All Content

World Food Programme says situation continues to deteriorate in the occupied Palestinian territories

28 October 2003

Christaine Berthiaume of the World Food Programme said that she had been in the occupied Palestinian territories last week. The situation in that region continued to deteriorate. A WFP study showed that more than 50 per cent of the inhabitants of the occupied territories lived below the poverty line. 

A disastrous dead end: the Geneva Accord

Ali Abunimah 28 October 2003


Because of the Oslo process, the basis for a viable and minimally fair two-state solution has been completely destroyed. The Israeli “peace camp” and the Palestinian leadership ought to have learned from the calamities they helped bring about and changed their ways. The so-called “Geneva Accord,” an informal agreement prepared by Israelis, led by former Labor Justice Minister Yossi Beilin and other Oslo-era luminaries, and Palestinians close to Yasser Arafat, demonstrates a determination to repeat the tragic errors of the past. EI’s Ali Abunimah explains. 

Wanted: A US intifada against impunity at home and abroad

Laurie King 25 October 2003


“What is desperately needed in the US, as a new presidential race heats up, is an intifada against impunity at home and abroad. Such a campaign could benefit progressives in the U.S. as they gear up for the elections. Progressives must seriously, critically, and courageously begin to engage with others in discussing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its roots in a brutal and dehumanizing occupation that no democracy should be dirtying its hands supporting.” Electronic Intifada co-founder Laurie King-Irani looks at the mobilizing role of justice in global and local campaigns for political change. 

Discrimination Down Under? Sydney gives Ashrawi the cold shoulder

Allan Ramsey 25 October 2003

“Dr. Hanan Mikhail Ashrawi is a woman, a professor of English, an international human rights activist, and a politician. A year ago she was chosen, unanimously, to receive the 2003 Sydney Peace Prize. The Premier, Bob Carr, will present Ashrawi with her award at State Parliament in 12 days. The first four recipients of the annual prize were honoured at functions in the Great Hall of Sydney University. However, for Ashrawi, the Great Hall is out of bounds.” Allan Ramsey of the Sydney Morning Herald asks why. 

Commission of Inquiry reveals US-Israeli cover-up of U.S.S. Liberty attack

Sarah Weir 25 October 2003


A new report released on Capitol Hill today by former officials from the highest level of the American military and government reveals that Israel “committed acts of murder against American serviceman and an act of war against the United States” when it deliberately attacked the American Navy Ship USS Liberty in 1967, killing 34 and wounding 172 American crewmembers. Israel had alleged that the two-hour attack with napalm, missiles, and torpedoes was a mistake. After remaining silent for more than three decades, Captain Ward Boston, the Chief Attorney in the Navy’s original 1967 Court of Inquiry into the case, describes in a sworn affidavit how he and many others were ordered to never speak about the attack on the USS Liberty. 

Weekly report on human rights violations

23 October 2003

This week, Israeli occupying forces escalated violations of human rights against Palestinian civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), including extra-judicial and willful killings, indiscriminate shelling of residential areas, incursions into Palestinian areas, house demolitions and land leveling. They have continued to impose a tightened siege on the OPT and 21 Palestinians, including 2 children, a woman and a doctor, were killed by Israeli occupying forces. 

Israeli Military Appeals Committee upholds unlawful transfer order

23 October 2003

An Israeli military appeals committee today issued a decision to uphold an “assigned residence” order issued against 5 Palestinians from the West Bank on 14 October 2003.  The original order, signed by Major General Moshe Kaplinski, GOC of the Central Command, subjected a total of 18 Palestinians to periods of “assigned residence” in the Gaza Strip, effectively transferring them from their places of residence in the West Bank.