April 2003

Excerpts of Palestinian PM Mahmoud Abbas Speech Before Palestinian Legislative Council

PLO Negotiations Affairs Department 29 April 2003

On 29 April 2003, the new Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) gave an inaugral speech to the Palestinian Legislative Council. Following are excerpts and a link to his full speech. The excerpts are a fair representation of the speech in its entirety. The main difference between the texts is the removal of extensive salutations. 

Text of proposed "road map"

PLO Negotiations Affairs Department 30 April 2003

The following is the text of the performance-based and goal driven roadmap, with clear phases, timelines, target dates, and benchmarks aiming at progress through reciprocal steps by the two parties in the political, security, economic, humanitarian, and institution-building fields, under the auspices of the Quartet. The destination is a final and comprehensive settlement of the Israel-Palestinian conflict by 2005, as presented in President Bush’s speech of 24 June, and welcomed by the EU, Russia, and the UN in the 16 July and 17 September Quartet Ministerial statements. 

Essay: A year in the life of Montreal's Palestinian solidarity movement

Darren Ell 30 April 2003


The following photo essay is about some of the people “whose names you will never know,” but whose work is essential to the success of the Palestinian struggle. For one year, I attended a large number of the many events organized by Palestinian solidarity groups in Montreal, Canada. Darren Ell writes for EI. 

Procession of the Species in Olympia remembers Rachel Corrie

candio. 29 April 2003


On April 26, 2003, residents of Olympia, Washington took to the streets for the 9th Annual Procession of the Species Celebration. This is the largest Earth Day event in the Pacific Northwest, attracting over 30,000 spectators and 2,500 marchers who don handmade costumes representing Fire, Air, Earth and Water. This year’s march was especially meaningful due to the presence of 100-150 peace doves in honor of Olympia native Rachel Corrie, who lost her life on March 16 while undertaking peacekeeping work in the Palestinian refugee camp of Rafah. 

Film review: Rana's Wedding

Maureen Clare Murphy 29 April 2003


It is not often that movie audiences, American ones especially, see a female heroine that doesn’t need a man to save her or doesn’t wear stiletto heels and a short skirt while overcoming hurdles. And that’s why I like Rana of Rana’s Wedding so much. Not only was she smart enough to wear sensible shoes and comfortable clothes while running through town searching for her boyfriend, but she solved her problems all on her own. EI writer Maureen Clare Murphy reviews “Rana’s Wedding” at the Chicago Palestine Film Festival. 

Film reviews: Nizar Hassan's "Istiqlal" and "Invasion"

Maureen Clare Murphy 29 April 2003


There are a lot of difficult questions that Americans, Israelis, and Palestinians alike must ask themselves in order to better understand this conflict that they are all a party to. Director Nizar Hassan is not afraid to critique attitudes, primarily among Palestinians, that he finds problematic. By using his own quest for answers as an example, he reflects to his audience that they too can get a dialogue rolling. EI contributor Maureen Clare Murphy reviews two films at the Chicago Palestine Film Festival. 

Palestinians on Abbas: Taking a wait and see approach

Ali Abunimah 29 April 2003

The appointment of Mahmoud Abbas as Palestinian prime minister has been welcomed in the United States as a boost to prospects for peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Despite Palestinians’ doubts about Abbas and the ‘road map,’ many are willing to give the process a chance. There are serious questions, however, about whether the Bush administration is willing to expend the political capital to face down the vigorous campaign by Israel and its supporters in the U.S. to derail the road map and any chance of peace it may contain. EI’s Ali Abunimah takes a look at the issues. 

Israeli High Court rules to permit Israeli army's use of flechette shells

Palestinian Center for Human Rights 27 April 2003


As further evidence of the seemingly unconditional support of the Israeli judiciary for the Israeli military and its actions, the Israeli High Court this morning issued a decision effectively permitting the Israeli military’s use of flechette anti-personnel tank shells, which are being used with increasing frequency by Israeli occupying forces against Palestinian civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, particularly in the Gaza Strip. 

Israeli authorities arrest Israeli border policemen suspected of killing 'Imran Abu Hamdia

B'Tselem 26 April 2003

Israeli authorities have arrested four Israeli Border Policemen suspected of beating to death ‘Imran Abu Hamdia, 18, in Hebron in December 2002. The Department for the Investigation of Police (DIP), of the Ministry of Justice, investigated the incident after B’Tselem provided its findings to DIP and requested that it open an investigation into the matter. 

