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Al-Arabiyya offices attacked

15 September 2003


The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the recent raid on the Ramallah offices of the Dubai-based Arabic satellite news channel Al-Arabiyya. Al-Arabiyya producer Qassem Al-Khateeb told CPJ that on the evening of Saturday, September 13, five masked and armed men entered the building where Al-Arabiyya is housed and asked whether it was the office of Al-Arabiyya. Al-Khateeb responded that it was, and the assailants immediately ordered him and the two other employees at the station at gunpoint to go to the editing room. 

Weekly report on human rights violations

10 September 2003

This week Israeli forces killed 11 Palestinians, including 2 children. Three of the victims were killed in extra-judicial assassinations. Israeli forces carried out two failed attempts to assassinate the founder and two senior leaders of Hamas. Israel continued indiscriminate shelling of residential areas, killing two Palestinian civilians and wounding dozens of others. Israeli forces conducted a number of invasions into Palestinian areas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. A number of homes were raided and Israel continued to arbitrarily arrest Palestinians. More than 100 donums of agricultural land were razed and 1 home was demolished in the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces demolished two homes in the West Bank. Israel continued the construction of the apartheid wall. Israeli forces have imposed a comprehensive closure on the West Bank and Gaza Strip. 

21 Septembers Ago

Laurie King 16 September 2003


“A man in his sixties, with kind eyes and a ready smile, waits until I am comfortably situated before he approaches me, pulls up his shirt, and points to an area just to the left of his navel. ‘lammasini hon, sittnaa!’ he quietly requests, ‘Touch me here, Ma’am!’ His middle-aged daughters sit silently around me, their eyes focused on nothing in particular as I gingerly comply with their father’s request. Touching the damp flesh of his round white belly, I am shocked to feel the hard, spherical mass of a bullet trapped in his stomach muscles.” On the 21st anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila massacre, EI’s Laurie King-Irani reflects on the search for international justice on a journey from Beirut to Brussels. 

Ramallah: Arafat's Compound

2 May 2002


On 2 May 2002, Israeli forces withdrew from Arafat’s Compound after they had surrounded the area for more than a month during “Operation Defensive Shield”. On that same day, EI’s Arjan El Fassed and Annet Meeuws filmed the “Muqata”, the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah. They managed, like hundreds of others to enter the compound and walk around its premises. 

Ramallah: Arafat's Compound (2)

6 September 2002


On 6 September 2002, EI’s Arjan El Fassed filmed the “Muqata”, the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah. Arafat’s compound sustained more damage from Israeli bulldozers after a second round of destruction. The siege on Arafat’s headquarters had been severed the past few weeks. 

Gush Shalom activist Uri Avnery to act as human shield for Arafat

14 September 2003


“I am willing to put myself at risk and serve as a human shield, in order to foil Prime Minster Sharon’s intention to murder the leader of the Palestinian People. So are many of my my fellows in the Israeli peace movement” declared the veteran peace activist Uri Avnery of Gush Shalom (the Israeli Peace Bloc) upon his arrival at the Presidential Compound in Ramallah. “To a person like me, who deeply cares about Israel’s future, there is nothing more important to do at this moment than do everything — and I do mean everything — in my power to prevent such a calamity. PM Sharon, Defence Minster Mofaz and their generals should know that if they send their soldiers in here, there will be Israeli peace activists here to bar their way” said Avnery, who mentioned that already last year, a group of Gush Shalom activists had spent the night at this compound, during a previous round of threats by Sharon against Arafat.