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UN Emergency Relief Coordinator: End use of cluster munitions

7 November 2006


“As a matter of urgency, I call on all States to implement an immediate freeze on the use of cluster munitions. This freeze is essential until the international community puts in place effective legal instruments to address urgent humanitarian concerns about their use,” said Jan Egeland, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator ahead of the convening of the Third Review Conference on the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), which opened today in Geneva. “I welcome the entry into force of Protocol V to the Convention. I call upon all States to ratify and implement it in order to help us in the humanitarian community address the challenges posed by cluster munitions in post-conflict settings,” added Mr. Egeland. 

UN agency reports significant damage in Beit Hanoun after Israeli withdrawal

7 November 2006


Israeli military forces withdrew from the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun today, leaving behind significant damage to roads and houses, destroyed phone and electricity lines and shortage of food and water, the main United Nations refugee agency caring for Palestinians reported. The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said Israeli forces were still present in other parts of Gaza. Since last Friday, a joint humanitarian convoy of UNRWA and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been in Beit Hanoun delivering food, water, milk, blankets and mattresses to the hospital there. Additional convoys entered over the weekend and yesterday. 

Visa regime splits Palestinian families

7 November 2006


A thousand West Bank Palestinians holding foreign passports have been expelled from their homes and thousands more face a similar fate after Israel tightened its visa regime, according to Palestinian campaigners. “After being married for 31 years, I face today a compulsory divorce as the Israeli government has refused to renew the visit visa of my wife who holds a US passport,” said Dr Adel Samara from Ramallah. Under the new policy, tourist visas are no longer being issued to foreigners. Up until March this year, Palestinians holding foreign passports had previously been renewing their three-month tourist visas, rather than go through the long and uncertain process of applying for residency permits from the Israeli government. 

Report: Authorities Must Address Violence against Women and Girls

6 November 2006


The Palestinian Authority (PA) has failed to establish an effective framework to respond to violence against women and girls, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Despite the current political and economic crisis, there are steps that the PA can and should take to address these abuses as a priority issue within its security agenda. The 101-page report, “A Question of Security: Violence Against Palestinian Women and Girls,” based on field research conducted in the West Bank and Gaza in November 2005 and early 2006, documents dozens of cases of violence. 

Two White Sisters in Asia: Israel and Australia

M. Shahid Alam 7 November 2006


In a recent interview published in Haaretz, Naftali Tamir, the Israeli ambassador to Australia, articulates a perennial need for ‘white’ collaborators that has defined the Zionist project since its inception. He speaks bluntly of an Israeli partnership with Australia, founded on racial solidarity, to “enhance” Israeli influence over East Asia. Only perhaps in the nineteenth century could a Western diplomat have spoken so plainly about race as the basis of a political alliance. Infinitely better armed against their Arab victims, the Israelis have no need for caution. They can dispense with diplomacy, with political correctness. 

Lebanon II: The Wider Picture

Yacov Ben Efrat 7 November 2006


The ramifications of Israel’s second Lebanon War should be gauged against the background of the dramatic events that the region has undergone in the last three years: the fall of Saddam Hussein, the Hamas electoral victory, and changes in Israel’s political economy. These events, in turn, should be viewed against the political vacuum created by the fall of the Soviet Union. The vacuum has been filled in two very different ways: 1) by the neo-liberal conceptions of the global capitalist regime, and 2) by Islamic fundamentalism. The Organization for Democratic Action (ODA-Da’am) opposed the war in Lebanon. 

Beit Hanoun: A People's Will versus an Army's Arsenal

Rami Almeghari Gaza Strip 7 November 2006


“The Israeli army soldiers are now blockading the mosque; while a number of resistance fighters are inside, where they have taken sanctuary for fear of being attacked. Dozens of women made their way into the mosque, to make a defensive shield for the helpless men inside,” Faten Sehwail of Beit Hanoun told me by cellphone while huddled inside her home, unable to go outside because of the Israeli army-imposed curfew. Beit Hanoun is a small Palestinian city in the northern Gaza Strip, where Israeli-created “autumn clouds” are now over the heads of its residents, making their days as black as their nights. 

Renewed violence in Gaza raises serious concerns for children's safety

Sabine Dolan 7 November 2006


Renewed violence in Gaza is again raising serious concerns about the welfare of civilians, including children. Now in its sixth day, the armed conflict has claimed the lives of an estimated 50 Palestinians - half of them civilians, and 8 of them children. “The situation in northern Gaza, and in particular in Beit Hanoun, is very serious and is getting worse,” says UNICEF Representative in the Occupied Palestinian Territory Dan Rohrmann. “We have seen an extraordinary number of children being killed just in the last five days. There are tanks everywhere, shelling, house demolitions and there is fighting in the streets. People are getting quite desperate.” 

Palestine Children's Welfare Fund announces Jayyous support efforts

Riad Elsolh Hamad 6 November 2006


The Palestine Children’s Welfare Fund is pleased to announce that it was able to sponsor a party for the children of Jayyous to celebrate the Eid during the month of October 2006. The party was held in the center of the Jayyous Charitable Society where more than 100 children received bags that contained toys, crayons, children’s books and candy. Most of the children belonged to the English program that PCWF sponsors in Jayyous and funds the salaries of the teachers, books and computer equipment for the last three years. Funding of the program comes from generous sponsors such as Antar and Abla from Palestine and Lebanon and Dubai Women’s College and private donors who want to see an end for the suffering of the children in Palestine. 

The Conflict Cannot Wait

Roni Ben Efrat 6 November 2006


America’s entrapment in Iraq creates a vacuum through the Middle East. The way out of that war has become the great question of US politics. Mid-term Congressional elections are due on November 7, 2006, but whatever the result, President George W. Bush will be a lame duck. If he boldly signals a change of direction (for example, by firing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld), he will lose all credibility. On the other hand, if he doggedly “stays the course,” he will appear as a man out of touch with reality, unfit to lead his nation or the world. Either way, Bush’s lot will be that of the leaders his policy helped bring down: Asnar in Spain, Berlusconi in Italy, Blair in Britain.