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Weekly report on human rights violations

28 August 2003


This week, Israeli occupying forces escalated their illegal military actions in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), causing more casualties among Palestinian civilians. PCHR is concerned that further escalation may take place, as Israeli officials stated that Israeli occupying forces would continue to target Palestinian activists. In flagrant disregard for the lives of Palestinian civilians, Israeli occupying forces committed more extra-judicial assassinations. They invaded the northern West Bank towns of Nablus and Jenin. 

Journalists find "calm" when only Palestinians die

Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting 22 August 2003


The deadly bus bombing in Jerusalem on August 19 was foreshadowed by a pair of suicide attacks a week earlier which killed two Israeli civilians. While U.S. media tended to portray these attacks as a return to violence after a relatively peaceful period, there were numerous killings in the weeks leading up to the suicide bombings that underscore the lack of evenhanded attention given to loss of life in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. FAIR reports. 

Terror in Nablus

Kate Gillam Nablus, Palestine 26 August 2003

I just had the hardest day of my life. Let me start off by telling you that yesterday i had to get into Nablus while it was under curfew. I was with three Palestinians. I had a hard time getting here and, once in Nablus, I had to walk up to a tank and another armored vehicle and negotiate with them to let us through and they didn’t let the one male go past so he walked around. We eventually got around. 

Shebaa Farms: CNN and the US media encounter difficult terrain

Michael F. Brown 27 August 2003


During my formative years in North Carolina, my daddy used to say to me, “Son, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.” My father’s adage applies all too well to CNN. Over the past 16 months, Partners for Peace has repeatedly contacted CNN to explain that Shebaa Farms is not in Israel, but in occupied territory. Time and again, we have sent letters stating that the United Nations regards Shebaa Farms as Syrian while Hezbollah sees it as Lebanese. The one thing we know is that it is not Israeli. Michael Brown writes for EI. 

Largest demolition in years: Israel destroys entire commercial market in one day

21 August 2003


Marking the single largest demolition of buildings in years, the entire commercial area of Nazlat ‘Isa was today raised to the ground as some 15 bulldozers, accompanied by large numbers of military and border police, entered the community at 5:00 AM and destroyed over 100 shops and 5 homes. The market, which was previously targeted in January of this year with the destruction of 82 or close to , of its shops, has been the commercial center for the entire region. The bulldozers began the demolitions early in the morning and continued unabated until the late hours of the night. 

Israel issues demolition orders for the destruction of 18 Palestinian homes in Jerusalem

12 August 2003

The Jerusalem Center for Social & Economic Rights (JCSER) has revealed that demolition orders have been issued against eighteen Palestinian houses in Al-Ashqariyeh in Beit Hanina, north of Occupied Jerusalem, and delivered to the home-owners. High fines have been imposed on the owners, with the Israeli authorities citing ‘illegal’ construction. 

EI's Ali Abunimah in USA Today's "Talk Today"

21 August 2003


This week’s devastating violence between Israel and the Palestinians appears to have rendered the eight-week-old truce, or hudna, null and void. After Thursday’s killing of a senior Hamas official by Israel in retaliation for a suicide bombing of a bus in Jerusalem which 20 people died. The Islamic militant group Hamas threatened revenge and formally abandoned the cease-fire. EI’s Ali Abunimah answers questions from readers of USA Today on what it takes “to stop the violence between Israel and the Palestinians.” 

Weekly report on human rights violations

21 August 2003

This week, Israeli forces assassinated a Palestinian activist in Hebron and in an apparent wilful killing Israeli forces killed a child in Tulkarem. Israeli forces continued to indiscriminately shell Palestinian residential areas and invaded a number Palestinian areas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israeli forces demolished a home in Rafah and raided a number of homes in the West Bank. Three homes were demolished as Israel continued its reprisals against families of wanted Palestinians. Israeli forces established three new observation towers in Khan Yunis and instated a total siege on the occupied Palestinian territories.