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Closing session of the new Palestinian government and the human rights agenda

23 June 2006


The second and final day of PCHR’s conference entitled “The New Palestinian Government and the Human Rights Agenda” ended on the afternoon of Thursday, 22 June 2006, in Gaza City. Former Health Minister, Dr. Riyad Zanoun, headed the second session of the day and the last session of the conference. The session discussed economic, social, and cultural rights, and included four presentations, as well as a closing session that stressed the importance of Palestinian national unity. 

How Israel is tearing families apart

Ahmed Zaid al-Bireh, Palestine 23 June 2006


There are many thousands of Palestinians, or their spouses and members of their families, who hold foreign passports. The Israeli authorities, of course, know their numbers exactly. Many were denied obtaining ‘Palestinian’ IDs which are actually issued by the Israeli Occupation authorities. These IDs control birth, death, marriage, visits, visas, permits and all personal and civil matters in the Occupied Territories, even in Gaza after the ‘disengagement.’ 

Weekly Report on Human Rights Violations

23 June 2006


A weekly report of human rights violations in Occupied Palestine, compiled by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza. This report covers 15-21 June 2006, and addresses killings, violations of the right to movement, incursions, arrests, extrajudicial executions, illegal settler violence, the building of the Apartheid Wall, and other human rights violations against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. The report is issued on a weekly basis by PCHR to provide comprehensive information. 

UN rights expert paints dire picture of situation in Occupied Palestinian Territory

22 June 2006


The situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) has substantially deteriorated since a cut-off of international funding after Hamas won elections earlier this year, unemployment and poverty are rising, critical health services are in jeopardy and some Israeli actions seem to be dictated by vindictiveness “to humiliate and harass,” according to the latest reports issued by United Nations human rights experts. “In effect the Palestinian people have been subjected to economic sanctions - the first time that an occupied people have been so treated,” the Special Rapporteur on human rights in the OPT, John Dugard said. 

Palestinian refugees in Egypt face discrimination, say experts

21 June 2006


Palestinian refugees in Egypt continue to face major obstacles, including formidable travel restrictions and a lack of access to basic government services, such as free education. “They don’t have many rights,” said Ashraf Milad, a lawyer specialising in forced migration studies at the American University in Cairo. There are currently some 70,000 Palestinians in Egypt who - unlike their compatriots in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon - are not served by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), established in 1949 with the express purpose of assisting Palestinian refugees fleeing the nascent Israeli occupation. 

UN Health Rights Expert criticizes donors for failing their humanitarian responsibilities

21 June 2006


The UN Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, Professor Paul Hunt, reminded the donor community that it has a responsibility to provide humanitarian assistance to the population in the Occupied Palestinian territories (OPT). While welcoming last weekend’s emergency aid plan, the UN health rights expert emphasised that the acute funding crisis in the OPT, which is jeopardising the delivery of basic health services to the sick and infirm, arises from the deliberate actions of the donors themselves. 

A Week of Israeli Restraint

Tanya Reinhart 22 June 2006


In Israeli discourse, Israel is always presented as the side exercising restraint in its conflict with the Palestinians. In the past week, it was “leaked” that the Israeli Minister of Defense had directed the army to show restraint. During the past week of Israeli restraint, the army killed a Palestinian family who went on a picnic on the Beit Lahya beach in the Gaza Strip; after that, the army killed nine people in order to liquidate a Katyusha rocket. 

Hudson Institute and 'Eye on the UN' join the ranks of gutter journalists

Yacoub Kahlen 22 June 2006


Recently, the Hudson Institute, a prestigious, academic think-tank in the United States, with an impressive list of associates though strongly pro-Israel roots, released a surprisingly amateurish report through its project ‘Eye on the UN’. The report criticises the United Nations for granting consultative status to the internationally respected Palestinian NGO Badil. As Yacoub Kahlen writes, their flimsy critiques are strong indications of the growing desperation amongst elite supporters of Israel that the Zionist lobby is losing the moral argument, and just like the NGO Monitor, the ‘Eye on the UN’ should not be taken seriously by anyone interested in serious analysis and a human rights perspective. 

Film Review: "Kings and Extras": Digging for a Palestinian Image

Maymanah Farhat 21 June 2006


Azza El Hassan’s documentary Kings and Extras: Digging for a Palestinian Image chronicles the director’s journey on the trail of the lost PLO film archive that went missing in Beirut in 1982. Through the narratives of individuals whose interviews El Hassan feels can assist her with locating the lost archive, the film touches on several aspects of contemporary Palestinian life. The engaging documentary was featured in this year’s Chicago Palestine Film Festival, adding yet another dimension to the chronicling of Palestinian history. 

Film Review: The Balata Film Collective: "Nour's Dream"

Maymanah Farhat 21 June 2006


This year at the Chicago Palestine Film Festival, the Balata Film Collective presented their thirty-one minute documentary Nour’s Dream. Through a visual journey of Palestinian history, culture, heritage and resistance the film demonstrates the imperative need for the documentation of Palestinian lives. As the fictional main character, Nour narrates the documentary by informing the viewer of the significance of stones within past and present Palestinian society.