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Aid agency calls for effective international intervention in Gaza

8 October 2004


In a situation of ongoing violence and the sharply deteriorating humanitarian situation, civilians are now paying the highest price in growing numbers because of the escalating violence in Gaza, according to aid agency Oxfam International. Oxfam believes that civilians caught up in armed conflict have every right to be protected, as enshrined in the Geneva Conventions. Oxfam’s Regional Manager for the Middle East, Adam Leach, says: “Protecting civilians should not be a by-product of a political process but intrinsic to it. Their protection could strengthen the political process, safeguard civil society and reverse the decline in the security situation.” 

Breaking the impasse

Am Johal Canada 8 October 2004


The left is dead in Israel. And if you hold to the observation that social change related to human rights in Israel will be initiated by the left, this is a worrisome trend. In the land of home demolitions, military assassinations, movement restrictions, settlement construction, religious and secular strife, collective punishment, military incursions and legal and socio-economic discrimination, and all the psychological and physical damage associated with the Occupation there is a growing chorus of those who believe that the situation will deteriorate before it gets better. Am Johal shows the failure of leadership at every level in this conflict. 

Culture and dissent: Khalil Sakakini Center looks towards creative resistance

Am Johal 12 October 2004


Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center Director Adila Laidi explains that the role of culture evolves over time and raises to the public questions like the normalcy of the Israeli Occupation. If Edward Said and Noam Chomsky argue that the role of the intellectual is to speak truth to power and Bill Moyers says the same of journalism, then what Laidi is arguing is much the same for art and culture in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Laidi says that since the outbreak of the second intifada in 2000, there has been no normal life. And that as the role of art and culture develop as a means of expression in the context of the Occupation and the current intifada, the Sakakini Cultural Center has a duty to reach beyond the middle, educated classes. 

Gaza under Attack: Is this disengagement?

4 October 2004


At the beginning of 2004, Israeli forces were making Palestinian refugees homeless in southern Gaza on the border with Egypt. Now they’re doing the same in Jabalia refugee camp in the north of the Gaza Strip. The Israeli government has a plan for “disengaging” from Gaza but has in fact brought additional troops and equipment into Gaza in the past week. Some 60 Palestinians have been killed, most of them civilians including children, more than 200 have been injured, homes have been destroyed and businesses and farms have been damaged in the past week in and around Jabalia. 

The Israeli "Disengagement" Plan: Gaza Still Occupied

PLO Negotiations Affairs Department 7 October 2004


“Under the ‘Disengagement’ Plan, Gazans will still be subjected to the effective control of the Israeli military. Although Israel will supposedly remove its permanent military presence, Israeli forces will retain the ability and right to enter the Gaza Strip at will. Further, Israel will retain control over Gaza’s airspace, sea shore, and borders.” A memo from the PLO Negotiations Affairs Department establishes that the Gaza Strip will still legally be Israeli-occupied territory even if the Plan is implemented and outlines Israel’s strategy behind the Plan. 

UNRWA convoy delivers first humanitarian relief to northern Gaza

7 October 2004


The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) today delivered food and water to half of the 600 families trapped in their homes east of Jabalyia camp by the Israeli incursion in the North of the Gaza Strip. The 600 families, approximately 3,300 persons, have been completely unable to leave their homes since the beginning of the Israeli military operation on 29 September. Most have exhausted their food supplies and many have seen their water and electricity connections to their homes cut by bulldozing operations. The delivery was facilitated by a practical dialogue between UNRWA and Israeli military liaison officers. 

Gaza Daily Update, 7.00 PM

7 October 2004


Since the wide-scale Israeli military assault on the northern part of the Gaza Strip, 96 Palestinians have been killed, including 29 children and three Palestinians in the south of Gaza. At least 319 Palestinians, including 111 children were injured. Numerous homes and private property have also been destroyed as IOF utilize air force and heavy tanks in this military operation. In addition, as the incursion continues, the civilian population of the area suffer shortage in food and water supply. In the areas which IOF occupy civilians lack the most basic needs. Al Mezan is still receiving plights from people who have been in urgent need for medicine and water. 

Safety net for Palestinian fishermen

6 October 2004


Many Gazans have traditionally depended on the sea for their livelihood. Of the estimated 1.3 million people living on the Strip, some 40,000 live off fishing. But Israeli restrictions on the movement of Palestinian fishermen over the past three years have left many destitute, including Sad. Since 2002, Gaza fishermen have been banned from going beyond six nautical miles from the shoreline. There have been long periods when that distance was cut in half and in southern areas of Gaza , like the cities of Rafah and Khan Younis, fishing has frequently been totally banned. 

Weekly report on human rights violations

7 October 2004


This week, Israeli forces killed 76 Palestinians, mostly civilians, including 24 children. In northern Gaza, two brothers, a man and his son, an elderly man and a deaf young man were among the victims. At least 70 percent of the victims in northern Gaza were killed in or near Jabalia refugee camp. At least 65 homes were destroyed and 372 donums of land was razed in the Gaza Strip. A tightened siege on the area and access to humanitarian services has been denied. Four Palestinians were extra-judicially executed. Israeli forces continue to shell residential areas. Israel continues construction of the Separation Barrier. 

Sheffield calling: Palestine activists take a page from concert against apartheid

Dave Campbell 7 October 2004


For many of us, the Nelson Mandela Freedom concert at London’s Wembley stadium in June 1988 was the “beginning of the end” for apartheid in South Africa. Sixteen years later, could music help to overcome an even greater challenge - to end the Israeli military occupation of Palestine and allow its people to live, at last, in peace and freedom? This month, the Sheffield branch of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign hosted a “global” Concert for Palestine - webcast live over the internet - to call for an end to more than 37 years of Israeli military occupation.