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Israel rules to compensate Palestinian fishermen for destruction of boat

20 August 2003

In an unprecedented ruling since the beginning of the current Intifada, the compensation department of the Israeli Ministry of Defense ruled to award two Palestinians from Deir al-Balah - represented by PCHR – NIS 245,000 (approximately US$10,200) in compensation for the loss of their boat that was destroyed by Israeli occupying forces on 18 January 2002. 

Before we blame the Palestinians

Hillel Schocken 20 August 2003

In “All talk and no dialogue” (Haaretz, August 15), Ze’ev Schiff states that it’s “clear that the truce does not in fact exist,” and explains that the Palestinian government “is incapable of implementing the hudna,” that Abu Mazen cannot “enforce” the agreement among the various Palestinian organizations, and that “the leading trio - Abu Mazen, Minister of State for Security Affairs Mohammed Dahlan, and Finance Minister Salam Fayyad - is incapable of enforcing the hudna even on the armed groups within its own movement, the Fatah.” Hillel Schocken comments in Ha’aretz. 

Palestinian residents of old city Hebron leave their homes

19 August 2003

B’Tselem’s new report, released today, shows that since the outbreak of the intifada, many Palestinians have left their homes in Area H-2 in Hebron (the area in which the settlers also reside). B’Tselem’s research indicates that since September 2000, some 43% of the residents of the three main streets in the Casbah have left their homes, at least 2,000 businesses have closed, and three schools in which 1,835 pupils studied were taken over by the IDF and closed. 

Destruction for the Wall

19 August 2003

Israeli bulldozers, accompanied with three military jeeps along with armed guards of the Israeli construction companies, began bulldozing 50 dunums of lands along the eastern side of the Qalqiliya Wall for its so-called “buffer zone”. Among the destruction were vegetables crops and water pipes. The buffer zone of this portion of the Wall will be 50 meters wide and run the length of 2 kilometers. The decision to restart the work in the area was sudden and with no notification as very few people among the landowners were present upon the arrival of the bulldozers. 

Road Map obscured by blood

Michael Shaik 19 August 2003


Last Tuesday two Palestinian suicide bombers attacked targets in Rosh Ha’ayin in northern Israel and the Jewish settlement of Ariel in the West Bank. Two Israelis were killed and thirteen wounded in the attacks. The Hamas organisation and Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, to which the bombers belonged, claimed that the attacks were in retaliation for an Israeli attack on the Askar refugee camp, in which two Palestinians were killed. Israel’s immediate response has been to cancel any further releases of Palestinian prisoners and to demolish the family home of one of the bombers, as well as the homes of those families who had the misfortune of living in the same building. In the longer term, if previous practice is anything to go by, the family home of the other bomber will be demolished and Israel will insist that it can make no further concessions until the Palestinian Authority eliminates all forms of militant resistance to the Occupation. Former ISM Media Coordinator Michael Shaik comments. 

Up against the Apartheid Wall

Daniel Jacob Quinn Jenin, Palestine 19 August 2003


Life here on the ground in occupied Palestine is rarely reported in the United States. The brutal impact of Israel’s military occupation is hidden behind the rhetoric of pundits and politicians, many of whom have never met a Palestinian. They have never, as I have, held a sick Palestinian child in their arms as her parents beg soldiers to let them pass a checkpoint. They have never babysat Palestinian children while their mother goes out to find out what happened to her husband during an armed invasion of their refugee camp. Daniel Jacob Quinn writes from occupied Jenin. 

Photo of the Day

19 August 2003


Photo of the Day is a BNN feature which offers a photograph on a day, and calls it “Photo of the Day”. This is not to imply that this is a regular feature, nor that this photo is truly the mother of all photos for the day in question. Usual disclaimers apply. A Palestinian Reuters cameraman was shot and killed while filming near a U.S.-run prison on the outskirts of Baghdad. Witnesses said he was shot by soldiers on an American tank from close range. US soldiers need help to distinguish between some of the more difficult-to-identify items that people carry in Iraq. 

On the Right of Return - Part II

Raja Halwani 19 August 2003


In an earlier essay for The Electronic Intifada, on the right of return of Palestinian refugees, Raja Halwani concluded that it is one thing to recognize this right and another to implement it. In this follow up essay, Halwani takes an in-depth look at arguments for and against implementing the right in practice. 

Efforts to negate right of return have long, ignoble history

Issam Nashashibi 29 August 2003


Issam Nashashibi In this commentary for EI, Issam Nashashibi argues that the recent poll purporting to show that few Palestinian refugees want to exercise their right of return is only the latest of many efforts to manage Palestinians’ expectations and convince them to accept less than their fundamental rights. This effort, like others before it, will not succeed.