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Palestinian children's right to quality education

Monica Awad 23 November 2005


In a very poor neighborhood in the old city, in a tall tiny shabby building, sounds of children’s laughter can be heard as we walked up the 50 steep steps leading to the main hall of the Children’s Center. More than 100 girls and boys of various age groups were gathered in the main hall, listening to Sana’, the facilitator of the activity, giving instructions of the day. Main hall was full of excitement, it was the third day out of the six-day activity planned by Tamer institute, a local non governmental organization, supported by UNICEF, aiming at improving quality of education through creative reading and writing. Loud foot steps of kids running to their respective training rooms were heard. 

Another checkpoint on the road to nowhere

Hasan Abu Nimah and Ali Abunimah 23 November 2005


One constant in the long conflict over Palestine is that Israel and its backers always have an excuse to avoid the central issues that prevent peace. Israel is adapt at creating complications which then absorb and exhaust all available diplomatic and political energy, while it uses the time to entrench itself ever more deeply in the occupied territories. EI contributor Hasan Abu Nimah and co-founder Ali Abunimah write that attention is set to focus on the new distraction of an Israeli general election while the hard realities of spreading Israeli settlements, extrajudicial killings and the grimness of life in still occupied Gaza feature nowhere in all the heady talk about peace. 

Strong support for UNRWA as major hosts and donors meeting concludes

18 November 2005


The second day of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) Hosts and Donors Meeting, being held at the Dead Sea, opened with an address by Dr. Marwan Muasher, the deputy prime minister of Jordan. Karen AbuZayd, the UNRWA Commissioner-General, applauded Jordan’s many efforts on behalf of Palestine refugees as “exemplary.” Muasher, in turn, expressed strong support for UNRWA. “Its budget should be strengthened and expanded, so as to be able to raise the living standards of Palestine refugees living in Gaza and elsewhere.” 

Alharam (Sidna Ali) in the Memory of Herzliya

Eytan Bronstein and Norma Mosih 25 November 2005


“Beit Rishonim” (Founders’ House) in Herzliya is a museum that preserves and exhibits the history of the town that was founded as a pioneer settlement in 1924. The museum glorifies the founders who did not admit defeat despite the numerous hardships they faced. The museum holds mounted displays, spot-lit photographs and books that tell the story of the settlement that became a city. Some of the items also depict the pioneers’ Arab neighbors in the early days. These were residents of the villages Alharam (Sidna Ali), Ijlil, Abu Kishek and other Bedouin communities. I will try to interpret the museum’s position toward these local Arab residents through the pictures displayed in the museum, their captions, and some of the written texts. 

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.