Khalil Shikaki of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research was attacked by an angry mob when he recently held a press conference announcing the results of a poll conducted among 4,500 Palestinian refugees on the right of return. In his study, Shikaki reported that only 10 percent of Palestinian refugees would insist on returning to Israel and becoming citizens there. Supporters of Israel and others who want to disregard refugee rights in any solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict embraced the findings. How could it be that for decades everyone — not least the refugees themselves — mistakenly believed that granting rights to millions of Palestinian refugees was the key to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict? How is it that
now a single, dubious poll threatens to make the entire problem disappear into a puff of smoke? EI’s Ali Abunimah takes a closer look to help clear the fog. Read more about Who said Palestinians gave up the right of return?
With a total projected length of 650 kilometers-twice the size of the Green Line-Israel’s so-called “security” Wall is the final act in pre-empting an independent and viable Palestinian state. Israel, argued Stephanie Khoury, a legal advisor to the Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) Negotiations Affairs Department (NAD), is using the Wall to consolidate and expand Israel’s hold on Palestinian land in order to facilitate further settlement expansion. According to Khoury and Fuad Hallak, a technical advisor to the NAD, the Wall is a means for Israel to de facto annex approximately 55 percent of the West Bank from its central, western, and eastern areas, including the Jordan Valley. Read more about The Apartheid Wall's threat to a viable Palestinian state
Luc Walleyn, Michael Verhaeghe and Chibli Mallat18 July 2003
“The Belgian government’s proposal to greatly limit the law is also a blow for all the victims and survivors of the 1982 massacre at Sabra and Shatila. After having been welcomed by the Belgian state to file for an investigation that seemed impossible for years, that same state now turns its back on them and their overdue search for justice, for fear of economic sanctions. After having been invited to re-live the dramatic events of the massacre, the proposal about to be passed by Belgium’s parliament irresponsibly and cruelly crushes their hope of finally overcoming two decades of emotional stress and difficulties.” The lawyers for the survivors of the Sabra and Shatila massacre respond to the miscarriage of justice in Brussels. Read more about Lawyers representing Sabra and Shatila suvivors decry Belgium's proposal to scrap Universal Jurisdiction law
UNRWA carried out field visits to examine the effects of the barrier on the livelihoods of local residents, with special emphasis on registered refugees. Most of the northern Green Line towns and villages accommodate refugee families. Certain villages, in particular - Atil, Baqa esh-Sharqiya, Barta’a esh-Sharqiya, Taibeh, Rumana and Zububa - contain significant, even majority, refugee populations. Qalqiliya town, contains 4,000 refugee families, the UNRWA hospital and other facilities, and will be hermetically sealed. Read more about Special report on the West Bank security barrier
The Israeli Public Committee Against Torture called on Israel’s Minister of Internal Security, Tzahi Hanegbi, and Prison Service Commissioner, Yakov Granot, to investigate the violent behaviour of prison guards in Neve Tirza and allow independent doctors to visit the female prisoners. Read more about Israeli prison guards use violence against Palestinian female prisoners
At a hearing held today at the High Court of Justice on Israel’s assassination policy, the Court denied the petitioners’ request for an interim injunction prohibiting the assassinations and granted the State 60 days to reply to the arguments presented by the petitioners including the opinion of first president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and world renowned expert on International Humanitarian Law, Professor Antonio Cassese, that determines that the assassinations are war crimes. Read more about Israeli High Court denied request for interim injunction on extra-judicial executions by the State of Israel
Since 1999, a spokesperson for the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee told CPT, the number of Palestinian residents in the Old City has shrunk from about 2,500 to 1,000. He added that, as a result of last week’s Israeli military order to cease all restoration work, some 400 workers have been laid off with no likelihood of their getting back to work soon or for long.. The process of seeking legal relief has begun, but the history of such actions is that in the long run the Palestinians lose. Jerry Levin writes from Hebron. Read more about Israeli Army increases its chokehold on Hebron's Old City
This week Israeli forces killed 2 Palestinian civilians in the West Bank, fired at Palestinian civilians from miltary checkpoints, conducted a series of incursions into Palestinian areas, razed agricultural land in the Gaza Strip, indiscriminately shelled Palestinian residential areas, arrested Palestinian civilians in the West Bank, and continued the siege on Palestinian communities. Read more about Weekly report on human rights violations
Despite spending a long time in prison (38 days of continuous torture), Bashar Joudallah (50 years old) from Nablus does not remember much from the place except black walls, or maybe grey, he doesn’t remember, a “modern” interrogation room and sounds of planes landing and taking off in a nearby place. Bashar did not know much about the prison he was in except after he was transferred to other prisons such as ‘Majido’ and ‘Ofer’, where he was detained for 3 months. Other detainees later explained to him that he was in one of the secret prisons located in distant areas, used to for interrogation with detainees with serious accusations. Mohammad Daraghmeh writes in Palestinian daily newspaper Al-Ayyam.Read more about A story from the heart of Israel's secret prison
