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Where is the hand? The shifting of Middle East perceptions toward America

Timothy Seidel 16 June 2006


“When I was a boy, my family received a bag of flour from the United States,” tells Musa Taha, a Palestinian farmer from the village of Qatanna. It was right after the Nakba or “Catastrophe” of 1948 that left between 750,000 and 900,000 Palestinians as refugees, expelled from their homes and dispossessed of their land, that Musa remembers receiving this gift. He vividly remembers the sacks themselves and the picture on the front of two clasping hands with the label “A present from the people of the U.S.A. to the Palestinian people.” 

Behind the Walls: Separation Walls between Arabs and Jews in Mixed Cities in Israel

15 June 2006


The Palestinian Arab minority and the Jewish majority in the State of Israel live largely in separate areas. With the exception of the mixed cities, in which a significant Palestinian minority lives alongside a clear Jewish majority, most of the Palestinian population lives in its own communities, as does the Jewish majority. This territorial separation is also seen within the mixed cities: most of the Palestinian minority lives in its own neighborhoods, which are distinct from the neighborhoods inhabited by the Jewish majority. 

Creating a Semi-Enclave: Focus on Anata, Jerusalem Governorate

15 June 2006


In 1967, the boundaries of Anata, located in the Jerusalem Governorate, extended over 30,000 dunums (7,500 acres) of land. However, multiple Israeli policies affecting the town since then have led to its progressive loss. According to the Anata Local Council, upon completion of Wall construction, only some 2,300 dunums (575 acres) will remain for the use of Anata residents, the majority of which has already been built-up. Israel has appropriated or isolated the rest through construction and expansion of Israeli settlements, establishment of a major military base, and construction of the Wall and its �buffer zone�. 

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.