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Why is Israel separating me from my wife?

Ghassan Abdullah Ramallah, Palestine 6 December 2006


Israel has decreed that my wife and I can no longer live together. I am Palestinian and she is Swiss and we have been married for 28 years. She was recently given two weeks to leave the occupied Palestinian territory. The Israeli Ministry of Interior wrote on her Swiss passport: “LAST PERMIT.” We have been living together in Ramallah for 12 years. We came in 1994, when, after the Oslo Agreement, we were encouraged to move to the West Bank by the prospect of ‘peace’ and development. My wife Anita speaks Arabic, likes the landscape, cooks Arabic meals, and she cares for my grandfather’s village house — an old stone building and the plants around it — more than I do. 

EU should publish report on Jerusalem, says Palestinian coalition

6 December 2006


The highest body which represents the Palestinian Civil Society (PNGO) and the Coalition for Jerusalem which enfolds Religious Dignitaries, Public Figures and Professional Associations, in addition to the Palestinian NGO Community in East Jerusalem, are hereby calling on the highest European Union diplomatic representation in Brussels to painstakingly consider the publication of this year’s European Union report on East Jerusalem and not to put its contents on ice. The Middle East peace process is at a critical junction now. And Europe may still have time to rethink its positions in order to play an active role in the Middle East by supporting the enactment of International law. 

Open Letter to EU urges publication of report

5 December 2006


The Middle East Peace Process (MEPP) appears to be on the eve of another possible defining moment, this time triggered by the proclaimed cessation of hostilities between the Government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority and the GoI’s call for the resumption of peace talks. In light of the possibility that the EU will consider that these developments constitute a sensitive juncture in the MEPP and that they therefore call for the EU to speak with extreme caution, we would like to convey our hope that the EU will not fail again to publish its report on east Jerusalem this year. 

National Insurance Institute refuses official Arabic-language documents

6 December 2006


On 28 November 2006, Adalah sent a letter to the National Insurance Institute (NII) requesting the issuance of administrative directives to mandate that official documents written in the Arabic language be accepted by all branches of the NII, without requiring that they be translated in Hebrew at the personal expense of those submitting the documents. Adalah emphasized in the letter that the NII has been employing a policy for several years.Adalah Attorney Noor Alatownh sent the letter after Adalah received numerous complaints of the NII’s refusal to accept documents in Arabic, including Shari’a court decisions regarding issues of personal status 

Israel demolishes entire Bedouin village in the Negev

6 December 2006


At 5:00 am hundreds of police accompanied six bulldozers and demolished 17 homes and three animal shacks in the village of Twail Abu-Jarwal. The entire village is demolished. People are sitting by the piles of tin that were their modest dwellings and wondering what to do, where to go - even their family cannot host them, as no one has a house standing. This is the fourth time this year that the government demolished in this village. This time they got it “right” - no house is left standing. But the villagers have nowhere to go to. 

Vital Gaza food conduit to open, Israel says

6 December 2006


An important commercial crossing from Israel into the Gaza Strip could be re-opened next week, Israeli officials told IRIN, allowing vital food supplies into Gaza. The Karni crossing to the west of Gaza City is the only cargo terminal designed for the passage of large containers into the Strip and as such is vital for food supplies. It has been closed almost constantly since September, according to John Ging, the head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which feeds 860,000 refugees in Gaza.”There’s no substitute for the [Karni] commercial crossing. There is no comparable alternative in terms of quantity. That is the weakness of the Gaza Strip. We are talking about hundreds of containers,” said Ging. 

Israel's image problem

Rima Merriman 6 December 2006


Palestinians must surely feel heartened by the news that, despite all the support that Israel gets from its allies at the political level, public opinion in European and North American countries is decidedly against it. It appears that Israel needs every bit of the free-of-charge services Saatchi and Saatchi (a multinational advertising agency) is reportedly offering it. Israel is launching a branding campaign to portray itself as a place that “preserves democratic ideals while struggling to exist.” According to the Anholt Nation Brands Index report, Israel’s international image is the pits. 

Israel refuses to process visa renewal requests

6 December 2006


In a new escalation of Israel’s policy of denying Palestinians and their families access to the Israeli occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), the Israeli Civil Administration at Beit El is refusing to accept at least 140 passports for visa extensions. The passport holders are mostly spouses and children of Palestinian I.D.-holders and are residing in the oPt. Many of them have been forced to become “illegal” since their visitor visas have expired while waiting to be renewed by Israel. Twenty-seven-year-old Subha G is one of these cases. Her mother, brothers and her husband all have Palestinian IDs, but her request for family reunification has been frozen since 1997. 

No friends, few drugs and little expertise for AIDS patients

6 December 2006


The manner in which 14-year-old Mahmoud (not his real name) caught the HIV/AIDS virus was unusual - but the subsequent reaction of Palestinian society was all too predictable. “I got it from a blood transfusion when I was 12. Now, no one talks me. My friends all left me when they knew that I’m AIDS patient. I feel I’m alone in this world. They are afraid to get infected from me, as I was infected, but it is not my fault that I have AIDS now,” said the youngster from the West Bank. “I’ll never finish college. I’ll never have a family like the others. I will never have babies. I also believe that it will not be long before I leave this world,” he added. 

The plight of Palestinian child prisoners

5 December 2006


Palestinian Layth Ghalib Bedwan, 14, was arrested and detained by the Israeli authorities on 28 August 2006. Since then, his family has waited anxiously for him to return home. “His mother is crying all the time. I contacted all the children’s rights organisations in the hope that they can do something to accelerate the release of my son, but all my efforts were in vain,” said Ghalib Bedwan, 36, Layth’s father. On 9 September, an Israeli military court accused Layth of throwing stones at Israeli soldiers, sentencing him to three months in prison, and imposing a US $400 fine on him.