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Nablus resists

25 July 2005


In the high point of a week of planned non-violent direct actions against the occupation, residents of Nablus converged on Huwara checkpoint to protest the continuing closure of the region. Prisoners’ families, accompanied by more than thirty international activists, were flanked by Palestinian medics and ambulances as they approached the checkpoint. The two aims of the action were to raise the profile of the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli gaols and to protest the ongoing closure of the Nablus area. There are currently 8000 Palestinians, many of whom are women and children, illegitimately imprisoned by Israel. Currently 1400 of the prisoners are from Nablus. 

Fourth Palestine Human Development Report released

25 July 2005


Published by the Development Studies Programme at Birzeit University, the fourth Palestine human development report focuses on the empowerment of Palestinians as the basis for strengthening Palestinian society building. The 2004 Palestine Human Development Report is an attempt to assess the various aspects of the Palestinian condition as a first step toward an integrated approach to the development of Palestinian individuals and society and to strengthen the social fabric needed to support national liberation and development activities. Each section of the report addresses these aspects from two perspectives — the general Palestinian condition, hopes and challenges, and major influencing independence and development. 

Kidnapped US citizen released in Rafah

24 July 2005


Unidentified men today kidnapped a US citizen from an apartment inside a residential block in the centre of Rafah. Under threat of arms the suspect kidnapped Harry Borrey, 75 years old. He was ordered to get into a civilian car stopped near the building. Three other masked and armed individuals were inside the car. He was then taken to an unknown location. The reason for the kidnapping has not been made clear by the perpetrators. The unidentified kidnappers released their hostage after a short period. He was left in a school in Rafah, unharmed. The kidnappers have escaped. This is the second kidnapping in a couple of weeks. PCHR demands that the Palestinian Authority take effective measures, within the limits of the law, to immediately end this practice and to ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice. 

US may sell up to $600 million to Israeli Air Force, after Israel-US agreement on China

Arjan El Fassed 23 July 2005


This week, the United States said it may sell up to $600 million in equipment and services to Israel for maintenance of the engines on the Israeli Air Force’s F-15 and F-16 figher planes. The sale would cover support for Pratt and Whitney F-100 engines, spare and repair parts, testing, training, and other services for 10 years, the U.S. Defense Department said in a notice to the American Congress. Athough the US government has reportedly postponed working with Israel to develop a Joint Strike Fighter airplane because of concern about Israel’s sales to China, the US has provided Israel with funds to develop new weapons. According to US law, government authorized transfers or sales of controlled defence articles can be used only for internal security or defensive purposes. 

Helping Forward move forward

Zachary Wales 23 July 2005


On July 22, E. J. Kessler, deputy managing editor of the oldest and most revered American Jewish weekly, Forward, reported that “a far-left pro-Palestinian group” sought to pass a divestment resolution at the AFL-CIO quadrennial convention, which takes place in Chicago next week. As a co-founder of this “far-left group,” Labor for Palestine — which is not a “group” but a campaign as its Web site’s watermark indicates on every page — I find it worth noting some errors and points of conjecture that my colleague’s article contains. LFP represents one of many organized movements that are dissatisfied with the AFL-CIO’s well-documented complicity with US foreign policy. 

Rice in talks with Palestinian leaders

Khalid Amayreh 23 July 2005


In talks scheduled with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas will seek to obtain assurances that Israel will stick to the peace plan. Rice met Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia, together with several Palestinian cabinet ministers on Saturday, at the start of a day-long series of talks. Later she was to meet President Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian Interior Minister Nasser Yousef, who is responsible for the Palestinian security forces, amid signs the Palestinians were buckling under heavy Israeli and US pressure to clamp down on resistance groups such as Hamas and the Islamic Jihad. 

Photostory: The face of occupation

Tom Kay 22 July 2005


When I got home from Bili’in, I dumped some pictures onto the computer. Going through them, I was surprised to find just how many showed the same man. I remembered him, but had not been aware that I was singling him out for portraits. Of course there were times when the demonstrators were shouting and angry, particularly when the Israeli occupation forces were manhandling people. But until the truncheons were wielded, there was no violence in the olive groves. When this soldier was in sight, my lens, as if it was independently motorised, must have swivelled towards him. If things were quiet, he would quickly ensure that they did not remain so. One could virtually taste his hate, aggression and viciousness. 

Another day of protest against the Wall

Marcy Newman Salfit, Palestine 22 July 2005


Time is so short and my experiences are so intense I fear that I cannot fully convey the gravity of daily life and what I am witnessing here. It especially worries me that the world’s eyes are myopically focused on the pullout in Ghaza, the anti-disengagement protesters, most of whom are illegal Israeli settlers from the West Bank. Yesterday I took part in a non-violent demonstration in three villages of the Salfit area outside of Nablus. Salfit villages have been experiencing increased violence by the IDF throughout the region. Demonstrations in Marda and Immatin have been met with army incursions, tear gas, and rubber bullets. In Salfit, a 16-year-old boy was killed for throwing stones at a jeep. 

Israeli-Palestinian relations bedevilled by lack of framework – UN envoy (3/3)

21 July 2005


While it is essential for both Israel and the Palestinians not to lose sight of the immediate goal – Israel’s disengagement from Gaza – relations between the two sides are being marred because no agreed framework exists for that pull-out, or for what will happen next, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Alvaro de Soto told the Security Council today. “The unease, suspicion and cynicism that bedevil Israeli-Palestinian relations can be attributed in large part to the fact that the disengagement is not taking place within an unequivocally agreed framework for the next steps toward the overall solution to which both sides claim adherence, i.e., two states living alongside each other in peace,” he said in the monthly briefing – his first – on the situation. 

Israeli-Palestinian relations bedevilled by lack of framework – UN envoy (2/3)

21 July 2005


While it is essential for both Israel and the Palestinians not to lose sight of the immediate goal – Israel’s disengagement from Gaza – relations between the two sides are being marred because no agreed framework exists for that pull-out, or for what will happen next, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Alvaro de Soto told the Security Council today. “The unease, suspicion and cynicism that bedevil Israeli-Palestinian relations can be attributed in large part to the fact that the disengagement is not taking place within an unequivocally agreed framework for the next steps toward the overall solution to which both sides claim adherence, i.e., two states living alongside each other in peace,” he said in the monthly briefing – his first – on the situation.