May marked the 57th anniversary of al-Nakba (The Catastrophe), when Jews declared their state in Palestine and thousands of Palestinians were expelled from their homeland. Today, the Palestinian refugees number more than six million, comprising nearly one-third of the global refugee population. Aljazeera.net interviewed Salman Abu-Sitta, general coordinator of the Right of Return Congress and founder of the Palestine Land Society, on the issues surrounding al-Nakba and the fate of the refugees. Abu-Sitta has worked tirelessly for the Palestinian Right of Return for several decades, and has over 50 publications to his credit. His research has shown that there is ample space in present-day Israel to accommodate all Palestinian refugees. Read more about Palestinian right of return is feasible
Israeli occupation soldiers have shot and killed a Palestinian man in the southern West Bank town of Hebron, hours after the killing of another Palestinian near the northern city of Jenin. Palestinian sources and witnesses said Israeli soldiers patrolling the streets of Hebron’s old town on Sunday killed Omar Mahmoud al-Ghafi Hoshiyeh, 200 metres from the Ibrahimi Mosque. Palestinian witnesses told Aljazeera.net there was a verbal confrontation between the victim and one of the Israeli occupation soldiers, after which the soldier shot him seven times. However, an Israeli army spokesman said Hoshiyeh tried to stab a soldier. Read more about Israeli army kills more Palestinians
This week Israeli forces wounded a number of Palestinian civilians, including three children. Israeli forces conducted 16 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Houses were raided and 14 Palestinian civilians were arrested by Israeli forces in the West Bank. Israeli forces used a Palestinian civilian as a human shield while searching his house in al-Mughraqa village in the central Gaza Strip. Israeli forces have continued to impose a total siege on the OPT; IOF have continued to close a number of roads and border crossings in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the current Intifada and IOF arrested 14 Palestinian civilians, including three children, at military checkpoints in the West Bank. Read more about Weekly report on human rights violations
During the second intifada, Israel formally adopted a policy of assassinating Palestinians suspected of membership in armed organizations waging battle against it. In an attempt to counter the sharp criticism against this policy, Israel argued, among other things, that targeted assassinations were only carried out when it was unable to apprehend the persons targeted for assassination. According to B’Tselem’s figures, since the beginning of 2004, Israelis security forces have killed eighty-nine Palestinians during operations that the defense establishment refers to as arrest operations. At least seventeen of the persons killed were not wanted by Israel, but were civilians who were not suspected by Israel of having committed any offense. In addition, at least forty-three of those killed were unarmed, or were not attempting to use their arms against Israeli security forces at the time they were killed. None of these cases were investigated. Read more about Take No Prisoners: The Fatal Shooting of Palestinians by Israeli Forces During Arrest Operations
Governments should be allowing Palestinians the opportunity to claim political asylum, but they are failing to do so and mistreating Palestinians in the process. In this article, the writers consider international law in relation to this. They also examine the case of Khalil, who has — contrary to international law — not been given an effective opportunity to claim refugee status in the Netherlands and instead has been confined to a bureaucratic ‘no man’s land’, with severe personal consequences. Read more about No man's land: Government mistreatment of Palestinian asylum seekers
Two years ago a US magistrate judge pronounced al-Arian “a model of civic involvement” but denied him bail, substituting a nationalistic play for a real assessment of flight risk. The problem, evidently lost on the judge, is that Palestine cannot offer al-Arian or any other of its refugees safe haven; the Israeli military has occupied the Palestinian areas for 38 years and prohibits their return. Under US Supreme Court precedent, this flight risk makes al-Arian’s two-year pretrial stay in a Florida maximum-security prison, with 23 hours a day in solitary confinement, a constitutional administrative measure, not punishment. Read more about The Clash of Democratic Ideals
Governments are betraying their promise of a world order based on human rights and are pursuing a dangerous new agenda, said Amnesty International today as it launched its annual assessment of global human rights. Speaking at the launch of the Amnesty International Report 2005, the organization’s Secretary General Irene Khan said that governments had failed to show principled leadership and must be held to account. The Israeli army killed more than 700 Palestinians, including some 150 children. Most were killed unlawfully — in reckless shooting, shelling and air strikes in civilian residential areas; in extrajudicial executions; and as a result of excessive use of force. Read more about Amnesty launches annual assessment of human rights
The Knesset should not extend a discriminatory law, due to expire on May 31, which prevents Israeli citizens and residents from living with their spouses from the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the International Commission of Jurists said today in a joint letter to Knesset members. On May 15, the Israeli Cabinet endorsed a continuation of the law with limited exceptions based on the age and sex of the Palestinian spouse. The three human rights organizations called on Knesset members to reject this amendment, which is currently before the Knesset for a first reading, as insufficient. Read more about Israeli Discriminatory Law Tears Apart Thousands of Families
This week, Israeli forces killed five Palestinians, including a woman, and wounded a number of civilians. Israeli forces perpetrated a number of human rights violations, including shooting at and killing Palestinian civilians, incursions into Palestinian areas, house raids and arbitrary arrests. In violation of international law, including international humanitarian law, Israel has also continued to construct the ‘Annexation Wall’ inside the West Bank territory and expanded settlements, especially in Jerusalem and Hebron. They have also continued to impose severe restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians. Read more about Weekly report on human rights violations
At the end of April, Israeli authorities announced the course of the northern section of the wall, which will not only divide Dahiet Al Barid but will confiscate approximately 26.2 dunams land in Beit Hanina and Dahiet Al Barid and will close northern Jerusalem to about 100,000 Jerusalem residents who live in Al Ram, Dahiet Al Barid, Bir Nabala, Kufr Aqab, Sameer Amis and other northern neighborhoods. When residents saw the blueprints, a collective sigh of relief could almost be heard from the people on one side, whose homes would fall on the “Jerusalem side”, while the other side realized with a heavy sigh that they would be isolated by the wall, unable to reach Jerusalem. Read more about Jerusalem residents scramble to fight wall
