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Karen Armstrong: How Religious Movements Prolong the Arab-Israeli Conflict

Carlton Cobb 20 November 2006


To a full audience on Capitol Hill, Oxford scholar of religion Karen Armstrong argued last week that fundamentalist movements within each of the three faiths involved in the Arab-Israeli conflict, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, contribute to sustaining that conflict. Her talk outlined how the “Christian Right” in the U.S., Islamists such as Hamas in Palestine and Hizbullah in Lebanon and ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel have drawn religion into what is “at base a political problem…, a secular problem over land.” 

Swedish human rights worker viciously attacked by Jewish extremists in Hebron

21 November 2006


November 18 - A 19-year old Swedish human rights worker had her cheekbone broken by a Jewish extremist in Hebron today. Earlier the same day at least five Palestinians, including a 3-year-old child, were injured by the settler-supporting extremists, who rampaged through Tel Rumeida hurling stones and bottles at local residents. Palestinian schoolchildren on their way home were also attacked. The Israeli army, which was intensively deployed in the area, did not intervene to stop the attacks. Tove Johansson from Stockholm walked through the Tel Rumeida checkpoint with a small group of human rights workers (HRWs) to accompany Palestinian schoolchildren to their homes. 

Necessity is the Mother of Inventive Nonviolent Resistance

Rami Almeghari Gaza, Palestine 21 November 2006


Long ago, Thomas Edison invented the electric light at a time when there was a need for light. Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone at a time when there was a need for telecommunications. Now, the Palestinians in Gaza have invented a new weapon of nonviolent resistance at a time when they desperately need such a weapon to defend their homes from the ongoing Israeli airstrikes that destroy Palestinian homes on a nearly-daily basis. The new Palestinian weapon is very simple, all you need is to call on your neighbors, friends and beloved ones to gather around your home or on its balconies or on its rooftop… 

Principled Dutch ASN Bank ends relations with Veolia

Adri Nieuwhof 26 November 2006


This week, ASN Bank, a Dutch bank based in The Hague, announced that it would end its relationship with Veolia Transport, and all companies that benefit from Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory. Since it first announced its intentions to become involved in an Israeli project to build a light rail/tramline system, to be constructed in occupied East Jerusalem, Veolia Transport, a French multi-national corporation, faced a lot of criticism from all over the world. The tramline aims to connect the illegally-constructed settlements in East Jerusalem with towns and cities in Israel. The case of ASN Bank shows that a call for boycott and divestment can be successful. 

Flemish Palestine Solidarity Committee campaigns for a consumer's boycott of Israel

20 November 2006


Last Saturday activists of the Flemish Palestine Solidarity Committee campaigned for a boycott of Israeli products, in front of several supermarkets. They asked the customers to sign a petition to the supermarkets’ directors, and built a ‘living slogan’. The activists want to pressure Israel to enforce its respect for international law. The profits of every Israeli product sold, allow Israel to maintain the occupation of Palestine. Since the international community doesn’t impose sanctions against these violations, VPK calls for a consumer’s boycott of all Israeli products. Some of the well-known trade marks in Belgian supermarkets are Carmel, Jaffa and Tivall. 

Palestinian mass resistance blocks Israeli air strike

Yousef Alhelou Beit Lahiya, Palestine 20 November 2006


Palestinians have started to employ new tactics to prevent Israeli air attacks on their houses. Hundreds of protesters successfully forced the Israeli air force to halt air strikes on a house belonging to Muhammad Baroud in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday night. Israeli warplanes have already destroyed more than 60 houses belonging to activists from Palestinian factions across the Gaza Strip, using the same method of ordering the residents, through a telephone call at short notice, to evacuate their home prior to bombardment. 

Two children shot inside UNRWA school

18 November 2006


This Saturday afternoon two schoolchildren were shot and wounded inside UNRWA’s Beit Lahia Elementary School in the northern Gaza Strip. At 15:10 hrs, while sitting at his desk in a first grade classroom, Ahmed Isam Abdel-Aziz, seven years old, was struck by a bullet to the head. The bullet, which first bounced off a window ledge, penetrated 3-5 millimeters into Ahmed’s skull. Five minutes later, Rewa Khalid Al-Mabhouh, 12 years old, was shot in the leg. She had just entered the school’s eastern corridor to pick up her younger brother, since evacuation of the school was underway. 

General Assembly considers draft resolution on Israeli attacks at Beit Hanoun

17 November 2006


United Nations General Assembly today met in emergency session to consider a draft resolution that would call for a United Nations fact-finding mission to the Middle East to examine recent Israeli attacks at Beit Hanoun, where 19 people died following a raid last week. As the Assembly resumed its emergency special session on “Illegal Israeli Actions in Occupied East Jerusalem and the Rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” Qatar introduced the text, which is similar to one defeated last weekend in the Security Council by a United States veto. 

What's the problem with the UN Register of Damage caused by Israel's wall?

18 November 2006


Today, PLO Head of Mission to the United Nations Riyadh Mansour announced that the UN Register of Damage will be re-raised with the General Assembly on 5 December 2006 (BBC Radio-Arabic). Palestinians have many good reasons for doing so; not only is the proposed mechanism for registration seriously flawed, but Palestinians will also be left again without an effective forum for raising claims for restitution and compensation. On 9 July 2004, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel should dismantle the illegal Wall under construction in occupied Palestinian territory, return confiscated Palestinian properties and provide compensation for damages. 

Al Mezan requests urgent intervention from the EU

18 November 2006


On Thursday 16th November 2006, Al Mezan delivered a letter to the distinguished representatives of the European Union (EU) calling upon them to intervene and bring a halt to Israel’s continued violations of international humanitarian and human rights law in the Gaza Strip. In its letter to the EU, Al Mezan brought special attention to the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) violations of human rights in its most recent incursion into Beit Hanoun, in the continued Israeli siege of the entire Gaza Strip, and in the Israeli government’s almost complete denial of Palestinian’s right to free movement.