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Weekly report on human rights violations

13 October 2004


This week Israeli forces killed 33 Palestinians, including seven children and a mentally disabled man. The majority was killed during the Israeli offensive on the northern Gaza Strip. One of the victims was a schoolchild who was killed while sitting on her desk and another child who was willfully shot dead. Israeli troops conducted a series of incursions into Palestinian areas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israeli forces destroyed 23 homes and razed 156 donums of agricultural land in the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces raided homes and arrested dozens of Palestinian civilians. Israeli forces continued shelling of residential areas and civilian facilities. Israel continued the construction of the Apartheid Wall in the West Bank. 

Documentary film review: "Checkpoint"

Maureen Clare Murphy 15 October 2004


“When the Palestinians come we put on our show,” says a youthful Israeli soldier manning a checkpoint at Nablus’ Jericho road. This “show,” as it is richly documented in the new Israeli film Checkpoint, serves a seemingly dual purpose. First and foremost, it is intended to remind Palestinians just who is in power; and secondly, it serves as a form of entertainment to the young Israelis whose compulsory military service finds them wasting their time and talents at these roadblocks in the occupied Palestinian territories. 

Making sense of our times: Excerpts from "Is There an Islamic Problem?"

M. Shahid Alam 14 October 2004


September 11 brings into the open, forcing into the daylight of consciousness, the legacies of history - of racial hubris, of disequilibria imposed by wars, of messianism, of reincarnated fossils, of tribalism sanctified by religion, of racial hubris, of social science in the service of power, of naked greed disguised in the rhetoric of the civilizing mission, of citizens fed on lies and sedated by amusements, of cruelty cultivated as a racial virtue, of injustices that cannot be allowed to stand. September 11 establishes beyond reasonable doubt that the United States is deeply, irrevocably connected to the Arab world, the Islamicate world, in ways it cannot ignore or deny. 

Danger: Olive harvest, settlers on the prowl

Atef Saad 14 October 2004


The olive harvest season is usually a happy occasion for farmers, but Fares Hanani looks ahead to this year’s harvest with trepidation. At the age of 70, he has seen plenty of harvests come and go on the mountainous terrain near Beit Fourik he and his brothers inherited from their father and grandfather, but the last couple of years have been especially difficult. Two years ago, the Israeli government financed the construction of “security zones” around Nablus area settlements, some as wide as 400 meters and all complete with electrified fences and security cameras. 

Gaza Daily Update, 7.00 PM

12 October 2004


Since the wide-scale Israeli military assault on the northern part of the Gaza Strip, 123 Palestinians have been killed, including 31 children and 20 Palestinians in other parts of Gaza. At least 407 Palestinians, including 135 children were injured. Numerous homes and private property have also been destroyed as IOF utilize air force and heavy tanks in this military operation. In addition, as the incursion continues, the civilian population of the area suffer shortage in food and water supply. In the areas which IOF occupy civilians lack the most basic needs. Al Mezan is still receiving plights from people who have been in urgent need for medicine and water. 

Jabalia: "Hamdulillah Assalamah"

Sami Abu Salem Jabalia refugee camp, Palestine 13 October 2004


WAFA — “Hamdulillah Assalama” (“Praise God for your safety”), the residents of Jabalia Refugee Camp repeat whenever they meet each other in the dusty roads and lanes of the camp. Groups of people are paying condolence visits at dozens of condolence tents scattered in the camp. The scene is eerily similar to theway that people here celebrate and congratulate each other on major religious holidays, such as Eid al-Fitr. Sand mixes with the ash of tyres scattered along the roads of the camp. Every night, the residents burn the tyres in order to create a shield of smoke thick enough to jam the signals of the Israeli drones crisscrossing the sky. Sami Abu Salem reports from northern Gaza. 

Medical impact of Israel's military assault on northern Gaza

12 October 2004


The Israeli army entered northern Gaza with a large force on 28 September 2004. Large numbers of Palestinians have been killed and injured, many of them civilians. As of 13 October, the UN reported a total of 94 killed, 417 injured in north Gaza, more than 25% persons 18 years or younger. Five Israelis have died, including two children. Two small hospitals in the north, Kamal Adwan and Al Awda, have cared for most of the casualties, before transferring the more serious cases to Shifa and Al Quds hospitals in Gaza City. Many of the dead bodies were in pieces, and the majority of casualties have suffered potentially disabling injuries, due to the frequent Israeli use of heavy weapons such as missiles. 

Israel withdraws charge that driver loaded rocket into UN ambulance

13 October 2004


The Israeli Government has withdrawn its charge that video footage showed a United Nations ambulance driver handling a rocket, acknowledging that the object was a stretcher as the world body had asserted. Responding to the reversal, a spokesman for Secretary-General Kofi Annan issued a statement calling for correct handling of any further issues which might arise. “The Secretary-General expects the Government of Israel to share with the United Nations, through normal diplomatic channels, any information it might have so that the matter may be properly investigated.” 

EU launches new initiative as deportation of Palestinians is extended

Arjan El Fassed 3 November 2004


The European Union is on the verge of introducing a major new policy designed to bring member states closer to their neighbors. Launching a new initiative towards Israel and the Palestinian Authority and concluding negotiations on a new bilateral agreement with Israel, the EU this week also adopted a common position to extend the permits of Palestinians deported from Bethlehem in May 2002 for a further period of twelve months. EI co-founder Arjan El Fassed argues that the EU has never taken concrete steps to enforce international law in Occupied Palestine. A serious EU step towards enforcing international law should start with respecting the law itself. 

Of settler crimes and media silence

13 October 2004


If Americans appreciated the scale of human rights abuses committed by Israeli colonists in the occupied territories, they would condemn the journalists who keep them in the dark, a US peace activist says. Kim Lamberty, a member of the Christian Peacemakers Teams (CPT), has told Aljazeera.net on Tuesday that a cruel and criminal practice is largely going unreported: settlers are routinely attacking children on their way to school. And Lamberty should know. Unable to walk since a vicious attack on 29 September by Jewish colonists, she says physical assaults on schoolchildren and the volunteers who escort them have all increased in the past two weeks.