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Peace with Jordan: Another opportunity missed by Israel

Hasan Abu Nimah 27 October 2004


Regular EI contributor Hasan Abu Nimah was a member of the joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation at the Washington peace talks in the early 1990s, and he was present when the Jordan-Israel peace treaty was signed ten years ago. He argues that Israel views this treaty, like other agreements, as a tool to strengthen itself at the expense of its neighbours, and has squandered the chance for genuine peace. On the sombre 10th anniversary of the treaty, Israelis should ask their leaders why they never missed an opportunity to miss all the opportunities for peace that their neighbours have repeatedly offered them. 

ExpoTech Palestine in Gaza from December 4th-6th

26 October 2004


ExpoTech Palestine Exhibition will be held at the Rashad Al Shawa Cultural Center, Gaza from December 4th—6th 2004. Claim your exhibition space at the technology crossroads of Palestine Gaza City. Meet your market, launch, preview and demo products. Sell your proven technology solutions. Your competition will be here. Anybody who’s anybody in developing, manufacturing or marketing information and communications technology products, services and solutions will participates at ExpoTech Palestine. Shouldn’t you be here, too? NOTE: THIS EVENT WAS CANCELLED ON NOVEMBER 11TH. Organisers took the decision due to the political circumstances and the limited space sold for the Exhibition. 

Hills of God

Joe Carr Hebron, Ramallah 26 October 2004


Many of the Muslims in Ramallah are secular; combine this with a load of young western liberals, and you get the Las Vegas of Palestine. Birzeit University is located just north of the city, and it is quite the college atmosphere. Bir Zeit in Arabic means “Wells of Olive Oil”, but in German it means “Beer Time”, and this is a more fitting description. Restaurants and bars line the streets, and young internationals and Palestinians wander around raising hell. It is here where the idea of throwing paint bombs at Israeli soldiers arose. Now one can frequently see Israeli jeeps driving by covered in bright pink paint, and no guard tower has escaped colorization by mischievous shebab (youth). 

Prisoner Stories: Zafer Abdel Jawad al-Rimawi

Rima Merriman Abu Dis, Palestine 26 October 2004


Zafer’s first interrogation period at the Moskoubieh (Russian Compound in Jerusalem) lasted for 65 days, during which time he was tortured and kept naked in a one meter by one meter holding cell. His father learned through Zafer’s lawyer that Zafer had to be taken to a recovery room, where he stayed for three weeks due to the severity of the torture. A year and a half ago, Israeli intelligence officers, Riyad and Iyas, came looking for his brother Muneef. They ransacked the house and now periodically show up to look for him. Muneef remains on the run. 

UN Security Council briefing: More vigorous international engagement crucial to ending Middle East violence

22 October 2004


Calling for a more vigorous international engagement in the Middle East as an indispensable ingredient in ending the violence and bringing fresh hope for peace, Kieran Prendergast, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, told the Security Council this morning that he had painfully little that was positive to report on the situation and much that was negative. Briefing the Council on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question, he said it had been heard from many quarters that the time had come for a renewed peace effort, but that the parties to the conflict could not succeed if left to themselves. 

Israeli offensive on the Northern Gaza Strip kills 12 Palestinians

25 October 2004


In the context of reprisals against Palestinian civilians and their property, since Sunday evening, 24 October 2004, 12 Palestinians, 6 of whom were civilians, including a child, have been killed, and 63 others, including 20 children, have been injured by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF). In addition, IOF destroyed a house belonging to the family of a wanted Palestinians and 2 neighboring houses. They also destroyed some civilian property and areas of agricultural land. These attacks have taken place during an ongoing Israeli military incursion into al-Nimsawi neighborhood and Baten al-Samin area in the south of Khan Yunis. 

Electronic Intifada featured in book declaring dissent patriotic

24 October 2004


Electronic Intifada co-founder Laurie King-Irani is one of nearly forty authors featured in a new book, Patriotism, Democracy and Common Sense: Restoring America’s Promise at Home and Abroad, published by the Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation of Washington, DC. The book aims to educate Americans about alternatives to current US foreign, economic, Middle East, domestic, media, campaign finance, and voting rights policies. King-Irani’s chapter, “Awakening the American Political Debate on Palestine and Israel,” examines the role of the internet in building networks of citizen-activists to confront one of the most pressing issues of US foreign policy: the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. 

UNRWA Gaza field assessment of IDF Operation Days of Penitence

22 October 2004


Late on 28 September 2004 large numbers of Israeli Defence Force (IDF) tanks, bulldozers and armoured personnel carriers moved into Northern Gaza from permanent bases in Nissanit settlement, Erez Industrial Zone and the Eastern Border, tearing up roads and flattening homes and crops as they pushed forward. Israeli Army units established strategic positions on high ground overlooking the Jabalia, Izbet Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia areas; troops also deployed along the main road between Jabalia camp and Beit Hanoun and on the northern and eastern sides of Jabalia camp. 

"A failure by the Western media"

21 October 2004


“The book is based on a very long research study centered on public knowledge (from Europe and the US). We found that everybody in our sample had watched news on the conflict; they had memories of it, they could describe events they had seen. However, what we found was that, overwhelmingly, very few people understood the origins, the causes of the conflict.” Greg Philo, author of Bad News From Israel, explains in an interview with the Palestine Report his troubling research findings regarding media coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the U.S. and the U.K.
 

Weekly report on human rights violations

21 October 2004


IOF have perpetrated more violations of human rights against Palestinian civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). This week, 10 Palestinians, 5 of whom were civilians, including 2 elderly people, were killed, and at least 20 civilians were wounded by Israeli troops. Human rights violations perpetrated by IOF included willful killings, incursions into Palestinian areas, indiscriminate shelling, land leveling and total closure imposed on Palestinian communities. Also this week, settlers, who were fully supported by Israeli troops, attacked Palestinian farmers, who have started to cultivate their olives, and prevented many of these farmers from reaching their agricultural land.