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Fire unextinguished

Issa Mikel Nablus, Palestine 17 August 2005


Once a lively city, the Nablus of today is the victim both of geography and racist geopolitics. With its back to the range of hills and few channels of intercourse with the rest of the country, the Israeli military has had little difficulty in isolating the town. A series of checkpoints choke Nablus economically and culturally, stifling what has traditionally been one of Palestine’s most important urban centers. As one of the centers of resistance, both violent and nonviolent, as well as a bastion of Islamist support in the West Bank, Nablus has earned pride of place near the top of the Israeli government’s hit list and has been targeted with great resentment and vitriol. 

Weekly report on human rights violations

10 August 2005


This week, Israeli forces killed two Palestinians, including a child. Israeli forces conducted a number of incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israeli forces raided homes and arrested at least 45 Palestinians. Israeli forces turned ten Palestinian homes into military posts. Israeli forces continue to use Palestinian civilians as human shields during military operations. Israel continues to impose a total siege on the occupied Palestinian territories. Israel closed al-Mawasi in the southern Gaza Strip and Israeli forces prevent Palestinians aged 16-35 from traveling through the Rafah border. Israeli forces arrested at least 8 Palestinians at military checkpoints in the West Bank and Israel continues to construct the Wall in the West Bank. 

UNICEF: "Children must be safe during Gaza withdrawal"

12 August 2005


UNICEF today urged that children be kept out of harm’s way during the planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and parts of the northern West Bank. “Palestinian and Israeli children have suffered terribly over recent years as a result of this conflict,” UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman said Friday. “Next week’s events offer new hope for peace, and it’s critical to ensure the safety of the children in the region.” Along with the entire UN system, UNICEF expressed a hope that the withdrawal that is set to begin next week would occur smoothly and peacefully. If the disengagement does not proceed peacefully, children could be in particular danger, said Veneman, noting that children under 18 make up about half of the Palestinian population. 

Video: Al-Rowwad theatre group visits Louisville, KY

11 August 2005


Al-Rowwad Center is an Independent Center for artistic, cultural, and theatre training for children in Aida Camp trying to provide a “safe” and healthy environment to help children discover their creativity and discharge stress in the war conditions they are forced to live in. In July 2005, Al-Rowwad’s theatre group performed in Louisville, Kentucky. Multimedia producers Patrick Yen and Andrew Sturgill produced the profile on Al-Rowwad for EI. 

Palestine Red Crescent Society prepares for Gaza disengagement

10 August 2005


Israeli measures such as closures of Palestinian transportation routes near Gaza settlements and the planned relocation routes, dividing the Gaza Strip into four parts have the potentioal to directly and indirectly affect the Palestinian population through restriction of access to health care. Accessibility to sources of nutrition and safe drinking water may also be disrupted. Additionally, these closures may prevent the PRCS staff and volunteers from accessing the effected areas, the maintenance of an open supply line between headquarters store house and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) stations and PRCS sub-stores, in addition to the deployment of logistics and supplies to effected areas. 

UN to adopt pathbreaking new global standard which demands return of confiscated refugee land and housing

11 August 2005


The United Nations is expected to adopt a sweeping series of principles today that urge governments everywhere to ensure all refugees and persons displaced due to conflict and natural disasters are entitled to return to, recover and reside in their original homes, lands and properties. Prepared by the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Housing and Property Restitution, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro of Brazil, the ‘Pinheiro Principles’ will provide the first consolidated global standard on the housing, land and property rights of the displaced. “The best solution to the plight of millions of refugees and displaced persons around the world is to ensure they attain the right to return freely to their countries and to have restored to them housing and property of which they were deprived,” said Pinheiro. 

Knesset Enacts Racist Law

9 August 2005


On 27 July 2005, the Knesset amended the Nationality Law. The amendment restricts the family unification of Israeli citizens and residents, including residents of East Jerusalem, and Palestinians living in the occupied territories. The law does not apply to Israelis who apply for a legal status for their foreign spouse who does not live in the Occupied Territories. Couples who decide to reside together in Israel or in East Jerusalem in violation of the law, are unable to live a normal life and are in constant fear. If they decide to live in the occupied territories, the spouse holding an Israeli identity card violates the military commander’s order prohibiting Israelis to enter areas under Palestinian security control. 

Israel to keep control of Gaza access

Khalid Amayreh 10 August 2005


Israel has said it will probably retain control of Gaza skies and territorial waters after the implementation of its withdrawal plan from the area. “I think it is very likely that we will continue to control the skies and territorial waters of Gaza,” Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz said on Tuesday. Mofaz did not say if Israeli troops would completely leave the Rafah border crossing as the Egyptians had been demanding. The defence minister told the Israeli cabinet on Monday that Tel Aviv could not allow a free flow of goods and services between Gaza and the rest of the world, suggesting that “alternative border crossings” be created where Israel can control cross-border movements between Gaza and Egypt. 

Annan reports about work UN agencies assisting Palestinians

9 August 2005


The year under review was marked by the announcement of Israel’s disengagement plan from the Gaza Strip and parts of the northern West Bank, the death of Palestinian President Arafat, successful Palestinian presidential elections and cautious efforts towards a resumption of the peace process by both the Israelis and Palestinians, in spite of continued violence, which claimed lives on both sides. Internal and external closures and other measures taken by the Israeli military, although moderately alleviated towards the end of the reporting period, continued to create economic hardship for Palestinians and restrict the delivery of necessary emergency aid supplies. 

Palestinians in Israel Find Themselves Part of The Disengagement Debate

Jonathan Cook 9 August 2005


Until this weekend Israel’s one million Palestinian citizens had stayed out of the debate about the country’s imminent disengagement from Gaza. “It’s not our story,” they said when pressed, “this is an entirely Jewish conversation.” Although Israeli Jews have been flying blue and orange ribbons from their cars for months - showing respectively support for and opposition to the disengagement - car aerials in Israel’s Arab towns and villages have remained resolutely bare. That is no longer the case. At the weekend the Arab drivers in the Galilee could be seen flying black ribbons to commemorate the killings of four Arab citizens by a young Jewish extremist with his Israeli army-issued rifle. Now Israel’s Palestinian citizens find themselves part of the conversation, whether they like it or not.