The United Nations General Assembly today delayed until Tuesday a vote on a draft resolution introduced by Arab countries that seeks to end Israel’s construction of a separation barrier in and around the West Bank after the barrier was declared illegal by the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The vote had been scheduled for today after Jordan introduced the draft text last Friday during a resumption of the Assembly’s tenth emergency special session on illegal Israeli actions in the occupied Palestinian territory. Read more about General Assembly delays vote on Wall resolution
When The Hague speaks, the world listens, especially when a threat to international peace is involved. At least this was the case until the International Court of Justice took aim at Israel. At issue was the Israeli government’s building of a separation wall on occupied Palestinian lands in the West Bank, which, in essence, has caged Palestinian communities into ghettos reminiscent of the Jewish ghettos in Europe during World War II. Palestinian-American businessman Sam Bahour writes from beseiged Al-Bireh. Read more about The World Is Knocking on Israel's Door
Widespread protests have accompanied Yasser Arafat’s appointment of his nephew Musa Arafat as the new head of the Palestinian General Security Service. Thousands of people demonstrated in the Gaza Strip on Saturday night against the appointment while the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, the armed wing of al-Fateh, described Musa Arafat as a “symbol” of the PA’s corruption. The appointment deepened the rift between Arafat’s generation, which led the Palestinian struggle from exile for decades, and young Palestinians who struggled against the Israeli occupation and who accuse the old guard of corruption and monopolizing power. Read more about What's wrong with the PA?
In Budrus, our strategies in our struggle against the Apartheid Wall are peaceful. We only confront the bulldozers that are uprooting the trees planted by our ancestors - trees that help us to feed our children. Although olive trees won’t make us rich, we won’t go hungry as long as we have them. The Palestinian people have tried large-scale peaceful civil resistance against the Israeli occupation at various times since 1967. Each time, non-violence was crushed by Israeli government-sponsored violence. When non-violence failed to bring freedom and independence, some people turned to violent struggle. Budrus resident Ayed Morrar explains where it’s all at. Read more about The Peaceful Fall of Israel's Wall
With the recent International Court of Justice (ICJ) Advisory Opinion regarding the consequences of the Apartheid Wall, the legality of this enterprise has been much discussed in almost all circles related to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. On the Zionist side, aside from the usual canard about the “anti-Semitism” of the United Nations and the like, many commentaries have pointed to the recent Israeli High Court of Justice (HCJ) ruling about the wall and declared, in so many words, that this is the only legal ruling that matters. John Sigler notes that if one actually reads the HCJ decision, it in fact makes a very strong case against the Wall in general though its ruling only regarded only one small 40 km stretch of the Wall. Read more about The Israeli High Court of Justice and the Apartheid Wall
This week Israeli forces killed 13 Palestinians, mostly civilians, including a child and a woman. One of the victims was killed in an extra-judicial execution. Israel continued its assault on Beit Hanoun. Israeli forces invaded a number of areas and demolished 75 homes and razed agricultural lands. As a collective punishment against families of Palestinian fighters, Israeli forces demolished six homes. Despite the ruling of the International Court of Justice, Israel continued construction on its annexation wall. Israel also continues to impose a total siege on the occupied Palestinian territories. Read more about Weekly report on human rights violations
In a session held on 13 July 2004, the Israeli High Court rejected an appeal submitted by PCHR on behalf of a number of Palestinian civilians to stop the seizure of their agricultural land in al-Qarar village, northeast of Khan Yunis, near the “Kissufim” settler road. PCHR had submitted an appeal to the Israeli High Court on 28 June 2004, after a number of Palestinian civilians received military orders on 16 and 17 June 2004, ordering the seizure of their land near the aforementioned road. The area of the affected land is estimated at hundreds of donums, which belong to several families, including al-Sumairi, Abu Haddaf, Abu Hajjaj, Abu ‘Aamer and others. Read more about Israeli High Court rejects appeal against land theft
After visiting UNRWA food distribution in Beit Hanoun, Peter Hansen, UNRWA’s Commissioner-General, and UNRWA’s operations personnel visited some of the demolished areas on the outskirts of the town in a five-vehicle convoy clearly marked with UN flags and symbols. Shortly after passing an Israeli armoured personnel carrier, the convoy stopped, 500m from the APC, to survey a citrus orchard that had been bulldozed by the Israeli military. At that point rapid firing appreared to come from the APC in the direction of the convoy. Hansen and the UNRWA personnel were forced to take cover in a nearby family home. Read more about Israeli forces open fire on UN Convoy
Thousands of Palestinians are being denied their fundamental right to live as a family by an Israeli law that is due for review at the end of this month. The Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law bars Israelis who are married to Palestinians from the Occupied Territories from living with their spouses in Israel. In a report published today, Torn Apart: Families split by discriminatory policies, Amnesty International calls on Israel to repeal the law on family unification, which discriminates against Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza and against the Palestinian citizens of Israel and residents of Jerusalem who marry them. Read more about Families torn apart by discriminatory policies
“On June 10th, 2004, the two clinics in Al-Zawiya treated 130 patients for gas inhalation. The patients were children, women, old people and young men. Dr. Abu Madi related that there was a high number of cases of [tetany], spasm in legs and hands, connected to the nervous system. Pupils were dilated… Other symptoms included shock, semi-consciousness, hyperventilation, irritation and sweating.” Thus reads a report by medical units serving the West Bank village of Al-Zawiya, where nonviolent resistance to Israel’s impending wall has been extraordinarily resolute. According to the medical report (procured by the International Middle East Media Center - IMEMC), “the gas used against the protestors is not tear gas but possibly a nerve gas.” James Brooks reports. Read more about Dispersing Demonstrations--Or Chemical Warfare?
