2 May 2003
Iman Shukri Abdl Rahman Jamjum, a student from Hebron, was held in isolation for twenty-two days, without access to legal counsel. Mr. Jamjum was arrested on April 4th, 2003, and has reportedly been held in the GSS Interrogation Unit at the Shikma Detention Center in Ashkelon. Read more about Israel: incommunicado detention and ill-treatment of Palestinian student
27 May 2003
Although the film Jeremy Hardy vs. the Israeli Army was “on one hand [intended for] a British audience,” as explained by director Leila Sansour, it also aimed to communicate to the rest of the world that Palestine isn’t just a land of “sad faces and dead bodies.” Sansour wanted to show a universal audience “that it’s a hospitable place” like the Palestine that lives in her memory. Maureen Clare Murphy writes about Sansour’s documentary about the ISM. Read more about Documentary review: "Jeremy Hardy vs. the Israeli Army"
East Jerusalem 5 May 2003
“They do it in the middle of the night. On dark nights. Quietly, stealthily. In large groups. Well organized militias - armed and all. A crowd of about 50 religious settlers. Came in the night to two houses in Israeli-annexed, Arab East Jerusalem, Sheikh Jarrah, over the Green Line. They threw a child out of the broken window they’d entered by. A two-year-old flying baby, falling from the 2nd storey window, five meters high, ending up in hospital traumatised. They hit a man so badly he was driven away unconscious in an ambulance; I saw him go.” Annabel Frey reports on settler harassment in Jerusalem. Read more about Settler violence and harassment in Sheikh Jarrah
3 May 2003
Only hours after a new global campaign was launched by media leaders demanding that attempts to kill journalists should be made a war crime, a freelance journalist was shot dead in controversial circumstances by Israeli forces in Palestine. Read more about IFJ demands end to military "whitewash" after top journalist is shot dead in Palestine
7 May 2003
The commemoration programme was built on the traditional Arab format of the condolence visit (ta’aziya). All participants were invited to wear mourning clothes, and behind the whole area hung an obituary notice, an eighteen-foot-long banner inscribed with words: ‘The sisters of the children of Baghdad and their families, and the paternal uncles of the families of Mosul, Al-Nasirya, Jenin, Rafah, and Nablus, and their kin living in the Arab world and abroad, mourn with deepest sorrow their dearly beloved deceased: The victims of American and Israeli aggression, cut down in their childhood, and their youth, and their prime, members of humanity’.” Rosemary Sayigh reports from Beirut on a symbolically charged protest action. Read more about "We are not just numbers": Commemorating the war victims of Iraq and Palestine
2 May 2003
Scepticism about the Middle East Roadmap is warranted: in its current form, it is unlikely to lead to its stated destination – a final and comprehensive settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by 2005. But it could still be a catalyst for change. The International Crisis Group published a report making specific recommendations to the Quartet, U.S., Israelis and Palestinians about how to maximise the effectiveness of the new approach. Read more about A Middle East Road Map to where?
1 May 2003
A messaging missive attributed to the Republican Party’s favorite pollster and spin-doctor explains how the war in Iraq can be turned to Israel’s favor. MotherJones about EI’s publication of a document prepared for pro-Israel activists by the public relations firm The Luntz Research Companies and The Israel Project. Read more about A Roadmap of Spin
5 May 2003
Even before its publication, Israel’s supporters in the United States launched a vigorous campaign to sabotage the US-sponsored ‘Road Map’ for Israeli-Palestinian peace. Nearly 400 members of the US House and Senate signed letters circulated by the pro-Israeli lobby opposing the plan, and key figures have spoken out against it. EI’s Ali Abunimah looks at the arguments being used by the pro-Israel lobby to undermine the Road Map, and asks what chance there is of success in the face of this sustained campaign. Read more about Who's afraid of the Road Map?
Kufr Sur, Palestine 4 May 2003
Kufr Sur is an isolated village of 1000 people situated between Qalqilya and Tulkarem in the West Bank. The bulldozing for the Apartheid Wall has begun, totally destroyed 10 thousand dunums of land belonging to 53 families. Anna Weekes reports. Read more about A new occupation
4 May 2003
An investigation conducted by PCHR and eyewitnesses’ testimonies prove that Israeli soldiers willfully shot dead James Miller, a British cameraman, contrary to the claims of the Israeli military southern command that Israeli soldiers returned fire coming from Palestinian sources at the time that Miller was shot. Read more about PCHR: "No exchange of fire took place when Israeli soldiers shot dead a British journalist"