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
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
Moving away, but only for a moment, from the issue of Nakba-denial in the academy, there are arguably very good reasons for a general boycott of Israel, in such areas as trade, sports and so on. Here, parallels with South Africa are not out of place. Such a boycott is separate from one directed against Nakba-denial in the Israeli academy. When academics are included in a general boycott, it is as a result of their belonging to a population which is boycotted because its various activities nourish a criminal state. Read more about Academic boycott will lead to Israeli self-examination
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
A Palestinian teachers union has called for the dismissal of Al-Quds University President Sari Nusseibeh for “normalising ties with Israel” and “serving Israeli propaganda interests”. A statement by the Palestinian Union of University Teachers and Employees (PUUTE), published on the front page of the Ramallah-based daily Al-Ayyam, on Monday accused Nussaibeh of “normalising relations with the Sharon government” despite the Israeli prime minister’s policy of “bullying the Palestinians and stealing their land”. “This constitutes a strong blow to the Palestinian national consensus against normalisation with Israel,” said the statement. Read more about Palestinian teachers union calls for Sari Nusseibeh's dismissal
Those who follow Palestinian activism, from the McCarthyist “Campus Watch,” to the intrepid Jews Against the Occupation, are aware that Labor For Palestine (LFP) has emerged over the past year as a new campaign in labor internationalism. Yet as LFP prepares for its first national conference in Chicago on July 23, 2005, few know how it began. Officially, LFP was born in June 2004 when I met Michael Letwin in Manhattan’s Union Square to discuss drafting the Open Letter, LFP’s founding document. But the notions behind LFP were in the works long before this. They started in South Africa, where an international divestment movement threw a wrench in apartheid’s brutal turbines. Read more about Reconstructing Internationalism with Labor For Palestine
On a sunny Thursday morning, we headed towards Mneizel to immunize children against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) as part of the national immunization campaign. The drive from Jerusalem to Mneizel, a Bedouin area south of Hebron took more than expected. The drive that should normally take two hours, took almost four hours. It was not for the drive, but for the delayed access as a result of the Israeli manned checkpoint few kilometers before reaching Mneizel. As we drove in two cars, heading towards Menizel, we reached an Israeli manned checkpoint. As part of the security procedures, both cars were stopped. Unfortunately for the news crew, Dr. Iyad and Hanan were driving with them. Read more about Reaching the un-reached
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
What are the consequences of Israel’s nuclear activities? There have been reports that Demona’s nuclear waste is dumped in El Dahriye, a Palestinian village, south of Hebron. The surrounding villages were not informed about these hazardous practices. Instead they learned about it through an increase of their communities’ alarming health problems, which are solely caused by being exposed to nuclear radio-activity. The uranium level in the Hebron valley is ten times higher than the permitted concentration. From El Dahriyè village, already 452 cases have been reported having contagious and lethal bacteria. Seventy from these 452 cases have cancer. Additionally, for the past four months there has been a 300% increase of birth defects. Infertility rates, spontaneous abortions, hair loss without indication are becoming commonly prevalent. Read more about Israel's silent nuclear attack revealed
