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On Israel's separation fence (part 2)

Meron Rappaport 31 May 2003


Alfei Menashe and Matan’s success was a catastrophe for Kalkilya. The city became an island surrounded by fences on four sides, cut off from the villagers that bring it goods and do their shopping and depend on it for civil services. But, as Uzi Dayan says, “The fence isn’t supposed to make everybody happy. There was no choice.” Meron Rappaport reports in Yedioth Ahronoth. 

On Israel's separation fence (part 1)

Meron Rappaport 31 May 2003


Something strange has been happening in recent months to the separation fence. What began thanks to a campaign of the Israeli Left and Center under Barak-style slogans of “we are here, they are there,” it has become the baby of the Sharon government. The same Sharon who during the unity government opposed building the fence and was dragged into it almost against his will, on any given day has 500 bulldozers at work, paving and building one of the largest projects in the history of the country, perhaps the largest. Meron Rappaport reports in Yedioth Ahronoth. 

IFJ calls for journalists' rights and security to be made a priority in Israeli-Palestinian dialogue

International Federation of Journalists 29 May 2003

The International Federation of Journalists today called for the rights and security of journalists to be made a priority in the forthcoming dialogue between Israeli and Palestinian leaders. “It is time to set journalists free and to build democracy through dialogue, tolerance and press freedom,” says the IFJ in a letter to both sides. 

UN Committee: "Excessive emphasis upon the State as a 'Jewish State' encourages discrimination"

Badil 31 May 2003

A recent review by the UN of Israel’s performance under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights expressed concern that “excessive emphasis upon the State as a “Jewish State” encourages discrimination and accords a second-class status to its non-Jewish citizens. 

The President, the Dean, and the Historiography of 1948 Palestine

Ilan Pappe 30 May 2003

“On May 22, at 2 P.M., the lectures and the audience arrived at hall 715 in the university. The doors were locked. In the corridor stood the university’s chief of security forces and ten of his henchmen, all armed with pistols and walkie-talkies. I was pushed into a side room by the chief and his lieutenant and handed a personal letter from the president, Yehuda Hayut. This was done in front of my wife and my colleagues, who watched helplessly as the macabre scene unfolded. Outside the corridor, my wife heard two other lieutenants of the chief informing the president over their walkie-talkies, ‘We caught him!’ They also said to each other, ‘High time! They should do the same to all the leftist lectures in the university!’” Dr. Ilan Pappe, a professor at Haifa University, prevents a chilling account in clinical detail of heavy-handed repression of academic speech at his university. 

Peace is a long way off

Nick Pretzlik 30 May 2003

Nick Pretzlik, now in Jenin, reports on local responses to the Road Map, noting that Palestinians “have suffered too much and too long to accept a plan which permits the apartheid walls and electrified fences to remain, a plan which leaves settler roads and key settlements in place, and allows Palestinian water resources, airspace and borders to remain under Israeli control. Even if the current generation can accept that, I doubt that their children will.” 

Weekly report on human rights violations

Palestinian Center for Human Rights 29 May 2003

This week Israeli forces killed 5 Palestinians, including three children and a mentally disabled man. Israeli forces demolished 15 homes and razed large areas of agricultural land in Beit Hanoun. Israeli forces conducted a number of raids on Palestinian towns and indiscriminately shelled Palestinian residential areas. Israeli forces continued retaliatory attacks against families of wanted Palestinians, demolishing 7 homes. Israeli forces arrested more Palestinians and continued to impose a tight siege on Palestinian communities. 

Thomas Hurndall returns to the United Kingdom

29 May 2003

On 11th April Tom Hurndall - a young photographer observing and recording the work of a peace group in Gaza and the activities of the Israeli army was shot in the head by the Israeli army in the town of Rafah at the border between Gaza and Egypt. He currently lies in a deep coma in hospital in Saroka Hospital in Beer Sheva. On 29th May Tom flies back to London. He will arrive at Heathrow Airport this afternoon.