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Gaza's teetering tower of debt

28 November 2006


Abu Khamis’s credit book is seeing a lot of use these days. The scribbled notes account for 45,000 shekels (US$10,000) owed for goods he has advanced to his penniless customers. “I have two credit books full of debt. I’m getting women coming in and offering to sell their jewellery, even their wedding rings. People simply have no money,” the clothes trader, who works in the central market of Gaza’s teeming Jabalia refugee camp, said. But Khamis’s credit line has almost run out. “I can carry on like this for about another month - and then I will have to stop lending,” he said. “And it’s not just me - it’s every shop in Jabalia.” 

One Palestinian killed, one wounded, in misuse of weapons

27 November 2006


According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 21:00 on Saturday, 25 November 2006, medical sources at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City declared that ‘Ali Saleh Sarsour, 19, from the central Gaza Strip town of Deir al-Balah, died from a wound he had sustained on Wednesday evening, 22 November 2006. Sarsour was hit by a live bullet to the head from an unknown source, when he was near his house in Deir al-Balah. Earlier on Saturday, at approximately 19:30, Sa’ed Mufeed ‘Awadallah, 21, from al-Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City, was evacuated to Shifa Hospital in the city, after he had been wounded by a live bullet to the right foot. 

Lebanon: damage to agriculture, fisheries and forestry estimated at around $280 million

27 November 2006


Damage and losses to agriculture, fisheries and forestry in Lebanon as a result of last summer’s hostilities are estimated at around $280 million, according to an FAO damage assessment report issued today. The conflict affected the agriculture sector directly, with crops, livestock and equipment damaged by the bombing. But much more important, according to the report, was the indirect economic impact in terms of lost markets and labour opportunities. The biggest economic losses were attributed to the lack of access to fields during the conflict period, the peak time for the harvest of some crops (mainly stone fruit and potatoes) destined for export. 

Palestinian homes abandoned in flight across Israel's wall

27 November 2006


Israel began building an eight-metre high, 703km-long concrete barrier through the West Bank in the occupied Palestinian territories in 2002. To date, some 670km of it is completed. Israel says the wall is a security measure to protect Israeli citizens from terrorist attacks by Palestinian militants. When the barrier is completed, about 10 per cent of the West Bank will be inside Israel. In July 2004, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague ruled that the barrier’s route, which weaves around the western border of the occupied territory, was illegal under international humanitarian and human rights law because it “gravely” infringes on a number of rights of Palestinians living in the West Bank. 

Gazans want to protect homes, say rights activists

22 November 2006


Palestinian human rights activists have said that using citizens as human shields to protect the homes of suspected militants is wrong, but said Gazans are simply protecting each other and their houses because they believe no one else will. The comments came after the US-based watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a statement on Wednesday condemning Palestinian armed factions for encouraging civilians to gather in and around suspected militants’ homes targeted by the Israeli military. Jaber Oshaah of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza told IRIN that he agreed with HRW’s statement but could understand why this strategy was being used. 

Accident reveals newly laid Israeli mines, UN says

26 November 2006


The Israeli army sowed landmines in south Lebanon during its summer conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon, the United Nations said on 25 November. The claims came after British and Bosnian bomb disposal experts each had a foot amputated after a newly laid Israeli-made anti-personnel landmine exploded on Friday, according to a statement by the UN’s Mine Action Coordination Centre in South Lebanon (UNMACC SL). Israel has not yet established whether its forces laid landmines in Lebanon during its recent conflict, officials speaking on condition of anonymity at the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) told IRIN. 

Significant Victory on Boycott Front in Ireland

Seán Clinton 26 November 2006


On Saturday 25th November the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) mounted a successful picket outside the entrance to the Limerick branch of the Atlantic Homecare chain store in Ireland. After refusing to move the picket when approached by security guards the protestors eventually agreed to call off their action after the store manger removed from sale all of the Israeli manufactured Keter Plastic products in the store. Within two hours of the commencing the action IPSC members witnessed pallet loads of the Israel made plastic storage boxes, wheelbarrows and garden sheds being taken off the sales floor. 

PCHR Calls for Increased Efforts Against Gender Violence in Palestine

26 November 2006


This year, the international day for the elimination of violence against women comes at a time of continuous suffering for Palestinian women due to the violence perpetrated against them by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) and Palestinian society. Palestinian women are subjected to serious human rights violations at the hands of IOF troops that include killing, death of kin, destruction of houses, forced migration, detention, and humiliation at military checkpoints even for pregnant women in labor, some of whom died at these checkpoints. A total of 33 women and 116 children have been killed so far this year, most of them in the Gaza Strip. 

Syria is a convenient fallguy for Gemayel's death

Jonathan Cook 26 November 2006


Commentators and columnists are agreed. Pierre Gemayel’s assassination must have been the handiwork of Syria because his Christian Phalangists have been long-time allies of Israel and because, as industry minister, he was one of the leading figures in the Lebanese government’s anti-Syria faction. President Bush thinks so too. Case, apparently, settled. Unlike my colleagues, I do not claim to know who killed Gemayel. Maybe Syria was behind the shooting. Maybe, in Lebanon’s notoriously intrigue-ridden and fractious political system, someone with a grudge against Gemayel — even from within his own party — pulled the trigger. Or maybe, Israel once again flexed the muscles of its long arm in Lebanon. 

The Palestinians: Who's their Mandela?

25 November 2006


An escape from these prisons, to something other than semi-free statelets, is suggested by Ali Abunimah. But it is an escape to Utopia: a single state of Israel/Palestine where lion and lamb nuzzle down together. Impossible, probably. On the other hand, argues Mr Abunimah, if South Africa could break out of seemingly impossible conflict to find peace and reconciliation, why not Israel? Some 5m Jews and some 5m Arabs, including Israel’s sizeable Arab minority, confront each other in land that is controlled, directly or indirectly, by Israel. Splitting the land between them (albeit on a 78% to 22% ratio) seemed a good idea at the time, but its time may have run out.