'Foreigners' in their own land

Arjan El Fassed al-Khader, Palestine 8 July 2001

On Thursday afternoon, Annet, Nadia and I drove up to the village of al-Khader. A demonstration was planned to remove an Israeli blockade made out of rocks and the remainder of an old-bus, blocking the main road leading south. Like hundreds of villages in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, the village of al-Khader, located on the outskirts of Bethlehem on the way to Hebron, has been sealed off by the Israeli occupation forces. 

Interactive Holiday

Arjan El Fassed Ram, Palestine 18 December 2001

When we stepped out of our appartment, we saw our neighbours and their children dressed in the new clothes that they could afford to buy to celebrate this year’s end of Ramadan. It’s the first day of Eid al-Fitr, the “feast of fast-breaking”, marking the end of the holy month, during which Muslims fast and reflect on self-discipline and compassion. Although the sun shines, the blue sky does not speak of the difficult times Palestinians have to endure. 

Weekly report on human rights violations

Palestinian Center for Human Rights 25 April 2003

This week, Israeli occupying forces killed nine Palestinian civilians, including 4 children and a journalist. Five of them were killed during a wide-scale incursion into Rafah refugee camp. Israeli forces demolished more homes. Israeli forces threatened seven families with the demolition of their homes. Wide-scale arrest campaigns in Tulkarem refugee camp resulted in the transfer of hundreds of civilians to Nour Shams refugee camp. Israeli forces destroyed large areas of Palestinian agricultural land in Gaza. Israeli forces continued indiscriminate shelling of Palestinian residential areas. Israeli forces raided two Palestinian hospitals in Jenin, arresting two injured Palestinians. Israeli forces continued to use Palestinian civilians as human shields and continued its siege on Palestinian towns and refugee camps. 

Leaked document exposes pro-Israel lobby's manipulation of US public

Ali Abunimah 25 April 2003


The Electronic Intifada has obtained, and today publishes in full, a document prepared for pro-Israel activists by the public relations firm The Luntz Research Companies and The Israel Project. The document spells out the tactics that Israel and its US advocates should use to maintain support for Israel and its hardline policies. Introduction by EI’s Ali Abunimah. 

NPR ignores Israeli attack on school, killing of two

Ali Abunimah 24 April 2003

On 24 April, Israeli occupation forces opened fire on school children near Ramallah, killing a student and a taxi driver, and injuring several others. Also, a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up and an Israeli security guard. National Public Radio reported only on the latter, demonstrating an incredible double standard, as EI’s Ali Abunimah writes. 

The wall goes on and on and on...

Isabelle Humphries 25 April 2003


“The wall is no secret. Even if people have not visited Qalqilya and Jayyous, the story is there in the newspapers. Or here, on this website. The people of Qalqilya are locked in a prison. There is only one way out, and few have permits to leave so as to find work elsewhere. Half the farmland is now gone and vital water supplies have been cut off. Palestinians do not have the permission to dig for more water. Israel is unilaterally setting boundaries, with no negotiation, no court of appeal. ” Isabelle Humphries revisits the concrete embodiment of Israeli impunity near Qalqilya and reports on the abuses suffered by farmers and merchants for The Electronic Intifada. 

ISM's Adam Shapiro responds to CAMERA's distortions in the Washington Post

Adam Shapiro 25 April 2003

On March 30, the Washington Post published the last e-mails of Rachel Corrie, an American peace activist crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer driver, on 16 March 2003 in Gaza. On April 19, the Post published a letter by CAMERA director Eric Rozenman, entitled “Last E-Mails of an Indoctrinated Activist”, attacking Corrie. Adam Shapiro, organizer of the International Solidarity Movement that Corrie worked with in Gaza, responded with this letter to the Post, published on April 25th. 

