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"No pride in war, no pride in occupation!"

31 May 2003

“As Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Two-Spirit, Trans and Intersex and Queer people we understand what it means to be silenced, used as scapegoats, and targeted with violence for being who we are. This is experienced more intensely for those of us who are also people of color and trans experience. For these reasons, we feel it is crucial in the current political climate to make anti-war organizing and the fight against racism — at home and abroad — a priority for our movement. ” More Americans come out against occupation and injustice. 

PBS documentary "In the Line of Fire" to re-air on June 5th

The Electronic Intifada 31 May 2003


While working as a journalist in Israel, Patricia Naylor, a Canadian TV producer, met a number of Palestinian video cameramen and still photographers who cover the frequent clashes in Hebron. These journalists work for Western media companies. Cameramen Mazen Dana and Nael Shyouki of the British news agency, Reuters, and their colleagues are accustomed to the risks of photographing street protests and riots. But displaying their wounds, they all told Naylor they had become targets of Israeli soldiers firing rubber bullets and even live ammunition. The excellent Frontline documentary is being rebroadcast on 5 June 2003 on PBS. 

On Israel's separation fence (part 2)

Meron Rappaport 31 May 2003


Alfei Menashe and Matan’s success was a catastrophe for Kalkilya. The city became an island surrounded by fences on four sides, cut off from the villagers that bring it goods and do their shopping and depend on it for civil services. But, as Uzi Dayan says, “The fence isn’t supposed to make everybody happy. There was no choice.” Meron Rappaport reports in Yedioth Ahronoth. 

On Israel's separation fence (part 1)

Meron Rappaport 31 May 2003


Something strange has been happening in recent months to the separation fence. What began thanks to a campaign of the Israeli Left and Center under Barak-style slogans of “we are here, they are there,” it has become the baby of the Sharon government. The same Sharon who during the unity government opposed building the fence and was dragged into it almost against his will, on any given day has 500 bulldozers at work, paving and building one of the largest projects in the history of the country, perhaps the largest. Meron Rappaport reports in Yedioth Ahronoth. 

IFJ calls for journalists' rights and security to be made a priority in Israeli-Palestinian dialogue

International Federation of Journalists 29 May 2003

The International Federation of Journalists today called for the rights and security of journalists to be made a priority in the forthcoming dialogue between Israeli and Palestinian leaders. “It is time to set journalists free and to build democracy through dialogue, tolerance and press freedom,” says the IFJ in a letter to both sides. 

UN Committee: "Excessive emphasis upon the State as a 'Jewish State' encourages discrimination"

Badil 31 May 2003

A recent review by the UN of Israel’s performance under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights expressed concern that “excessive emphasis upon the State as a “Jewish State” encourages discrimination and accords a second-class status to its non-Jewish citizens. 

The President, the Dean, and the Historiography of 1948 Palestine

Ilan Pappe 30 May 2003

“On May 22, at 2 P.M., the lectures and the audience arrived at hall 715 in the university. The doors were locked. In the corridor stood the university’s chief of security forces and ten of his henchmen, all armed with pistols and walkie-talkies. I was pushed into a side room by the chief and his lieutenant and handed a personal letter from the president, Yehuda Hayut. This was done in front of my wife and my colleagues, who watched helplessly as the macabre scene unfolded. Outside the corridor, my wife heard two other lieutenants of the chief informing the president over their walkie-talkies, ‘We caught him!’ They also said to each other, ‘High time! They should do the same to all the leftist lectures in the university!’” Dr. Ilan Pappe, a professor at Haifa University, prevents a chilling account in clinical detail of heavy-handed repression of academic speech at his university. 

Peace is a long way off

Nick Pretzlik 30 May 2003

Nick Pretzlik, now in Jenin, reports on local responses to the Road Map, noting that Palestinians “have suffered too much and too long to accept a plan which permits the apartheid walls and electrified fences to remain, a plan which leaves settler roads and key settlements in place, and allows Palestinian water resources, airspace and borders to remain under Israeli control. Even if the current generation can accept that, I doubt that their children will.” 

Weekly report on human rights violations

Palestinian Center for Human Rights 29 May 2003

This week Israeli forces killed 5 Palestinians, including three children and a mentally disabled man. Israeli forces demolished 15 homes and razed large areas of agricultural land in Beit Hanoun. Israeli forces conducted a number of raids on Palestinian towns and indiscriminately shelled Palestinian residential areas. Israeli forces continued retaliatory attacks against families of wanted Palestinians, demolishing 7 homes. Israeli forces arrested more Palestinians and continued to impose a tight siege on Palestinian communities.