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Letter to the Organizers of the 10th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale

3 September 2006


We the undersigned groups and organizations request that the Venice Biennale cancel the country exhibition of Israel entitled “LIFE SAVER - Typology of Commemoration in Israel - Architecture and Society” for the following reasons: The Israeli participation is supported by the Israeli state, a state that continues against all International laws and UN resolutions to occupy the West Bank and Gaza Strip; to deny the right of return for Palestinian refugees; and to wage a daily war against Palestinian children, men and women, their homes and livelihoods. 

The Right to Entry to the Occupied Palestinian Territory

6 September 2006


The Palestinian people have lived under Israeli military occupation for over 39 years. Their occupation is not only one of the longest standing in contemporary world history, but has also been distinguished by an incredible amount of repressive creativity. Israel has employed an everincreasing array of means and ways to oppress Palestinian’s basic human rights while maintaining a level of discrimination that, if applied anywhere else in the world, would shock the world into action. The most recent addition to Israel’s “Matrix of Controls” is to deny Palestinians and foreign nationals that do not hold an Israeliissued Palestinian I.D. entry into, or residence in, Palestine. 

Gaza: Four killed and 27 injured in two extra-judicial executions in two hours

6 September 2006


On Tuesday evening, 5 September 2006, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) committed two extra-judicial executions in Rafah in two hours, which killed four members of the ‘Izziddin al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, and wounded 27 civilian bystanders, including five children. According to preliminary investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 21:20, an IOF droned fired a missile at a civilian car (a grey Mitsubishi) that was traveling near al-Istiqama Mosque in Saddam Street in the densely-populated al-Junaina neighborhood. 

'Quiet transfer' in East Jerusalem nears completion

Elodie Guego 6 September 2006


Israel is close to implementing a long-term plan to transform the demographic structure of annexed East Jerusalem. Policies to revoke the residency permits of Palestinian Jerusalemites and to Judaise the city have been described as ethnic cleansing. After victory in the 1967 Six Day war, Israel annexed East Jerusalem - that part of the city that had been under Jordanian rule since the end of the British Mandate in 1948 - together with an additional 64 square kilometres which had been part of the West Bank. Jerusalem thus became Israel’s largest city and was declared to be its ‘united and eternal capital’. 

My Palestinian husband and I cannot live together in the West Bank

Maria Pedevilla Vienna, Austria 6 September 2006


Two security people just took me and brought me to a car. I asked a couple of times what was going on, but still no one told me. After asking the fourth or fifth time, “Where are you bringing me?” their answer was, “Back to Jordan” I was denied entry into the country and I was deported back to Jordan. The Israelis did not give us a reason why we were denied entry but swiftly ushered my friend and me into a car that would take us back to the Jordanian border. Our passports were stamped with “entery [sic] denied” and therefore useless for any further travel. Furthermore, due to this event, my fiance and I were prevented from marrying as planned. 

Palestinians in Gaza largely cut off from outside world

6 September 2006


Israel’s continued closure of the Gaza Strip’s only international border crossing is isolating Gaza’s 1.4 million residents. As Gaza’s only international border crossing, Rafah is the only route for ordinary Palestinians to cross from Gaza to Egypt to go back to their jobs and universities across the world - and to get back in to see their families. All other crossings into Israel have been closed since the start of a second intifada in 2000. Many stuck in Gaza face losing their jobs if they cannot travel when they planned to. Palestinians unable to cross into Egypt risk losing money spent on airline tickets from Cairo to countries in the Gulf and elsewhere. 

Lebanon health facilities have suffered considerable damage

6 September 2006


A newly-published assessment of health facilities in Lebanon shows that a quarter of those examined are not functioning due to physical damage, lack of staff or lack of accessibility, and that water and fuel shortages remain a serious concern. At the same time, demands on the health system are growing given the numbers of people injured during the conflict, and people returning to their communities requiring health care. The assessment, by the Lebanon Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization, looked at more than 400 health facilities in Lebanon in the areas most affected by the conflict. 

Middle East crisis expected to top Security Council agenda in September

5 September 2006


The crises and problems of the Middle East will be at the forefront of a busy Security Council programme this month, Ambassador Adamantios Vassilakis of Greece, which holds the Council presidency for September, said today as he outlined the 15-member body’s schedule. The situation in Lebanon following the cessation of hostilities last month between the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) and Hizbollah, events in the occupied Palestinian territory, and the question of Iran’s nuclear ambitions are among the issues likely to be discussed. Secretary-General Kofi Annan may brief the Council on his current trip to the Middle East after he returns to UN Headquarters in New York. 

Six months without pay sparks teachers' strike in Gaza and West Bank

Rachel Bonham Carter 5 September 2006


Just days into the start of the new school term most schools in Gaza are closed due to a strike by government workers, including teachers, who haven’t been paid for six months. 750,000 pupils are affected. The strike is open-ended and currently most of the 1,726 public schools in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) are either partially or completely closed. At Azzoun Itmeh School for Girls in the Northern West Bank, only 7 out of 22 teachers turned up for work on Sunday. A similar story is being played out across the region with teachers struggling to get by. Around 70 per cent of all students in oPt are affected by the strikes. 

Unexploded bombs hamper rural recovery

5 September 2006


Now that war is over, farmers are returning to their land in southern Lebanon only to find their crops destroyed and their livelihoods ruined while unexploded bombs are hampering recovery. Wafi Al-Khishin fled his banana plantation in Ras Al-Ain, outside Tyre in southern Lebanon, when Isreali air-strikes began in July to stay with relatives some 80 km away in the capital Beirut. “When we came back, we found much of our land and crops burnt,” said Al-Khishin. “And what was not destroyed directly has died because of a lack of irrigation throughout the war.”