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PCHR denounces the continuation of the state security courts, despite the Minister of Justice’s recent decision to abolish them

3 September 2003

 PCHR is shocked by the continued operation of the state security courts despite the recent decision issued by the Palestinian Minster of Justice to abolish them.  PCHR calls upon the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian Attorney General to immediately halt the operation of these courts and transfer all cases to the civil courts in accordance with the ministerial decision.  

Seventh Israeli assassination in 11 days  kills one Palestinian and wounds at least 20

1 September 2003

PCHR condemns in the strongest terms the latest assassination by Israeli occupying forces in Gaza city this afternoon in which at least one Palestinian was killed and at least 25 passersby were wounded, including 7 children.  In the wake of this renewed escalation in attacks by the Israeli occupying forces on Palestinian civilians, PCHR reiterates its calls to the international community, particularly to the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, to take immediate measures to intervene to protect Palestinian civilians.  

3 Palestinian activists assassinated and a 9 year-old child killed by Israeli occupying forces in the Gaza Strip in 72 hours

31 August 2003

 PCHR condemns the most recent escalation in military attacks perpetrated by Israeli occupying forces, leaving 4 Palestinians, including a 9 year-old child, dead and 12 others wounded, including 3 seriously.  PCHR is concerned that these attacks may be a prelude to a larger-scale military attack on the Palestinian civilian population.  PCHR calls upon the international community to immediately intervene to halt further deterioration in the humanitarian and human rights situation in the OPTs.  

Israel's Assassination Policy Triggers Latest Suicide Bombings

Steve Niva 2 September 2003


Palestinian suicide bombings are vicious and grave abuses, clearly war crimes under international law for intentionally killing civilians. They have also been a strategic disaster for Palestinian national aspirations, souring the Israeli public on peace and damaging the Palestinian cause in the court of world opinion. Nevertheless, it is nearly impossible to avoid concluding that the current Israeli government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has either deliberately provoked a number of them or at least undertaken actions that would clearly risk them. Either way, it is complicit in the deaths of scores of Israeli citizens. Steve Niva comments. 

The Waiting Game

Toine van Teeffelen Bethlehem, Palestine 1 September 2003


Waiting happens everywhere in the world. Waiting in Palestine, however, is not just a routine and bothersome phenomenon that can better be neglected because there is nothing to do about it. It happens so frequently, and it is so testing and influential, that it often dominates people’s lives. Toine van Teeffelen writes from Bethlehem. 

Another reason to build the fence: Separating Israel from the West Bank will help prevent attacks such as yesterday's bus bombing

20 August 2003


Since Israel began building a security fence to protect its citizens from terrorists based in the West Bank, Palestinians have labelled the project an “apartheid wall.” According to the Electronic Intifada, a popular Web site for pro-Palestinian activists, this is because the fence is “a colonial project that embodies within it the long-term policy of occupation, discrimination and expulsion.” The Post argues that our description of Israel’s Wall as “a colonial project” was “nonsensical” and that Israel is building the Wall “to protect its citizens from terrorists based in the West Bank”. 

Cyberspace: a 21st century diwan

Giles Trendle 1 September 2002

Within cyberspace there is a growing network of individuals and groups coalescing around the key demands for an end to Israeli occupation of Arab territories and the creation of a Palestinian state. This network constitutes a ‘swarm’, an Internet-related term referring to a global body of people with a common cause using the Internet to share information, mobilise support and coordinate direct action online and, at times, on the streets…. While pro-Israeli activists may be attempting to mobilise their own ‘swarm’ in order to defend and enforce the existing balance of power in the Arab-Israeli conflict, the potential size and power of a pro-Palestinian ‘swarm’ is worth considering. 

The Electronic Intifada; Holt uncensored: alternative sources for news

Pat Holt 22 March 2002

Of course this “resource for countering myth, distortion and spin from the Israeli media war machine” is going to have a pro-Palestinian spin, but because of that, it was a site to check on Arab-American reactions to the 9/11 attacks, violence against Arab Americans and Arab- and Muslim-owned buildings, and answers to such rumors as those alleging that the Reuters footage of celebrating Palestinians after the 9/11 attacks was old film from a different event. (It wasn’t, say the editors, but why didn’t American media also show the one million Palestinian school children who observed a minute of silence in support and sympathy for American victims?) 

Web Watch: Dispatches From The Middle East

Bob Massey 21 April 2002

The Palestinian National Authority, however, links to no Israeli sites at its official Web home (www.pna.org). The Israeli Government Gateway (www.info.gov.il/eng/), meanwhile, had no links to Palestinian sites that we could find. The Electronic Intifada site (electronicintifada.net) linked to Israeli newspapers such as Haaretz (www.co.haaretz.co.il) and the Jerusalem Post (www.jpost.com); the latter, meanwhile, points to a variety of Palestinian sites, including some that appear to support terrorist groups.