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Oscars' double standard turns Palestinian film into refugee

Benjamin J Doherty and Ali Abunimah 10 December 2002


Above: Elia Suleiman in the director’s chair. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences operates a double standard that may have kept Elia Suleiman’s award-winning feature film “Divine Intervention” out of the competition for the Oscars, EI has learned. The film, a dark comedy about a love affair between two people on opposite sides of an Israeli military checkpoint, won a prestigious jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and the European Film Award. EI’s Ali Abunimah and Benjamin Doherty investigate. 

Human Rights Day: Addameer on Palestinian detainees

Addameer 10 December 2002


On this year’s Human Rights Day, over 6000 Palestinians languish in Israeli prisons, detained under arbitrary and unjust military regulations, interrogated through torture, and living in subhuman conditions of detention in the various military detention camps both in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, as well as those located illegally within Israel. 

UN's top human rights official urges probe into Israeli raid on Gaza

Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) 6 December 2002


Following the killing in Gaza today of ten Palestinians, including two United Nations relief workers, the top UN human rights official, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Sergio Vieira de Mello, called for an Israeli probe into the recent pattern of serious incidents in the Middle East. 

UN Staff Union again calls for full investigation of recent killings of UNRWA staff

United Nations Staff Union 8 December 2002


In light of the recent attacks, the United Nations Staff Union and its Standing Committee on the Security and Independence of the International Civil Service once again call for a full investigation surrounding the events that led to the killings of three staff member of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). 

Invisible killings: Israel's daily toll of Palestinian children

Ali Abunimah 10 December 2002

When a Palestinian attack kills Israelis, the TV news networks are quick to cut to “breaking news” reports. Harrowing footage from the scene and interviews with outraged Israeli government officials are swiftly broadcast, and harsh statements are quickly issued by government and UN officials to appear in tomorrow’s front page newspaper stories. Meanwhile, the relentless killing of Palestinian civilians, many of them children, by the Israeli occupation army goes largely unnoticed and unreported. 

Schooling at Gunpoint: Palestinian Children's Learning Environment in War Like Conditions (part 2 of 2)

Rita Giacaman, Anita Abdullah, Rula Abu Safieh and Luna Shamieh Ramallah 6 December 2002

This report was first published on 1 December 2002 and offers a devastating look at the effect of the Israeli occupation on one aspect of Palestinian civil life — school education — in one area, Ramallah. 

Schooling at Gunpoint: Palestinian Children's Learning Environment in War Like Conditions (part 1 of 2)

Rita Giacaman, Anita Abdullah, Rula Abu Safieh and Luna Shamieh Ramallah 6 December 2002


By the end of the 2001-2002 school year, the Palestinian Ministry of Education reported that: 216 students were killed, 2514 injured, and 164 arrested; 17 teachers and staff in the education sector were killed and 71 were arrested; 1289 schools were closed for at least 3 consecutive weeks during the Israeli invasion between March 29 and up till the end of the school year; and approximately 50% of school children and 35,000 employees in the education sector were prevented from reaching their schools.