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Coping with Conflict

Hler Gudjonsonn Tubas 2 April 2004


�I once saw a man killed at a roadblock, and I felt very bad afterwards,� 10-year-old Majdi says. �We all saw it from the windows of the bus, and everybody was very upset.� Majdi is one of 640 Palestinian schoolchildren in the West-Bank town of Tubas who are taking part in a CABAC (Children Affected By Armed Conflict) programme, implemented by the Palestinian Red Crescent with funding from the European Union�s humanitarian agency, and the Danish and Icelandic Red Cross Societies. 

As in Tiennamen Square

Tanya Reinhart 1 April 2004


An extensive discussion has already taken place in Israel regarding the cost-benefit ratio of Yassin’s assassination. But the question of justice has hardly been raised. International conventions are one of the means people have developed for self-preservation. Without them, there is a danger that the human race would annihilate itself - first the strong would wipe out the weak, and then each other. Palestinian farmers whose land is being robbed sit on the ground in front of the bulldozers, accompanied by the Israeli opponents of the wall - the veterans of the Mas’ha camp. What could be more nonviolent than this? But the Israeli army shoots at sitting demonstrators, like in Tiennamen Square. Israeli academic Tanya Reinhart comments. 

Weekly report on human rights violations

Palestinian Center for Human Rights 31 March 2004


This week Israeli forces killed three Palestinian civilians, including a 7-year-old child. One of the victims was killed in an extra-judicial assassination by Israeli forces. Israeli forces invaded a number of Palestinian areas and demolished 14 homes in the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces raided Palestinian homes and arbitrarily detained Palestinians. Israel continued the construction of the Apartheid Wall and confiscated more Palestinian land. Israeli settlers continued their attacks on Palestinian civilians. Israeli forces continue to impose a total siege on the occupied Palestinian territories. 

Media watchdog calls for investigation into killing of journalism student

Reporters Without Borders 1 April 2004


Reporters Without Borders has called on Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz to open an investigation into the death of journalism student Mohammad Abu Halimeh, who was killed on 22 March 2004 while covering clashes at the Balata refugee camp in Nablus. Palestinian hospital and security sources said a bullet had apparently fatally wounded Halimeh in the stomach. Eyewitnesses told RSF that the journalism student was standing about 50 metres from the soldier who opened fire on him. He was reportedly standing in front of one of the Balata camp’s main entrances and had a camera around his neck. 

UNRWA suspends emergency food aid in Gaza

United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East 1 April 2004


The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees today stopped distributing emergency food aid to some 600,000 refugees in the Gaza Strip, or approximately half of the refugees receiving UNRWA food aid in the occupied Palestinian territory, following restrictions introduced by Israeli authorities at the sole commercial crossing through which UNRWA is able to bring in humanitarian assistance. Stocks of rice, flour, cooking oil and other essential foodstuffs that UNRWA provides to refugees reduced to poverty, or otherwise affected by a humanitarian crisis, have been fully depleted. 

Philips electronics corporation trading in violation of Dutch arms policy

Campaign Against Arms Trade 1 April 2004


Electronics multinational Philips likes to be known for its ethical and sustainable business behaviour. Research by the Campagne tegen Wapenhandel reveals though that Philips does not care about arms trade to Israel. At its website the company says that it sells parts of the F-16 fighter aircraft and Apache attack helicopter to NATO countries and Israel. The deliveries stem from Philips involvement in so-called offset agreements. Especially Apaches are frequently used by Israeli forces to commit extrajudicial executions of Palestinians. With its export policy the Netherlands severely violates European and Dutch guidelines for arms transfers. 

EU: Solving Israeli-Palestinian conflict "top priority"

European Union 31 March 2004


Romano Prodi, President of the European Commission, told the European Parliament today that the fight against terrorism must include efforts to find a solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. “The success of our strategy to combat international terrorism depends on peace in the Middle East,” Prodi said. He warned that force alone would not defeat terrorism. “Governments must forge a political strategy to understand and resolve the underlying causes of terrorism,” he said. 

Response to Benny Morris' "Politics by other means" in the New Republic

Ilan Pappe 30 March 2004


In a 17 March 2004 article, “Politics by Other Means”, Benny Morris offered a “review” of Ilan Pappe’s new book, A History of Modern Palestine; one land, two peoples (Cambridge University Press, 2003), which tells the history of Palestine from the point of view of its workers, peasants, children, women and all the subaltern groups that make the society and not its political elite. Morris’ “review” consisted of a series of ad hominem attacks and outright factual distortions. Ilan Pappe sent the following reply to the New Republic, who refused to publish it. 

What is it that Palestinians commemorate on Land Day?

Arjan El Fassed 30 March 2001

On 30 March 1976, thousands of people belonging to the Palestinian minority in Israel gathered to protest Israeli government plans to expropriate 60,000 dunams of Arab-owned land in the Galilee. In the resulting confrontations with Israeli police, six Palestinians were killed, hundreds wounded, and hundreds jailed. In the intervening years, those events have become consecrated in the Palestinian memory as Land Day. 

Palestinian Land Day 2002

Badil 28 March 2002

Land Day commemorates the day nearly three decades ago when Israeli security forces shot and killed 6 Palestinians during demonstrations and a general strike called by the Palestinian leadership inside Israel to protest ongoing expropriation Palestinian land to build new Jewish colonies and expand existing Jewish cities.