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Entry denied: Deporting witnesses of Israeli occupation and unilateralism

Maureen Clare Murphy 11 July 2006


In another Israeli move designed to further isolate Palestinians from the rest of the world community, it is being reported that the Israeli army will be declaring the West Bank closed to foreign nationals. The Gaza Strip has already been made virtually inaccessible to foreign nationals; those who wish to enter must apply to the Israeli authorities, weeks in advance, to receive elusive permits. The effect is that the plight of the Palestinian civilian population living under Israeli occupation becomes all the more invisible to the international community. 

A Welcome Spotlight on Palestinian Child Prisoners

Catherine Hunter 27 June 2006


The plight of Palestinian children arrested by the Israeli army has long been one of the neglected aspects of Israeli occupation, involving some 600 minors a year since the outbreak of the second Intifada in September 2000. Nearly all are held without access to legal support during questioning, often compelled to sign confessions in Hebrew, a language they don’t understand, while subjected to intimidation and mistreatment as a matter of routine course. It starts with the arrest itself, which can take place during night-time incursions or mass arrest campaigns, or at military checkpoints. 

Fatah-Hamas Armed Clashes Continue

27 June 2006


Over the past week, armed clashes between armed groups and security forces have escalated, leaving seventeen Palestinians injured, one injured seriously. Five people were also kidnapped and three vehicles were blown up. PCHR is gravely concerned over the continued escalation in the use of arms by armed Palestinian groups and individuals, which is part of the security chaos plaguing the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). The Centre calls upon the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), represented by the Attorney-General, to seriously investigate these crimes and to bring the perpetrators to justice. 

Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) Paralyze Lives of Civilians in the Gaza Strip

27 June 2006


PCHR views with gravity the collective punishment currently being imposed by IOF on the civilian population of the Gaza Strip. This punishment is being inflicted through the complete land and sea closure of the Gaza Strip, including the closure of Rafah International Crossing Point on the border with Egypt, prevention of fishermen from going out to sea and constant aerial surveillance. In addition, PCHR is apprehensive over the consequences of the current situation, fearing the possibility of a wide scale ground offensive in the Gaza Strip. 

Open Letter to Slavoj Zizek

27 June 2006


“Dear Slavoj Zizek, We at the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) have received with concern the news of your participation in the Jerusalem International Film Festival next month. Since a clear majority of Palestinian civil society has called upon international academics, artists, and intellectuals to boycott Israeli institutions due to their complicity in maintaining Israel’s occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people, we strongly urge you to reconsider your participation in this event.” The Palestinian Call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) is endorsed by over 170 Palestinian union, association and other civil society organizations. 

'Escalation', 'retaliation' and BBC double standards in Gaza

Jonathan Cook 26 June 2006


The killing by Palestinian militants of two Israeli soldiers and the capture of a third from an army post close to the Gaza Strip set the scene for Israeli “reprisals” and “retaliation”, according to the reports of BBC correspondents in Israel and Gaza at the weekend. We can ignore the weeks of shelling by the Israeli army of Gaza, the firing of hundreds of missiles into the crowded Strip that have destroyed Palestinian lives and property, while spreading terror among the civilian population. 

Lee Kaplan's distortions

Nigel Parry 17 June 2006


Reading Lee Kaplan’s various articles, in a variety of publications over the last several months, on the supposed links between organizations that work for Palestinian freedom, my primary reaction is how severely and routinely they are riddled with basic factual errors. He clearly knows next to nothing about what he is writing about. Where there is not error, there is speculation that bases its trajectory on error… One obvious reason that has given rise to all of this is that Kaplan has never once picked up the phone to ask myself or anyone else at EI the usual questions that journalists are supposed to ask before they put pen to paper. 

The Ideology of Occupation Revisited

Ran HaCohen 26 June 2006


“The history of occupation is not just that of Palestinian suffering and Israeli aggression; it is also the history of its ideology, the history of the fictions the Israeli society fabricates in order to justify its major colonial project which has just entered its 40th year. These fictions do have a history: one can trace their career from birth to maturity, their shifts from the margin to the center and vice versa, their rise and fall among definite segments of the Israeli society or media, sometimes their (reversible) death.” Dr. Ran HaCohen, an occasional contributor to Antiwar.com where this commentary was first published, was born in the Netherlands in 1964 and grew up in Israel. 

A doctor of peace

Yasser Abu Moailek 26 June 2006


On weekdays, he brings a new generation of Jewish Israelis to life. On weekends, he goes back to his Palestinian patients at the packed Jabaliya refugee camp to try and help them get appointments and transfers to the more developed Israeli hospitals. Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish, 51, gynecologist and obstetrician, is the first Palestinian doctor working at the Israeli Soroka University Hospital in the city of Beersheba. He goes through security checks and a multitude of checkpoints almost every day to reach his workplace. 

Estee Slaughter Kicked Out of LGBT Festival

26 June 2006


2500 lucky festival-goers at today’s Lesbian/Gay/Bi/Trans Freedom Day celebration received samples of a hot new product from Estee Slaughter Inc., a project of Queers Undermining Israeli Terror (QUIT!). In the first appearance by the San Francisco-based cosmetics shrimp at the LGBTFD celebration (aka San Francisco Pride), volunteers distributed thousands of the “Realityfold TM” sleep mask. The black masks were tastefully emblazoned in gold with the ES logo and “Make the Occupation Disappear.”