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Indiscriminate and Excessive Use of Force: Four Palestinians Killed During Arrest Raid

24 May 2006


At approximately 14:30 this afternoon, 24 May 2006, an elite Israeli unit entered a commercial building in central Ramallah to arrest an Islamic Jihad leader. A crowd gathered outside the building and began to throw stones, while the vehicle transporting the elite unit was taken from the scene and burnt. Although precise details of the incident are currently difficult to obtain, it appears that around ten minutes later a number of Israeli military jeeps arrived and immediately opened indiscriminate fire towards the stone throwing Palestinians. 

Tadamon delegation to Lebanon in Summer 2006

Stefan Christoff 8 June 2006


In July of 2006, Tadamon! [Solidarity! in Arabic], a Montreal-based collective of social justice organizers and media activists, will be sending a delegation to Lebanon. In the context of historic political change taking place in Lebanon and throughout the Middle East region, this delegation will be producing independent media reports concerning the current political, social and economic situation in Lebanon, for dissemination through alternative media networks in the Middle East, North America and internationally including the Electronic Intifada. 

Portraits of Palestinian Resistance: The Wounded

Rima Merriman Ramallah, Palestine 7 June 2006


Sa’ed Jamal Al Taleb (26) of Al-Jalazone refugee Camp (originally from Um Al Zainat close to Haifa) was the last of the scores of wounded to be discharged from Al Ri’aya Hospital in Ramallah. When the events of May 24 took place, he had been on his way home from the Arab-Amman Bank, where he worked as a messenger (he had worked for five years in Jordan and Saudi Arabia before returning home). Sa’ed was hit in the leg, as he ran towards Al Manarah to see what was going on. 

Portraits of Palestinian Resistance: Aysar Kamal Abu 'Arra

Rima Merriman Ramallah, Palestine 7 June 2006


With Aysar’s death during the May 24 Israeli raid in Ramallah, Kamal Jamil Qasem (49) of Aqqaba near Jenin buried his second child. The first to die was Fadi, who, at 19, fought with Abu Jandal of Islamic Jihad during the nine-day Israeli attack on Jenin Refugee Camp in April of 2002. He fought against bulldozers, apache helicopters, tanks and heavy machine guns. Aysar, a member of the PA national security forces, was stationed in Ramallah, because he was having trouble getting to Hebron, his original post, as a result of the Israeli check points. 

Portraits of Palestinian Resistance: Ghaleb Rabah 'Allan

Rima Merriman Ramallah, Palestine 7 June 2006


Ghaleb’s father, Rabah (48) worked in Israel as a laborer from 1977 until 2000, when he was no longer allowed to work there. He now has a job in a factory that manufactures solar heating tanks. He has provided well for his large family, his wife Mayada, his two oldest married sons, both waiters in Ramallah and living with him in the family compound. He has one married daughter who lives in Safa. Another is a sophomore at Birzeit University studying psychology. His five youngest children are all in school. 

Portraits of Palestinian Resistance: Ja'far Khaled Betillo

Rima Merriman Ramallah, Palestine 7 June 2006


Ja’far’s father, Khaled, a truck driver and the father of four other sons and two daughters, was in a village called Naleen west of Ramallah when he got the frantic call from one of his neighbors. Ja’far, who had been taking driving lessons in Ramallah in the past few weeks, was there on the afternoon of May 24th for his driving test. To pay the fess of the test, he had just borrowed 350 NIS from his younger brother Hussein (20), a waiter at a restaurant in downtown Ramallah. 

Portraits of Palestinian Resistance: Milad Attallah Abu Al-Arayes

Rima Merriman Ramallah, Palestine 8 June 2006


Refugee Camps all over the West Bank and Gaza are targets of frequent Israeli attacks. Al-Am’ari Refugee Camp, where Milad was born and where he lived with his family (refugees from Jaffa) until he was killed by the Israelis at the age of 19, is no exception. The Camp is on the outskirts of Ramallah and has seen its share of tragedies. Its approximately 6000 refugees are under siege, increasingly unable to provide for themselves. Al-Am’ari camp boasts of its share of Israeli air and land raids, home demolitions, bombs, as well as “wanted”, imprisoned and martyred men, women and children. 

Portraits of Palestinian Resistance: Introduction

Rima Merriman Ramallah, Palestine 8 June 2006


Palestinian resistance to the occupation comes in many shapes and forms, some of which involves armed resistance undertaken by organized groups with various ideologies. These groups are composed of barely trained young men who pit their meager and crude resources against one of the best trained and best equipped military body in the world, the Israeli Occupation Forces. Of the 76 Israeli soldiers who died in 2005, only six were killed as a result of Palestinian attacks. 

Palestine's Defeat?

Sousan Hammad East Jerusalem 7 June 2006


In his book Memory for Forgetfulness, Mahmud Darwish, the eloquent Palestinian poet says, “I bring my search for meaning to a complete stop because the essence of war is to degrade symbols and bring human relations, space, time and the elements back to a state of nature, making us rejoice over water gushing on the road from a broken pipe”. This was written during the Israeli invasion of Beirut in 1982, a time that was very similar to the current situation in Palestine. 

The Right to Live Without Fear

Am Johal 7 June 2006


Lost in the discussion of peace processes, military raids, Qassam rocket fire and unilateralism carried out by the Israeli government for ‘security purposes,’ is the climate of fear that is the defining feature of Israeli and Palestinian life. It does more damage than anything else. The threat of coercion, of bureaucratic reprimand, the hold up of paperwork, the threat of home demolitions and a myriad of other policies force normal people in to silence even when their rights are violated.