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Building the Beit Arabia peace center

Kathleen Christison and Bill Christison West Bank 18 September 2003


We spent three weeks in Jerusalem and the West Bank in August, working on a project to rebuild a Palestinian house demolished by Israeli bulldozers. What we were actually building — under the sponsorship of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) led by Jeff Halper — was a memorial and museum dedicated to the entire house-demolition/house-rebuilding phenomenon in Palestine-Israel. Although this building was not intended as a family home, it was constructed on the site of a home that the Israelis have demolished four times in the last five years, most recently in April 2003. Kathy and Bill Christison report from the occupied West Bank. 

Gaza: The coming tidal wave

Gaza City 18 September 2003


One of my recurring nightmares is about a coming tidal wave. It’s my second least favorite recurring nightmare. My least favorite being the ones about the end of the world. In my tidal wave dreams, the scariest part is the waiting. I know it’s coming. I can see it and I know it will be bad but I also know i can’t run fast enough to get out of the way. Alternatively, I’m stuck and can’t move. Either way the dream sucks… 

OPEC Fund extends US$930,000 grant to help finance social projects in Palestine

16 September 2003


The OPEC Fund for International Development today approved a grant of US$930,000 to help finance a series of social projects designed to address some of the most urgent needs of the poorest, hardest hit communities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Grant resources will be divided among seven organizations in support of projects covering a wide range of sectors. This is the fourth grant approved under the Fund’s Special Grant Account for Palestine, which was set up with an initial endowment of US$10 million. 

"We did not have one good day since the massacre"

Cilina Nasser 17 September 2003

“I will not forget the massacre until I go to my grave,” says Mohammed. The last time he saw his father, Shawkat, was when he was lined up with some nine other men at a wall in Shatila. He remembers how his father had to raise his hands, placing them on the wall shoulder-width apart. As the little child walked hurriedly away through the narrow alleyways of the wretched Shatila camp with his mother and sister, they heard a loud burst of bullets. “I kept saying to myself, ‘Daddy must have escaped and he will come back to us.’” After several days, however, Mohammed knew that he would never see his father again. The Daily Star’s Cilina Nasser talks with Sabra and Shatila survivors on the 21st anniversary of the massacre. 

Belgian court to rule whether Sabra and Shatila plaintiffs can proceed

Nicholas Blanford 17 September 2003

“Just as it appeared that the case was lost, it emerged that another complaint against Sharon had been lodged by some Belgian citizens in 2001, only two weeks before the Sabra and Shatila plaintiffs filed their own suit. ‘Everybody had forgotten about this complaint,’ Belgian lawyer Luc Walleyn said. ‘It was sleeping for two years’.” The Daily Star’s Nicholas Blanford interviews Luc Walleyn, one of three lawyers representing the survivors of the Sabra and Shatila massacre in a case that continues to keep legal scholars, activists, and war criminals on the edge of their seats. 

Israeli rights group: "The threat of expulsion due to the separation barrier"

17 September 2003

Today B’Tselem held a tour to release the organization’s new report on the village of Nu’man. Although Nu’man is located within the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem, Israel has refused to recognize the villagers as Jerusalem residents, and give them permanent residency status, claiming they were not in the city in 1967. 

Palestinian women mobilising to resist Israel's Apartheid Wall

International Women's Peace Service 17 September 2003


A powerful force is organizing resistance to the construction of the Apartheid Wall — Palestinian women! Palestinian women have always been active in resisting the Occupation. Now they are organizing to resist the construction of the Apartheid Wall. On Sept. 6, Palestinian women in Tulkarem organized a demonstration of more than 200 Palestinian, Israeli, and international women to protest against the Apartheid Wall and the Occupation. In the Salfeet region, located in the heart of the West Bank between Ramallah and Nablus, women have also begun organizing against the wall. The Apartheid Wall is already having a devastating impact on the lives of Palestinian women living in villages and cities along its path. Families are being cut off from access to large portions of their agricultural land and greenhouses. IWPS reports.