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Final thoughts from Palestine

Kathleen and Bill Christison East Jerusalem 5 April 2003

“As we left East Jerusalem for Amman last week, on our way back home, we were struck by the cynicism of what appeared to be a concerted effort by the Israeli press and others in the media to justify, retrospectively, Israel’s siege and destruction of Jenin a year ago because it is now clear that U.S. and British forces are doing the same thing in Iraq.” Kathleen and Bill Christison reflect on their trip from Occupied East Jerusalem. 

"Where shall we go? Baghdad?"

Arnon Regular 4 April 2003

“The soldiers divided arrivals into two groups, separating those aged 15-20 from those aged 20-40. The younger group was led into classrooms, forced to tear pictures of shahid (martyrs) off the walls and step on them. At around 9 AM, a few hours after the operation began, a Druze officer reportedly told a few hundred men on site: ‘You are leaving the camp. Don’t come back until it is all over.’ Abd a-Latif a-Sudani, 30, recalls: ‘We asked him - `Where are we to go? To Baghdad?’ And he said: `You’d be better off there.’” Arnon Regular of Haaretz reports on a disturbing IDF operation in Tul Karm which has turned refugees into refugees once again. 

The Shopkeeper

Chris Brown Hebron, Palestine 3 April 2003

My friend’s shop is in the old city. Because there is curfew everyday, he has been unable to get there. Recently, his shop, along with nineteen others, was welded shut by the Israeli army. 

UK to impose duties on Israeli goods from Israeli settlements

Arjan El Fassed 3 April 2003

The UK treasury will introduce in line with EU policy customs duties on Israeli goods produced in settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. The Treasury reaffirmed that the Occupied Palestinian territories are not part of the State of Israel, that Israel routinely and repeatedly fails to answer the direct question regarding the origin of goods, and that Customs & Excise have begun issuing duty demands to UK importers where goods are suspected to be have originated in the settlements. 

Israeli military forcefully occupies UNRWA school

United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East 3 April 2003

In the early morning on 2 April, Israeli military forces broke into and occupied a United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)’s girls’ school in Tulkarem refugee camp in the West Bank, and proceeded to use the school as a detention centre for male residents of the camp between the ages of 15 and 40. 

The Minister of Defense and the IDF Commander of Judea and Samaria are obligated to allow an attorney to visit a physically disabled detainee who is confined to a wheelchair

Public Committee Against Torture in Israel 19 March 2003

The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), in a petition filed to the High Court of Justice today, March 20, 2003, demanded that the Minister of Defense and the IDF Commander of Judea and Samaria allow an attorney to visit a physically disabled detainee, confined to a wheelchair, who is being held at the Howara Camp.