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See no evil: Canadian government denies torture in Israel

Jesse Rosenfeld 20 March 2008


According to Canadian foreign affairs minister Maxime Bernier and the Harper government Israel does not practice torture. After it was exposed that Canada had Israel and the United States listed as offenders in a training manual for diplomats about torture, the two countries were promptly dropped on 19 January with Bernier’s expression of regret and embarrassment. EI contributor Jesse Rosenfeld reports. 

Gaza's situation: frustration and determination

Rami Almeghari Gaza Strip 20 March 2008


A few kilometers from where the Israeli army attacked Gaza’s coast, a coalition of 27 women’s organizations held a festival marking International Women’s Day. Organized by the Women’s Affairs Center based in Gaza City, the event titled, “Gaza women defy the Israeli siege,” was held at the Beach Hotel along the coast. Rami Almeghari writes from Gaza. 

Scapegoat upon scapegoat: Angela Merkel addresses the Knesset

Raymond Deane 19 March 2008


German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s speech to the Israeli Knesset was lauded as historic, as she spoke of her country’s “shame” for the Holocaust. EI Contributor Raymond Deane subjects Merkel’s words and German reactions to them to a searing analysis. Deane argues that with her distortions, omissions and indifference to their plight, Merkel covers up the reality that it is the Palestinians who are paying the penance for Germany’s past crimes. 

Rachel Corrie's case for justice

Tom Wright and Therese Saliba 19 March 2008


As their plane touched down in Tel Aviv recently, Cindy and Craig Corrie marked five years since their daughter’s death. On March 16, 2003, Rachel Corrie, 23, was crushed to death beneath an armored Israeli bulldozer. The Corries are a short distance from Gaza, where Rachel was killed, and where in the past few weeks, an Israeli military incursion killed over 100 Palestinians. Tom Wright and Therese Saliba comment. 

In prison, who knows why?

Mohammed Omer 18 March 2008


GAZA CITY, 19 March (IPS) - You would think the baby boy named Yousef has his life ahead of him. But who knows, with a child born to Palestinian parents from Gaza. What’s more, Yousef was born in an Israeli prison. He is the only one of Fatima al-Zeq’s nine children who is with her for that reason — she was arrested nine months ago. But these days the baby is not with her. 

Sisters killed in Gaza "reborn" through cousins

Sami Abu Salem Gaza Strip 18 March 2008


Three young Palestinian sisters; Shahd Okal, eight months old, Maria Okal, five years old and Somaia Okal, 15 years old, and their mother were killed when an Israeli rocket hit their house on 26 July 2006 while they were swinging inside their house. But on 18 March 2008, Shahd, Maria and Somaia were born in the same Izbet Abed Rabbu neighborhood of Jabaliya town in the northern Gaza Strip. Sami Abu Salem writes from the occupied Gaza Strip. 

Far from Palestine's sea

Diana Buttu Ramallah, West Bank 18 March 2008


As a lawyer for the Palestinian peace negotiating team, I met presidents, prime ministers, Nobel laureates, secretaries of state and other important figures. But none of these individuals hit me with the same emotional wallop as a young woman named Majda. Diana Buttu writes from occupied Ramallah. 

Farmers struggle to stay on their land

Rebecca Murray 18 March 2008


TYRE, Lebanon, 17 March (IPS) - “I think the biggest challenge is to stay in the village,” says Ibrahim Sayyed, a 28-year-old municipality accountant from the beleaguered farming town of Aitaroun, situated barely a mile from the heavily patrolled Blue Line and Israel beyond. “My father and grandparents told me stories going back to 1948. All this time there has been war.” 

Palestinian PSS storms Ramattan Press Agency in Ramallah

17 March 2008


PCHR is deeply concerned over storming the headquarters of Ramattan Press Agency in Ramallah by members of the Palestinian Preventive Security Service (PSS) and the arrest of a Palestinian journalist on Wednesday, 12 March 2008. PCHR believes that this attack constitutes an assault on press freedoms and the right to freedom of expression, and stresses that the rights to freedom of expression and to receive and impart information are ensured by the Palestinian Basic Law and international human rights instruments.