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Fear is a Powerful Stimulant (Part 1)

Bill Dienst Gaza, Palestine 29 December 2006


Today is a holiday. It is Palestinian Independence Day, commemorating the day in 1988 when Yasser Arafat formally declared a Palestinian State in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. Now 18 years later, this holiday seems like some kind of a cruel joke, since Israel still refuses to renounce violence and recognize Palestine’s right to exist. Under Clinton and the Oslo process, the Palestinians were forced to negotiate endlessly while walking backwards. Under Bush, Sharon and Olmert, there have been no negotiations, only unilateralism, arrogant violence, economic starvation and more disaster. 

Uncle and a 3-Year-Old Will Lead Protests over Palestinian Immigrant Jailing

Greg Moses 28 December 2006


The brother of a jailed Palestinian man whose children and pregnant wife are being held in a Texas jail says he will stage a small protest with his 3-year-old niece Friday morning outside the San Antonio offices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at 8940 Fourwinds Dr. Ibrahim will take the family’s case to the streets, asking for release of his niece’s three sisters, teenage brother, and pregnant mother—all of whom have been held in jail since their midnight arrests on Nov. 3. 

Palestinian Refugees and Children Held in Hutto, Texas Jail

Greg Moses 19 December 2006


Some of the children and a pregnant woman being held in an immigration jail in Texas are Palestinian refugees whose families came to the USA with visas, says a Dallas lawyer. Immigration attorney John Wheat Gibson represents two families that include a pregnant woman and children ages 2, 3, 5, 12, 14, and 17. The families have been incarcerated since their midnight arrests in early November by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). “The children, imprisoned with their mothers, have never been accused of any wrongdoing. Neither have their mothers,” says Gibson. 

Weekly Report of Human Rights Violations

28 December 2006


A Palestinian civilian died from a previous wound in the Gaza Strip. 4 Palestinian civilians, including two children, were wounded by IOF. IOF conducted 22 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank. IOF arrested 37 Palestinian civilians, including 6 children. IOF have isolated the Gaza Strip from the outside world. IOF razed areas of Palestinian land in Um Salamouna village, south of Bethlehem, and 4 demonstrators protesting the construction of the Wall in Bal’ein village, west of Ramallah, sustained bruises when IOF soldiers beat them. 

Lebanese bloggers roundup: Foreign Intervention and Economics

Moussa Bashir Lebanon 26 December 2006


The Lebanese bloggers are united this week in wishing their readers all the best during Christmas, Al Adha and the New Year. Some of these bloggers have taken up the issue of foreign intervention in the region as a subject of reflection while others highlight the sad state of economy and the effects that the political situation is having on it. The Lebanese bloggers also addressed the March 14 investigations and media coverage thereof. 

683 people killed in the conflict in 2006

28 December 2006


This past year, we witnessed a deterioration in the human rights situation in the Occupied Territories, particularly in the increase in civilians killed and the destruction of houses and infrastructure in the Gaza Strip. At the same time, there was an improvement regarding violations of the right to life of Israeli civilians. According to B’Tselem’s research, from January to December 27, 2006, Israeli security forces killed 660 Palestinians in the West Bank and in Israel. This includes 141 minors. At least 322 of those killed did not take part in the hostilities at the time they were killed. 

Down but not out: Artists refused to give up

Kaelen Wilson-Goldie 28 December 2006


The past year hasn’t been a great one for the art scene in Beirut. As of January, Lebanon was still reeling from the political assassinations and phantom bombings of 2005. Whatever momentum artists, curators and dealers built up over the next six months was trounced by the war with Israel that erupted in July. Numerous projects geared toward establishing a modern art museum or a contemporary art center in the Lebanese capital got shoved to the back burner, gallery exhibitions were cancelled and individual bodies of work had to be shelved by the artists who had been hoping to realize them. 

High Court orders dismantling of concrete barricade in the southern Hebron hills

27 December 2006


The High Court of Justice accepted the petition filed by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel on behalf of Palestinians from the southern Hebron hills to remove a concrete barricade that Israeli security forces had built. The forty-one-kilometer barricade runs from the Tene settlement in the west to the Carmel settlement in the east. The eighty-two centimeter high barricade makes it impossible for vehicles to cross. 

While the Fire Rages

Daoud Kuttab 27 December 2006


A major Palestinian and Arab demand has been quietly accepted by Israel and the US, but the Palestinians are too engrossed in their internal fighting to realize it. After the collapse of the bilateral and unilateral efforts, the time has come for multilateralism. Palestinian-Israeli bilateral talks saw a high point in the Oslo process, but have stalled ever since. Israel’s unilateralism, both in south Lebanon and Gaza, has also been a major failure. US State Department officials, seeing the failure of their own unilateralism in Iraq, have pushed Israel and found the Olmert administration receptive toward a multilateral approach. 

Palestinians Stranded on Iraq Border

27 December 2006


According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other relief agencies, several hundred Palestinians who were forced to leave their homes in Iraq are now stranded in no man’s land on the Syrian and Jordanian borders. Al-Hol and Al-Tanaf camps, located on Iraq’s border with Syria, consist of makeshift tents. The camps have become the home of 655 displaced Palestinian men, women and children who continue to languish there under extremely difficult conditions. Another camp, Al-Walid, was just established recently to house an additional 41 Palestinians, all of whom were forced to leave by militias loyal to the US-backed Iraqi government.