UNITEDNATIONS (IPS) - A company that is a member of the UN Global Compact for corporate social responsibility has ties to production in an Israeli settlement on the West Bank considered illegal by the United Nations. A spokesperson for the company, Vileda said he was unaware of the contract with a manufacturer in the West Bank. However, a representative of Plasto confirmed that the company was a subcontractor for Vileda. Read more about UN social responsibility member company tied to settlements
On Wednesday, 12 November 2008, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) carried out an incursion into al-Qarara town and killed four Palestinians. IOF continues to seal the Gaza Strip’s borders and impede entry of food, medical supplies and fuel for the seventh day in a row. According to Al Mezan investigations, at around 10am on Wednesday, 12 November 2008, Israeli troops infiltrated nearly 300 meters inside agricultural lands in the al-Wad area to the northeast of Khan Younis city. Read more about Israeli forces kill four Gazans on seventh day of total closure
The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) continue to blackmail Palestinian patients who need to travel for treatment in Israeli hospitals or Palestinian hospitals in the West Bank. They seek to travel outside Gaza due to the deteriorating conditions of the Palestinian health system there, which is unable to deal with their critical medical conditions. Such practices of the IOF continue on a semi-regular basis amidst the ongoing, tight siege imposed on the Gaza Strip and the continued silence of the international community. Read more about Israel continues to coerce Gaza patients into collaboration
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights is deeply concerned over continued policies of collective punishment imposed by Israeli Occupation Forces on the Palestinian civilian population in the Gaza Strip. These policies have included ban on delivery of food supplies and basic goods, including energy fuel required for electricity generation, grains and wheat. Following the halt of fuel supplies to the Gaza Strip in the past six days, more than 30 percent of the population of Gaza was in complete darkness last night. Read more about Gaza border crossings closed for sixth day
I live in the Sultan neighborhood in Rafah with my parents, three brothers, and three sisters. In 2006, I began to work as a fisherman. My father taught me the trade and I worked with him for about two months. Then I went to work with Omar al-Bardawil. Omar has two boats, one a motorboat and the other a rowboat. When gas is available in the Strip, we use the motorboat, and when there isn’t gas, we use the rowboat. Read more about Testimony: Israeli navy shoots and wounds fisherman off Gaza coast
I live with my family in Nilin. We live on the ground floor of the house, my two uncles and their families live on the first floor, and my grandmother lives on the second floor. Last Thursday [11 September] around 3:00am, I woke up from my mother’s shouts. She was shouting, “Get up! Get up! The army is here!” My father wasn’t home that night. I got up and went out with her to the inner courtyard of the house. Read more about Testimony: Twelve-year-old beaten and imprisoned with adults
As of Sunday, 2 November 2008, new Israeli army guidelines are in force, requiring Palestinian medical personnel from the West Bank who work in Jerusalem hospitals to come in only through the Qalandiya checkpoint in Ramallah. Medical personnel from the West Bank are prohibited from coming to work through other checkpoints, even if these are closer to where they live. Read more about New Israeli restrictions target Palestinian hospitals in Jerusalem
“I’ve been a fisherman for 15 years now, ever since I was 15 years old. My father was a fisherman and so was my grandfather. I have spent half my life at sea. But every day we face problems from the Israeli gunboats: they follow us, and then they start shooting at us because they want to force us to stop working.” Saber al-Hissie comes from a Gazan family of fishermen. His 20-meter vessel belongs to his father, who, after many years of fishing, has finally passed the family business over to Saber. Read more about "The Israelis attack us every day"
Israel seems to have little time for the irony that a modern Jewish shrine to “coexistence and tolerance” is being built on the graves of the city’s Muslim forefathers. The Israeli Supreme Court’s approval last week of the building of a Jewish Museum of Tolerance over an ancient Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem is the latest in a series of legal and physical assaults on Islamic holy places since Israel’s founding in 1948. Jonathan Cook reports. Read more about Travesty of tolerance on display
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights condemns in the strongest possible terms the killing of six Palestinians carried out by the Israeli Occupation Forces in the Gaza Strip yesterday evening and this morning. The victims were all killed by air strikes. This escalation is the first of its kind since the tahdia (the Egyptian-brokered truce between Palestinian resistance groups and Israel) entered into force on 19 June 2008. Read more about Israel breaks Gaza ceasefire, assassinates six
