On April 8, Chris Doyle - Arab Media Watch member and director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding - got a letter published in the Independent regarding Israeli environmental policies that adversely affect the Palestinians.

On April 27, AMW chairman Sharif Hikmat Nashashibi was a guest on US TV station ABC with Lauren Booth, a columnist for the Mail on Sunday and Tony Blair's sister of law. They discussed the British elections and developments in the Middle East.

On April 28, AMW advisor Chris Leadbeater got a letter published in the International Herald Tribune regarding US foreign policy.

On April 29, AMW member Omar Abbara was part of a panel on Arab News Broadcasting (ANB), discussing Arab opinions toward the British elections.

On April 30, Leadbeater got a letter published in Saudi Arabia's Arab News regarding Palestinian refugees' right to return to their homes.

Israeli waste plans

Sir: Israel's plan to dump garbage in the West Bank is not a one-off. Already Israeli settlements allow their sewage to run off down the hills, frequently towards Palestinian villages, and also polluting valuable water supplies. Palestinian Bedouin were even forcibly moved next to the huge Jerusalem municipal garbage dump in the West Bank, where they were forced to live in ship containers. This is therefore one case in a long history of Israel showing total contempt for the West Bank environment.

Chris Doyle

http://comment.independent.co.uk/letters/story.jsp?story=627336

Leadbeater's letter in the IHT:

U.S. vs. Ch??vez

The world is watching with  disbelief the antics of the Bush regime in its doomed efforts to control and influence Venezuela ("U.S. seeks to tighten vise on Ch??vez," April  27).

Not long ago there was much  admiration for the United States in Latin America, as there was throughout  the world. But that has changed. The unbelievable part is the failure of  the Bush administration to realize it has changed.

Christopher Leadbeater

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/04/27/opinion/edlet.php

Leadbeater's letter in Arab News:

Right of Return

I found the article "Palestinians Must Accept Reality of the 'Right of Return'" by Ray Hanania (April 25) somewhat disturbing. The struggle of the Palestinian people is difficult enough without those who should be supporting it distorting reality. Hanania seems to imply that the Palestinian people are gullible children who have been fed stories by other "Arab states" and by ideologues and extremists in "Al-Awda" and have been told to believe that they will return to their homes.

The Palestinian people are not stupid. I have never heard one of them make such a claim, nor heard anyone from Al-Awda in either the UK or the US or Palestine or Lebanon try to "sell" such a claim. The right to return to their homeland is worth fighting for. It is at the very basis of justice and international law. But fighting for it is not the same as expecting to get it any day soon. The Palestinians know what Zionists are like. They are aware of the fundamental racism in Zionism. They are not the gullible idiots that Hanania claims.

Hanania seems to be impressed with the Zionists' wish to maintain Israel as a Jewish state. Personally I find the concept obscene, built as it is on the expulsion and the denial of human rights of others. Were the Amish or the Quakers wanting to set up a state for themselves on barren unclaimed land, then I would find that strange, but that isn't the same. No part of Palestine was barren or unclaimed. The Zionists set up Israel by violent abuse of the human rights of others. It is not legitimate and is a total denial of democracy.

Finally, Hanania seems to have a strange concept of democracy and human rights. First, in relation to the refugees, they were denied votes in both elections and so have not in any way consented to having their rights "compromised." Until they vote for people to represent them in such negotiations, it is a gross distortion of reality to pretend negotiations could be valid. But I believe far more than that. Democracy does not involve people in the surrender of all their rights to collective government. The rights of the refugees are enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in my opinion such rights can only be surrendered by each man for himself, not even for himself and his children. It certainly cannot be surrendered by others, including non-refugees, on a majority vote.

Of course, the Palestinian refugees have to be realistic but wholesale surrender to racist demands is not a way forward. Experience with Zionists surely indicates that anything offered is taken eagerly and more demanded. The Palestinians have already offered to surrender 78 percent of their historic homeland in the interests of peace. Enough is enough.

Christopher Leadbeater

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=17&section=21&d=30&m=4&y=2005&mode=dynamic&pix=interact.jpg