1 January 2003
“I was searching for the humane side of people’s dreams, people’s hunger and people’s disappointments. I was not looking for numbers, who is right, or why this happened,” Bakri said. “For me, it’s a prayer to stop this hell we are living in.” Joshua Mitnick of the New Jersey Star Ledger reports on a censorship move that calls Israeli democracy into question. Read more about Israeli film board bans "Jenin, Jenin"
30 December 2002
B’Tselem released a new case study exposing a severe incident in which IDF soldiers in Hebron abused Palestinians and used them as human shields. On December 3, four Israeli soldiers entered a barbershop in Hebron. For more than an hour they abused five Palestinian residents of the city. Read more about B'Tselem: Soldiers' Abuse of Palestinians in Hebron, 3 December 2002
30 December 2002
On 24 December 2002, Reporters sans Frontières criticised the interior minister’s decision to close the radical Islamic weekly “Sawt al-Haq wa Al-Hurriya” (“Voice of Truth and Freedom”) for two years, on grounds that it threatens national security, as very excessive. Read more about Israeli government orders Arab weekly's closure
2 January 2003
“It is amazing that the U.S. invests effort and political capital in establishing an objective — an end to the occupation so that two states, Israel and Palestine, can live side by side — and then invests extra efforts into diluting, undermining and avoiding anything that could bring this closer.” Occasional EI commentator Hasan Abu Nimah writes about the diplomacy of buying time. Read more about The futile diplomacy of buying time
29 December 2002
On 19 December 2002, Israeli activists held an event at Tzavta Hall in Tel Aviv to protest the indefinitely extended prison sentences currently being handed to the young men refusing conscription. The event was sponsored by conscientious objector organisations Yesh Gvul and Shministim, the latter a group of high school seniors who have declared their refusal to serve in the Israeli army. The following is the text of a speech made at this event by Anat Matar, a veteran anti-occupation activist and the mother of Haggai Matar, one of the men in prison for refusing to serve. Read more about The war to annihilate Palestinian civil society
Jenin, Palestine 29 December 2002
“What language beside Arabic do you see in shop windows in Jenin?” A few boys answered, “Hebrew.” “Yes,” the teacher/ustadh went on, “when there were good relations between Israelis and us, people came from Israel to shop in Jenin. How can they know where to buy something unless they can understand the sign?” Annie Higgins writes about language lessons in Jenin. Read more about Language lessons in Jenin
27 December 2002
The Legal Advisor to the government has asked the Central Elections Committee to bar the Balad list and MK Azmi Bashara from standing in the forthcoming elections. Aeyal Gross, lecturer in Constitutional and International Law at Tel Aviv University, wonders, however, what is really the major threat to Israeli democracy? Read more about Where is the democracy here?
25 December 2002
Seven Israeli and Palestinian human rights organizations made a further submission to the Supreme Court in connection with their 5 May 2002 petition seeking to prohibit the Israeli army from using Palestinian civilians as human shields. Read more about Israeli army continues to breach Supreme Court injunction prohibiting use of Palestinian civilians as human shields
26 December 2002
Israeli occupying forces have perpetrated more war crimes and human rights violations against Palestinian civilians, including willful and extra-judicial killings, shelling of and incursions into Palestinian areas, house demolitions, and agricultural land leveling. This week, nine Palestinians – all civilians including a member of the Palestinian Security Forces, three children and a woman, were killed by Israeli forces. Read more about Weekly report on human rights violations
Jenin, Palestine 26 December 2002
“The day after Christmas, the Israeli Army has killed six men, one of them from the next village over, Qabatiya. He is Hamza Abu Rubb who was active in Islamic Jihad. The Army’s obvious presence, comprised of tanks and armored personnel carriers, have been less in evidence. However, they are very much here, using Special Forces soldiers disguised as Arabs to track down and arrest or kill men.” Annie Higgins writes from Jenin. Read more about Jenin: the day after Christmas