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Al-Mezan concerned about security situation in Gaza

20 September 2006


The escalating security unrest in the Gaza strip has resulted in the killing of two more citizens, and the injuring of nine others, as well as an attack on Rafah district’s electricity company. According to Al Mezan field sources, on 18 September at approximately 21:30, an armed family feud erupted in Al Shaja’ia neighborhood of Gaza city, resulting in the killing of Faiz Ahmed Al Ne’izi, 50, and Hamdi Ali Al Ne’izi, 55, and the injury of five others. On the same day at approximately 20:30, armed clashes broke out between two families in the area around Al Nada towers in northern Gaza. Six Palestinians were reported injured as a result. 

IOF Confiscate 6 Million Shekels in Raids on One Bank and 11 Money Exchanges in the West Bank

20 September 2006


In a new piracy crime perpetrated by a state army under orders from the highest levels of a state government, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) raided financial institutions in the cities of Ramallah, Nablus, Tulkarm, and Jenin. IOF raided the National Jordanian Bank in Nablus and 11 money exchanges in the four cities. The raiding forces confiscated the property of the raided sites, and detained 7 of their owners. In addition, IOF confiscated 6 million New Israeli Shekels (NIS) (approximately 1.336 million dollars) claiming that the confiscation was based on information that the money exchanges funnel cash to be used in operations against Israeli targets. 

PCHR Condemns the Attacks on Journalists and Wafa News Agency Office in Khan Yunis and Gaza

20 September 2006


PCHR is very concerned over the repeated attacks on journalists and media organizations by armed groups and others. The Centre views these attacks as a serious infringement on the freedom of expressions and the media in Palestinian National Authority (PNA) areas. PCHR’s preliminary investigation indicates that at approximately 16:30 on Tuesday, 19 September 2006, a number of demonstrators in a march organized by Hamas attacked the photographer Khaled Jamal Bolbol (28) who works for Palestinian Television and the journalist Moafaq Turki Matar (52), who works for Al-Hayat Al-Jadida Newspaper. 

Solution to Middle East conflict requires new global strategy, French President tells UN

19 September 2006


Voicing dismay that the conflict in the Middle East has become “the epicentre of global instability,” French President Jacques Chirac told world leaders who gathered today for the General Assembly that it was time to “tread off the beaten track of habit” and devise a global strategy for an Israeli-Palestinian settlement. “The status quo has become unbearable. Because the conflict in the Middle East is a threat to global peace and security, the world has no option but to be the guarantor of peace,” Mr. Chirac said in a speech to the general debate of the Assembly’s 61st session. 

UN conference adopts action plan to support Palestinians

8 September 2006


A two-day United Nations International Conference of Civil Society in Support of the Palestinian People adopted a Plan of Action that commits civil society organizations to ending the Israeli occupation and to achieving the rights of self-determination and return of the Palestinian people. The plan includes marking the 40-year anniversary of the occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. The Plan also commits them to expanding the global campaign of boycotts, divestment and sanctions to ever broader sectors of countries and regions, including an urgent campaign to end the sanctions against the democratically-elected Palestinian Authority. 

Women's meeting at UN encourages negotiations

18 September 2006


A delegation of top Israeli, Palestinian and international women leaders arrive at the United Nations on September 20th to meet with President of the Republic of Finland Tarja Halonen, at a time when Finland holds the Presidency of the European Union, in an effort to marshal high-level political pressure to restart negotiations in the region. Joining the President of Finland will be President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia, Africa’s first elected woman head of state, who traveled to the occupied Palestinian territory in 2001 to hear the stories of women living in conflict as part of the Independent Experts’ Assessment on the impact of war on women, commissioned by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). 

Gaza faces major food problems, warns UN agency assisting over 200,000 people there

15 September 2006


15 September 2006 - Palestinians face major difficulties in Gaza, including shortages of food and a crippled fishing industry because of the continued conflict with Israel, the United Nations food agency warned today, as it distributes aid to almost a quarter of a million of those most in need. “Gaza’s food security remains an issue of serious concern, the World Food Programme (WFP) says. Naval restrictions continue to block all boats from fishing off-shore, crippling the fishing industry,” UN spokesman Marie Okabe told reporters in New York. 

Seventy per cent of Palestinians in Gaza need international food aid to survive – UN

19 September 2006


With the new school year beginning in just a few days, 70 per cent of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip cannot feed themselves without assistance, a 30 per cent increase in the number in just over a year, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said today. The Gaza economy is near total collapse and WFP, which this month increased the number of people to whom it is providing food by 25 per cent to 220,000 persons, will try to add more beneficiaries since the situation was deteriorating on a daily basis, spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume told a news briefing in Geneva. 

Getting the word out on NPR

Rima Merriman 19 September 2006


Getting the word out has always been difficult for Palestinians. The major reason for this is that Israel often succeeds in framing the issues from its point of view, and the mainstream media in the West goes along with it. A favorite gambit that Israel uses to cloak its outrageous policies towards the Palestinian population is to cry “security”, which then pretty much allows it to do anything. When “security” is too conspicuously untrue, it justifies itself by referring to its own policy. This can be questioned only through its own legal system, which is not exactly designed to safeguard Palestinian rights. It sets up the equation of “lawful” Israelis and “unlawful” or criminal Palestinians. 

"The power that made dust out of life"

Samia A. Halaby Dahiyeh 18 September 2006


Trucks loaded with rubble arrive at the rate of one each minute - 1350 per day as the taxi driver tells. As we climbed the mountain, we saw embedded in the rubble the torn bits of family life. Shoes, clothes, curtains, shards of furniture, bits of rugs, closet doors, children’s books, school books, shards of kitchen utensils, all torn to shreds, all smashed, all dusty, all mixed in an ugly salad of dust, shattered cement, broken glass, and bent steel. But the dust formed the largest percentage of the mix. I try to imagine the power that made dust out of life.