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ICG report: Mr Abbas goes to Washington

24 May 2005


As their leader, Mahmoud Abbas, prepares to visit Washington on 26 May, Palestinians are watching for signals from the White House to help them decide whether he deserves their continued support. Mr Abbas Goes to Washington: Can He Still Succeed?, the latest briefing from the International Crisis Group, examines the Palestinian President’s predicament. Although Abbas enjoys institutional and popular legitimacy for his agenda, that support will fade if his international partners fail to deliver on their commitments. “Abbas has international support Yasir Arafat could only dream of”, says Crisis Group Senior Analyst Mouin Rabbani. “But he has until now been no more successful in changing Israeli policies or fundamentally altering the U.S. approach”. 

Israeli Discriminatory Law Tears Apart Thousands of Families

24 May 2005


The Knesset should not extend a discriminatory law, due to expire on May 31, which prevents Israeli citizens and residents from living with their spouses from the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the International Commission of Jurists said today in a joint letter to Knesset members. On May 15, the Israeli Cabinet endorsed a continuation of the law with limited exceptions based on the age and sex of the Palestinian spouse. The three human rights organizations called on Knesset members to reject this amendment, which is currently before the Knesset for a first reading, as insufficient. 

Palestinian teachers union calls for Sari Nusseibeh's dismissal

Khalid Amayreh 24 May 2005


A Palestinian teachers union has called for the dismissal of Al-Quds University President Sari Nusseibeh for “normalising ties with Israel” and “serving Israeli propaganda interests”. A statement by the Palestinian Union of University Teachers and Employees (PUUTE), published on the front page of the Ramallah-based daily Al-Ayyam, on Monday accused Nussaibeh of “normalising relations with the Sharon government” despite the Israeli prime minister’s policy of “bullying the Palestinians and stealing their land”. “This constitutes a strong blow to the Palestinian national consensus against normalisation with Israel,” said the statement. 

Reconstructing Internationalism with Labor For Palestine

Zachary Wales 23 May 2005


Those who follow Palestinian activism, from the McCarthyist “Campus Watch,” to the intrepid Jews Against the Occupation, are aware that Labor For Palestine (LFP) has emerged over the past year as a new campaign in labor internationalism. Yet as LFP prepares for its first national conference in Chicago on July 23, 2005, few know how it began. Officially, LFP was born in June 2004 when I met Michael Letwin in Manhattan’s Union Square to discuss drafting the Open Letter, LFP’s founding document. But the notions behind LFP were in the works long before this. They started in South Africa, where an international divestment movement threw a wrench in apartheid’s brutal turbines. 

Open letter from Palestinian Civil Society in Support of AUT Academic Boycott

16 May 2005


On 16 May 2005, a large number of Palestinian non-governmental organizations wrote to express their full support of the decision made by AUT delegates on the 22nd of April to launch immediate boycotts of Haifa and Bar-Ilan Universities. According to the signatories, the motion “marks an historic moment in the global movement to isolate Apartheid Israel as a means of forging effective solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for freedom, self-determination and sovereignty.” 

Weekly report on human rights violations

20 May 2005


This week, Israeli forces killed five Palestinians, including a woman, and wounded a number of civilians. Israeli forces perpetrated a number of human rights violations, including shooting at and killing Palestinian civilians, incursions into Palestinian areas, house raids and arbitrary arrests. In violation of international law, including international humanitarian law, Israel has also continued to construct the ‘Annexation Wall’ inside the West Bank territory and expanded settlements, especially in Jerusalem and Hebron. They have also continued to impose severe restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians. 

USAID begins repairing seven critical West Bank roads

20 May 2005


The American government launched an ambitious $12 million road reconstruction program Friday to improve commerce and traffic between West Bank communities. The road renovation project is one of the development projects that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is accelerating as a sign of America’s commitment to support the democratically-elected Palestinian leadership. In consultation with the Palestinian Ministry of Planning and the Palestinian Ministry of Public Works and Housing, seven key roads totaling 38.5 kilometers were selected for reconstruction. 

Reaching the un-reached

Monica Awad Hebron, Palestine 23 May 2005


On a sunny Thursday morning, we headed towards Mneizel to immunize children against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) as part of the national immunization campaign. The drive from Jerusalem to Mneizel, a Bedouin area south of Hebron took more than expected. The drive that should normally take two hours, took almost four hours. It was not for the drive, but for the delayed access as a result of the Israeli manned checkpoint few kilometers before reaching Mneizel. As we drove in two cars, heading towards Menizel, we reached an Israeli manned checkpoint. As part of the security procedures, both cars were stopped. Unfortunately for the news crew, Dr. Iyad and Hanan were driving with them. 

Jerusalem residents scramble to fight wall

Ahmad Sub Laban 22 May 2005


At the end of April, Israeli authorities announced the course of the northern section of the wall, which will not only divide Dahiet Al Barid but will confiscate approximately 26.2 dunams land in Beit Hanina and Dahiet Al Barid and will close northern Jerusalem to about 100,000 Jerusalem residents who live in Al Ram, Dahiet Al Barid, Bir Nabala, Kufr Aqab, Sameer Amis and other northern neighborhoods. When residents saw the blueprints, a collective sigh of relief could almost be heard from the people on one side, whose homes would fall on the “Jerusalem side”, while the other side realized with a heavy sigh that they would be isolated by the wall, unable to reach Jerusalem. 

Three Speakers Set for Protest Against Aipac's Promotion of Occupation of Palestine and War Against Iran.

21 May 2005


Demonstrators will protest against AIPAC’s support for Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian lands, its abuses of the rights of Arabs in the occupied territories and in Israel, and its promotion of wars against Syrian and especially Iran. We also protest Israeli leader Ariel Sharon’s appearance at the conference because of his involvement over 50 years in a series of war crimes, including the massacres at Sabra and Shatilla. And we protest any role of AIPAC or its employees, past or present, in passing highly classified information on Iran or any other topic from U.S. government employees to the state of Israel.