The men who are selling Palestine

Ali Abunimah 23 April 2003

Mahmoud Abbas, Israeli and US-backed Palestinian “prime minister” is locked in a dispute with Yasser Arafat over the formation of a cabinet. The key sticking point is Abbas’ insistence that Muhammad Dahlan be placed in charge of security. Abbas and Dahlan have been enjoying a positive press in the United States recently as well as the support of George W. Bush. What is forgotten is that Abbas and Dahlan are steeped in the very corruption which they are supposedly expected to fight. Abbas has been chosen, writes EI’s Ali Abunimah, not to bring a better future, but because he represents a past in which Palestine’s rights are traded for private profit. 

Israeli report clears troops over US death

Conal Urquhart 14 April 2003

An Israeli army investigation into the death of Rachel Corrie, an American peace activist, has concluded that its forces were not to blame for her death. It accused Corrie and other members of the International Solidarity Movement of “illegal, irresponsible and dangerous” behaviour. Corrie, 23, was crushed to death by an army bulldozer in Rafah, Gaza, as she protested against house demolitions. The investigation, led by the chief of the general staff of the Israeli Defence Force, found that Israeli forces were not guilty of any misconduct. 

Peace activists prepare mass protest after Briton is gunned down by Israelis

Justin Huggler 22 April 2003

“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. 

Armed with principles

Ali Abunimah 22 April 2003


At the beginning of Israel’s crackdown on the Palestinians, we could anguish at the deaths of strangers, like 12-year-old Muhammad al-Durra, or the innocent Israeli teenagers murdered in 2001 by a Palestinian suicide bomber at a Tel Aviv discotheque. Almost two years later, with victims mounting, no one has the emotional capacity to mourn for so many. But the killing of Corrie, and the shooting of Avery and Hurndall, renew for me the sense of personal anguish at the fate of strangers. EI founder Ali Abunimah comments on recent events. 

Documenting the Occupation: Director Yahya Barakat discusses working under Israeli military rule

Maureen Clare Murphy 22 April 2003


To conceive a film or video and execute it successfully is a challenge for any experienced director. But add a military occupation into the mix — with its checkpoints, invasions, and violence — and the difficulty is increased exponentially. Yahya Barakat, who has seven documentaries under his belt and spoke with The Electronic Intifada during the Chicago Palestine Film Festival, has met the challenge of working under an occupation and and tackles its stories in his work. EI contributer Maureen Clare Murphy reports. 

Attempting to murder the truth

Amer Abdelhadi Nablus, Palestine 21 April 2003

The wheel chairs took place at the front line. Wheel chairs carrying previously butchered victims of the Israeli brutality in the long occupation years. Angry protestors strolled along trying to control their anger by shouting loudly and screaming revenge at the continuing Israeli aggressions against Palestinians. The victim this time is Nazih Darwazeh. A cameraman working with Palestine TV and freelancing for Associated Press. 

Review: Diary of a Male Whore

Maureen Clare Murphy 21 April 2003

In Tawfiq Abu Wael’s Diary of a Male Whore, the main character, a young man who states, “My physical pleasures make me forget the hunger,” finds that humiliation is the way of life in an occupied land. EI contributer Maureen Clare Murphy reviews the film at the Chicago Palestine Film Festival. 

Review: Lord's Song in a Strange Land

Maureen Clare Murphy 21 April 2003

Nicholas Dembowski’s video, Lord’s Song in a Strange Land is a clever montage of found footage from Hollywood movies, cable news networks, European news stations, old Western films and edited it as though to let his viewers channel surf through the American media’s representation of what it considers “the Arab world.” EI contributer Maureen Clare Murphy reviews the film at the Chicago Palestine Film Festival. 

Rafah: Israeli occupation kills 5 Palestinians, including two children

Palestinian Center for Human Rights 21 April 2003

In the most recent incursion into Palestinian territory, Israeli occupying forces killed 5 Palestinian civilians including 2 children and wounded 30 others in Rafah on Saturday, 19 April, 2002. The condition of 10 of the wounded is said to be critical and the number of injured included 7 children. 

U.S. must probe death In Gaza

Stanley Heller 20 April 2003

“None of these people would have gotten hurt if they had minded their own business and closed their eyes to the shootings of Palestinians. Yet I’ve talked with ISM activists in New Haven who are certain that their work is vital. When they’re around, Israeli soldiers shoot less and the international news media pay more attention. That saves lives.” Stanley Heller of the New Haven, CT Middle East Crisis Committee sends a letter to the editor of his local paper. 

