“A man in his sixties, with kind eyes and a ready smile, waits until I am comfortably situated before he approaches me, pulls up his shirt, and points to an area just to the left of his navel. ‘lammasini hon, sittnaa!’ he quietly requests, ‘Touch me here, Ma’am!’ His middle-aged daughters sit silently around me, their eyes focused on nothing in particular as I gingerly comply with their father’s request. Touching the damp flesh of his round white belly, I am shocked to feel the hard, spherical mass of a bullet trapped in his stomach muscles.” On the 21st anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila massacre, EI’s Laurie King-Irani reflects on the search for international justice on a journey from Beirut to Brussels. Read more about 21 Septembers Ago
Rula was in the last stages of labor. Daoud says the soldiers at the checkpoint wouldn’t let them through, so his wife hid behind a concrete block and gave birth on the ground. A few minutes later, the baby girl died. They wanted to call her Mira. All their children have names that begin with M, from Mohammed to Meida, their youngest daughter. They borrowed baby clothes from Rula’s sister - their financial situation after three years of unemployment made buying new clothes out of the question - and they packed a bag to be ready for the birth. Now they are beside themselves with grief. Rula doesn’t say a word and Daoud can’t keep the words from pouring out. Gideon Levy writes in Ha’aretz.Read more about Twilight Zone: Birth and death at the checkpoint
The Jerusalem Center for Social & Economic Rights (JCSER) has obtained a decision from the Israeli Conciliation Court in Tel Aviv forcing the Israeli army to freeze construction work on the so-called Israeli ‘security fence’ in the Sawahreh Ash-Sharqiya neighborhood, south of Occupied Jerusalem, for ten days. Read more about Court decision obtained to freeze construction of wall south Jerusalem
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the members of the Security Council called on Israel today not to expel Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, warning that such a move would dangerously exacerbate tension and instability in the region. Read more about Annan, Security Council call on Israel not to expel Arafat
In the past few weeks, a number of violent acts prohibited by international humanitarian law have caused death and injury among civilians, including many children. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is very concerned about these recent attacks on civilians. Read more about ICRC: "Deliberate attacks on civilians must stop"
