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Speakers in Security Council denounce Israeli attacks in Syria

5 October 2003

The Security Council met in emergency session this afternoon, at the request of the Syrian Arab Republic. In a letter dated 5 October 2003 addressed to the President of the Council, Syria’s Permanent Representative, Fayssal Mekdad, requested the convening of the meeting to consider the violations of Syrian and Lebanese airspace committed the same day by the Israeli air force, and the missile attack carried out by the latter on the same day against a civilian site situated inside Syrian territory. 

Remembering Sabra and Shatila -- and Atoning

Ellen Siegel 3 October 2003

“Last year, 20 years after the massacre, I returned to Beirut to be part of the commemorative events. I was there during Yom Kippur. I tried to find the remaining Jews of Beirut, but could not. I wanted to spend this day with them. Instead I went to the Khiam detention center — a place where Palestinians and Lebanese were held during the Israeli occupation of the south, many of them tortured. It was fitting to be in a place where one could ask for forgiveness for the sins committed in this horrendous chamber of horrors by my people.” Ellen Siegel, a registered nurse and an active member of the US Jewish peace movement, examines Yom Kippur’s meaning from a unique angle. 

Rebuilding Jenin

2 October 2003

There is a hole at the heart of Jenin camp. A hole where there once stood more than 400 refugee homes. Right now the site of the hardest-fought battle of Israel’s Operation Defensive Shield is still known as “ground zero” by locals, but within a year UNRWA hopes to transform several acres of mud into a community of modern shelters for almost 2,000 people. 

The glove does fit: A reply to Alan Dershowitz

Norman Finkelstein 30 September 2003

Alan Dershowitz either cannot or refuses to understand why there is a controversy surrounding The Case for Israel. Perhaps Norman Finkelstein can enlighten him. Quite simply, the book he claims to have written is a hoax: (1) substantial swatches are lifted from another notorious hoax on the Israel-Palestine conflict, (2) it is replete with egregious falsifications, and (3) the few scholarly sources actually cited are mangled beyond recognition.