Weekly report on human rights violations

Palestinian Center for Human Rights 17 April 2003

This week Israeli occupying forces killed ten Palestinians, mostly civilians, including four in three extra-judicial executions. Israeli forces demolished six Palestinian homes in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah. Israeli forces conducted a series of incursions into Palestinian areas. Israeli forces continued to use Palestinian civilians as human shields in military operations. This week PCHR witnessed continued Israeli shelling of Palestinian residential areas. Israeli forces raided houses and arrested more Palestinians. 

The Achille Lauro hijacking: Selective memory does none of us justice

Daniel Jacob Quinn 17 April 2003


“The Achille Lauro is back in the news. Most of us know that a Palestinian, Mohammed Abu Abbas, is believed to have planned the 7 October 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship. His group, the Palestinian Liberation Front, demanded that Israel free 50 Palestinian prisoners. An American Jewish passenger in a wheelchair, Leon Klinghoffer, was shot and thrown into the sea. While Abbas was not on board the ship, the hijacking, taking of hostages, and killing of Mr. Klinghoffer were heinous crimes for which he should be brought to justice.” Daniel Jacob Quinn writes about another, forgotten event that happened one week prior to the hijacking. 

Cases of imprisoned conscientious objectors before the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention

World Organisation Against Torture and International Federation for Human Rights 17 April 2003

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (FIDH and OMCT joint venture) is very concerned with the imprisonment and trial before military courts of Israeli conscientious objectors. 

Palestinian prisoners' day

Palestinian Center for Human Rights 17 April 2003

Today, 17 April 2003, is Palestinian Prisoners’ Day. The number of Palestinian detainees increases as Israeli occupying forces continue to wage campaigns of arbitrary arrests and detentions against thousands of Palestinian civilians. Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails continue to be subject to wide-ranging violations of their rights and dignity. PCHR reiterates its call for Israel’s systematic violations of the rights of Palestinian prisoners to be stopped, and demands that Israel respect international human rights and humanitarian law on the rights of prisoners. 

US lone vote against human rights resolution on the occupied Arab territories

Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) 15 April 2003

The Commission on Human Rights adopted resolutions this morning calling for Israel to cease repressive measures in the occupied Syrian Golan; end human rights abuses and withdraw from Palestinian territories occupied since 1967; and halt the construction of settlements in the occupied Arab territories. The three measures, adopted by roll-call votes, were tabled under the Commission’s agenda item on the “question of the violation of human rights in the occupied Arab territories, including Palestine”. 

Behind the barrier: human rights violations resulting from Israel's construction of the wall

B'Tselem 15 April 2003


Today B’Tselem is publishing an updated position paper on the separation barrier being erected between the Green Line and the West Bank. The paper focuses on the planned route of the barrier and violations of human rights of the many Palestinians who live near the Green Line (Israel’s 1967 border) that will result from building the barrier within the West Bank. 

Israeli High Court considers use of flechette shells

Palestinian Center for Human Rights 15 April 2003


The Israeli High Court held a session on Sunday, 13 April 2003, to consider the case of the use of flechette anti-personnel shells by the Israeli army. PCHR and Physicians for Human Rights appealed to the court to issue a decision to absolutely prohibit the use of flechette shells by the Israeli army in its military operations. 

Parents of Tom Hurndall visit the site of his shooting

Tom Wallace 14 April 2003


“At 1:00 PM today Anthony and Jocelyn Hurndall made their way to Yebna, Rafah where their son Tom was shot on Friday, April 12, by an Israeli sniper. The entourage of two range rovers and a UN vehicle arrived at the ISM apartment where a throng of reporters and photographers awaited their arrival.” This update from Tom Wallace, International Solidarity Movement media contact in Beit Sahour, chronicles a family’s search for justice. 

Policing the academy

Joseph Massad 13 April 2003

Joseph Massad, in this contribution to EI, writes about an intense campaign by supporters of Israel against academics who criticize Israel and against academic freedom itself. While the pro-Israel lobby’s campaigns to discredit people who criticise Israel had decreased in relative terms after Oslo, they were revived after the failure of the Camp David talks and the eruption of the second Intifada. The lobby and its individual manifestations have become rabid in their campaigns of discrediting offenders to the point that they have become embarrassing to many Americans who support Israel. 

