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Barrier causes serious humanitarian and legal problems

International Committee of the Red Cross 17 February 2004


The International Committee of the Red Cross is increasingly concerned about the humanitarian impact of the wall on many Palestinians living in occupied territory. The measures taken by the Israeli authorities linked to the construction of the Barrier in occupied territory go far beyond what is permissible for an occupying power under international humanitarian law. The ICRC therefore calls upon Israel not to plan, construct or maintain this Barrier within occupied territory. 

Interview: S’ra DeSantis on the Apartheid Wall in Budrus

Stefan Christoff 17 February 2004


An MP3 interview with S’ra DeSantis, a social justice activist and organic farmer in Burlington Vermont. S’ra is currently in Budrus, Palestine, a rural village in the West Bank fighting for its existence against the Israeli military and the planned construction path of the Apartheid Wall. The wall, deemed a “security measure” by the Israeli state, is clearly an effort to steal more Palestinian land. The Palestinian Environmental NGO Network has estimated that upwards of 50 per cent of the West Bank land will be plundered by the completion of the wall, which is not being built on or near the 1967 Green Line and at points reaches 16km deep into the heart of the West Bank. 

Return to Rafah: Journey to a land out of bounds

Jennifer Loewenstein Rafah, Gaza Strip 17 February 2004


” I left for Rafah on 11 January 2004 as part of a three-person pilot delegation to the city. We represented the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project, an organization founded in February 2003 to establish people-to-people ties between our two communities. Sistering projects are well known in Madison, Wisconsin —a Midwestern University town north of Chicago. Madison has official, City Council-approved sister cities with El Salvador, Nicaragua, East Timor, Cuba, Vietnam, and Lithuania among others. It seemed time, some of us thought, to build ties with a city in Palestine.” Jennifer Loewenstein reports on a trip to Rafah. 

Palestinian Worker Suffocates at Erez Crossing

16 February 2004


Today, a Palestinian worker died from suffocation while attempting to pass through routes at Erez crossing designed for the passage of Palestinian workers on their way to their workplaces in Israel.  The worker died as a result of suffocation from over-crowdedness resulting from crushing together thousands of workers attempting to enter Israel at the crossing. A number of workers carried him towards the Israeli side of the crossing, however attempts to save his life failed. Two weeks ago, 25 Palestinians were injured at Erez crossing when Israeli soldiers opened fire on workers. 

The Status of Palestinian Citizens in Israel

Pax Christi International 16 February 2004


The Intifada and Israel’s reaction to it have had a great impact on the situation of Palestinians citizens in Israel, as the world witnessed during the suppression of demonstrations in Israel in October 2000, leaving 13 people dead; the Israeli public discourse on “transfer”; the “demographic threat” and the public perception of Palestinians inside Israel as being a “fifth column”. Equality under the law and freedom from discrimination are basic human rights. 

2003: The State of Human Rights in Israel

Naama Yashuvi 9 February 2004


The Association for Civil Rights in Israel published its annual report The State of Human Rights in Israel. ACRI witnessed an increase in the scope and severity of human rights violations and an unprecedented rise in injury to innocent Palestinian and Israeli civilians. More than 700 Palestinians and over 200 Israelis have lost their lives, and many more have been injured. Most of the abuses occur not as a result of operational necessity but from vindictiveness on the part of soldiers. 

Warsaw Ghetto Abu Dis: Five haikus on the Apartheid Wall

Laurie King 17 February 2004


An obscene monument to the belief that “too much is never enough,” Israel’s monstrous Apartheid Wall is a visible indictment of the racist folly of forcibly separating people from each other and the places they love. The visual and moral affront of the Apartheid Wall prompted these observations, expressed through a subtle Japanese poetic form, the haiku. An ancient Japanese literary form, the haiku embodies the principle that “less is more” and delights in mixing categories and crossing boundaries through the magic of metaphor. 

Exhibit in Amman conveys horrors of Israel's separation wall

Rana Sabbagh-Gargour 16 February 2004


Photographs, sound effects, replicas of barrier give visitors feeling of imprisonment, suffocation experienced by Palestinians The horrifying illusion of a journey through prison confronts anyone visiting the first extensive exhibition on the separation wall that Israel is building on occupied West Bank land. Combining photography, sound effects, replicas of the Israeli-built double walls, medieval-style observation towers, and barbed wire ripping through seized land, the Stop the Wall exhibition, which opened in Amman on Saturday, triggers feelings of pain, anger and claustrophobia. 

Weekly report on human rights violations

11 February 2004


This week, Israeli forces killed 28 Palestinians, including two children. Three of the victims were killed in two extra-judicial executions. Fifteen of the victims were killed during an Israeli assault on Shojaeya neighborhood in Gaza City and Rafah refugee camp. In Rafah, Israeli forces demolished 24 homes and three schools. Dozens of donums of agricultural land was razed and numerous homes were raided. Israel continues to use Palestinian civilians as human shields and the construction of Israel’s Separation Wall continued. 

EU: "Israel must stop building barrier"

Arjan El Fassed 11 February 2004


Today, the EU presented its position regarding the hearing at the ICJ. In Strasbourg, Irish Foreign Minister Dick Roche, on behalf of the Council of Ministers, said that Israel must stop building this barrier and he deplored the “regrettably uncompromising” attitude of the Israeli government. The EU’s abstention during the vote at the UN General Assembly did not bring into question the fact that the EU was opposed to the wall, which is a violation of international law. The EU, however, doubted whether bringing the case before the ICJ would be useful.