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: Gaza Fishermen Play Cat and Mouse with Israeli Navy

By Mel Frykberg
Israeli naval commandos recently hauled off three international peace activists off Palestinian fishing boats seven nautical miles off Gaza's coast. They were accompanying 15 Palestinian fishermen attempting to complete a day's fishing without being shot at or arrested by the Israeli navy.
Fighters from the Islamic Jihad which is seeking to build truce between Hamas and Fatah. Credit: Mel Frykberg

MIDEAST: Palestinian Politics on the Road to Nowhere

By Mel Frykberg
Israeli-Palestinian peace talks appear to have hit a dead-end, while efforts to bridge the yawning chasm which divides Hamas and Fatah politically and ideologically appear to be going nowhere.
Muhammed Ayman, who saw his friend bleed to death after being shot in the head by an Israeli settler. Credit: Mel Frykberg

MIDEAST: Children Play with Death and Dispossession

By Mel Frykberg
Palestinian children continue to be victims of disproportionate and indiscriminate violence from the both the Israeli occupation and internal Palestinian infighting in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The rubble in front is all that remains of a Palestinian house destroyed by Israelis. Credit: Mel Frykberg

MIDEAST: Israel Moves to Judaise East Jerusalem

By Mel Frykberg
The Israeli government is attempting to Judaise Palestinian East Jerusalem, and maintain a Jewish majority against the demographic threat of a higher Palestinian birth rate.

ISRAEL: Where the Slave Trade Heads

By Mel Frykberg
Israel continues to be a favourite destination for the trafficking of women for the sex industry, also known as the white slave trade, and for a form of modern day slavery where migrant labourers from developing countries are exploited.
Israeli bulldozers on Palestinian land in Ni'ilin village. Credit: Mel Frykberg

MIDEAST: Israel Pushes Ahead with Settlement Expansion

By Mel Frykberg
Israel has published tenders for the construction of 1,761 illegal housing units for Israeli settlers in occupied east Jerusalem alone, according to the Israeli rights group Peace Now.
An Islamic Jihad fighter in Brej camp in Gaza. Credit: Mel Frykberg

MIDEAST: Gaza and West Bank in Muddied Separation

By Mel Frykberg
Over a hundred Fatah fighters loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement fled to the West Bank from Gaza last week, fearing for their lives at the hands of Hamas, the Islamic movement which took over the Gaza Strip in June 2007 after it routed Fatah forces.
Dr Ali Shaar (L) and Ziad Yaish from UNFPA. Credit: Mel Frykberg

MIDEAST: On HIV and AIDS, the Good News from Palestine

By Mel Frykberg
Palestinians from all ranks of society have pulled together to tackle the issue of AIDS, despite the increasing factional violence and chaos in the Palestinian territories.
Joel Gullege after being assaulted by Israeli settlers. Credit: Mel Frykberg

MIDEAST: Israelis Getting Away With Violence

By Mel Frykberg
Only six percent of probes into offences allegedly committed by Israeli soldiers and settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank yield indictments, a new report says.
Ashraf Abu-Rahma Credit: Mel Frykberg

MIDEAST: Palestinian 'Che' Blindfolded and Shot

By Mel Frykberg
A Youtube video, uploaded on the Internet this week, showing a blindfolded and handcuffed Palestinian being fired on at close range by an Israeli soldier in the presence of a Lieutenant-Colonel, has made international and regional headlines.
A new checkpoint at Tarqumia in the southern West Bank. Credit: Mel Frykberg

MIDEAST: Roadblocks Cripple West Bank Economy

By Mel Frykberg
The Israeli military has erected three additional roadblocks, further blocking vehicular access on the road between the south Hebron village of At-Tuwani and the commercial hub of Yatta in the southern West Bank.
Mohammed Omer Credit:

MIDEAST: Israeli Claims over Journalist Challenged

By Sanjay Suri and Mel Frykberg
Medical reports seen by IPS appear to confirm the testimony of IPS Gaza correspondent Mohammed Omer of physical abuse at the hands of Israelis last month.
Dima Nashashibi Credit: Mel Frykberg

MIDEAST: Gaza Siege Batters Women

By Mel Frykberg
The siege of Gaza has led to a sharp rise in the number of battered and sexually abused women and children in the Gaza Strip, say members of the Gaza Community Health Programme (GCHP).
Sawsun Duba supports seven children and a disabled husband. Credit: Mel Frykberg

POPULATION-MIDEAST: Time Bomb Ticking Away in Gaza

By Mel Frykberg
Crowded into a tiny strip of territory of 360 square kilometres, plagued by poverty, malnutrition and unemployment, Gaza's 1.5 million people face a demographic time bomb as the fragile infrastructure struggles to cope with a soaring birth rate.
Palestinian villagers being evacuated after clashes with Israeli military. Credit: Willow Heske

MIDEAST: Palestinian Village Takes On Israeli Military

By Mel Frykberg
Ambulances were again prevented Monday from entering the central West Bank village of Ni'ilin, near Ramallah, to evacuate the ill and the wounded. Supplies of medicines were running low, as confrontations continued with youths defying a four-day-old curfew imposed by the Israeli military.
Mohammed Omer Credit:

MIDEAST: When You Shoot the Messenger

By Mel Frykberg
The assault of IPS Gaza correspondent Mohammed Omer has left Israeli security personnel with a lot of explaining to do. And they are not doing a very good job of it.
The drought in the Palestinian territories has exacerbated Gaza's shortage of drinking water. Credit: Mel Frykberg

MIDEAST: Sewage in Water Threatens Gazans

By Mel Frykberg
Gaza is being forced to pump 77 tonnes of untreated or partially treated sewage out to sea daily due to the Israeli blockade of the coastal territory. The fear is that some of this is creeping back into drinking water.

MIDEAST: Israelis Assault Award Winning IPS Journalist

By Mel Frykberg
Mohammed Omer, the Gaza correspondent of IPS, and joint winner of the 2008 Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism, was strip-searched at gunpoint, assaulted and abused by Israeli security officials at the Allenby border crossing between Jordan and the West Bank on Thursday as he tried to return home to Gaza.
« Previous Page
*#*