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Gaza Strip access deteriorates

11 May 2005


During March and the first half of April movement in and out of the Gaza Strip steadily improved. However, the situation detriorated during the latter part of April following restrictions on Palestinian movement through Erez and periodic closing of Abu Houli junction. Access problems remain with the internal Gaza Strip enclaves, most notably Al Mawasi and As Siafa while a fourth enclave has now been created at Abu Nahiya. In the last four weeks, the Israeli authorities have not allowed United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to import petrol into the Gaza Strip. 

UN Committee on Palestine considers concrete action by international community

11 May 2005


Incessant human rights violations by the occupying forces; Israel’s continued illegal policies aimed at changing the legal status, demographic composition and character of occupied East Jerusalem; the dire socio-economic situation in Palestine; and the need to put an end to Israel’s colonization of Palestinian land were highlighted as critical issues that required concrete action by the international community, as the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People met this morning. Palestine’s Chargée d’Affaires Somaia S. Barghouti said that the situation remained very critical, for improvements on the ground had only been minor. 

Villagers Open Main Street Near Nablus

Ray Smith Nablus, Palestine 12 May 2005


What was planned as a demonstration became a direct action against the Israeli occupation: Hundreds of villagers and activists from Israel and abroad opened the main street from Nablus to Asira ash-Shamaliya, which has been blocked for many years. After the outbreak of the second Intifada the Israeli Occupation Forces blocked the main street leading from Nablus to the nearby village of Asira. This street connected more than 10’000 people from this town as well as villagers from Talluza, Far’a, Yasid etc. with Nablus. Besides that, this passage – also called “Saba’atash” (“17”) – is part of the route to the bigger towns in the north, Tubas and Jenin. 

Ruling Palestine: An interview with COHRE's Scott Leckie

12 May 2005


“[This] systematic analysis of the entire Israeli legal system as it relates to housing, land and property rights of Palestinians very clearly shows that there was every intent to dispossess Palestinians of their land over the past six decades. This was a systematic attempt, a very intentional outcome, and one that ultimately makes the proposed two-state solution a physical and practical impossibility.”Palestine Report Online interviews Scott Leckie, Executive Director of COHRE, the Geneva-based Center on Housing Rights and Evictions, about the human rights group’s conclusions, drawn from a new study entitled “Ruling Palestine: A History of the Legally Sanctioned Jewish/Israeli Seizure of Land and Housing in Palestine”, that a two-state solution is no longer viable. 

Checkpoint of No Return

Kasper Lundberg Hebron, Palestine 11 May 2005


In a time of empty talk of peace and celebrating Ariel Sharon as a man of moderate politics, because of extremists’ protest against evacuation from Gaza, the situation on the ground in Palestine sees remarkably little change. Everyday life in the occupied territories is as always a continuous chaos of military interference. One of the most obvious and constantly present exponents is the Israeli grip on Palestinian freedom of movement, suffocating the fragile infrastructure. “I’m here to protect my country against terrorists,” the young man tells me shrugging as if he is not completely confident with his answer. 

57th Anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba

10 May 2005


On 15 May, Palestinians commemorate their forced displacement and dispossession resulting from the establishment of the state of Israel. Commemorations of this year’s 57th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe) aim to draw attention to the need to halt Israel’s ongoing expropriation of Palestinian land and the necessity to recognize and implement Palestinian refugees’ right to return to their homes and properties in accordance with international law and UN General Assembly Resolution 194. Until mid-May, numerous events will be organized by local organizations in West Bank and Gaza Strip to be followed by a national memorial ceremony in Ramallah on 15 May. 

Study Reveals TV News Vastly Underreports Palestinian Children's Deaths

10 May 2005


On Capitol Hill yesterday, a two-year study of network news coverage of Israel/Palestine revealed extensive underreporting of Palestinian deaths, particularly of children’s deaths. In reporting on this situation, the organization found that the networks reported on Israeli children’s deaths at rates up to 13 times greater than Palestinian children’s deaths. In reality, 22 times more Palestinian children were being killed than Israeli children. “Since American taxpayers give Israel over $10 million per day, it is essential that we be accurately informed on this issue,” says executive director Alison Weir 

Middle East diplomatic Quartet meets in Moscow

9 May 2005


The Quartet working to restore peace in the Middle East – the United Nations, United States, European Union and Russian Federation – today reiterated its willingness to help Israelis and Palestinians with the hard work and difficult decisions needed to make positive use of what it called a “hopeful and promising moment” for both sides. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan summarized the Quartet’s conclusions at a news conference following the group’s meeting in Moscow. The Quartet said a new Palestinian State must be truly viable, with contiguity in the West Bank. No party should take unilateral actions that would prejudge the final status issues. “The Quartet urges both parties to fulfil their obligations under the Road Map,” Mr. Annan said. 

Democracy and Rights are also for Palestinian Refugees

Karma Nabulsi 10 May 2005


The Palestinian body politic is alive and united on a variety of central concerns, and has not been fragmented or destroyed in spite of more than 10 years of concerted attempts to do so. At this very moment Palestinians from all walks of life have been gathering together in large and small meetings to discuss the issues that concern them, in open debate. They choose the things they wish to speak about, and raise the issues that concern them. They discuss how to advance their rights - and there are certainly a multitude of them - legal, economic, civic, political, and social. 

Voting with their feet

Jeff Handmaker and Adri Nieuwhof 9 May 2005


The official role of Israel as sole protector of the Jewish people through the so-called Israeli right of return (or Aliyah) is increasingly tested. The law of return is an exclusive law benefiting only Jews and allows any Jew to emigrate to Israel. This role of Israel, as sole protector of the Jewish people, is being increasingly tested by a large and growing number of émigrés from Israel to other countries around the world, matched by a diminishing number of new immigrants. Jeff Handmaker and Adri Nieuwhof argue that this creates serious problems for Israel in seeking to maintain the exclusively Jewish character of the Israeli state.