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UNRWA inaugurates Saudi-funded Rafah Re-housing Project

11 December 2005


The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) today laid the cornerstone for the “Saudi Project to Rehouse Homeless Refugee Families”, funded through a generous contribution of $20 million from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This grant, administered by the Saudi Fund for Development through UNRWA, will cover the construction of new shelters for over 800 homeless refugee families, three schools, a health centre, a mosque, a community centre, a market area and all related infrastructure works. The project will help alleviate some of the hardship being felt in the Gaza Strip by providing several hundred thousand days of temporary employment. 

Commission contributes €14 million to the Euro-Palestinian Credit Guarantee Fund

13 December 2005


Today the Commission is signing its €14 million contribution to the newly established European-Palestinian Credit Guarantee Fund. The Guarantee Fund, led by the German Development Bank (KfW), will support Palestinian small and medium size enterprises’ financing from local banks in the form of soft loans and grants. This €29 million Fund will be made up of contributions from the Commission (€14 million), KfW (€5 million), and the European Investment Bank (EIB) (€10 million). In addition to the Fund’s capital, the financing partners are providing technical assistance to the European-Palestinian Credit Guarantee Fund and partner banks with a view to strengthening the financial sector in the Palestinian Territories. 

A Palestinian-Israeli Joint Declaration unveiled at World Bank conference on Economic Growth

13 December 2005


A group of Palestinian and Israeli private sector representatives presented today a joint Declaration at a Conference on “Promoting Economic Growth in the West Bank and Gaza through the Private Sector” in London. The conference was co-hosted by the World Bank and the United Kingdom Treasury. The Declaration identified priority areas, such as security, movement of goods, protection of investors, legal and regulatory reform and private sector participation in revitalizing the economy. The Working Group met for the first time last week in Jerusalem to discuss issues of common interest and develop a joint position on matters of economic development. 

Twenty countries pledge $73 million for UNRWA

6 December 2005


Twenty countries pledged approximately $73.5 million for the 2006 budget of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), during a meeting this morning of the General Assembly’s Ad Hoc Committee for Voluntary Contributions. As he opened the meeting, General Assembly President Jan Eliasson ( Sweden) said the international community had spent 56 years seeking a lasting solution to the Palestine refugee situation and remained morally obliged to sustain that commitment. Indeed, the refugee population doubled every 20 years and had increased 500 per cent since UNWRA had begun its work. 

Al Jazeera reporter arrested in West Bank

2 December 2005


Reporters Without Borders has condemned the arrest of Palestinian journalist Awad Rajoub on 30 November 2005 at his home in Doura, 10 km from the West Bank city of Hebron. The organisation called on the Israeli military to explain why he is still being held. Rajoub reports for the Arabic-language website of the pan-Arab satellite television station Al Jazeera. “The Israeli army, which claims this has nothing to do with Rajoub’s work as a journalist, must say what it knows at once, otherwise there is no reason for holding him and he must be freed immediately,” the press freedom organisation said. Israeli soldiers took Rajoub’s computer and mobile phone when they arrested him. 

Former director of Israel's General Security Service sued in New York for death and injury of over 165 in Gaza

8 December 2005


The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) brought a class action lawsuit today against Avi Dichter, the former Director of Israel�s General Security Service (GSS), on behalf of the Palestinians who were killed or injured in a 2002 air strike in Gaza. The attack occurred just before midnight on July 22, 2002, when the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) dropped a one-ton bomb on al-Daraj, a residential neighborhood in Gaza City in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The attack killed seven adults and eight children, including plaintiff Ra�ed Matar�s wife and their three young children and plaintiff Mahmoud Al Huweiti�s wife and two of their young sons. It injured over 150 others, including plaintiff Marwan Zeino, whose spinal vertebrae were crushed. 

Haaretz.com runs ad discouraging Jewish abortions as "only solution" to Arab population growth

Nigel Parry 6 December 2005


In an incredible example of how acceptable even the most extreme manifestations of anti-Arab racism have become in Israel, the website of the leading English/Hebrew daily, Ha’aretz today ran a front page advertisement that warned: “If the Arab population in Israel will reach 40% the Jewish State will be nullified. For the only solution press here.” The link lead to the website of an Israeli group that campaigns against abortion and offers material and emotional support to pregnant mothers before and after their babies are born. 

A week of Palestinian calls for the release of the CPT hostages in Iraq

6 December 2005


Over the last week Palestinians from across the political spectrum have issued impassioned appeals and demonstrated for the release of the four Christian Peacemaker Team volunteers who were taken hostage in Iraq, three of whom had previously served in Palestine with CPT and ISM. Demonstrations calling for the release of the CPT volunteers were held in Hebron, At-Tuwani and Ramallah. More are planned over the next week in Nablus (tomorrow at 11am) and Ramallah (tomorrow at 4:30pm). 

WaPSR Delegation Diary 4: Hebron - Kiryat Arba settlement and the struggle for the heart of an ancient city

Bill Dienst Palestine 6 December 2005


After our visit with Elyakim Ha’itzni, we visit the gravesite of Dr. Baruch Goldstein. Dr. Goldstein was a physician born and raised in Brooklyn who became a Kiryat Arba settler. In 1994, he opened fire on Muslims worshiping at the mosque of Ibrahim, killing 29 worshippers and injuring more than 100, before he was bludgeoned to death by the crowd. In Kiryat Arba he is treated as a hero. Downtown Hebron looks like a ghost town. Yesterday, two Israeli soldiers were shot, so now the entire center of the city is under curfew and Palestinians cannot leave their homes. 

New documentary a family tale older than Israel itself

Jim Quilty 2 December 2005


Nizar Hassan’s latest documentary is a hybrid. Part oral history project, part detective story, Karem Abou Khalil (Abou Khalil Grove) tells one Palestinian family’s history from the Ottoman to the Israeli periods. It’s also an amused study of misplaced premises and faulty representation. It’s not a story of burning tires and bulldozed houses - a la Ijtiah, Hassan’s 2002 documentary on the Jenin invasion. It’s a family tale older than Israel, though its telling is fenced in by the tense courtesy of life under Israeli domination.