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UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination calls on Israel to revoke Nationality and Entry into Israel law

14 August 2003

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination adopted a decision in which it called on Israel to revoke the Nationality and Entry into Israel Law (Temporary Order) in order to facilitate family unification on a non-discriminatory basis. 

Curriculum reform should start in the U.S. and Israel

Joseph Massad 18 August 2003

One of the bitter ironies of the last few years is the continuous calls issued from the United States, that school curricula across the Arab (and Muslim) worlds should be changed in order to reflect the American (and Israeli) view of the world. Yet, writes Joseph Massad, it is the school curricula and textbooks which the United States and Israel both use are in need of equally, if not more, major overhauling, to come close to objective, or at least more inclusive, representations of reality. 

Who undermines the right of return?

Salman Abu Sitta 18 August 2003

Salman Abu Sitta, president of the London-based Palestine Land Society examines a recently conducted poll among Palestinian refugees, questioning its methodology and refuting many of the claims that have been made from it. The continued dedication of Palestians to working for this right, refutes the assumption that the refugees only want shelter, food and legal papers and willingly accept settlement elsewhere. Dr. Abu Sitta contributed this article to EI. 

Weekly report on human rights violations

14 August 2003


This week, Israeli forces killed four Palestinians in ‘Askar refugee camp in Nablus. During a wide-scale Israeli military invasion of Hebron, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian activist. Israeli forces continued to shell Palestinian residential areas. Israeli forces demolished a home in ‘Askar refugee camp as Israel continues its campaign of collective punishment and reprisal. Israeli forces continued to use Palestinian civilians as human shields in military operations and deny access of Palestinian farmers to their agricultural lands. Meanwhile Israeli forces razed more land and continued its tight siege on Palestinian communities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. 

A unique kind of protest: Arabs and Jews defend Bedouins' rights in the Negev

15 August 2003

The Israeli Government’s Six-Year Plan for the Negev, signed early in 2003, proposes to destroy dozens of unrecognized Bedouin villages, and to concentrate the 75,000 residents thus displaced into seven planned settlements. The plan was prepared and signed without any participation of the Bedouin communities of the Negev, and goes against their needs, rights and traditional way of life. “Together Forum” members are struggling to stop this plan and to establish a new alternative plan with full cooperation by the Bedouins in order to serve the needs of all the Negev residents — Bedouins and Jews together. 

The Palestine Water for Life Campaign

Palestinian Hydrology Group 10 August 2003


The Palestine Water for Life Campaign is an online campaign and international advocacy effort that looks at the current water crisis and water relief needs in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The Campaign is an important part of the Palestinian Hydrology Group�s Water and Sanitation, Hygiene (WaSH) Monitoring Project, which produces a comprehensive monthly report that pinpoints the particular needs related to water and sanitation of all the 708 localities in the West Bank and Gaza. 

Report: "Thirsting for Justice - violations of the human right to water in Palestine"

14 August 2003

In spring of this year, CESR, in collaboration with local Palestinian NGOs, conducted a project to document violations of Palestinians’ human right to water. From the construction of the wall of separation in the northern West Bank to the destruction of drinking water wells in Gaza, to Israel’s refusal to provide water services to unrecognized villages in the Negev, CESR found widespread and severe human rights violations. 

Israeli military appeal committee defers conclusion of second six-month review of transfer order

13 August 2003

On Sunday, 10 August 2003, an Israeli Military Appeal Committee convened in Erez to conduct the second six month review of an Israeli military order which transferred Intisar and Kifah ‘Ajouri from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip.  After representations, the Committee deferred the conclusion until a later, unspecified, date. 

Back to barbed wire and separation walls mentality

Hasan Abu Nimah 13 August 2003


Recently, we have been witnessing a raging debate about the separation wall which Israel has been building around itself, to prevent further Palestinian “suicide attacks.” But the wall will also include the settlements and the bypass roads built during the interim period under the Oslo accords, to link them with Israel (the interim period which was ostensibly intended to build confidence, not additional annexation facts on the ground), and the land which Israel claims is necessary for security, therefore slicing huge chunks of Arab Palestinian lands to add to Israel as a purely illegal unilateral measure. Hasan Abu-Nimah comments.