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Presbyterians Challenge Corporations That Support Israel's Occupation Of Palestine

25 June 2006


Facing pressure from powerful Jewish lobbyists, the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s (PCUSA) 217 General Assembly adopted a resolution to replace the previous assembly’s language calling for “phased, selective divestment from corporations that profit from the illegal occupation of Palestine.” The new resolution does not rescind the 2004 resolution. This year’s resolution supports Mission Responsibility Through Investment (MRTI)’s customary process of corporate engagement that holds divestment as a last option. 

US Corporate Media Misses Target in Israel’s Aerial Assault on Gaza

Patrick O'Connor 23 June 2006


The Israeli military’s shelling of a Gaza beach on June 9 and killing of eight Palestinian civilians focused world attention on Israel’s intensive artillery campaign against Gaza. Since then, 14 more Palestinian civilians have been killed by Israeli missiles. The US corporate media has highlighted dubious Israeli denials of responsibility for the Gaza beach killings, while providing much less space to Palestinian and third party assertions of Israeli responsibility. 

A short trip to Gaza made them orphans

Sami Abu Salem 23 June 2006


It is just an old house at the northern edge of Khan Younis, in the south Gaza Strip. Its asbestos ceiling, wrinkled walls, and old wooden doors ridden with holes reflect the cruel poverty of Abdelqader Ahmed, 57. His 80-year-old mother, Fadhiyya Ahmed, spent yesterday in one of her favorite pastimes - being with her family. Sons, daughters, grandsons, and sons-in-law gathered around her, celebrating the return of her son Zakariyya from Saudi Arabia. 

Closing session of the new Palestinian government and the human rights agenda

23 June 2006


The second and final day of PCHR’s conference entitled “The New Palestinian Government and the Human Rights Agenda” ended on the afternoon of Thursday, 22 June 2006, in Gaza City. Former Health Minister, Dr. Riyad Zanoun, headed the second session of the day and the last session of the conference. The session discussed economic, social, and cultural rights, and included four presentations, as well as a closing session that stressed the importance of Palestinian national unity. 

How Israel is tearing families apart

Ahmed Zaid al-Bireh, Palestine 23 June 2006


There are many thousands of Palestinians, or their spouses and members of their families, who hold foreign passports. The Israeli authorities, of course, know their numbers exactly. Many were denied obtaining ‘Palestinian’ IDs which are actually issued by the Israeli Occupation authorities. These IDs control birth, death, marriage, visits, visas, permits and all personal and civil matters in the Occupied Territories, even in Gaza after the ‘disengagement.’ 

Weekly Report on Human Rights Violations

23 June 2006


A weekly report of human rights violations in Occupied Palestine, compiled by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza. This report covers 15-21 June 2006, and addresses killings, violations of the right to movement, incursions, arrests, extrajudicial executions, illegal settler violence, the building of the Apartheid Wall, and other human rights violations against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. The report is issued on a weekly basis by PCHR to provide comprehensive information. 

UN rights expert paints dire picture of situation in Occupied Palestinian Territory

22 June 2006


The situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) has substantially deteriorated since a cut-off of international funding after Hamas won elections earlier this year, unemployment and poverty are rising, critical health services are in jeopardy and some Israeli actions seem to be dictated by vindictiveness “to humiliate and harass,” according to the latest reports issued by United Nations human rights experts. “In effect the Palestinian people have been subjected to economic sanctions - the first time that an occupied people have been so treated,” the Special Rapporteur on human rights in the OPT, John Dugard said. 

Palestinian refugees in Egypt face discrimination, say experts

21 June 2006


Palestinian refugees in Egypt continue to face major obstacles, including formidable travel restrictions and a lack of access to basic government services, such as free education. “They don’t have many rights,” said Ashraf Milad, a lawyer specialising in forced migration studies at the American University in Cairo. There are currently some 70,000 Palestinians in Egypt who - unlike their compatriots in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon - are not served by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), established in 1949 with the express purpose of assisting Palestinian refugees fleeing the nascent Israeli occupation. 

UN Health Rights Expert criticizes donors for failing their humanitarian responsibilities

21 June 2006


The UN Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, Professor Paul Hunt, reminded the donor community that it has a responsibility to provide humanitarian assistance to the population in the Occupied Palestinian territories (OPT). While welcoming last weekend’s emergency aid plan, the UN health rights expert emphasised that the acute funding crisis in the OPT, which is jeopardising the delivery of basic health services to the sick and infirm, arises from the deliberate actions of the donors themselves. 

A Week of Israeli Restraint

Tanya Reinhart 22 June 2006


In Israeli discourse, Israel is always presented as the side exercising restraint in its conflict with the Palestinians. In the past week, it was “leaked” that the Israeli Minister of Defense had directed the army to show restraint. During the past week of Israeli restraint, the army killed a Palestinian family who went on a picnic on the Beit Lahya beach in the Gaza Strip; after that, the army killed nine people in order to liquidate a Katyusha rocket.