16 January 2003
The European Commission praised the Palestinian Authority’s efforts to crack down on financial irregularities yesterday, despite claims from Israel that the organisation funded suicide bombers. Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian Finance Minister, has garnered widespread approval for his book-keeping. Justin Huggler reports in The Independent. Read more about Palestinian's IMF pointman dispels corruption fears
15 January 2003
Israel today shut down two West Bank universities as two Palestinians were killed in clashes and Israeli troops sealed the homes of four Jerusalem Arabs responsible for killing 35 people, including five Americans, in bombings. In Hebron, the army closed the Islamic University and Polytechnic Institution as part of its response to the Tel Aviv bombing earlier this month in which 22 people were killed. Jamie Tarabay reports for the Associated Press. Read more about Israel closes Palestinian universities
17 January 2003
Belgium gave itself the right in 1993 to try cases of war crimes committed by anyone, anywhere at any time. However, legal setbacks to the “universal competence” law have blunted Belgium’s zeal to act as an international war crimes court. Last June a Belgian court appeared to kill off the case against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon when it declared that he could not be tried because he wasn’t physically present in Belgium. That obstacle now appears likely to be dismantled. Andrew Osborn reports from Brussels in The Guardian. Read more about Belgium may revive Sharon war crimes case
17 January 2003
John Wadham, director of the human rights watchdog Liberty, has warned of a “substantial risk of a miscarriage of justice” arising from the reporting of the recent terrorist arrests in Manchester and London. Mr Wadham said the addition of “government, MI5 and media spin” to the reporting of the arrests could unduly influence juries when the terrorist suspects’ cases come to court. Ciar Byrne reports in The Guardian. Read more about UK media warned over terrorism reporting
17 January 2003
The clash of civilisations that George Bush and his minions are trying to fabricate as a cover for a preemptive oil and hegemony war against Iraq is supposed to result in a triumph of democratic nation-building, regime change and forcible modernisation a l’americaine. Meanwhile, the soul-and-body destroying situation in Palestine worsens all the time. Writing in Al-Ahram Weekly, Edward Said urges an Arab alternative to the wreckage that is about to engulf our world. Read more about An unacceptable helplessness
16 January 2003
During a press conference Wednesday, in Brooklyn’s All Arab Center, Naseer Al-Muharrad from the Campaign to Monitor the Media made a startling claim, asserting that, “the killing of Palestinians means something.” BNN Special Diplomatic Correspondent Roger Penaisse reports. Read more about Arab group claims that killings of Palestinians "means something"
16 January 2003
This week, Israeli forces and settlers killed twelve Palestinians, including five children and a mentally disabled man. Throughout this week, Israeli forces conducted a series of incursions into Palestinian areas, accompanied by indiscriminate shelling. Israeli forces continued their arrest campaigns and the strict siege of the West Bank and Gaza Strip is still imposed. Read more about Weekly report on human rights violations
15 January 2003
“Since the creation of Israel in 1948, its supporters have been highly successful in ensuring that Israel’s version of its and its neighbours’ histories has been accepted as received truth. Dents have been made, notably by Israel’s own historians as they have had greater access to official documents, in the Zionist myths. But they have usually been hammered out with alacrity, both by Israel and our domestic broadcasters.”
Tim Llewellyn, welcoming the ITC’s acquittal of John Pilger’s film “Palestine is still the issue” from false charges of undue bias, raises unsettling questions about mainstream media compliance with offical Israeli spin. Read more about False witnesses: A shot across the bow of mainstream media
Ram, Palestine 15 January 2003
I have a headache today. I’m not the only one. The woman in the apartment building in Silwan, where I was this morning also has a headache. So does her children. She told me herself. Read more about Explosions, a headache from an unlikely source
Jenin, Palestine 15 January 2003
Photo by Musa Al-Shaer.
“As I was walking from the house at the top of the hill, occupied by Israeli forces from beginning to end of the sixteen-day invasion of Jenin Refugee Camp in October/November, schoolboys on the road asked me this question. It is a refrain that punctuates my comings and goings, and it is one that leaves me tongue-tied. The question is not, ‘Do you talk to them?’ because anybody can do that. What matters is if they respond with words rather than gunfire. The nature of the soldiers’ response is a source of curiosity for people who are always in danger of being shot rather than spoken to.” Annie Higgins writes from Jenin. Read more about Do they talk to you?