Stories written by Mel Frykberg
Mel Frykberg began her journalism career reporting on unrest in black townships, including Soweto, in South Africa during the apartheid era. She later worked as a journalist in Sydney, Australia. Mel has worked as a journalist in the Middle East for over a decade. She has reported for a number of major international publications from Gaza, Jerusalem, Beirut, Cairo, and Amman where she has lived. Mel also edited local magazines and newspapers in the region and is a frequent commentator on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict on National Public Radio in the United States. Frykberg studied journalism in the U.K.

MIDEAST: Israel and EU Clash Over Settlements

By Mel Frykberg
The Israeli Foreign Ministry's concern over an "unusually harsh statement" by the European Commission over Israel's settlement policy indicates a growing unease between Israel and the EU.

MIDEAST: Future of Fatah in Doubt

By Mel Frykberg
The future of Palestinian unity talks is far more complex than the bitter rivalry, bloodshed and division which represent the yawning chasm separating Palestine's two main political factions, Hamas and Fatah.

MIDEAST: Nobel Laureate ‘Abducted’ by Israeli Navy

By Mel Frykberg
Twenty-one international peace activists were seized by Israeli naval frigates in international waters Tuesday as their boat 'The Spirit of Humanity' tried to carry humanitarian aid to Gaza.

MIDEAST: Prisoners Shackled, and Hidden Away

By Mel Frykberg
The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel has accused the Israeli security forces of deliberately shackling Palestinian prisoners in a painful and dangerous manner, amounting to a form of torture.

MIDEAST: Bloody Showdown Looming if Unity Talks Fail

By Mel Frykberg
Egyptian mediators have set Jul. 7 as deadline for final Palestinian reconciliation talks in Cairo. The Egyptians say time is running out, and if there is no progress in July, they will no longer be prepared to arbitrate.

MIDEAST: Aid Agencies Slam Gaza Blockade

By Mel Frykberg
Forty international aid agencies and NGOs have released a joint statement condemning Israel's blockade of Gaza, to mark the second anniversary of the coastal territory being hermetically sealed off from the outside world.

MIDEAST: Netanyahu Offer a ‘Big Zero’

By Mel Frykberg
Yasser Abed Rabbo, secretary of the Palestine Liberation Organisation's executive committee, and a close confidant of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, has dismissed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's foreign policy speech Sunday night as a big zero.

MIDEAST: Palestinians Begin to See Real Hope

By Mel Frykberg
Chief Palestinian Authority negotiator Saeb Erekat believes Palestinians are politically in their strongest position ever in their decades-long conflict with the Israelis.

MIDEAST: Some Unclean Drops to Drink

By Mel Frykberg
Faqua village has found itself unfortunately named. Faqua in Arabic means spring water bubbles; the village was named after the abundant natural underground springs that were once found all around it.

MIDEAST: Israel Cracks Down on Minority Rights

By Mel Frykberg
Three bills recently making the rounds in the Israeli parliament have caused outrage amongst Israel's Arab minority.

MIDEAST: Palestinian Authority Going the Israeli Way

By Mel Frykberg
A surge in confidence, following unprecedented U.S. political support, led to the Palestinian Authority's bloody crackdown on a Hamas cell in the northern West Bank on Sunday which left six Palestinians dead.

MIDEAST: Bloody New Battles Suit Israel

By Mel Frykberg
The inevitable has happened. Simmering tensions between rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah have left six Palestinians dead, in the bloodiest confrontation between the two groups since Hamas ousted Fatah from Gaza in June 2007.

MIDEAST: Palestinians Honour Holocaust Victims

By Mel Frykberg
On a cool and overcast day, a procession of grim-faced people filed silently past pictures of heaps of skeletons piled high, of emaciated survivors with blank stares corralled behind barbed wire, barely clinging to life.
asdf asdf asdf asdf asdf asdf Credit: Credit: nacho. ips

MIDEAST: Humanitarian Crisis Deepens in West Bank

By Mel Frykberg
"I heard voices, I turned around to look, and saw a group of Israeli settlers assaulting my brother Hammad," says Abdallah Wahadin, 82, a Palestinian farmer from Beit Ummar near the southern West Bank city of Hebron.

MIDEAST: Palestinians Scoring Own Goals

By Mel Frykberg
While the U.S. appears to be optimistic about Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, inter-Palestinian rivalry, a recalcitrant Israeli government, and an international community with its own agenda could well scuttle a settlement.
Thuraya Judi Alwazir. Credit: Mel Frykberg

Q&A: 'More Women Need to Judge'

By Mel Frykberg
Thuraya Judi Alwazir is one of few women judges sitting on the Palestinian Authority's Judicial Authority. Alwazir speaks here to IPS about her experiences in a largely male-dominated environment, on the rights of women in regard to honour killings and domestic violence, and on the death penalty as applied in the West Bank.

MIDEAST: Power Struggle Killing Patients

By Mel Frykberg
The lives of hundreds of critically ill Gazans continue to be jeopardised by the power struggle between rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah, and political blackmail by Israel.
Palestinian territories fast becoming a wasteland. Credit: Erin Cunningham

ENVIRONMENT: West Bank Becomes Waste Land

By Mel Frykberg
Israel has found a cheap and easy way to get rid of its waste, much of it hazardous: dump it into the West Bank. A few Palestinians can be bought, the rest are in no position to complain.

MIDEAST: Who Does Not Target the Media

By Mel Frykberg
Palestinian journalists in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip continue to be arrested and harassed by the respective security forces of the divided Palestinian leadership. And from Israel, a belated freedom has come to cover Gaza, but amidst other concerns.
Ripped posters of PA President Mahmoud Abbas. Credit: Mel Frykberg

MIDEAST: Abbas Standing Takes a Fall

By Mel Frykberg
Yet another sign of the growing unpopularity of the Western-backed Palestinian Authority (PA) was evident on the streets of Ramallah last weekend.

ENVIRONMENT: Israel Stripping West Bank Quarries

By Mel Frykberg
Israeli human rights organisation Yesh Din is taking the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), the Israeli civil administration and a number of Israeli mining companies to court.
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