"Not again": Eyewitness Joe Smith writes about the shooting of Tom Hurndall

Joe Smith 12 April 2003


“[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. 

ISM Rafah: Statement on the shooting of Thomas Hurndall

12 April 2003


“Thomas Hurndall, a 21-year-old activist from London, UK […] was about to leave, when he noticed two small girls still in front of the roadblock and in the line of fire. He was moving to help them when an Israeli soldier in the tower, about 300 meters in front of him, shot a high calibre sniper bullet directly into his head. He was wearing an orange fluorescent jacket with reflective stripes, and was in full body view of the tower.” 

ISM: Israeli soldier shoots British ISM activist Tom Hurndall in Gaza

11 April 2003


Between 4:30 and 5:00 PM today Israeli snipers shot another ISM activist in the head. Tom Hurndall from Manchester Britain is currently in critical condition in an Israeli hospital. He is 22 years old. According to Laura, the activists were being shot at while protecting some children from Israeli gunfire. Tom was in plain view of the sniper towers and was wearing a bright orange fluorescent jacket with reflective stripes. The nine ISM activists and many children were in the process of leaving the area. Sniper fire from the tower was hitting the wall close beside the children, who were afraid to move. Tom was attempting to bring them to safety when he was shot. There was no shooting or resistance coming from the Palestinian side at all. 

Protecting Palestinian families in Rafah

Joe Smith 11 April 2003

“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. 

Sophisticated transfer

Tanya Reinhart 10 April 2003

While fears that Israel might use the war in Iraq as a cover to forcefully relocate Palestinians in the “seam line” area of the northern West Bank have not been realized, the Israeli army is rehearsing for such a “transfer.” Furthermore, Israel is escalating efforts to rob Palestinians of their lands in the occupied territories. Tanya Reinhart reports in Yediot Aharonot. 

Israel kills four in Tulkarem and Rafah

Tom Wallace 10 April 2003

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. 

Weekly report on human rights violations

Palestinian Center for Human Rights 10 April 2003


This week Israeli forces killed 18 Palestinians, mostly civilians, including 5 children. Eleven of the victims were killed in the past 24 hours. Nine of the victims, including two children were killed in three extra-judicial executions. In Israeli arrest campaigns in Tulkarm refugee camp, hundreds of civilians were transferred to the nearby Nour Shams refugee camp. This week Israeli forces demolished six Palestinian homes in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah. Israeli forces conducted a series of incursions into Palestinian areas, accompanied by indiscriminate shelling. Israeli forces continued to use Palestinian civilians as human shields in military operations. The Israeli retaliatory campaign continues against Palestinians and a volunteer of the International Solidarity Movement was shot in his face and seriously wounded by Israeli forces in Jenin. 

Seven Palestinians killed and 53 wounded in latest Israeli assault

Palestinian Center for Human Rights 9 April 2003


Two Israeli combat helicopters, accompanied by an F-16 fighter jet, launched two missiles at a civilian car in a densely populated area of Gaza City. Two Palestinians, allegedly wanted by Israeli occupying forces, were traveling in the car. A number of Palestinian civilians gathered around the targeted car to rescue the victims, when the aircraft launched a third missile, killing 5 Palestinian civilians, including two children, and injuring dozens. 

Another assassination

Palestine Monitor 7 April 2003

Israeli troops yesterday raised the level of violence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. According to Palestinian security sources, yesterday afternoon Israeli Special Forces, dressed in women’s clothes entered the Palestinian town of Salfeet. Upon reaching the center of town they opened fire on 23 year old Badr Abdel Raouf Yassin, killing him. 

Israeli Army Invades Tulkarem Refugee Camp

2 April 2003

In the small hours of this morning the Israeli Army and border police invaded Tulkarem refugee camp with attack helicopters, tanks, APCs, hummers (special forces vehicles) and hundreds of soldiers and border policemen. After taking control of the camp, they began to round up the camp’s entire male population between the ages of 15 and 45. At dawn the men were marched in groups to the Tulkarem refugee camp’s School for Girls where they were held until for varying periods of time before being taken away in trucks. This update offers detail about what ISM activists witnessed at the scene. 

