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Documentary review: "Jeremy Hardy vs. the Israeli Army"

Maureen Clare Murphy 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. 

Settler violence and harassment in Sheikh Jarrah

Annabel Frey 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. 

"We are not just numbers": Commemorating the war victims of Iraq and Palestine

Rosemary Sayigh 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. 

A Middle East Road Map to where?

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. 

A Roadmap of Spin

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. 

Who's afraid of the Road Map?

Ali Abunimah 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. 

A new occupation

Anna Weekes 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. 

PCHR: "No exchange of fire took place when Israeli soldiers shot dead a British journalist"

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. 

UK seeks probe into Israeli shooting of cameraman

Andrew Cawthorne 3 May 2003

Israeli forces demolishing a home suspected of concealing an arms-smuggling tunnel in the Gaza Strip shot Miller on Friday in the flashpoint Rafah refugee camp where he was making a documentary on the impact of violence on Palestinian children, witnesses said. Abdel-Rahman Abdullah, a freelance Palestinian journalist who saw the night-time incident, told Reuters the troops opened fire unprovoked despite clear press markings on the TV crew.