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Disengagement: "A donkey, a goat and a cow"

Eóin Murray Gaza, Palestine 22 August 2005


The Israeli political and military establishment didn’t just put a donkey, a goat and a cow into the Palestinian lands they put in the whole zoo. This morning I received an e-mail from a friend in Washington D.C. He expressed his sympathy for the Israeli settlers who he had watched being removed from their homes. It is his birthday today. I thought that rather then e-mail him a moral lesson all the way from the Gaza Strip or tell him the stories of the 30,000 Palestinians who lost their homes during this Intifada I would send him an old Jewish proverb that sums up the situation in Palestine one week after the start of the redeployment. 

Evacuation of settlers hinders Palestinians' access to medical aid

22 August 2005


Closures and checkpoints are severely hindering ambulance services and access to medical centres in the northern West Bank. Palestinian civilians continue to be held under siege in Gaza and the West Bank, as the ‘disengagement’ process proceeds. Israel has declared northern West Bank a closed military zone prior to evacuating four settlements in the area. Israel has set up iron gates on key roads and closed the entrances of villagers and towns along the Nablus - Jenin road with earth barriers and cement blocks. Fieldworkers from the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights report from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. 

Gaza siege continues

21 August 2005


Israeli Occupation Forces continued to impose a tight siege on the civilian population of the Gaza Strip. Palestinian civilians remain trapped inside the enclaves and the main checkpoint inside of Gaza continues to prevent Palestinian civilians from traveling around the Gaza Strip. The closures of areas such as al Mawasi continues to illustrate the drastic effect will continue to have on the Palestinian civilian population in the world’s largest prison. A report from the field by fieldworkers from the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza. 

Four murdered Palestinians not considered newsworthy during disengagement

Maureen Clare Murphy 22 August 2005


Given Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s recent promises to harshly punish any Palestinian attempts to disrupt the disengagement process, had last week’s gunman in the West Bank settlement of Shilo been a Palestinian rather than an Israeli, and the four dead Israeli rather than Palestinian, Gazans would have likely woken up the following morning to tanks in their streets. But as it stands, the shooting of four Palestinian laborers by an Israeli settler - whose motive is reported to have been to stop the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza - has not even merited putting the more ideologically extreme settlements under military curfew, which Palestinian population centers have experienced for thousands of hours during this Intifada. 

Gaza strip: An open air prison?

Justin Kilcullen 21 August 2005


Last December I turned up at a border crossing
leading from Israel to the infamous Gaza strip as
part of a delegation of Catholic development
agencies. I was looking forward to the visit, to seeing
first-hand the situation in which thousands of
Palestinians were living. But four hours later I walked
away, together with half the group, refused entry by
Israeli security because our papers for entry did
not have the required approvals. While the
Palestinians living within this small piece of land
could not get out, I could not get in. Trócaire’s Director Justin Kilcullen writes of the bleak and harrowing conditions facing the thousands of Palestinians living in the Gaza strip, where they are effectively prisoners behind barbed wire fence. 

Palestinian woman is first Arab woman to climb Europe's highest peak

19 August 2005


Well-known Palestinian female mountain climber, Suzanne Al-Houby, said on Sunday that she is to arrange a charity program for Palestinian children in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Al Houby, who is originally from Yaffa, is proud to be the first Palestinian woman to climb Mt. Elbrus (5642m.), the highest point of Europe in August 1, 2005, Kilimanjaro (2002), the highest peak in Africa, Mont Blanc in France (2004), Everest Base Camp in Nepal (2003). 

Palestinian refugees learn new skills at an UNRWA run centre in Damascus

19 August 2005


The continuing needs of thousands of Palestinian refugees residing in Syria have created new challenges, the Syrian General Authority for Palestine Arab Refugees (GAPAR) said at the opening of its annual conference in the capital, Damascus. Management from GAPAR, along with representatives from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) are attending the conference from 15 to 18 August to review refugee needs and achievements thus far, and to plan ahead. According to GAPAR, the agencies will be focusing on the implementation of better infrastructure in the camps, including sewage systems, access to drinking water and maintenance of utilities. 

Four Palestinians Killed by Israeli Settler in the West Bank

18 August 2005


Al-Haq emphatically condemns yesterdays killing of four Palestinian civilians by an Israeli settler in the Shilo settlement, located between Ramallah and Nablus in the occupied West Bank. These killings are a brutal manifestation of the sustained and increasing violence inflicted upon Palestinian civilians by Israeli settlers in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, whose aggressive actions, and indeed very presence in the OPT including East Jerusalem, are violations of international law. Al Haq calls upon the Israeli government to bring those responsible for the killing of the four Palestinians before the full process of the law and rigorously investigate all instances of settler violence committed against Palestinians and their property. 

Amnesty calls for urgent measures to end settlers' impunity

18 August 2005


Four Palestinians were shot dead and two others were injured by an Israeli settler yesterday evening as they were returning home from their work at a factory in the Israeli settlement of Shilo, in the West Bank. The settler, a driver from the Israeli settlement of Shvut Rahel, was transporting Palestinians who work in a factory in the Shilo settlement to nearby Palestinian villages. He shot dead three Palestinian workers at the gate of the settlement and then went back to the industrial area, where he shot at other Palestinian workers, killing one of them and injuring two others. There are conflicting reports as to whether he took the weapon he used for the shooting attack from a security guard of the settlement or used his own. 

UN’s Committee on Women criticizes Israel

Jeff Handmaker 22 August 2005


The government of Israel once again expressed its disregard for international law and the United Nations system during the 33rd Session1 of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, which oversees the implementation of the UN Convention on Women. The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, at its thirty-third session in New York, offered strong criticisms of Israel and its policies, particularly concerning the treatment of Palestinian women. Israel’s - almost predictable - response was simply that the UN Women’s Convention, which it ratified in 1991, “only extended to Israel” and not the Occupied Territories. Jeff Handmaker offers a brief assessment.