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McConfusion: McDonald's Israel reportedly backs down, while McDonald's HQ stonewalls

Ali Abunimah and Nigel Parry 12 March 2004


McDonald’s Israel has reportedly reversed it prohibition on its Arab workers speaking Arabic to each other and to customers, but its US headquarters continues to stonewall and provide contradictory information. According to the Arabic-language newspaper in Israel, Hadith an-Nass, the reversal of the no-Arabic policy was announced in a letter sent by McDonald’s Israel to the Mossawa center for Arab rights. In this alert, EI explains the latest developments, and urges readers to continue with their effective action. 

Film Route 181 censored by French Culture Ministry

15 March 2004


In an unprecedented move, the organisers of France’s largest documentary film festival, Le Festival du Cinéma du Réel (4 to 14 March 2004), held annually at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, have cancelled one of the screenings of the film Route 181 – Fragments of a Journey to Palestine-Israel, which is co-directed by the Palestinian Michel Khleifi and the Israeli Eyal Sivan. Khleifi, a Palestinian, and Sivan, a Jewish Israeli, are not the first filmmakers from the region who have found their work on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to be met with censorship. 

UN Women's Commission approves draft resolution on Palestinian women

Commission on the Status of Women 11 March 2004


By a recorded vote of 39 in favour to 1 against (United States), with 1 abstention (Canada), the forty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women this afternoon approved a draft resolution on the situation of Palestinian women. By the text on Palestinian women, the Economic and Social Council would, among other things, call upon the concerned parties to ensure the immediate resumption of the peace process and for tangible improvement of the difficult situation and living conditions of Palestinian women and their families.  It would also call upon Israel to facilitate the return of all refugees. 

Weekly report on human rights violations

Palestinian Center for Human Rights 11 March 2004


Israeli forces killed 27 Palestinians, including 8 children and one woman. Fourteen were killed during an Israeli military raid on Nusseirat refugee camp. Five were killed in an extra-judicial execution. In Rafah, Israeli forces demolished 20 homes and destroyed 22 donums of Palestinian agricultural land. Israel continued construction of the Separation Wall for which more land was confiscated. Israel continued indiscriminate shelling of Palestinian residential areas in which three Palestinians, including a child and woman were killed and others were wounded. Israel continues to impose a total siege on Palestinian areas. 

International NGO honors Rachel Corrie with Housing Rights Defender Award

candio. 11 March 2004


In a moving ceremony on 16 February 2004, Craig and Cindy Corrie accepted the Housing Rights Defender Award from the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions [COHRE] on behalf of their daughter Rachel Corrie. This was the inaugural year for this award, which was partially a response to the heroism of Ms. Corrie’s actions in protecting the housing and water rights of Palestinians in occupied Gaza. Ms. Corrie died March 16th, 2003 in Rafah while attempting to prevent the forced eviction of a Palestinian family and the demolition of their home. candio. reports from Olympia, WA. 

McBusted: Mounting evidence supports claim McDonald's Israel fired worker for speaking Arabic

Ali Abunimah and Nigel Parry 10 March 2004


The Electronic Intifada today publishes an exclusive investigative report by Jonathan Cook detailing evidence that supports the claim by a former worker at McDonald’s Israel that she was fired for speaking Arabic on the job. We renew our call on our readers to contact McDonald’s Corporation about this disturbing matter and demand justice for this and all its workers. Last week, Oak Brook, Illinois-based McDonald’s Corporation admitted in a statement sent to EI that its licensee in Israel maintains a policy requiring all its workers to speak only Hebrew. But the company asserted that it was “absolutely not true” that the worker, Abeer Zinaty, who had previously been recognized as an outstanding employee, was fired for speaking Arabic on the job. 

McBusted: McDonald's manager admits speaking Arabic led to firing

Jonathan Cook 10 March 2004


Abeer Zinaty, the 20-year-old McDonald’s employee in Israel who says she was fired by the world’s biggest fastfood chain for breaking a ban on speaking Arabic in the workplace, has spoken to the Electronic Intifada of the circumstances surrounding her dismissal. Her account flatly contradicts claims by McDonald’s head office in the United States that Zinaty’s dismissal had nothing to do with her speaking Arabic. Considerable weight is added to her version of events by documents in the hands of the Electronic Intifada. Jonathan Cook investigates for EI. 

EI's Laurie King-Irani on KPFK's Middle East in Focus programme

10 March 2004


On 9 March 2003, EI founder Laurie King-Irani and her husband George Irani appeared on California’s KPFK radio station’s Middle East in Focus programme to discuss developments in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the US occupation of Iraq, Lebanon, international law, and American foreign policy in the Middle East. Dr. Laurie King-Irani is an anthropologist and teaches at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. George Irani is Lebanese and a professor of conflict management and analysis at Royal Roads University, Victoria, BC. The program is hosted by Don Bustany. 

AFP photographer shot in Jenin

Committee to Protect Journalists 8 March 2004


Media watchdog CPJ is concerned by today’s shooting by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) of Palestinian photographer Saif Dahla in the West Bank city of Jenin. Two witnesses told CPJ that there were about half a dozen journalists standing together on the sidewalk of a residential neighborhood in Jenin, covering an Israeli incursion into the city in the early afternoon when the shooting occurred. Dahla was shot when a soldier in a tank about 20 meters away fired a few rounds from a machine gun. 

Refusniks appear at the European Parliament

Adam Keller 9 March 2004


For the first time, Israeli refuseniks who reject service in a army of occupation will today attend a hearing in the European Parliament at Strasbourg, France - as will the parents of imprisoned refuseniks. The hearing will take place in the European Parliament Building at Strasbourg. The delegation includes Daniel Tsal, Alma Itshaky, Miri Maor, the mother of Adam Maor, one of the five refuseniks court martialed, and Doron Matar, the father of Haggai, another of the court-martialed refuseniks.