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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. 

UN Committee: "'Decades of failed efforts to resolve question of Palestine"

10 November 2005


On November 10, 1975 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted resolution 3376 establishing the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. Today is not a cause for celebration but rather an opportunity for all of us to reflect upon decades of failed efforts to resolve the question of Palestine. Today’s anniversary also reminds us that we have to redouble our efforts at bringing about a just solution of the question of Palestine. Since its inception, the Committee has advocated a peaceful solution of the question of Palestine in accordance with principles of international law. Yet, in response to events, the Committee continues to voice its concern. 

Of transplants and transcendence: Questioning social and symbolic categories in Israel

Laurie King 14 November 2005


“What is more perplexing and amazing? Four dehumanized individuals blowing themselves and sixty other people to bits, or the wondrous lesson in humanity shown by a family that would not have been blamed for seeking revenge, but who instead repaid murder with magnanimity by donating the organs of their son, a non-Jew, to Israelis? The minds of murderers, whether Jewish, Christian or Muslim; American, Israeli or Arab, are much easier to understand than the actions of Ahmed Khatib’s family. Unlike suicide bombers or IDF snipers, Ahmed’s family violated the grammar of the conflict and exposed the arbitrariness and barbarity of erecting walls, whether actual or metaphorical, between human beings.”