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Israeli Conciliation Court decides to temporarily freeze construction separation barrier

24 September 2003

The Jerusalem Center for Social & Economic Rights (JCSER) has obtained a court decision from the Israeli Conciliation Court in Tel Aviv forcing the Israeli army to freeze construction work on the so-called Israeli ‘security fence’ in the Sawahreh Ash-Sharqiya neighborhood, south of Occupied Jerusalem, for thirty days. 

More Palestinian homes demolished in occupied Jerusalem

23 September 2003

During the month of August, there was an unprecedented escalation in the demolition of Palestinian houses, with twenty-two houses demolished during this single month. During September, to date a total of seven buildings, with twelve apartments, have been demolished, in addition to a cement wall surrounding a piece of land with an area of two dunums, belonging to Azzam Maraqa. 

Israel expelled Palestinian father of five from Jerusalem

27 September 2003

Israel deported Ali Shqeirat, a father of five, from Jerusalem. Israeli authorities cited “illegal residency”. The deportation of Ali Shqeirat is a dangerous precedent that may affect thousands of Palestinians married to female Jerusalemites and who live in Jerusalem without Israeli authorization, while awaiting the Israeli Interior Ministry’s approval of their family reunification applications.  

Remembering Deir Yassin

Daniel McGowan 26 September 2003


September 24, 2003 — Today, an extraordinary event will take place in Geneva, New York: the dedication of the first US memorial to the victims of the Deir Yassin massacre. This event was organized by Deir Yassin Remembered, an international human rights organization, half of whose current board includes Jews. On April 9, 1948, members of the Irgun and the Stern Gang massacred over 100 Palestinian men, women and children in the village of Deir Yassin, near Jerusalem. The Deir Yassin massacre marked the beginning of the depopulation of over 400 towns and villages, and the exodus of 750,000 Arabs; it also marked the beginning of the Palestinian Nakba, or catastrophe, and the creation of a Palestinian diaspora in refugee camps and in neighboring Arab countries. Deir Yassin Remembered executive director Dan McGowan comments. 

Edward Said: Controversial literary critic and bold advocate of the Palestinian cause in America

Malise Ruthven 26 September 2003

Edward Said, who has died aged 67, was one of the leading literary critics of the last quarter of the 20th century. As professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University, New York, he was widely regarded as the outstanding representative of the post-structuralist left in America. Above all, he was the most articulate and visible advocate of the Palestinian cause in the United States, where it earned him many enemies. Malise Ruthven remembers Said in The Guardian. 

A tribute to Edward Said

Tanweer Akram 26 September 2003

This morning, I learnt that Professor Edward Said is no more. Said was not only a scholar but an activist who worked tirelessly for peace and justice. His devastating critique of Western scholarship about Islam, Middle East, and the “Orient,” exposed the ingrained bias of intellectuals in service of power interest, economic and political imperialism, and cultural domination. His work was inspired by his life-long commitment to truth, justice, and peace. 

Edward Said: one of the architects of all reasonable discussion on Palestine

Ziad Asali 26 September 2003

A university professor of literature at Columbia University has died. He was witty, elegant and powerful, passionate about his field of study and a man of aristocratic bearing. He loved opera and art and wrote lovely, erudite books. What made him especially important, however, was none of the preceding. Edward W. Said was one of the architects of all reasonable discussion on the question of Palestine and commanded the moral authority to discuss the subject honestly and outside the rhetoric of hatred and violence. 

Edward Said's breadth of interest

Daniel Barenboim 26 September 2003


Perhaps the first thing one remembers about Edward Said was his breadth of interest. He was not only at home in music, literature, philosophy, or the understanding of politics, but also he was one of those rare people who saw the connections and the parallels between different disciplines, because he had an unusual understanding of the human spirit, and of the human being, and he recognized that parallels and paradoxes are not contradictions. The Palestinians have lost one of the most eloquent defenders of their aspirations. I have lost my soul mate.