Pro-Israeli lobby forges unholy alliance with the Christian right

Akiva Eldar 7 April 2003

“Evangelical Christians from South Carolina paid for the huge billboard on Israel’s Ayalon highway declaring ‘There’s no land for peace.’ TV evangelist Pat Robertson last week reprimanded Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, saying ‘Who do you think you are, handing Jerusalem over to Arafat?’ With Christian friends like these close to the president’s ear, the right-wing government in Israel does not need Jewish friends to rebuff political initiatives like the road map.” Haaretz’s Akiva Eldar charts the growing — and troubling — influence of Christian Evangelical Zionists in Washington, DC. 

First major ISM anti-bulldozer action since Rachel Corrie killing

Joseph Smith Rafah, Palestine 6 April 2003


“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. 

Brian Avery shooting: Annotated map from eyewitness Tobias Karlsson

Tobias Karlsson 7 April 2003


International Solidarity Movement activist Brian Avery was shot in the face with heavy machine gun fire in Jenin on 5 April 2003 by Israeli troops in an armored personnel carrier. Tobias Karlsson, International Solidarity Movement coordinator for the Jenin area, offered the following annotated map giving more information about the incident, thus highlighting the incredibility of the Israeli army’s claim that the shooting was a “crossfire”-type accident. 

What about the apartheid wall?

International Womens Peace Service Mas'ha, Palestine 7 April 2003

If you’ve ever sat in springtime in an olive grove, enjoying the shade of the trees and the scent of the fresh earth, perhaps you will understand what land can mean to people who depend on it. Go just once to Mas’ha, Bidya, Sanniria or one of the dozens of Palestinian villages that are losing most of their land to the Israeli Apartheid Wall and you will get an idea of what kind of pain Palestinians feel at this theft and destruction. 

Second Annual Chicago Palestine Film Festival to be held April 17-25

7 April 2003

Chicago will host its second annual Chicago Palestine Film Festival from April 17-25 2003. The festival will feature over 30 films including Hany Abu Assad’s Rana’s Wedding: Jerusalem, Another Day, an official selection for the 2003 Cannes Film Festival, Jeremy Hardy vs. the Israeli Army, a film by the London-based Palestinian filmmaker Leila Sansour, and Genet à Shatila from Swiss director Richard Dindo. 

Israel threatens Palestinan land and homes in Qalqiliya

Robyn Long East Jerusalem 6 April 2003

Between walking among the lands in Qalqiliya, which Israel is confiscating for the so-called ‘security barrier’, and visiting the hospital where Jihad, a fourteen year-old martyr who was shot by Israeli ‘special forces’, was prepared for his funeral, one can easily understand why the residents of this caged city state there is an internal closure on their spirits. Robyn Long writes from Occupied Jerusalem. 

The Brian Avery shooting: When will we realise that there can't be this many "accidents"?

Nigel Parry 5 April 2003


On 5 April 2003, Israeli troops in Jenin shot International Solidarity Movement activist Brian Avery. Avery, a 24-year-old American from Albuquerque, New Mexico experienced serious wounds to his face after Israeli troops shot at him with heavy machine gun fire from an armoured personnel carrier. In this coverage trend, EI co-founder Nigel Parry examines some of the misrepresentations in initial reports, and lists what we do know, uncomfortable facts which would seem to preclude the event being an ‘accident’. “For those of us who have lived as eyewitnesses in the West Bank or Gaza Strip, it is not news that Israeli troops regularly shoot at people without there being clashes or any threat to the soldier. This is one of the consequences of maintaining a military occupation for over one-third of a century, the dehumanisation of the occupied people by the occupying army. Increasingly during the Intifada, we have observed that internationals have been targeted by the Israeli army.” 

Another busy day for IDF bulldozers

Gila Svirsky East Jerusalem 5 April 2003

“They had to do 16 houses by sundown, and they couldn’t start until the men who live in them had gone off to work in the morning. But those machines are tireless, and by the end of the day, you could find 16 families sitting on heaps of rubble, weeping and cursing. Children, too.” Gila Svirsky of the Coalition of Women for Peace reports on another average day in Occupied Palestine. 

The two faces of Ha'aretz

Jonathan Cook 5 April 2003


“Dear reader, as Israel slides ever deeper into a morass of racism and ethnic solipsism, please do not rely too heavily on Haaretz to understand how or why this ‘light unto the nations’ has grown so dim.” Jonathan Cook examines the politically significant differences between the English and Hebrew versions of a newspaper thought to be the conscience of Israel. 

