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Weekly report on human rights violations

21 January 2004


This week Israeli forces killed a Palestinian woman. Seven civilians, including five children were injured during Israeli shelling in Rafah. Israeli forces invaded various areas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israeli forces destroyed 60 homes in the Gaza Strip, including 51 in Rafah refugee camp. This week Israel razed more Palestinian agricultural land. Israel continues to use Palestinian civilians as human shields in military operations. Israel continued the construction of the Separation Wall and more land was confiscated and razed for this purpose. Israel continues to impose a total siege. 

The impact of the Separation Barrier on refugees in Jerusalem

23 January 2004


Israel’s construction of a separation barrier will severely impact the lives of Palestinians in the Jerusalem area in wide-ranging activities from education to health care to relief and social services, according to a report released today by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). The report, the first in a series of regular updates, notes that 260 students out of a total 7,246 attending UNRWA schools, along with 86 out of 263 teachers, will be affected in their daily movements by the barrier, which will cut them off from places of learning. 

Moral decay and Benny Morris

Ali Abunimah 24 January 2004


When does the banishment of an entire people become morally justified? That such a question can even be posed in today’s Israel is dismal testament to the transformation of Zionism into what it claims to abhor. EI’s Ali Abunimah comments on two recent, extraordinary documents — an article in The Guardian and an interview with Ha’aretz — in which Israeli historian Benny Morris approves of Israeli “ethnic cleansing” of the Palestinians in 1948, calls it “necessary” and prepares the ground for Israel to justify any future atrocity including renewed expulsion of all the Palestinians from their homeland. 

Putting Israel's weapons above the law

Hasan Abu Nimah 22 January 2004


Apartheid South Africa, which Israel increasingly resembles in the eyes of the world, taught an important lesson: the nuclear weapons which the apartheid regime developed with Israeli assistance were no defence against a majority population struggling for its freedom. EI contributor Hasan Abu Nimah argues that none of the excuses for the world ignoring Israel’s weapons of mass destruction hold water, and Middle East disarmament should begin with the one state that possesses deployed nuclear weapons aimed at its neighbors. 

Living War: Palestinians Refugees in Lebanon

Stefan Christoff 21 January 2004


The youth who play football on the small streets and narrow alleys of Bourj El Barajneh represent an entire generation of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon who live in a day-to-day low intensity war. This is a war waged against Palestinian refugees by the Lebanese government. It is not waged through military campaigns as in the Lebanese civil war, but through policies and laws which are slowly choking the life from Lebanon’s Palestinian refugee camps. Stefan Christoff reports from Beirout. 

A Legacy of Betrayal

Thomas Moorer 21 January 2004


While state department officials and historians assemble on Washington DC this week to discuss the 1967 war in the Middle East, Admiral Thomas Moorer, who was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1970 to 1974, is compelled to speak out about one of U.S. history’s most shocking cover-ups. On June 8th, 1967, Israel attacked our proud naval ship — the USS Liberty — killing 34 American servicemen and wounding 172. Those men were then betrayed and left to die by our own government. Admiral Moorer believes the American people deserve to know the truth about this attack. 

Israel orders land seizures in Gaza

Laila El-Haddad 21 January 2004


Israeli occupation forces have issued land confiscation orders to 28 families in the town of Dair al-Balah. Located near the Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom in the Central Gaza strip, the total area subject to confiscation and eventual “fencing in” is approximately 1000 dunums – the equivalent of one square kilometre - according to the Central Area Governorate. The move comes despite declarations by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon earlier in the week that he might withdraw from some of the more controversial and costly settlements in remote areas of the Gaza Strip. Laila El-Haddad reports from the Gaza Strip. 

Israeli forces demolish 25 homes in Rafah

20 January 2004


Early this morning, 400 Palestinian families were forced by the Israeli occupation forces to evacuate their homes in Rafah during an Israeli military incursion into the area. A total of 25 civilian homes located on the border area with Egypt were destroyed. Israeli forces with tanks and heavy military bulldozers invaded two neighborhoods, firing heavy machine gunfire. Residents were not allowed to remove their belongings from their homes before they were demolished. 

Running out of steam: Israel’s empty objections to the International Criminal Court

Jeff Handmaker 20 January 2004


The Ambassador of Israel in The Netherlands, Eitan Margalit spoke to an audience of mainly international lawyers on 20 November 2003 in The Hague, followed by an outpouring of criticism. Even a sympathetic observer present at the lecture would not fail to have noticed how thin the Israeli government’s arguments have become in objecting to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Jeff Handmaker, a Jewish human rights lawyer based in the Netherlands argues that the Israeli government’s insistence upon the “rule of law” yet refusal to submit to a supranational court is blatantly hypocritical. 

Journey into prison

Toine van Teeffelen Bethlehem, Palestine 20 January 2004


My family’s costs for the journey from Bethlehem to Amman and the return trip almost equalled a flight trip, per person about $200, including the costs of special taxis, border taxes, the entry authorization from Jordan, and a hotel in Amman. Not for poor people. “Back to the abnormal life,” Mary is used to saying upon entering Palestine. It was raining heavily. The taxi driver was nervous about soldiers checking the car, as he is not allowed to carry passengers without the relevant permits, and wanted to drop my family somewhere before ‘Azzariyyeh (Biblical Bethany). Toine van Teeffelen writes from Bethlehem.