The Palestinian people have lived under Israeli military occupation for over 39 years. Their occupation is not only one of the longest standing in contemporary world history, but has also been distinguished by an incredible amount of repressive creativity. Israel has employed an everincreasing array of means and ways to oppress Palestinian’s basic human rights while maintaining a level of discrimination that, if applied anywhere else in the world, would shock the world into action. The most recent addition to Israel’s “Matrix of Controls” is to deny Palestinians and foreign nationals that do not hold an Israeliissued Palestinian I.D. entry into, or residence in, Palestine. Read more about The Right to Entry to the Occupied Palestinian Territory
Due to the further severely deteriorating situation in the Gaza Strip since June 25th, 2006 owing to disproportionate military attacks by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) against the civilian population in the Gaza Strip, Al Mezan is highly concerned about the wellbeing of the Palestinian population living in Gaza. Al Mezan is launching this urgent appeal to urge international intervention to place pressure on the Government of Israel to halt its damaging military actions in the Gaza Strip, and lift the imposed siege, in order to avert a deepening humanitarian crisis. Read more about Al-Mezan's urgent appeal for action regarding Israel's siege on the Gaza Strip
The Ad-hoc Committee for the Protection of Foreign Passport Holders Residing in and/or Visiting the Occupied Palestinian Territory, launched in June 2006, is a support group of individuals and families affected by the current Israeli occupation authorities’ policy that denies entry to foreign passport holders to the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) via the Israeli unilaterally-controlled international border crossings to the oPt. They formed in response to Israel’s intensified trend of restricting entry or re-entry to the West Bank and Gaza to residents and visitors who do not hold a Palestinian ID issued by the Israeli Interior Ministry. Read more about Committee formed on right of entry to the Occupied Palestinian Territories
The Jerusalem Municipality is preparing to forcibly evict Muhammad Is’hac and Yousra Herbawi from the house where they live with their six children, one of whom is severely disabled, and then to demolish the building. The family have almost no income, and would be left destitute. The impact on the family’s health, in particular that of the disabled son, is likely to be very severe. The Municipality can still decide to take into account the family’s circumstances and cancel the forced eviction and the demolition. Read more about Jerusalem family facing forced eviction and home demolition
Israeli occupation forces are arresting scores of Palestinian children each week, bringing the number of juveniles currently held in appalling conditions in Israeli detention centres and prisons to new record levels. Information gathered by the Defence for Children International shows that since the start of 2006 over 230 Palestinian children have been arrested, with the Israeli army appearing to target in particular youths from the Bethlehem Nablus and Jenin areas of the West Bank. The scale of arrests over the past two months brings the number of Palestinian children in Israeli custody to almost 400. This represents a significant increase on the already-inexcusably high numbers of recent years and marks a further indication of the scant regard Israeli pays to Palestinian children’s rights. Read more about Over 200 Palestinian children arrested in two months
The village of Lifta, which lies just outside Jerusalem, has been abandoned since the Israeli army drove out the last of its Palestinian inhabitants in 1948. Now, however, a renovation project aims to turn Lifta into an expensive and exclusive Jewish residential area - reinventing its history in the process. In the following months, the Foundation for Achieving Seamless Territory (F.A.S.T.) will, with your help, reconstruct the map of Lifta. F.A.S.T. invites you to help it describe the town by sending your details, narratives, drawings and photographs of Lifta. F.A.S.T. will compile the material that is send to them (by email or fax) and fill the map. Read more about Urgent Appeal: Help F.A.S.T. Reconstruct Lifta's Map
The Israeli Ministry of Justice proposes a law that will allow non-residents of Israel who are suspected of having committed security offenses to be held almost completely incommunicado for fifty days. The bill, which is proposed as a temporary order that will remain in effect for one year, passed its first reading in the Knesset plenum on October 31. It will now be examined in Committee before returning to the plenum for the second and third readings necessary to enact into law. If enacted, the law will severely breach the fundamental rights of suspects in criminal proceedings, and increase the risk of maltreatment during interrogation. Read more about Bill enabling prolonged incommunicado detention passed its first reading in the Knesset plenum
Changing the map of the Middle East is difficult even in a literal sense. Last month the Electronic Intifada informed its readers of the blatantly inaccurate map of Israel which currently appears on MapQuest.com. As a result of our call to action, MapQuest received hundreds of e-mail messages from concerned readers. Initially responding with a boiler plate letter promising undefined future action, MapQuest ultimately refered writers to the Dutch vendor that provides their maps. Correspondence with the Dutch company has not resulted in any clear response commiting to update the maps, two weeks after they received our letter. Read more about MapQuest sidesteps requests to correct blatantly inaccurate map of Israel
Recently, I was quite surprised to find that the map of Israel on the popular Internet site MapQuest presents the area of the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights (Syrian Heights) as undifferentiated from Israel proper. In other words, as opposed to depicting Israel delineated by its internationally recognized borders, MapQuest displays the “Greater Israel,” which is the dream of many in the Israeli right wing. The realization of this “Greater Israel,” of course, precludes any possibility of the Palestinian people realizing their national aspirations. Read more about MapQuest.com obscures status of occupied territories
On 15 August, Israel began a unilateral “disengagement” from the Palestinian Gaza Strip by evacuating its illegal settlements and military bases there. Israeli officials announced in July that they will ask the United States to pay $2.2 billion for this disengagement. The following document, prepared by the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, offers key talking points about the realities of the Gaza “disengagement” and what kind of life Palestinians in the Gaza Strip can expect following the move. Read more about Talking Points: The Gaza "Disengagement"
