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Hell on earth: Qalandia checkpoint

2 May 2002


Qalandia checkpoint is one of the largest Israeli military checkpoints in the occupied West Bank. This checkpoint is not located on a border, but between the Palestinian town Ramallah, Qalandia refugee camp, and the Palestinian town of ar-Ram. It separates Ramallah residents from southern Palestinian towns and the northern Palestinian neighbourhoods of Jerusalem. Israeli soldiers check identity cards. 

Weekly report on human rights violations

19 June 2003

This week Israeli forces killed 17 Palestinians, including two children and a woman. In extra-judicial executions 14 Palestinians were killed. Israeli forces conducted a series of incursions into Palestinian areas. In Rafah, Israeli forces demolished more than 29 homes and razed large areas of agricultural land throughout the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces continued indiscriminate shelling of Palestinian residential areas and demolished three homes belonging to families of wanted Palestinians. Israeli forces rounded up more Palestinian men and boys and continued to impose its tight siege on Palestinian communities. 

International legal export: Israel's assassinations are war crimes

17 June 2003


In an opinion, unprecedented for it�s severity, Professor Antonio Cassese, renowned expert on international humanitarian law, determines that the assassinations carried out by the IDF in the Occupied Territories could be included in the legal definition of war crimes. Professor Cassese�s opinion will be submitted tomorrow to the High Court of Justice prior to the hearing scheduled for July 8, 2003 on the petition filed by LAW-The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI). 

EI "Voices of Peace" acceptance speech at ADC conference

19 June 2003


Two Electronic Intifada and Electronic Iraq co-founders, Ali Abunimah and Nigel Parry, were at the 20th National Convention of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in Washington DC on 14 June 2003 to accept the ADC’s Voices of Peace Award on behalf of the founders of EI and sister site Electronic Iraq. The award was presented to EI and eIraq “in recognition of its commitment to bringing the concerns, voices, and experiences of the Iraqi and Palestinian peoples to audiences the world over via the Internet.” 

A quiet night on Rafah's sliding scale

Lora Gordon Rafah, Gaza Strip 19 June 2003

“It is still light out when we get to Abu Jameel’s garden. Rows of cactus line the road, bulbous green hedges expanding the boundaries between gardens. Cement box houses punctuate the land, which is a flat expanse of greenery and sand. It is the season for corn, and stalks reach high as somebody’s head. Watermelon vines cover the earth, weaving here and there around large squashes.” Laura Gordon writes from Rafah 

The ghosts of Rafah

Lora Gordon Rafah, Gaza Strip 19 June 2003


“Rafah, you are going to break my heart. People coming, people leaving, bleary eyed ghosts. The football moon illuminates the soft city full of soft people laying down to dreams unraveling in their hands. Even the concrete fades into sand. Even the refuse, covered with sand, catches fire in the night. The dreams of waste are heavenbound.” Laura Gordon writes from beseiged Rafah. 

Promises of an unpredicatable future

Jordan Topp 19 June 2003

There is no work this summer for the majority of people in Bourj el Barajneh refugee camp. Less work than last summer, I am told, when local NGOs estimated unemployment rates were around 60- 80% for those Palestinians living here. With hope of Return looking bleaker under current negotiations, people here—especially the young men—are doing whatever they can to leave. Jordan Topp reports from Bourj el Barajneh Refugee Camp, Beirut, Lebanon. 

Trial of ISM olive grove defenders begins

19 June 2003

The trial of Neta Golan and Shelly Nativ, Israeli citizens and members of the International Solidarity Movement, opened this morning in Hashalom court house in Kfar Saba. The two are accused of blocking IDF bulldozers in the village Dir Istya near Salfit to prevent them from uprooting Palestinian olive trees. Golan and Nativ are charged with interfering with police work, interfering with a public servant’s work (the bulldozer driver) and disobeying a decree of “closed military zone”.