The PLO failed in mid-November to muster enough votes to force an inevitable US veto of its statehood bid in the Security Council. It needed nine, but got eight (Russia, China, India, Brazil, South Africa, Nigeria, Lebanon and Gabon). It did receive UNESCO membership, which sparked all kinds of excitement on the other side of the wall, and which entitles it to as-of-right membership in some other bodies. Whether it ever gets around to requesting it will depend on a lot of wrangling between the PLO, Israel, and their respective allies and funders.
Fatah and Hamas agreed Monday to form a new unity government - with Mahmoud Abbas as its prime minister. I shit you not ( http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk/news/middle-east/3397-full-text-of-the-doha-declaration-signed-between-hamas-and-fatah). Since then, no one here has stopped laughing long enough to figure out what it actually means.
The Rafah crossing has actually improved a little bit over the last year, although not as much as anyone would like. Egypt still imposes unworkable quotas on the number of Palestinians traveling out, but most of them no longer need visas, and they can travel freely once in Egypt (where before, they were essentially transported as prisoners until they boarded their planes in Cairo).
There's still a lot of hope in the Arab revolutions and other factors increasing Israel's international isolation. (In fact, I attended a talk just yesterday by the other Joe in Gaza, Joseph Daher, author of The People Demand: A Short History of the Arab Revolutions, on this very topic.) Everyone wishes thing would move in their current direction faster, but patience - sumoud - is the Palestinian national virtue. People here have waited for decades (or millennia, depending on how you slice it); they'll wait a little longer.
And, yes! The Middle East Children's Alliance (MECA) is still hard at work here, running art projects, installing water-filtration systems, and doing other things.
What else ...?
Currently, the big issue is a record-breaking 54-day hunger strike by Khader Adnan, an administrative detainee held since December 17 without public charge or evidence. I returned from the protest tent outside the International Committee of the Red Cross, where a number of Palestinians have joined his strike, a little while ago. My pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/107837785105756693974/GazaHungerStrikeWithKhaderAdnan?authkey=Gv1sRgCM3k6P3motuyrgE
Here's a report from yesterday about actions supporting him in the West Bank (where, like most of you, I know what I read on the Internet): http://palsolidarity.org/2012/02/palestinians-demand-justice-52-days-and-khader-adnan-is-dying-to-liv
There are a bunch of halfway-decent news and commentary sites covering Palestine primarily or exclusively. Here are a few of my favorites: <http://972mag.com/> http://www.alternativenews.org/english http://www.electronicintifada.net http://www.maannews.net/eng/Default.aspx http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk http://www.mondoweiss.net
On Wed, Feb 8, 2012 at 3:37 AM, Chuck Grimes <c123grimes at att.net> wrote:
This reminds me to ask a favor. Even with web searching it is difficult for
> me to form a picture or understanding of what's going in Gaza and the West
> Bank. It's not just the US media. AJE seems to only cover the blood and
> gore stuff. They are less inclined to write up `non' news, when there are
> no bombs falling which is also important news to know.
>
> For example what happened to their drive to the UN general assembly? What
> are the issues between Fatah and Hamas? Is the Egyptian border open or at
> least somewhat accessible? Do most Palestinians have hopes for the
> so-called Arab Spring, which seems stalled to me?
>
> I gave some small amount to put up the Palestinian kids art show in
> Oakland. But I have no idea if the project is still running in Palestine.
> Are the locals still running the theater that the guy who got killed
> started, etc, etc, etc...
>
> So I'd like to read some on the ground reporting, no matter the content...
>
-- "Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað."