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UNHCR deeply concerned by plight of Palestinian refugees in Iraq

3 October 2006


UNHCR is deeply concerned over the well-being of Palestinian refugees inside Iraq, as well as those who fled targeted harassment and violence in Baghdad and are now stuck at the border between Iraq and Syria and in camps in Jordan and Syria. The security situation of Palestinian refugees in Iraq has deteriorated – particularly since the Samarra bombings last February – and an increasing number of them have left or are trying to leave the country. Palestinians in Iraq lack protection, have serious problems obtaining identity cards, and have been the target of continuing harassment, threats, kidnapping and killings. 

Human rights council discusses situation in Occupied Palestinian Territories in context of follow-up of its decisions

29 September 2006


The Human Rights Council this afternoon discussed the follow-up of decisions and resolutions taken at its first session and the first and second special sessions and heard a follow-up report by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967. John Dugard, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, said on 6 July 2006, the Human Rights Council had adopted a resolution in which it decided to “dispatch an urgent fact-finding mission headed by the Special Rapporteur”. As there was no reply by the Israeli Government to requests for consent to a fact-finding mission to the Occupied Palestinian Territories, he had been unable to head that mission as required by the Council. 

Information Brief: The Gaza Economy

Sara Roy 2 October 2006


One year after Israel’s 2005 “disengagement” from the Strip, which was hailed by President Bush as a great opportunity for “the Palestinian people to build a modern economy that will lift millions out of poverty [and] create the institutions and habits of liberty,” a “Dubai on the Mediterranean” according to Thomas Friedman, Gaza is undergoing acute and debilitating economic declines marked by unprecedented levels of poverty, unemployment, loss of trade, and social deterioration especially with regard to the delivery of health and educational services. 

Paralysis of the Palestinian 'Authority': What's to be done?

Rima Merriman 2 October 2006


For over a decade now, since the Oslo Agreement signed by the Palestinian Liberation Organization in 1993, the Palestinians, along with much of the world, have been laboring under a couple of misapprehensions. One is that, with Oslo, Israel had at long last recognized their aspirations, even if only partially. The other is that their leaders, as embodied by the presidency and the government that arose, had the wherewithal to move them towards a full-fledged Palestinian state on the 1967 borders in the face of Israel’s grand plans and intentions in the region. It’s the classic syndrome of desperate people believing what they want to believe. 

Eight killed, including child, in Fateh-Hamas clashes in Gaza Strip

2 October 2006


Eight Palestinians, including a child, and at least 115 others were injured in bloody incidents that included armed clashes in Gaza City on Sunday, 1 October 2006. PCHR strongly condemns these incidents, which extended to other areas throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), and calls upon the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), represented by the Attorney-General to investigate these incidents and bring those found responsible for them to justice. These clashes came in the context of increasing tension and mutual violence between Hamas and Fatah movements, especially as efforts to reach an agreement between the two sides and form a national unity government failed. 

Palestinian Dance Education under Occupation: Need or Frill?

Omar Barghouti 1 October 2006


Despite an almost obvious and persistent need to promote creativity, imagination and freedom of expression as crucial ingredients in cultural development, dance as a form of spiritual and cultural education as well as a useful medium in education has been virtually non-existent in the formal education system in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). Music, drama and plastic arts may have fared relatively better, but not by much. It is high time to challenge this deficiency head-on, both from a cultural and a political perspective, particularly since its causes are self-inflicted, to a large extent. 

U.S. Consul General in Jerusalem expresses concern about Israeli refusals to issue visas

1 October 2006


U.S. Consul General Jake Walles and chief staff members of the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem and U.S. Embassy in Israel met with representatives of the Campaign for the Right of Entry/Re-Entry to discuss Israel’s new policy of denying entry into Israel of U.S. and other foreign nationals wishing to access the occupied Palestinian territory. The Campaign delegates presented Ambassador Walles with an overview of the Israeli practice and the detrimental effect it is having on family unification, economic and academic development, and the maintaining of a pluralistic social fabric needed to advance an environment for peace in the area. 

Israeli forces kill four, including two boys riding bicycles, in Gaza

1 October 2006


Two of the victims were children brothers, and were killed when IOF fired a surface-to-surface rocket at them without any justification. The other two were killed in Rafah in an extra-judicial execution crime, which also resulted in the injury of two others, one of them a child. PCHR’s preliminary investigation into the first crime indicates that at approximately 9:15 on Friday, 29 September 2006, IOF deployed inside the Gaza Strip near Nahal Oz checkpoint, east of Gaza City, fired a surface-to-surface rocket at two children riding their bicycles near El-Shawwa Gas Station on Salah El-Deen Road west of Beit Lahia. 

Waiting to return to where "the air is different"

Mayssoun Sukarieh Amman, Jordan 30 September 2006


The situation of Laura and Ibrahim is just one of many created by the latest Israeli policy to cleanse Palestine of Palestinians. As their lawyers told them, “The Israeli government wants the least number of Palestinians in the Palestinian territories.” In mid-August, they left Ramallah for Amman, thinking it would be for just a few days, in order to renew their three-month visas to stay legally in Israeli-occupied Ramallah. Their daughter was visiting them in Palestine from the US, and she stayed behind, waiting for them to come back so she could spend the last two weeks of her summer vacation with them. But when they arrived at Tel Aviv Airport, they were detained for a night. 

Probe into Israeli killing of UN monitors unable to determine why appeals were ignored

29 September 2006


A board of inquiry into an Israeli attack in Lebanon that killed four United Nations military observers in July had no access to the commanders involved and was therefore unable to determine why the attacks were not halted despite repeated appeals from UN personnel, Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s spokesman said today. The Board, appointed by the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) as standard procedure in such circumstances, noted that the Israeli authorities accepted full responsibility for the attack on the UN post at Khiyam and apologized for what they say was an “operational level” mistake, the spokesman added in a statement.