What might happen to those taxi drivers and travelers is at present a subject of much storytelling in Bethlehem. Mary heard from a cousin that her brother in law, a taxi driver, was beaten up by soldiers. Another of her cousins studies at Birzeit University and has to take the Wadi Nar road every now and then to visit family back in Bethlehem. A weekend ago she even didn’t dare to try to take that road. Apparently soldiers had erected a large tent next to it where those who were caught sneaking through the hills were brought together and sometimes beaten up. All were people who for their daily duties had to travel from one Palestinian town to another. Read more about Resilience
Biddu is a beautiful Palestinian village, surrounded with vines and fruit orchards, a few miles to the east of the Israeli border of 1967. In the last couple of months, the village, that has lived in peace with its Israeli neighbors even during the present Intifada, has become yet another symbol in the history of Israel/Palestine. The misfortune of this village is that its lands, as well as the lands of the other small Palestinian villages nearby, border the “Jerusalem corridor” - a sequence of Israeli neighborhoods to the North of Jerusalem. Israeli control of this land would enable territorial continuity “clean of Palestinians” from this corridor to the settlement of Givat Zeev, built deep inside the occupied West Bank, close to Ramallah. Read more about Biddu: The struggle against the Wall
“Arafat is filthy swine, there is no Palestine,” and “Thank you for killing my cousins in Israel,” were some of the more polite slogans shouted at EI’s Ali Abunimah and Benjamin Doherty and me as we protested silently at the annual “Walk With Israel” on Chicago’s lakefront today on May 6, 2001. Abunimah tells a story of how Chicago’s leading Zionist organization met peaceful free speech with threats of violence, abuse and an effort to limit the constitutional right to free speech on public property. Read more about Spat upon, threatened, we stood for Palestine
As a privileged young Israeli, Mordechai Vanunu took a risk and exposed Israel for operating an illegal nuclear weapons programme. While the rest of the world sought to reduce its weapons of mass destruction, Israel was evidently busy stockpiling them. After being illegally abducted from Italy, Vanunu served a sentence of 18 years imprisonment, 12 years of which were in solitary confinement. Now freed by the Israeli government, he leaves behind concrete walls, but will be thrown into a bureaucratic “prison” that denies him basic freedoms. Is this the democratic country in the Middle East that according to its government respects rule of law? Read more about Israel, a country that respects the rule of law?
The endorsement of Ariel Sharon’s unilateral plan of disengagement from the Gaza Strip and from parts of the West Bank by US President George W. Bush has angered many Palestinians and inflamed tensions throughout the Arab world. It has also surprised policy makers, diplomats and politicians from the European Union - including Britain, America’s closest ally - who have sought to distance themselves from Bush’s remarks. It prompted a rebuttal from French President Jacques Chirac in Algiers, who described it as a “dangerous and troubling precedent”. Victor Kattan looks at Sharon’s plan in light of international law. Read more about Ariel Sharon, George W. Bush, "Unilateral Declarations" and International Law
Liat Weingart, Valerie Heinonen and Mary Ann McGivern28 April 2004
On April 14, an American corporation was confronted with the choice of whether or not to examine their role in perpetuating the cycle of violence in the Mideast. An alliance of Catholic nuns and Jewish peace activists teamed up to introduce a shareholder resolution asking Caterpillar, Inc. to conduct an internal investigation to determine if the use of their bulldozers to violate human rights laws goes against corporate policies. In fact, it was the first time ever that a shareholder resolution relating to human rights violations in the occupied territories has been brought before a US corporation. Though the odds against the resolution were tremendous, it still garnered 4% of the vote, enough to be re-introduced next year. Read more about Drawing Caterpillar Out Of Its Corporate Cocoon: Company Should Examine Its Role in Mideast Violence
The Student Alliance for Israel at George Washington University have invited a racist Islamophobe to speak on campus on behalf of Israel. Writing in the GW Hatchet, Fadi Kiblawi tells the story and considers how this episode fits in with the broader campaign for Israel on America’s campuses. Read more about Pro-Israel students host racist Islamophobe to speak for Israel
Arjan El FassedUtrecht, the Netherlands9 April 2004
Fifty-six years ago, 11-year old Fahimi Zeidan lived with her family in the Palestinian village Deir Yasin. The village, which was home to more than 700 residents, was a prosperous, expanding village at relative peace with its Jewish neighbours with whom much business was done. However, on April 9, 1948, Zionist forces entered the home of Fahimi Zeidan, ordered her family to line up against the wall and started shooting. Fahimi, two sisters and brother were saved because they could hide behind their parents. But all the others against the wall were killed: her father, mother, grandfather and grandmother, uncles and aunts and some of their children. Read more about In Memoriam: Deir Yassin
�I once saw a man killed at a roadblock, and I felt very bad afterwards,� 10-year-old Majdi says. �We all saw it from the windows of the bus, and everybody was very upset.� Majdi is one of 640 Palestinian schoolchildren in the West-Bank town of Tubas who are taking part in a CABAC (Children Affected By Armed Conflict) programme, implemented by the Palestinian Red Crescent with funding from the European Union�s humanitarian agency, and the Danish and Icelandic Red Cross Societies. Read more about Coping with Conflict
Following expert-level talks held since the assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and seven other civilians in Gaza yesterday, the Security Council is meeting in closed-door consultations today to discuss the situation in the Middle East. Earlier today, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Asma Jahangir, expressed her “deepest concerns over the use of brute force which will only lead to escalating violence.” This afternoon the Commission on Human Rights decided that a special sitting will take place to consider the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories. Read more about UN holds consultations following assassination of Sheikh Yassin
