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Violence and the Road Map: The US Media's Double Standard

Ben Granby 26 May 2003


“It was an all too familiar scene in Afula on 19 May 2003. Screams, sirens and blood stained ground. When Hiba Daraghmeh detonated the explosives strapped around her just outside a shopping mall, she took the lives of three innocent people in a most brutal fashion. The American media was quick to report that the recent bombings would hurt the peace process, but they gave little note to the numerous obstructions that Ariel Sharon’s government has placed, or the Israeli army’s continued unprovoked attacks on Palestinian cities.” Ben Granby reports. 

Living "the other," fearing "the other"

George E. Irani 5 June 2003


Fear is nothing new in human affairs. It has been with us since the dawn of time. Now, however, we live in a world that is both increasingly intertwined and alarmingly disjointed. Globalization has dramatized a fundamental reality for the fortunate citizens living in the rich world: If you want to subject the rest of the planet to your models of consumption and personal freedoms, expect responses and reverberations. By no moral, legal, or cultural calculus will it ever be acceptable that some live in comfort and splendor while the majority of Earth’s human denizens suffer hunger, oppression, want and despair.” George E. Irani offers some insights into the dynamics underlying fear of Arabs and Muslims in the West in the pages of Beirut’s Daily Star. 

We reap what we sow

Nick Pretzlik 25 May 2003

“The relocation policy of shifting the Bedouin population into official settlements has the added benefit of creating a cheap source of labour for the Jewish economy. Life for the Bedouins is made as difficult as possible in order to pressure them into making that move. With the help of the legal ‘hocus pocus’ involved with the 1965 Planning and Construction Law, Unrecognised Villages became ‘de-legalised’ — existing buildings were unable to obtain permits and those which already possessed them, schools for example, had them rescinded. Whole communities became illegal.” Nick Pretzlik details the vast array of injustices committed against Bedouin citizens of Israel since 1948. 

B'Tselem response to incitement Israel's Foreign Minister against human rights groups

B'Tselem 21 May 2003

Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom’s statement that “most human rights organizations whose offices are in Gaza and the West Bank provide refuge to Palestinian terrorists,” is a direct continuation of the campaign that Israel’s government has been waging against human rights organizations operating in the occupied Palestinian territories. 

Trapped at Surda checkpoint

Birzeit University Right to Education Campaign 24 May 2003

After one day of curfew in Ramallah on May 18 and the two following days of complete siege, Israeli occupying forces suddenly opened the checkpoint on Wednesday. However, Israeli soldiers at the checkpoint closed the checkpoint just as suddenly at around 2 pm, trapping hundreds of ordinary citizens, Birzeit faculty staff and students. 

Weekly report on human rights violations

Palestinian Center for Human Rights 21 May 2003

This week Israeli forces killed 13 Palestinians, including a woman and three children, two mentally disabled, and two during the raid on Beit Hanoun. Israeli forces demolished 15 homes in Beit Hanoun and razed large areas of agricultural land. In Khan Yunis Israeli forces razed 272 dunums of agricultural land and in Rafah demolished 33 homes. Israeli forces continued indiscriminately shelling Palestinian residential areas, wounding a number of civilians. Israel continued to impose its siege on Palestinian villages and towns and denied movement to civilians, including internationals. 

Israeli Foreign Minister's incitement against Palestinian NGOs

Palestinian Center for Human Rights 22 May 2003


Silvan Shalom In a statement published in an Israeli newspaper, the Israeli Minister for Foreign Affairs, Silvan Shalom, alleged that Palestinian NGOs in the West Bank and Gaza Strip harbor terrorists. PCHR believes that these comments represent a threat to the work of Palestinian human rights NGOs and contends that the comments are particularly disturbing coming from a senior politician, indicating that they may reflect the official government position. 

Beit Hanoun - Attacks against civilians and their property

Médecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) 23 May 2003

The long series of Israeli military incursions into the town of Beit Hanoun in the Gaza strip continues and intensifies. The latest gives rise to violent offensive against civilians and their property. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), present in Gaza since the beginning of the Al Aqsa Intifada, deplores the wanton destruction of people’s lives and is alarmed at the medical, psychological and material consequences on local families affected by this disaster.