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Governments at General Assembly must now put civilians before politics

16 November 2006


On the eve of the UN General Assembly’s resumed special session to discuss the deteriorating situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Amnesty International urges all UN member states to put human rights at the top of the agenda and agree concrete action to protect the human rights of all people living in the areas affected by the ongoing crisis. Such concrete action should include independent monitoring of abuses of human rights and international humanitarian law throughout the Occupied Territories and Israel. 

Israeli Lottery offering 1,000 Scholarships Conditioned on Military Service Discriminates against Arab Students

15 November 2006


On 8 November 2006, Adalah wrote, for the second time, to “Mifal Hapayis,” the Israeli Lottery, demanding the cancellation of a plan to award 1,000 scholarships to students who serve in the Israeli army, on the grounds that it discriminates against Arab students, who are exempt from serving in the army, and generally do not do so. Adalah sent the letter after receiving a response from Mifal Hapayis, in which it claimed that placing the criterion of military service in the given context does not constitute discrimination against Arab students. 

A project of dispossession can never be a noble cause

Ahdaf Soueif 17 November 2006


Perhaps because the stakes are now so high, people are once again speaking of the visionary solution: the secular democratic state, a homeland for both Israelis and Palestinians. The Palestinian social scientist Ali Abunimah and the Israeli historian Ilan Pappé’s recent books are the latest to make the case for this. They find hope, as Pappé puts it, in “those sections of Jewish society in Israel that have chosen to let themselves be shaped by human considerations rather than Zionist social engineering.” 

WHO concerned about lack of access to healthcare in occupied Palestine

17 November 2006


WHO is concerned about the rapid deterioration of Palestinians’ equitable access to adequate and effective medical services. This is mainly the result of the Palestinian Ministry of Health’s financial crisis which has followed the Palestinian Legislative Council elections in January 2006. The Government of Israel has stopped handing over the tax and customs revenues it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and international donors have suspended direct aid to the Ministry of Health. As a consequence of these measures, the PA has been unable to pay regular salaries since March 2006. 

Nine Israeli human rights organizations speak out about Gaza

17 November 2006


Nine Israeli human rights organizations issued an unprecedented joint call to the international community to ensure human rights in the Gaza Strip. The statement comes in light of the dire humanitarian situation there: Some 80% of the population is extremely poor, living on less than $2 a day. A majority of the population is dependant on food aid from international donors. In the past four months, the Israeli military has killed over 300 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Over half of those killed were unarmed civilians who did not participate in the fighting. Among the dead, 61 were children. About 70% of Gaza’s potential workforce is out of work or without pay. 

Slaughter in the Town of Al Yamoun

Bill Dienst Yamun, Palestine 17 November 2006


Today we are taking direct testimony from victims and witnesses of two separate killing incidents by Israeli Occupation Forces which have recently occurred here in Al Yamoun during the past 16 days. The first one was on 27 October 2006 and the second one was on 7 November 2006. We are in the home of the Hasan Abu Hasan family. On 27 October 2006, during the period of Eid Al Fitr, the celebratory period at the end of Ramadan, Mohammed, age 38, was up on the roof here at his home. He was with his brother, Ra-ef, age 19 hanging laundry to dry before sunrise at approximately 3:30 am. He and his brothers were preparing to go to the mosque for Al Fajr, which is the first Morning Prayer, and a very important occasion during the Eid. 

Impact of the international embargo and the attacks by the Israeli army on Gaza's health status

16 November 2006


Since February 2006, Palestinians have suffered the effects of the international economic embargo ordered by the main western donors after Hamas’s victory in the parli amentary elections of 25 January 2006. The suspension of aid causes extra problems for the Palestinian civilian population, whose living conditions have continued to deteriorate ever more sharply since 2000. In this context, operation “Summer Rain”, launched by the Israeli army on 28 June as a reaction to the kidnapping of a soldier by Palestinian militants, is an additional aggravating factor which increases the risk of destabilising the area and driving the Palestinian Territories into a major humanitaria n crisis. 

Cluster bombs threaten farmers' lives, hamper olive harvest

15 November 2006


Any other year, the olive harvest season would now be in full swing in Zawtar Sharqiyye, a village in southern Lebanon’s Nabatiyye region, where the majority of people make a living from farming olives and tobacco. “This year, because of the cluster bombs, the olive harvest is lost,” said Riad Ali Ismail, head of the local municipality. Three months after the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah ended, up to one million unexploded cluster bombs still lie scattered throughout southern Lebanon, according to United Nations agencies. The seemingly innocuous small bombs pose a deadly hazard to the population. 

Solution to the conflict will not be found on the battlefield

Karen Koning AbuZayd 16 November 2006


We should not stand idly by as the human development potential in Gaza and the West Bank is so tragically depleted. In spite of the best efforts of UNRWA and other humanitarian and development actors, this potential will continue to diminish unless political actors revive a meaningful peace process. Political actors must move quickly to help restore in both sides a genuine commitment to a peaceful resolution of this conflict and a recognition that there are partners among both parties. To those of us in the region it is as clear as day that the Palestinian issue is a quintessentially political issue. Its resolution simply will not be found on the battlefield. 

Human Rights Council decides to urgently dispatch a high-level fact finding mission to Beit Hanoun

15 November 2006


The third special session of the Human Rights Council concluded its work this afternoon after adopting a resolution in which it expressed its shock at the horror of Israeli killing of Palestinian civilians in Beit Hanoun and called for bringing the perpetrators thereof to justice; expressed its alarm at the gross and systematic violations of human rights of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory by the occupying power, Israel, and called for urgent international action to put an immediate end to these violations; and decided to dispatch urgently a high-level fact-finding mission to be appointed by the President of the Council to travel to Beit Hanoun.