“Hundreds of protesters are expected to gather today at the place where Tom Hurndall was shot in the head by an Israeli sniper as he tried to rescue Palestinian children trapped under fire. The 21-year-old British peace activist was still in a coma yesterday, and there was little sign of brain activity as hopes that he might survive faded.” Justin Huggler reports for The Independent.Read more about Peace activists prepare mass protest after Briton is gunned down by Israelis
This speech was written by the family of Rachel Corrie and read on Saturday, April 12, 2003 at numerous peace rallies around the world. Read more about "Rachel had dreams" speech
“[Tom and I] even had a conversation that day about the dangers of this place, and how none of us really understood them or we wouldn’t be here. I said that I still felt confident with my international status even after the recent violence against us. I believed that it was not a calculated targeting of internationals, just an increased amount of recklessness and hostility brought on by the increased effectiveness of our work. I said I wouldn’t really be intimidated until they openly target an obvious international. Not until they very intentionally kill one of us would I feel the terror experienced by Palestinians. Fate works in mysterious ways.” Joe Smith writes from Rafah about Israel’s shooting of Tom Hurndall. Read more about "Not again": Eyewitness Joe Smith writes about the shooting of Tom Hurndall
“Yesterday was marked by what I call a “mini action”. We very loudly moved into a house in which we will now have a constant presence. It’s a four-story building in the Rafah neighborhood called Yebne, a refugee camp right on the Egyptian border victim to significant amounts of shooting and demolition. This house belongs to the Jaber family, and contains around 35 people, four families with loads of children. Its located right across from two Israeli security towers, and an area where an Israeli tank often sits.” ISM activist Joe Smith writes from Rafah. Read more about Protecting Palestinian families in Rafah
On Thursday, On April 10, an undercover Israeli special forces team assassinated two Palestinian men in the middle of the5{Tulkaremis downtown market area. On the morning of April 10, Israeli soldiers shot and injured two civilian Palestinian brothers, both teenagers, in the Jibna area of Rafah, Palestinian witnesses say. ISM Media Coordinator Tom Wallace reports. Read more about Israel kills four in Tulkarem and Rafah
EI co-founder Ali Abunimah will be debating Yossi Olmert this Thursday, April 10, at the School of Art Institute in Chicago. The debate is entitled “Answering Questions and Questioning Answers” and is sponsored by Sponsored by Artist Emergency Response, Students for Peace in the Middle
East, and SAIC Student Government Read more about Ali Abunimah speaks at School of Art in Chicago
“At about 5pm, we received a call from a Palestinian journalist friend of ours with information that bulldozers were working in the Tel Zorob area, the western-most refugee camp next to the Egyptian border. We were actually in the middle of a meeting, so within minutes all eleven of us were geared up and out the door. Five English, two Scottish, two Americans, and two Italians piled into a large taxi and headed to the scene.” Joseph Smith, a member of the International Solidarity Movement, based in Rafah, Gaza writes about the first major ISM action against bulldozers since his friend Rachel Corrie was killed on 16 March 2003. Read more about First major ISM anti-bulldozer action since Rachel Corrie killing
Starbucks Coffee Co. is reportedly closing six stores in Israel this April as well as dissolving a partnership with the Delek Group of Israel, which operated the coffeehouses. Company spokespeople would not disclose any specific reasons as to why it has done this except so say that “[t]he decision to end the partnership was independent of ongoing turmoil in the Middle East and the war with Iraq.” Helen Jung writes for the Associated Press. Read more about Starbucks pulls out of Israel, ends joint-venture
Jeff Halper
Jeff Halper is an Israeli anthropologist, until his retirement a year ago a professor at Ben Gurion University, a transplant 30 years ago from Minnesota, a harsh critic of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, and, as founder of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), perhaps the leading peace and anti-occupation activist in Israel. Kathleen and Bill Christison interview the Israeli activist. Read more about Israel's contradiction: victimhood with power
