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Persistent Partners for Peace squeezes a correction out of the New York Times Magazine

Michael F. Brown 14 September 2003


A Partners for Peace letter was published in the New York Times Magazine of September 14, 2003. The letter appeared after weeks of effort to have the Magazine acknowledge that the illegal settlement of Har Homa (Jabal Abu Ghneim) is not part of Israel. Michael Brown reports. 

UNCTAD's assistance to the Palestinian people

28 July 2003


By 2003, three years of continuous economic decline and widespread devastation had transformed the occupied Palestinian territory into a “war-torn economy”. The economic legacies of war identified in comparative research on conflict economies are relevant in recognizing the true nature of the Palestinian economic predicament: structural deterioration and sustained negative growth; declining export capacity and emergence of an unsustainable trade gap; and greater external dependence and extended poverty. 

What the fatality statistics tell us

Amira Hass 3 September 2003

Against the background of shock and disgust at the mass terror attack on the Jerusalem bus on August 19, and the fear of advanced Qassam rocket attacks, the government of Israel energetically renewed its policy of targeted killings. From August 21 through yesterday, September 1, Air Force fighters killed 11 Hamas activists in six targeted assassinations in crowded central locations. Four other Palestinians were killed in those actions, among them a young girl and an old man, and dozens were injured. The threatened revenge attack has not occurred. Is this not proof that targeted killings are the way to go? Amira Hass writes in Ha’aretz. 

Twilight Zone: Birth and death at the checkpoint

Gideon Levy 12 September 2003

Rula was in the last stages of labor. Daoud says the soldiers at the checkpoint wouldn’t let them through, so his wife hid behind a concrete block and gave birth on the ground. A few minutes later, the baby girl died. They wanted to call her Mira. All their children have names that begin with M, from Mohammed to Meida, their youngest daughter. They borrowed baby clothes from Rula’s sister - their financial situation after three years of unemployment made buying new clothes out of the question - and they packed a bag to be ready for the birth. Now they are beside themselves with grief. Rula doesn’t say a word and Daoud can’t keep the words from pouring out. Gideon Levy writes in Ha’aretz. 

EI's Ali Abunimah speaks on Democracy Now!

13 September 2003


Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat declared no one will “kick me out” after the Israeli Security Cabinet authorized the army to “remove” him. Meanwhile the Jerusalem Post called for Arafat’s death. The Israeli government authorized the army last night to “remove” Yasser Arafat and gave its security services a green light to move against the 74 year-old Palestinian leader “in a manner, and at a time, of its choosing.” Electronic Intifada co-founder Ali Abunimah spoke with host Amy Goodman in Democracy Now!’s New York studios. 

Who Violated Hudna?

Gideon Levy 18 August 2003

The next terror strike is on its way. You don’t need to be an expert on terror, or a compulsive gambler, to foresee that Islamic Jihad will try very soon to avenge the death of Mohammed Sider  the head of the organization’s military wing in Hebron. 

The Hillel Cafe Bombing

Yitzhak Frankenthal Jerusalem 12 September 2003


It is now 11:59 PM, half an hour after the suicide bombing at Hillel Cafe. Just the night before, my wife and I and two of our friends were sitting at the Cafe until around 11:40 PM. The place was packed. I can now hear the sirens of the ambulances racing through the streets of Jerusalem. I cannot get the images out of my head; images of severed arms, decapitated heads, people with nails and pieces or iron stuck in their bodies, broken tables, the cake and sandwich bar shattered into thousands of pieces. Yitzhak Frankenthal writes from Jerusalem