumbell in her hand. She was now Lelaki Sejati. The guy next to her was the funniest--they made him put on a spaghetti-strap, a skirt, and heels! Poor guy could barely walk. He was now Perempuan Murni.
Overall, Fiesta Feminista was an enlightening event. My only quibble is the food--dinner on Saturday evening only consisted of a small portion of fried rice with a little veggies and fishballs inside. That's it! But, I would not hesitate to go for their next event. There were a lot more men there than my initial expectations.
Saturday, June 2, 2007
Lebanon camp clashes
More people are dying from the clashes between the Lebanese army and Fatah al-Islam militants who are currently beseiging a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. So far, 100 people have died, including civilians.
This is the background story of what's going on. Basically, Fatah al-Islam appears to be a new militant group that follows al-Qaeda's radical ideology.
The UN says about 25,000 people have fled the camp but some of the 31,000 original residents remain trapped inside.
The army said some of the militants were using civilians as human shields and called on the militants to surrender.
This is the background story of what's going on. Basically, Fatah al-Islam appears to be a new militant group that follows al-Qaeda's radical ideology.
The leader of Fatah al-Islam, Shaker al-Abssi, had reported links with Abu Musab Zarqawi, who led al-Qaeda in Iraq until he was killed last year.On the other hand, the Lebanese government perceives Fatah al-Islam to be Syrian intelligence, though the Syria government denies all links.
The government regards Fatah al-Islam as an instrument of Syrian intelligence. It believes the timing of the current crisis is linked to efforts to set up an international tribunal into the killing in 2005 of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Syria denies involvement in the assassination, but its critics suspect it is trying to destabilise Lebanon in order to block the creation of the tribunal.
Which is the truth?
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