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Israel continues attacks on Khan Yunis, killing 5 Palestinians

30 December 2004


Israeli forces killed five Palestinians, including a child and a disabled young man, and injured 11 others, including three children and a woman. Israeli forces demolished a number of Palestinian homes. Israel continues to attack Khan Yunis refugee camp and al-Amal neighborhood in Khan Yunis. Palestinian rights group PCHR believes that the intensive presence of Israeli forces in these areas can cause more casualties among Palestinian civilians. This latest offensive has been the third of its kind against Khan Yunis in thirteen days, in which 19 Palestinians have been killed, dozens of others have been injured and at least 60 houses have been destroyed. 

PCHR publishes report on Palestinian voter registration

29 December 2004


On 28 December 2004, PCHR published a report evaluating the pre-election stage, including conclusions of the monitoring conducted by PCHR on the registration of voters in the last quarter of 2004. Among other findings, PCHR noted that, by the end of the extended voter registration period, the percentage of registered voters mounted to 71%, while it was 61.37% at the end of the original period of registration, 4 September to 13 October 2004, including occupied East Jerusalem. 

Release of children should be a priority

29 December 2004


Amid the fanfare surrounding Israel’s 27 December release of 159 Palestinian prisoners as a “goodwill gesture” to Egypt’s President Mubarak, the fate of Palestinian child detainees is all but forgotten. Some 350 Palestinian children currently remain in Israeli jails, detention centers, and interrogation centers. Under international law, their release should be a priority. As it is, not one child has released as part of this initiative. 

The Writing on the Wall: Hania Batar

Toine van Teeffelen Jerusalem, Palestine 29 December 2004


The Writing on the Wall is a series of interviews with Palestinians who live close to the Wall. Van Teeffelen asked three questions: How is your daily life influenced by the Wall and the checkpoints? What does freedom mean to you? What are your sources of energy? Toine van Teeffelen speaks with Hania Bitar is director-general of the Palestinian youth association Pyalara. “As an organization you always want to challenge tough challenges, to be stronger even than the Wall or the barriers. We really try to overcome whatever measures the Israelis take. We try to make the people connected despite the fact that they are disconnected. As Palestinians you feel that anybody living outside this Wall just doesn’t care.” 

A parade of charlatans

Hasan Abu Nimah and Ali Abunimah 29 December 2004


Supporters of Israel have often accused Arab states of cynically exploiting the Israeli problem and the suffering it has caused the Palestinians to distract their own populations from domestic troubles. But if this has occurred, others, far beyond the region have also found the conflict a useful tool for their own selfish purposes. UK Prime Minister Tony Blair is the latest leader to brazenly exploit this tragedy, write EI contributor Hasan Abu Nimah and co-founder Ali Abunimah. Having caused massive harm to his country’s reputation and credibility by allying it with Bush’s illegal Iraq invasion, Blair has sought to mitigate the political cost by repeatedly playing the Palestinian card. 

Boycott as Resistance: The Moral Dimension

Omar Barghouti 28 December 2004


Faced with overwhelming Israeli oppression, Palestinians under occupation, in refugee camps and in the heart of Israel’s distinct form of apartheid have increasingly reached out to the world for understanding, for compassion, and, more importantly, for solidarity. Palestinians do not beg for sympathy. We deeply resent patronization, for we are no longer a nation of hapless victims. We are resisting racial and colonial oppression, aspiring to attain justice and genuine peace. Above all, we are struggling for the universal principle of equal humanity. Omar Barghgouti presented the contents of this article at the “Resisting Israeli Apartheid” Conference at the University of London (SOAS), on December 5, 2004. 

Weekly report on human rights violations

23 December 2004


This week, Israeli forces killed 16 Palestinians, including a child. Israeli troops conducted a series of incursions into Palestinian areas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israeli forces demolished 46 homes in Khan Yunis. Israeli forces razed 69 donums of agricultural land in the Gaza Strip. In the West Bank, Israeli forces demolished two homes. Israeli forces raided a number of Palestinian charitable institutions in the West Bank and confiscated some of their contents. Israel continued shelling of residential areas and civilian facilities; dozens of Palestinian civilians, including at least 30 children, were injured and a number of civilian facilities were destroyed. 

Gazan students' fugitive lives

Charles Stratford 26 December 2004


In the last four years, Israeli authorities have all but refused to issue permits for students from Gaza to travel to and from the West Bank. They have also made renewing permits increasingly difficult for students who began their degrees before the Intifada started. In 2000, 370 Gaza students enrolled at Birzeit University. Enrollment of Gaza students in 2005 is down to 39. Those who began their degrees in 2000 have been left with two stark choices: They can either drop out or stay and risk all that this entails. “We live a different life to students from the West Bank,” explains Abdel Rahim, one of the 35 Gaza students still studying at Birzeit. 

Elections without Democracy

Sam Bahour and Todd May 28 December 2004


How little has changed. Except for the lack of Congressional resistance, the situation in the Israeli-occupied territories mirrors that of apartheid South Africa. Palestinians are being forced, either by choice or fate, to agree to “acceptable” candidates for elections to offices that will have only as much power as the Israeli government, underwritten by the Bush administration, grants. Sam Bahour and Todd May report for EI. 

Abbas' rival strikes confident note

Khalid Amayreh 25 December 2004


The independent Palestinian  presidential contestant, Mustafa al-Barghuthi, has said he can beat the front-runner, official Fatah candidate Mahmud Abbas, in the 9 January election. Speaking during an election rally in the town of Dura, 45km southwest of Jerusalem, on Friday, Al-Barghuthi said Palestinians shouldn’t trust “biased and tendentious polls”, an allusion to recent opinion surveys which gave Abbas a substantial lead over al-Barghuthi and other candidates. “The results of the municipal elections prove that all the opinion polls we had seen were false. So don’t trust these polls,” he said. “Instead I urge you to work with me to create a new leadership that will feel and identify with the pain of our people, not the pain of others.”