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B'Tselem response to incitement Israel's Foreign Minister against human rights groups

B'Tselem 21 May 2003

Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom’s statement that “most human rights organizations whose offices are in Gaza and the West Bank provide refuge to Palestinian terrorists,” is a direct continuation of the campaign that Israel’s government has been waging against human rights organizations operating in the occupied Palestinian territories. 

Trapped at Surda checkpoint

Birzeit University Right to Education Campaign 24 May 2003

After one day of curfew in Ramallah on May 18 and the two following days of complete siege, Israeli occupying forces suddenly opened the checkpoint on Wednesday. However, Israeli soldiers at the checkpoint closed the checkpoint just as suddenly at around 2 pm, trapping hundreds of ordinary citizens, Birzeit faculty staff and students. 

Weekly report on human rights violations

Palestinian Center for Human Rights 21 May 2003

This week Israeli forces killed 13 Palestinians, including a woman and three children, two mentally disabled, and two during the raid on Beit Hanoun. Israeli forces demolished 15 homes in Beit Hanoun and razed large areas of agricultural land. In Khan Yunis Israeli forces razed 272 dunums of agricultural land and in Rafah demolished 33 homes. Israeli forces continued indiscriminately shelling Palestinian residential areas, wounding a number of civilians. Israel continued to impose its siege on Palestinian villages and towns and denied movement to civilians, including internationals. 

Israeli Foreign Minister's incitement against Palestinian NGOs

Palestinian Center for Human Rights 22 May 2003


Silvan Shalom In a statement published in an Israeli newspaper, the Israeli Minister for Foreign Affairs, Silvan Shalom, alleged that Palestinian NGOs in the West Bank and Gaza Strip harbor terrorists. PCHR believes that these comments represent a threat to the work of Palestinian human rights NGOs and contends that the comments are particularly disturbing coming from a senior politician, indicating that they may reflect the official government position. 

Beit Hanoun - Attacks against civilians and their property

Médecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) 23 May 2003

The long series of Israeli military incursions into the town of Beit Hanoun in the Gaza strip continues and intensifies. The latest gives rise to violent offensive against civilians and their property. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), present in Gaza since the beginning of the Al Aqsa Intifada, deplores the wanton destruction of people’s lives and is alarmed at the medical, psychological and material consequences on local families affected by this disaster. 

Road Map or Road Kill?

Rashid I. Khalidi 23 May 2003

“in failing to focus on the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, about to enter its thirty-seventh year, and on Israeli settlements, which underpin that occupation, the road map misses an opportunity to end this conflict. Instead, it concentrates on Palestinian violence and how to combat it—as if it came out of nowhere, and as if, were it to be halted, the situation of occupation and settlement would be normal. This is a reflection of the preponderant US role in the drafting of this document. It is also a sign of why it will probably fail, for official Washington is obsessively fixated on Palestinian violence as the root cause of all the problems between Palestinians and Israelis.” Noted Palestinian-American academic Rashid I. Khalidi takes a jaundiced accounting of the Road Map in the pages of The Nation 

Two Palestinian journalists beaten up by Israeli soldiers

Reporters Without Borders 21 May 2003

On 20 May 2003, RSF voiced its outrage over the violent beating which two clearly identified Palestinian journalists received from Israeli soldiers in Bethlehem. The incident took place during the night of 19 to 20 May. One of the journalists sustained an injury to his right hand that will prevent him from working for some time. 

Israel discovers that democracy is not an Israeli value

Arjan El Fassed and Nigel Parry 22 May 2003


The Israel Democracy Institute presents its 2003 “Democracy Index” at a conference today. The Index concludes that “Israel is not a substantive democracy” and notes that “more than half (53%) of the Jews in Israel state out loud that they are against full equality for the Arabs; 77% say there should be a Jewish majority on crucial political decisions; less than a third (31%) support having Arab political parties in the government; and the majority (57%) think that the Arabs should be encouraged to emigrate”. EI founders Arjan El Fassed and Nigel Parry report. 

Why two women went to war: Private Lynch and Rachel Corrie

Naomi Klein 21 May 2003

“Private Jessica Lynch went to Iraq as a soldier loyal to her government. Ms. Corrie went to Gaza to oppose the actions of her government. As a U.S. citizen, she believed she had a special responsibility to defend Palestinians against U.S.-built weapons, purchased with U.S. aid to Israel. In letters home, she described how fresh water was being diverted from Gaza to Israeli settlements, and how death was more normal than life.” Naomi Klein examines the different fates of two young American women who went to war zones in the Middle East, and wonders what it says about the US that one is viewed as a hero while the other is not.