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Annan: Barrier, settlements and security challenge two-State Israeli-Palestinian solution

21 November 2005


The “window of opportunity” to revitalize the Middle East peace process that opened during the past year is still ajar, but the setbacks include Israel’s building of the separation barrier and the Palestinian Authority’s failure to help restore law and order, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan says in his latest report. Noting the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and parts of the northern West Bank in September, he says, “I would like to commend Prime Minister Sharon’s political courage and steady commitment to disengagement. I would also like to commend the Palestinian Authority for its responsible behaviour during this period, in facilitating a smooth and peaceful operation.” 

Israeli forces execute third assassination in five days

17 November 2005


On Thursday, November 17, an undercover unit of the Israeli occupying forces moved into Jenin and extra-judicially executed two activists of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of the Fatah movement, in Jenin. This is the third extra-judicial execution committed by Israel in the northern West Bank in five days. Israeli occuping forces claimed that they ordered the victims to stop, and then fired at the two men when they did not obey the order. However, preliminary investigations by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights refute this claim and confirm that the Israeli army unit could have arrested the two men or used non-lethal force. 

Annan calls for increased aid to organization that assists Palestinian refugees

16 November 2005


Increased aid to Palestinian refugees would contribute to stability and hope in the Middle East even as a final, just and practical solution to the problem is sought with renewed vigour after recent positive developments, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today. “Recent developments in the region, particularly the Israeli disengagement from the Gaza Strip, gave rise to new hope that the peace process could be put back on track,” Mr. Annan told the hosts and donors of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the main organization for humanitarian aid to those refugees, at their meeting in Amman Jordan. That had not yet happened, he noted, saying that all interested parties must try to ensure that this period of hope does not end, as others had, in bitter disappointment. 

First UNRWA hosts and donors meeting opens at Dead Sea

17 November 2005


Today the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) opened its first Hosts and Donors Meeting, at the King Hussein Bin Talal convention center at the Dead Sea, to discuss developments in assistance provided by the international community to Palestine refugees. Participants confirmed continued support for UNRWA and the Palestine refugees. Opening the meeting was the Jordanian deputy prime minister for political development, Hisham El- Tal. El-Tal commended UNRWA and the delegates present for going ahead with the meeting despite the recent terrorist attacks in Amman, stressing the vital importance of UNRWA’s humanitarian efforts in the areas of education, health and relief and social services. 

The Terminal

Toine van Teeffelen Bethlehem, Palestine 16 November 2005


On this Palestinian Independence Day I decide to take a break and go and visit the zoo in Jerusalem together with the children. Mary, who of course cannot join because she doesnat have a permit or a foreign passport-with-a-three-month visa as I do, puts fruits in the bag for me and for Jara and Tamer. Should we put a knife in the bag, to cut the fruits? Better not to have an iron knife, but a plastic one, we think, because the soldiers at the checkpoint may become suspicious. I make a quick check on the Internet to see whether there are problems to be expected on the road. The Bethlehem taxi driver tells us that today the new terminal is in use. We approach not a checkpoint but rather something that resembles an international border. 

VIDEO: Protests in Bil'in

Khaled Sabawi 18 November 2005


On Friday November 11th 2005, the residence of the Palestinian village of Bil’in, along with international and Israeli activists, rallied at the center of the village to prepare for their weekly act of civil disobedience and non-violent protest. Bil’in was once a small peaceful village located high on the hills of Palestine, inside the West Bank and north of Jerusalem. For thirty-eight years, a brutal Israeli military occupation has subjected the village of Bil’in, along with the entire West Bank, to unrelenting violence, seizures, curfews, and land appropriations that have violated the Palestinian peoples’ basic civil and human rights. The wall has now reached the village of Bil’in, threatening to cut the villagers off from two thirds of their land. 

Israeli forces assassinate two Palestinians

14 November 2005


Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) extra-judicially executed two Palestinians in Jenin and Nablus during the last 24 hours — a member of the military wing of Fatah and the leader of the military wing of Hamas. These latest assassinations came just days after the Israeli Prime Minster Ariel Sharon and the Israeli Military Chief of Staff Dan Halutz vowed, at a meeting of the Committee of Foreign and Defence Affairs at the Israeli Knesset on Tuesday, 8 November 2005, to continue with the policy of carrying out “targeted killing [the term used by Israel to describe extra-judicial executions against Palestinians] and military pressure on terrorist organizations.” 

Fourth Committee takes action on situation in Palestine

15 November 2005


Concluding its work for the current session, the Fourth Committee this afternoon took action on nine draft resolutions and one draft decision — approving five texts relating to the work of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and five on Israeli practices in territories occupied since 1967. The Committee approved a draft on assistance to Palestinian refugees by a recorded vote of 151 in favour to 1 against (Israel) with 8 abstentions (Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Cameroon, Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau and United States, after which Antigua and Barbuda announced it should have voted in favour). 

Gunmen break into Rafah elections office

14 November 2005


A group of armed men broke into the Central Elections Commission office in Rafah and prevented the functioning of the office. According to fieldworkers of Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights, three persons armed with automatic rifles broke into the Rafah branch of the Central Elections Committee office, located in Ottoman Ibn Affan, near Najma junction in the Shabura area. The armed group gave the workers one hour to finalize their work, after which they closed the office. A statement was issued by the group, in the name of the “Islamic Army”, stating without specifically targeting the Central Elections Committee that the office was being closed down for being a place of corruption. 

Israel's uglier face reared towards its Palestinain citizens

Avigail Abarbanel 17 November 2005


Susan Nathan’s new book The Other Side of Israel: My Journey Across the Jewish/Arab Divide recalls her recent experience of making Aliya to Israel, claiming her right to immediate citizenship according to the Israeli law of return. Growing up in a Zionist home and having had more than one or two experiences of antisemitism, Nathan is at first enchanted with Zionism and in love with the idea of the State of Israel and what she believes it represents. However, it isn’t long before that bubble bursts and she begins to see the less than ideal reality of Israel.