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30 years and the denials keep going

Christopher Brown South Africa 16 June 2006


“My goodness, Israel - you certainly have learned your lesson well from the old apartheid South African government. Today marks 30 years since that infamous day in the township of Soweto when hundreds of thousands of students protested Bantu Education. The police waited for the marchers near a dusty intersection and unleashed hell on innocent children. Official reports claimed that 700 children died over the course of the year that the student uprisings occurred; more than likely, these were conservative estimates. Regardless of the numbers, a massacre occurred and the world barely took notice.” Christopher Brown draws some disturbing parallels. 

Keeping the international eyewitnesses out

Rima Merriman 15 June 2006


As the daily death toll of Palestinian men, women and children at the hands of Israelis clearly indicates, Israel’s policy towards the Palestinians is driven solely by violence and aggression. No other avenues (the non-violent kind) are open. Because of this, Israel is now escalating its practice of keeping internationals out of the West Bank and Gaza, the idea being that the presence of internationals puts a crimp in Israeli operations. When Palestinians protest on their own, the Israeli forces can and do use live ammunition against them. 

Weekly report on human rights violations

15 June 2006


During the reported period, IOF killed 28 Palestinians in the OPT, including 27 in the Gaza Strip. This number includes 21 unarmed civilians, including 7 children. Seven of the victims were from the same family (father, mother and 5 of their children), who were killed on Friday, 9 June 2006, when IOF fired a number of shells, while they were at the beach in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip. Field investigations conducted by PCHR and those conducted by a Human Rights Watch military expert refute this claim and prove that the victims were killed by shrapnel from IOF shelling. 

Congress grossly misled about plight of Palestinian Christians

15 June 2006


In a letter to the American Congress on 13 June, Open Bethlehem’s chief executive Leila Sansour, a Christian from Bethlehem, expressed her community’s shock at the gross misrepresentation of the threat facing the Christians of the Holy Land. She urged Congress to pay heed to the plight of the oldest Christian community in the world. The ill-conceived resolution accuses the Palestinians of discrimination towards their own Christian community – and does so without consulting any local churches or Christian organizations. 

Human Rights Watch: Artillery Strike Probably Killed Palestinian Family

13 June 2006


Israel should immediately launch an independent, impartial investigation of a June 9 Israeli artillery strike on a beach north of Gaza City, Human Rights Watch said today. Seven Palestinian civilians picnicking on the beach were killed that day and dozens of others were wounded. Human Rights Watch researchers have visited the site to examine the fatal crater and have interviewed victims, witnesses, security and medical staff. “There has been much speculation about the cause of the beach killings, but the evidence we have gathered strongly suggests Israeli artillery fire was to blame,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, director of the Middle East and Africa division at Human Rights Watch. 

Ministry plans ‘universal’ immigration law to ban Arabs from residency rights in Israel

14 June 2006


The Justice Minister, Haim Ramon, has ordered his department to hurriedly draft the country’s first immigration law to protect Israel’s Jewish majority. He said a Basic Law was needed within eight months, the expiry date of the temporary Nationality and Entry into Israel Law. The Knesset has repeatedly renewed the law since the it was first passed in July 2003 to prevent Palestinians from the occupied territories who marry an Israeli from gaining residency or citizenship rights in Israel. 

Olmert cooks the books to deprive Arab families of child benefits

14 June 2006


In an attempt to lure the small ultra-Orthodox party United Torah Judaism into his new government, the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has agreed to pay extra child allowance to religious Jewish families with many children in a way that guarantees the extra payments do not also go to large Arab families. This is the latest in a long line of manoeuvres by successive Israeli governments to ensure that Jewish and Arab citizens receive differential child allowances so that higher birth rates among Jewish families can be encouraged without also encouraging increased fertility among Arab families. 

Israeli police commander promoted despite role in deaths of Arab citizens

14 June 2006


The head of Israel’s paramilitary Border Police, Benzi Sau, has been promoted to a senior position in the Public Security Ministry in defiance of the findings of a state inquiry that implicated him in the chain of events that led to the killing of 12 Arab citizens and a labourer from Gaza by the security forces in October 2000. This is Sau’s third promotion since the deaths, despite a recommendation from the Or Commision of Inquiry that Sau not be considered for promotion again until September 2007. 

Open Letter to the Presbyterian Church

14 June 2006


We are writing to you as deeply committed Jews to ask the Presbyterian Church of the United States to honor its commitment to doing justice and seeking peace, and, in so doing, to act as a true friend to our own people. We hope and pray that you will continue to disavow Christian Zionism, to condemn Israel’s continuing effort to extend and consolidate its hold on Palestinian land and water in the Occupied West Bank, and to begin selective divestment of holdings in multinational corporations enabling those efforts. 

How Israel’s Jewish terrorist became a victim

Jonathan Cook 14 June 2006


Imagine the following scenario. A Palestinian gunman boards a bus inside Israel and rides it to the city of Netanya. Close to the end of the line, he walks over to the driver, levels his automatic rifle against the man’s head and pumps him with bullets. He turns and empties the rest of the magazine — one of 14 in his backpack — into the passenger behind the driver and two young women sitting across the gangway. As bystanders in the street outside look on in horror, our gunman then reloads his weapon and sprays the bus with yet more fire, injuring 20 people.