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The Coming Storm

Nora Barrows-Friedman Dheisheh refugee camp, Palestine 21 January 2007


It is the dead of winter here in Palestine. Slick rivers of mud and sewage drain into the gutters as hot tea is served in small glass cups, over and over again, to ward off the biting cold. People sit huddled near the gas heaters, rain pounding against the windows and steel doors as they brace for the next storm — not just the one coming down in a torrent from above, but the one just five miles up the road, past the illegal checkpoints, where Israel is planning the next step in its project of ethnic expulsion and sanitization. Six months after my last trip here, and I am once again in a permanent state of shock and fury. 

Unexploded ordnance killed 27 since end of war

19 January 2007


There have been 27 reported fatalities and 179 reported injuries from all types of unexploded ordnance in Lebanon. Of these totals, males and females 18 years old or younger accounted for six of the fatalities and 64 of the injuries, according to MACC-SL. All the fatalities and all but five of the injuries resulted from cluster munitions. So far, 839 cluster bomb strike locations have been identified in the south. For each cluster-bomb strike, clearance personnel must verify an area totaling 196,000 square meters to locate (and eventually destroy) all unexploded bomblets. 

The hate that dare not speak its name

Eóin Murray West Bank, Palestine 20 January 2007


Topography here is in constant fluctuation. From one visit to the next a whole area, or just a small street, can look completely different. In Gaza, maybe it has been destroyed or, sometimes, rebuilt. In the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, a flow of ongoing construction manifests itself in the wall, in the illegal settlements and in the construction of the discriminatory road system. Today, while driving through the western edges of the West Bank, we began to understand what the “forbidden roads regime” actually means — through an intricate series of road systems Israelis will travel on one set of roads while Palestinians will travel on roads built underneath them. 

Disengaged Occupiers: The Legal Status of Gaza

21 January 2007


In contrast to the rhetoric used to describe the disengagement plan, Israel has not relinquished control over Gaza but rather removed some elements of control while tightening other significant controls. Far from improving the economy and welfare of Gaza residents, Israeli actions since September 2005 — including severe restrictions on the movement of people and goods in and out of Gaza and an economic stronghold on the funding of civil services — have contributed to an economic and humanitarian crisis in Gaza not seen in the 38 years of Israeli control that preceded the withdrawal of permanent ground troops. 

Two Killed and Five Injured in Gaza Weapons Mishandling

21 January 2007


PCHR’s preliminary investigation indicates that at approximately 19:00 on Saturday, 20 January 2007, Ashraf Matar (22) was injured by a bullet in the head during weapons training in a camp for Izzedeen El-Qassam Battalions to the southwest of Gaza City. He was taken to Shifa hospital for treatment, where his injury was listed as serious. At approximately 11:30 on Friday, 19 January 2007, Salim Sobhi Ibrahim Abu El-Kheir, a 51-year old resident of El-Amal Quarter in Khan Yunis, was killed by bullets to the head and chest. Unknown gunmen traveling in a car fired at the victim as he was heading to the mosque in his neighborhood. 

Appeal to Oppose Canadian Foreign Minister's Visit to the Middle East

Tadamon! 20 January 2007


Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister, Peter MacKay, who recently traveled to Afghanistan, is planning a larger visit to the Middle East region, with the stated aim of promoting “peace and dialogue”. Conservative Party Foreign Minister MacKay will arrive in Lebanon and Palestine in the coming days. Tadamon! Montreal issues this appeal in an effort to highlight the Conservative government’s role and position as an imperialist player in the Middle East. Canadian intervention in the region is best illustrated by the Conservative government’s open support for Israel’s brutal assault on Lebanon in the summer of 2006 and by Canada’s ongoing military presence in Afghanistan. 

Palestinians attend World Social Forum

20 January 2007


A broad and unified delegation will present the agenda of Palestinian civil society at the first global World Social Forum to be held on the African continent between 20 and 25 January 2007, namely, building the global Campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it ends its apartheid-like regime of discrimination, occupation and colonization, and respects the right of return of Palestinian refugees and IDPs. The some 30 members-strong delegation represents all major Palestinian community and NGO networks operating in the occupied Palestinian territory, Israel and Lebanon. 

Israel's Dark Future

Jonathan Cook 20 January 2007


When I published my book Blood and Religion last year, I sought not only to explain what lay behind Israeli policies since the failed Camp David negotiations nearly seven years ago, including the disengagement from Gaza and the building of a wall across the West Bank, but I also offered a few suggestions about where Israel might head next. Making predictions in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict might be considered a particularly dangerous form of hubris, but I could hardly have guessed how soon my fears would be realized. 

Democracy Languishes, but Neo-Con Strategy Lives

Jim Lobe 20 January 2007


WASHINGTON, Jan 18 (IPS) - The Project for the New American Century (PNAC) may have effectively closed up shop two years ago and its key neo-conservative allies in the administration, such as Scooter Libby and Douglas Feith, may be long gone, but the group’s five-year-old Middle East strategy remains very much alive. This is not the “Wilsonian” strategy of transforming Iraq into a model of democracy and pluralism that will then spread domino-like across the entire benighted region of autocrats, monarchs and theocrats whose oppression and backwardness have, in the neo-con narrative, been the main cause of anti-U.S. Islamic extremism. 

Weekly Report of Human Rights Violations

18 January 2007


On 14 January 2007, IOF killed two members of the Palestinian resistance in the northern Gaza Strip. IOF fired at them when they were 20 meters away from the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel. In the West Bank, on 16 January 2007, a Palestinian detainee died in the Negev Prison inside Israel due to medical negligence. During the reporting period, IOF conducted at least 30 military incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank. During these incursions, IOF raided houses and arrested 54 Palestinian civilians, including 5 children and a woman and her daughter.