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Fundamentalisms, media, and the new McCarthyism: how demagogues are hijacking Washington, DC

Laurie King 18 December 2002

“It is increasingly clear that Arabs and Muslims are the new enemy in Washington, a national capital that many find reminiscent of the dark days of the McCarthy Era.” A presentation delivered by EI’s Laurie King-Irani at the seventh annual “Common Terms: The Dialogue of Civilizations” conference sponsored by the Imam Musa Sadr Foundation, 13 December 2002, in Beirut, Lebanon. 

800 American professors sign document warning of coming Israeli ethnic cleansing

Nigel Parry 18 December 2002

Earlier this year, 187 Israeli professors signed an “Urgent Warning” letter titled “The Israeli government may be contemplating crimes against humanity.” Today, 800 American professors have signed a similar document, warning of coming Israeli ethnic cleansing. EI’s Nigel Parry reports. 

Israeli checkpoints result in death of two Palestinian babies

Patricia Smith Beit Hanina 18 December 2002

Adla Abdel Jaber As-Sayyefi, 37 years old, went into labour at around 3am on the morning of December 10th. Her husband rushed to his parent’s house concerned because Adla was due to go hospital to have an operation as it was going to be a breech birth, but she went into labour too early. Patricia Smith tells the story. 

Exposing the Israeli Occupation: the case of Jaggi Singh

Stefan Christoff 18 December 2002


Above: Jaggi Singh. Jaggi Singh, a Montreal based activist and writer was granted entry into Israel after winning an appeal filed by Israeli lawyer Shamai Leibowitz on December 16th in Tel Aviv by the District Court. An illegal deportation order was issued by Israeli authorities upon Jaggi’s arrival in Tel Aviv on December 14th. Jaggi spent 2 days in detention at Ben-Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv fighting the illegal deportation order from Israel with support from many Israeli peace activists and international solidarity activists. Stefan Christoff reports. 

Washington Post retracts "Holocaust revisionism" claim against Norman Finkelstein

Mark Hand 17 December 2002

Washington Post columnist Marc Fisher revealed either simple ignorance of a well-established school of thought or journalistic laziness when he attached the label of ‘Holocaust revisionist’ to author Norman Finkelstein. Amazingly, it took a while for Finkelstein to get a retraction. Mark Hand reports. 

8 Palestinians killed in Israel attack were unarmed civilians says UN inquiry

Justin Huggler 16 December 2002

A United Nations inquiry has found that, contrary to claims by the Israeli army, eight of the 10 Palestinians killed in a raid in the Gaza Strip were unarmed civilians. There was fury among Palestinians at the death toll and the timing of the raid on Bureij refugee camp early on Friday 6 December, during Eid al-Fitr, the festival that marks the end of Ramadan and is one of the most important holidays in the Muslim year. Justin Huggler reports for The Independent. 

The New York Times gets an 'F' for geography

Michael F. Brown 18 December 2002


“Every six months or so a report comes out detailing the woeful state of geographical knowledge held by many Americans. Usually people chuckle and wonder how it is that so many Americans think California is on the East Coast. After all, every rightly educated American knows it’s on the Left Coast.” Mike Brown writes about what happens when the New York Times sits in on a Middle East geography test.