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CNI Public Hearing: "Dual Occupations, Dual Jeopardy"

29 September 2005


The links between the U.S. occupation of Iraq and the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and Golan Heights were emphasized in a September 26th public hearing sponsored by the Council for the National Interest at the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington DC. The speakers were Kevin Zeese, Director of Democracy Rising and a candidate for U.S Senate in Maryland; Phyllis Bennis, a Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies; and Huwaida Arraf, co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement. 

Flashpoints.net: What's behind Israel's savage bombardment of Gaza?

Dennis Bernstein 29 September 2005


Listen to an interview with EI cofounder Ali Abunimah on Flashpoints, 94.1FM, Berkeley, California. Dennis Bernstein interviewed EI’s Ali Abunimah about Israel’s savage campaign of air raids and bombardment of the occupied Gaza Strip following the pullout of Israeli settlers. Abunimah presents evidence that the Israelis provoked the violence deliberately and how it is part of a premeditated plan to terrorize the civilian population into submission. 

Stunning Gaza!

Eyad al-Sarraj Gaza Strip 28 September 2005


28 September 2005 — During the last few days, Gaza was awakened from its dreams of liberation with horrible explosions which have shattered our skies, shaken our buildings, broken our windows, and threw the place into panic. We have been bombed since Friday 23 September, day and night. Usually between 2:00-4:00am, between 6:30 - 8:00 in the morning during the time children go to school, and in the afternoon or early evening. The explosions are heard and felt all over the Gaza Strip with the same intensity. 

Israel continues aerial attacks on Gaza Strip

27 September 2005


Israel continued their increasingly-dangerous attacks on the Gaza Strip, especially over the past three days. These attacks coincided with large scale incursions in the West Bank, during which Israeli occupying forces arrested Palestinian civilians. In the Gaza Strip, Israeli F-16s renewed their aerial bombardment, targeting additional civilian properties in different parts of the Strip. In addition, Israel F-16 fighter jets carried out mock air raids, resulting in a state of fear among civilians. Since September 24, Israel carried out 18 aerial bombardment raids against homes, civilian properties and vehicles carrying Palestinian activists. 

Film review: "Just Married" divorced from the bigger picture

Maureen Clare Murphy 29 September 2005


The theme of Just Married is Israel’s discriminatory family reunification process, which has been frozen since 2003. Because no unification applications are currently being accepted, Palestinians from the occupied West Bank (excluding Jerusalem, which Israel illegally annexed in 1967) and Gaza Strip who marry Israeli citizens or residents are unable to legally live with their spouses in Israel or occupied East Jerusalem. However, as it the film focuses on just two newly-married couples and the problems they face, the magnitude of the problem is unclear to the viewer, as is Israel’s motivations behind the freezing of the process. 

US government illegally utilises FM frequency defined as Palestinian "national asset" by Oslo accords

27 September 2005


On September 11th, 2005, in a sudden move, The Palestinian Ministry of Information closed the Voice for Love and Peace Radio Station and granted a broadcasting license to Radio SAWA to broadcast on the frequency 94.2 FM, which has been assigned to The Voice for Love and Peace Radio Station (VOLP) since 1996. 

Four one-act plays by Palestinian playwrights to support art exhibition

27 September 2005


The rarely heard voices of Palestinian playwrights come to New York City on October 16-17 for a unique and important theatrical benefit, Acts for Palestine, to support a visual art exhibition entitled Made in Palestine, an exhibition of the contemporary art of Palestine, featuring 23 Palestinian artists. Tragedy, seeping into daily life, fuels the Palestinian playwright at home and in exile. Cultural poignancy, the beloved ancient soil of literary tradition, and revolutionary hope combine to create literary expressions that grip the viewer as much as the playwright. 

Palestinian rights still violated in occupied territories, UN official says

26 September 2005


Palestinian rights still violated in Occupied Territories, UN official saysDespite Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, major violations of human rights continue to result from its occupation of Palestinian territories, construction of barriers and expansion of settlements, according to the United Nations official monitoring that situation in his latest report to the General Assembly. “The wall and settlements seriously undermine the fundamental right of self-determination of the Palestinian people upon which all other rights depend,” writes John Dugard, Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967. 

Breaking psychological barriers

Yasser Abu Moailek Rafah, Egypt, Rafah 26 September 2005


On the night of Sunday, September 11, two days before our trip, the last Israeli soldier left the Gaza Strip, ending 38 years of Israeli military occupation. All of a sudden, Egypt was open to Palestinians. We were standing there on the edge of what was a graveyard of man and stone - the no man’s zone in which many Palestinians had lost their lives at the hands of the Israeli army. We were seven friends and coworkers, some of which had come to verify the rumors in Gaza about unchecked crossing into Egypt, while others were tourists, making their very first trip outside the Gaza Strip. 

Investigation into shooting French reporter reactivated

21 September 2005


Amid French judicial moves to reactivate an investigation into the near-fatal shooting of “Paris Match” reporter Jacques-Marie Bourget on 21 October 2000 in Ramallah, on the West Bank, RSF reported that it has been granted civil party status in the case before a high-level court in Paris. “We are calling for the clarification of the circumstances of the shooting in which Bourget nearly died,” the organisation said. “He has been demanding justice for five years and it is high time that all the witnesses, without exception, are finally questioned by judicial investigators.” French judge Michèle Ghanassia revived the case on 7 September 2005 by issuing a formal written request to the Israeli authorities to question the Israeli soldiers who witnessed the shooting, so that she can complete her investigation.