Final thoughts from Palestine

Kathleen and Bill Christison East Jerusalem 5 April 2003

“As we left East Jerusalem for Amman last week, on our way back home, we were struck by the cynicism of what appeared to be a concerted effort by the Israeli press and others in the media to justify, retrospectively, Israel’s siege and destruction of Jenin a year ago because it is now clear that U.S. and British forces are doing the same thing in Iraq.” Kathleen and Bill Christison reflect on their trip from Occupied East Jerusalem. 

"Where shall we go? Baghdad?"

Arnon Regular 4 April 2003

“The soldiers divided arrivals into two groups, separating those aged 15-20 from those aged 20-40. The younger group was led into classrooms, forced to tear pictures of shahid (martyrs) off the walls and step on them. At around 9 AM, a few hours after the operation began, a Druze officer reportedly told a few hundred men on site: ‘You are leaving the camp. Don’t come back until it is all over.’ Abd a-Latif a-Sudani, 30, recalls: ‘We asked him - `Where are we to go? To Baghdad?’ And he said: `You’d be better off there.’” Arnon Regular of Haaretz reports on a disturbing IDF operation in Tul Karm which has turned refugees into refugees once again. 

The Shopkeeper

Chris Brown Hebron, Palestine 3 April 2003

My friend’s shop is in the old city. Because there is curfew everyday, he has been unable to get there. Recently, his shop, along with nineteen others, was welded shut by the Israeli army. 

UK to impose duties on Israeli goods from Israeli settlements

Arjan El Fassed 3 April 2003

The UK treasury will introduce in line with EU policy customs duties on Israeli goods produced in settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. The Treasury reaffirmed that the Occupied Palestinian territories are not part of the State of Israel, that Israel routinely and repeatedly fails to answer the direct question regarding the origin of goods, and that Customs & Excise have begun issuing duty demands to UK importers where goods are suspected to be have originated in the settlements. 

Israeli military forcefully occupies UNRWA school

United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East 3 April 2003

In the early morning on 2 April, Israeli military forces broke into and occupied a United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)’s girls’ school in Tulkarem refugee camp in the West Bank, and proceeded to use the school as a detention centre for male residents of the camp between the ages of 15 and 40. 

The Minister of Defense and the IDF Commander of Judea and Samaria are obligated to allow an attorney to visit a physically disabled detainee who is confined to a wheelchair

Public Committee Against Torture in Israel 19 March 2003

The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), in a petition filed to the High Court of Justice today, March 20, 2003, demanded that the Minister of Defense and the IDF Commander of Judea and Samaria allow an attorney to visit a physically disabled detainee, confined to a wheelchair, who is being held at the Howara Camp. 

Schlock and Awe

Michael Tortorello 3 April 2003


“This ‘Schlock and Awe’ tv glossary aspires to cut through what nearly every news anchor has ponderously been calling ‘the fog of war’ — as if they were quoting an obscure passage from Thucydides — and replace it with the fog of punditry. On the subject of obscure passages from Thucydides, how about this adage from The History of the Peloponnesian War: ‘Zeal is always at its height at the commencement of an undertaking.’ (Recall what Donald Rumsfeld declared last week, We’re still, needless to say, much closer to the beginning than the end.) Less than two weeks into the campaign, our zeal for war seems to have dissipated — and no one is looking forward to the undertaking.” This feature by Michael Tortorello appeared in Minnesota’s City Pages, which BNN’s editors could not let pass without sharing with our readers. 

Weekly report on human rights violations

Palestinian Center for Human Rights 3 April 2003

This week Israeli occupying forces killed 10 Palestinians, mostly civilians, including two children. Two of the victims bled to death. Israeli forces conducted a series of incursions into Palestinian areas, accompanied by indiscriminate shelling. The Israeli retaliatory campaign continues against families of wanted Palestinians and those who allegedly have carried out armed attacks against Israeli targets. Over 1200 Palestinians have been detained. The tight siege of the Occupied Palestinian Territories continued to be imposed. 

Starbucks pulls out of Israel, ends joint-venture

Helen Jung and AP Business Writer 31 March 2003

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.