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UN envoy condemns latest violence in West Bank and Gaza

15 July 2005


Urging all sides to concentrate on restoring the quiet that has prevailed in recent months, the top United Nations Middle East envoy condemned both today’s targeted killings of Palestinian militants in Gaza, and yesterday’s rocket attack on the southern Israeli town of Nativ Ha’asara that killed one Israeli woman and wounded several others. “Without prejudice to Israel’s right to legitimate and proportional self-defence, UNSCO [the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process], reiterates the United Nations’ consistent and vocal opposition to extra-judicial killings,” said one of two statements released today by envoy Alvaro de Soto’s office in Jerusalem. 

Why kill Nino?

Nablus 15 July 2005


14th July 2005 — There was a bombing in central London last week. We’ve just been to the third funeral since then. Two of the dead were children; all were victims of a campaign to kill and to destroy a society and way of life. We’re not in London, we’re in Nablus, Palestine. The Israeli army came into Palestinian streets and opened fire, killing the last three as they’ve killed thousands before. A little over a year ago Mohammed Alassi, 26, also known as Nino, escaped the wreckage of the car that was bombed, killing the Balata Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade leader Kalil Marshood. Nino was killed late last Wednesday night. 

Church of England urged to follow ACC divestment recommendation on Caterpillar

8 July 2005


The Church of England should follow the recommendation of the Anglican Consultative Council and vote to divest from companies supporting Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine during its General Synod this weekend, campaigners will say at a fringe meeting at York University on Friday (8 July). The Church of England’s Ethical Investment Advisory Group has been examining whether the £2 million of shares currently held in Caterpillar are consistent with the Church’s ethical investment policy, which prohibits investment in arms companies or companies making ‘weapons platforms’ such as naval vessels or tanks. 

Lawyers challenge EU and UK over inaction on Palestine

19 July 2005


One year after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling that Israel’s Separation Wall is illegal, the EU and UK have failed to take the action required of them under the Geneva Conventions to ensure Israeli compliance with international humanitarian law. Lawyers acting for campaigns group War on Want will today (Monday 18 July) send letters to President Jose Manuel Barroso of the European Commission and UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw challenging them to provide evidence of any action they have taken to curtail human rights abuses against Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation. 

Book review: "The One-State Solution"

Iqbal Jassat 16 July 2005


As Israel’s apartheid wall colonizes 30-40 percent more of the 22 percent of Palestine that remains, an increasing number of analysts, activists, and academics have begun to challenge the two-state solution designed to bring an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. With Palestinians eventually ending up with only 12-15 percent of their land, made up of disjointed ghettoes over which they will have no sovereignty- a single, secular polity that would encompass both Israel and the Occupied Territories is looking increasingly attractive. The One-State Solution written by Virginia Tilley, associate professor of Political Science at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, lucidly demonstrates why the two-state model “is an idea whose time has passed”. 

Weekly report on human rights violations

14 July 2005


This week Israeli forces killed two children and a fifth Palestinian was pronounced clinically dead. Israeli armed forces conducted 27 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank, including complete military control in Tulkarm. Israeli forces raided homes and arrested 30 Palestinians, including three children. Israeli forces turned six homes into military sites. Israel continues to impose a total siege on the occupied Palestinian terrritories. A number of roads and border crossings in the Gaza Strip remain closed. Israeli forces arrested a number of Palestinians at various checkpoints in the West Bank. In some areas, Israeli forces imposed curfews. 

UN Meeting on Middle East Peace concludes with Adoption of Action Plan (2/2)

13 July 2005


Civil society organizations committed to ending the Israeli occupation of Palestinian Territories and to achieving the Palestinians’ still unrealized rights, including the right of self-determination, today identified the coming year to inaugurate a global campaign of boycotts, divestment and sanctions to pressure Israel to end the occupation and comply with international law and all relevant United Nations resolutions, as the United Nations International Conference in Support of Middle East Peace concluded this evening in Paris. Through the adoption by acclamation of an Action Plan, civil society participants committed themselves to internationalism and the belief that the United Nations remained central to ending the occupation. 

UN Meeting on Middle East Peace concludes with Adoption of Action Plan (1/2)

13 July 2005


Civil society organizations committed to ending the Israeli occupation of Palestinian Territories and to achieving the Palestinians’ still unrealized rights, including the right of self-determination, today identified the coming year to inaugurate a global campaign of boycotts, divestment and sanctions to pressure Israel to end the occupation and comply with international law and all relevant United Nations resolutions, as the United Nations International Conference in Support of Middle East Peace concluded this evening in Paris. Through the adoption by acclamation of an Action Plan, civil society participants committed themselves to internationalism and the belief that the United Nations remained central to ending the occupation. 

All Palestinians have a right to Palestine

14 July 2005


“Abu Mazen declared that there was nothing to prevent the Arab countries from taking a sovereign decision to offer citizenship to refugees to anyone who wants. This of course, is with the guarantee that such a measure would in no way impinge on the legal right of refugees to return, to restitution and to compensation.” Palestine Report Online interviews the director general of the PLO Refugees Affairs Departmet, Saji Salameh, on President Mahmoud Abbas’ recent comments on granting Arab citizenship to Palestinian refugees. “There are those who have American, Canadian and British passports, but this does not impinge on their legal rights, which are guaranteed by international law.” 

"What kind of army does this?"

Zachary Wales Birzeit 14 July 2005


On Wednesday night, the relative tranquillity of Birzeit came to an end when two unmarked armoured jeeps rolled lazily into the town center. Three Israeli commandos emerged from one of the vehicles and entered a corner store. “What are you people doing in Birzeit?” the shopkeeper asked. “We’ve come to fight for Israel,” a soldier responded. Although Birzeit is a peaceful village of approximately 5,000 farmers, storekeepers and university students in the hills north of Ramallah, the arrival of the Israeli convoy wasn’t a complete surprise.