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USAID proposes Palestinian company 'caretaker' for Gush Katif lands

Charmaine Seitz 17 February 2005


One of the major questions facing Palestinians as the time nears for Israel to evacuate 17 Gaza Strip settlements and four more in the northern West Bank is the manner in which they will be transferred to Palestinians. Israel has so far refused to transfer the properties directly to the Palestinian Authority, and has not finalized which assets - houses, infrastructure and greenhouses - will remain. Palestinians have requested that Israel demolish all assets that do not fit into their planning needs, but Ministry of Planning officials admit that the Palestinian Authority itself is lagging terribly behind in developing scenarios for the withdrawal. 

Looking towards Palestine: Photographic projects in Madrid

John Collins 16 February 2005


“The work included in the photographic exhibit, ‘Looking towards Palestine,’ represented an impressive diversity of styles and subject matter, but the common denominator — appropriately, given the reality on the ground in Palestine — was the rubble. This is not to say that the photographers failed to explore other themes. On the contrary, the show was full of images of funerals, children’s games, Israeli tanks and bulldozers, living rooms, violent confrontations — in short, the stuff of daily life under occupation and in the diaspora. The rubble, however, was never far from view.” John Collins reports from Madrid. 

State Department to be Questioned on Silence regarding American Detainees in Israel

16 February 2005


The Council for the National Interest and other concerned organizations will participate Thursday in a meeting at the Department of State regarding Israeli mistreatment of Palestinian American prisoners. Also on the agenda is the ongoing silence of the State Department in regard to Israeli detention and deportation of nonviolent American citizens seized in the occupied West Bank by Israeli security forces. The delegation Thursday will call for the release of some of the American prisoners being held by Israel. 

Israel provokes Palestinian resistance groups in Nablus, kills two

Ray Smith Nablus, Palestine 16 February 2005


Since the announcement of the hudna (“cease-fire”), Nablus hasn’t seen anything like a hudna. Almost every night IOF troops enter the city, especially the refugee camps and the old city. Ray Smith reports from occupied Nablus. Last night the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) again showed their committment to what’s currently celebrated as a cease-fire: Mayoub Mureb Al-Qanni and Issam Hamsa Mansour were killed by IOF troops near the village of Kufr Qalil, right outside the West Bank city of Nablus. 

The Ultimate Barrier: Impact of the Wall on the Palestinian health care system

14 February 2005


Since June 2002, the construction of the Wall has steadily added another layer of obstacles isolating, fragmenting and thus deteriorating the Palestinian health care system. In order to address some of the health impacts of the Wall, Medecins du Monde (MDM)-France started the Wall response program in May 2004. The organization has supported emergency medical transport services in Aizaria (East Jerusalem), Women and Children mobile health clinics in 11 villages in the West Bank, and monitors the health impact of the Wall, in close collaboration with local partners. 

Palestinian women experience major poverty induced by loss of spouses, UN says

15 February 2005


Palestinian women are suffering massively from malnutrition, especially when they are pregnant and nursing, and have high rates of poverty as widowed heads of household, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan says in a new report to a UN women’s rights panel. The UN World Health Organization (WHO) says that during a home visit programme in the period under review, October 2003 to September 2004, “69.7 per cent of 1,768 expectant women, within one month of delivery, were found to be anaemic,” Mr. Annan’s report to the Economic and Social Council’s (ECOSOC) Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) says. 

Star Tribune praises President Bush's commitment to a human rights violation

Nigel Parry 15 February 2005


The Star Tribune’s editorial (“Aiding Abbas”, Feb 12th) lauded President Bush’s “remarkable new initiative, a $350 million fund for Palestinian humanitarian and security projects, which would give the peace process important new momentum.” The problem is that part of the money is earmarked for human rights violations. Glenn Kessler noted in the Feb 6th Washington Post, that “A White House official said $50 million of the $350 million that Bush announced in his State of the Union address to ‘support Palestinian political, economic, and security reforms’ could be given to Israel for [checkpoint] terminals because faster passage through Israeli checkpoints is presumed to be a help to the Palestinian economy.” EI’s Nigel Parry challenged the Star Tribune in this unpublished letter. 

A West Bank Story: New Year's in a Garden on the Moon

Pamela Olson Jericho, Palestine 15 February 2005


3 February 2005 — The Jericho Intercontinental is a very posh hotel built next to a casino, both of which were finished just as the Second Intifada started and thus never really opened. But they dusted themselves off and offered a New Year’s Eve party, a night in a big lavish room, and two meals for $90 each. Several Palestinians and internationals jumped at the chance, eager for a change in scenery and atmosphere. I loaded up with some Palestinian officemates and friends into a service taxi on New Year’s Eve, and we made the long journey bypassing the Qalandia checkpoint. 

Blocking Out the Sun

Mike Odetalla Beit Hanina, Palestine 14 February 2005


My Palestinian mother has a favorite expression that she likes to use. Whenever she wants the curtains pulled back, a window or door opened to the outside world, or just wants to get out of the house, to be outdoors, she would always say that she wants to ashoof wijih rabie (roughly translated: “to see the face of my God”). Last summer, while my family and I were in Palestine, we got to see and experience, first hand, the magnificence of God’s face and the ugly face of occupation and oppression, the Apartheid Wall that is being built by Israel. Mike Odetalla writes from Beit Hanina. 

The False Promise of Western Democracy

Nora Bassiouni and David Reznik 14 February 2005


The recent election of Mahmoud Abbas in the Occupied Territories was hailed by the Western press as a milestone in the democratization of the Palestinian people. However, recent reports coming out of that region have questioned the legitimacy of this supposed triumph in democracy. These elections have added to a growing worldwide skepticism about Western notions of democracy (i.e. institutionalized suffrage, parliamentary procedures, etc.). It seems Western democratic practices, here in the form of an internationally-supervised day of voting, do not, in and of themselves, guarantee a truly democratic society.