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Imprisoned behind barbed wire: "Without European decisiveness no perspective on peace in the Middle East"

24 July 2003

While Israeli and Palestinian negotiators discuss the road map to peace and while Palestinian groups maintain a ceasefire, a delegation of nine prominent Dutch women visited Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories (July 6 - 12, 2003). The delegation was shocked to observe that while presently attempts are made to have the road map implemented, Israel is bringing about an opposite reality on the ground. 

Pipes vote fails to draw quorum

Jennifer Salan 23 July 2003


Today after a contentious executive session of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on the nomination of Daniel Pipes to the board of the U.S. Institute for Peace, the Committee lost a working quorum. Based on an AAI initiative, organizations present agreed that they would send a joint letter to the White House asking that the President withdraw this nominee from consideration. During the Committee’s discussion of the Pipes nomination, it became clear that many of the Senators had questions and concerns regarding whether or not Pipes should serve on the Board of the United States Institute of Peace. The ranking Democratic member, Senator Edward Kennedy, noted his dismay regarding Pipes offensive and alarmist quotes about “brown-skinned” immigrants. Arab American Intitute Communications Director Jennifer Salan reports. 

Who said Palestinians gave up the right of return?

Ali Abunimah 23 July 2003

Khalil Shikaki of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research was attacked by an angry mob when he recently held a press conference announcing the results of a poll conducted among 4,500 Palestinian refugees on the right of return. In his study, Shikaki reported that only 10 percent of Palestinian refugees would insist on returning to Israel and becoming citizens there. Supporters of Israel and others who want to disregard refugee rights in any solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict embraced the findings. How could it be that for decades everyone — not least the refugees themselves — mistakenly believed that granting rights to millions of Palestinian refugees was the key to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict? How is it that
now a single, dubious poll threatens to make the entire problem disappear into a puff of smoke? EI’s Ali Abunimah takes a closer look to help clear the fog. 

Silencing the press: October 2002 - March 2003

19 July 2003

Journalists have been subjected to various kinds of attacks in what appear to be attempts by Israel to prevent media coverage of human rights violation perpetrated by the Israeli forces against Palestinian civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. PCHR published its 9th report in a series of reports “Silencing the Press,” which document attacks against local and international journalists and media institutions in the OPT during the current Intifada. 

Tell them, "why"

Shannon Dow Montreal, Canada 22 July 2003

I had the privilege of teaching Shaker two years ago in Bourj El-Barajneh Palestinian Refugee Camp in Lebanon. He has been visiting Canada now for the past three weeks, along with seven other Palestinian refugee youth. His English language skills are excellent, as he stands before audiences filled with hundreds of people, telling us about how he exists in Lebanon - deprived of civil liberties, victim of countless Human Rights abuses, caged within the open prison of a refugee camp. His voice is being heard. Are we listening? 

Alarm in Nablus

Mohammad Daraghmeh 22 July 2003


The number and type of people taking part in a meeting held in the Chamber of Commerce building in Nablus two days ago, to discuss the phenomenon of armed chaos and breach of law by armed groups, was alone indicative of the level of danger felt by the inhabitants of the city. Mohammad Daraghmeh writes in Palestinian daily newspaper Al-Ayyam. 

Freedom Summer

Adam Shapiro 22 July 2003

Amman, Jordan, 17 July 2003 — The International Solidarity Movement’s second Freedom Summer has begun, and much has changed since our last: the war on Iraq, which focused all eyes on the region; the much-hyped road map; full-blown construction on what Palestinians have come to call the Apartheid Wall. Sadly, though, much remains the same: the continuing deterioration of the lives of Palestinians, with poverty and health crises in a crescendo. Adam Shapiro, an organizer with the International Solidarity Movement, writes in The Nation. 

The Road Map

Anwar Darkazally 11 July 2003

The time is now right for the United States to start sending monitors to the region to watch and help with the implementation of the whole of the Road Map up to 2005 and the creation of a viable, sovereign, independent Palestine living side by side in peace and security with Israel. Then perhaps, just perhaps, we will see the end of the longest occupation in history. 

The holes in Israel's road map

Hasan Abu Nimah and Ali Abunimah 22 July 2003


Despite the declaration of a unilateral Palestinian ceasefire with Israel, and the frequent meetings between Israeli and Palestinian leaders, the “road map” for peace is in serious trouble. This is because the Bush administration, the plan’s chief sponsor, has allowed Israel to reinterpret it so that it is gutted of the elements that offered hope of progress. Hasan Abu Nimah and Ali Abunimah explain in this commentary in The Financial Times. 

The Apartheid Wall's threat to a viable Palestinian state

21 July 2003


With a total projected length of 650 kilometers-twice the size of the Green Line-Israel’s so-called “security” Wall is the final act in pre-empting an independent and viable Palestinian state. Israel, argued Stephanie Khoury, a legal advisor to the Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) Negotiations Affairs Department (NAD), is using the Wall to consolidate and expand Israel’s hold on Palestinian land in order to facilitate further settlement expansion. According to Khoury and Fuad Hallak, a technical advisor to the NAD, the Wall is a means for Israel to de facto annex approximately 55 percent of the West Bank from its central, western, and eastern areas, including the Jordan Valley.