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Middle East Quartet urges Israel to ease movement restrictions

23 June 2005


The United Nations-backed diplomatic Quartet seeking peace in the Middle East today called on Israel to take immediate steps to relieve economic hardships facing the Palestinians and on the Palestinians to fight violence and terrorism ahead of Israel’s planned withdrawal from the occupied Gaza Strip. They urged Israel “to take immediate steps, without endangering Israeli security, to relieve the economic hardships faced by the Palestinian people and to facilitate rehabilitation and reconstruction by easing the flow of goods and people in and out of Gaza and the West Bank and between them.” 

Failure to Probe Civilian Casualties Fuels Impunity

22 June 2005


The Israeli military has fostered a climate of impunity in its ranks by failing to thoroughly investigate whether soldiers have killed and injured Palestinian civilians unlawfully or failed to protect them from harm, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Since the current Palestinian uprising began in 2000, Israeli forces have killed or seriously injured thousands of Palestinians who were not taking part in the hostilities. However, the Israeli authorities have investigated fewer than five percent of the fatal incidents to determine whether soldiers were responsible for using force unlawfully. The investigations they did conduct fell far short of international standards for independent and impartial inquiries. 

OPEC Fund replenishes special grant account for Palestine

22 June 2005


The OPEC Fund for International Development today announced the allocation of fresh resources to its Special Grant Account for Palestine. The US$15 million replenishment was approved by the Fund’s highest policy-making body, the Ministerial Council, meeting at its 26th Annual Session in Seefeld, Austria. The Special Account was established by the Fund in 2002, with an initial endowment of US$10 million, to channel assistance to operations that would alleviate hardship and prevent further impoverishment and suffering among the Palestinian people. Boosted by an additional US$15 million in 2004, the Account has supported numerous initiatives, ranging from the rebuilding of damaged infrastructure and the provision of medical assistance, to micro-credit and a wide range of capacity-building and social projects. 

Palestinians placed between false choices

Hasan Abu Nimah 23 June 2005


For some time the Palestinians have been divided on how to pursue their cause. Their choice, it seems, is between winning the support and favour of the international community and actually pursuing their rights, but not both, writes EI contributor Hasan Abu Nimah. The Palestinian Authority, and its leader Mahmoud Abbas, seem to have accepted the false choices placed before them, allowing others to define the struggle for Palestinian rights as illegitimate and “terrorist.” As the PA is increasingly impotent and irrelevant, a passive international community sits idly by, while Israel continues to create facts on the ground. 

Haifa, peaceful town with a silent pain

Adri Nieuwhof and Jeff Handmaker 21 June 2005


Haifa has attracted many Palestinians from the North, in addition to the residents that remained in Haifa after 1948. But, a considerable number of Haifa’s Palestinian residents had lived in Haifa for decades without having been defined as legal residents of Haifa in the population registry. The unofficial estimation of the Palestinian population in Haifa is around 30,000, leaving around 6,000 Palestinians officially unrecognised. Around 121,000 Palestinians were dispossessed from Haifa and from 58 surrounding villages. Adri Nieuwhof and Jeff Handmaker visited Haifa and give voice to those who remained and those dispossessed. 

Jewish state idea mired in confusion

Khalid Amayreh 20 June 2005


Since the collapse of the Oslo accords nearly five years ago, Israeli leaders have been demanding that the Palestinian Authority recognise Israel as a Jewish state in any prospective settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Some Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, have even used the concept of “state of the Jewish people”, with the connotation that Israel belongs not only to its citizens, but to Jews all over the world, including potential future converts. The idea, Israeli academics and intellectuals say, occupies “centre-stage” in Israel’s Zionist collective thinking. 

Security Council briefed on situation in the occupied territories

17 June 2005


Despite the serious nature of various incidents, a prolonged breakdown of the calm prevailing in the Middle East over the past four months had been averted, Kieran Prendergast, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, told the Security Council this morning in his briefing on the situation in the region, including the Palestinian question. There had been a resumption during the reporting period of the Israeli practice of targeting from the air Palestinian militants.  Both sides were reminded of the need to take special care to protect innocent civilians, in accordance with international and humanitarian law. 

Warning bells are ringing

Atef Saad 19 June 2005


On June 4, dozens of attorneys refused to show up to courtrooms in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, in what they called a “one-day warning strike”. In a statement released by the Palestinian Bar Association, the lawyers said they were protesting assaults on what they described as “the three arms of justice”: the judges, public prosecuting attorneys, and defense lawyers. The statement decried legal professionals’ “unsafe working environment” blamed on increased vigilantism and the failure of the Palestinian Authority’s legislative and executive branches to protect the judicial system. 

Free Adnan Abdallah!

Nina Mayorek 19 June 2005


Only a few of the 420 Palestinian prisoners recently released numbered among the nearly 700 prisoners currently serving administrative detention orders. Adnan Na’im ‘Abdallah, age 31, is married without children and has been held in detention without charge or trial by the Israeli army for two and a half years. Nina Mayorek started a campaign to release Adnan. Adnan lives between 9m cement walls in the Negev desert. The detention camp is divided into cages with 120 prisoners living in tents inside each cage. Adnan’s cage separates him from the world. 

Palestinian Authority must restore rule of law and respect human rights

16 June 2005


The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights is gravely concerned at the continued deterioration in internal security as a consequence of the escalation in the misuse of weapons and security chaos. Seven Palestinians, including a 12-year-old boy, were killed in less than one week of internal fighting in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. PCHR reiterates its calls for the Palestinian National Authority to restore law and order and respect human rights. The latest of these incidents took place on Tuesday, 14 June 2005, when four persons, including a father and his two sons, were killed in an exchange of fire during a family dispute.