News

On learning lessons: Belgium's universal jurisdiction law under threat

Laurie King 24 June 2003

“In an unprecedented act of interference in a sovereign state’s judicial and political processes, the US government yesterday forced the Belgian government to gut Belgium’s admirable and progressive universal jurisdiction legislation (anti- atrocity law), which had already undergone careful reconfiguration in Belgium’s parliament two months ago. The US feared that this law, which incorporates international law into Belgian national law, might lead to the prosecution of US military or governmental officials, or their possible arrest in Belgium. Numerous legal impediments to these possibilities exist. Belgium outlined all of them in an attempt to deflect US pressure, but to no avail in the face of US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s strong-arm techniques of persuasion.” Laurie King-Irani explains. 

Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post duel over democracy

Jacob Laksin 5 June 2003

It wasn’t a border dispute so much as a margin dispute. More to the point, it was the highly-flammable material between the margins that fueled last week’s clash over press freedoms and democracy between two of Israel’s most influential newspapers. Compared with the leading Israeli daily Yediot Aharanot (published only in Hebrew and with a weekday circulation of 350,000), the dailies Haaretz (50,000 per weekday) and The Jerusalem Post, (a mere 15,000 per weekday) are not the biggest players on the Israeli media market. But both Haaretz and The Post command an influence beyond their numbers in Israel. Must-reading among visiting diplomats and journalists, the weekly international edition of The Post, and the two papers’ English Web sites draw large numbers of American Jews, thereby informing the Middle East debate within the world’s largest, most powerful Jewish Diaspora community. So when Haaretz publisher Amos Schocken floated the charge that Israeli press freedoms where in jeopardy, word washed up on American shores.” Jacob Laksin writes in 

Escaping what entraps us: reflections from Jerusalem

Laurie King Victoria 22 June 2003

“Not only Palestinians are desperately trapped now in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but Jews are, too. Fear and anxiety are unshakeable daily companions. The outward manifestation of this mental landscape is the many infrastructural projects erupting everywhere along the seam between East and West Jerusalem. These public works projects are not about the ‘public’; they will not improve or enhance common spaces, but rather, will only further constrict shared spaces by diverting traffic, housing, commerce, and socializing according to racial distinctions. Walls and barricades are omnipresent, marring Jerusalem’s beauty and cutting into its soul, wounding all who see it, Palestinians and Israelis, Arabs and Jews, locals and foreigners.” EI co-founder Laurie King-Irani reports on a recent visit to Jerusalem. 

Walls of separation

Daleep Mukarji 18 June 2003

Christian Aid director, Dr Daleep Mukarji, has recently returned from Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. While in the West Bank town of Qalqilya he witnessed the construction of the Israeli security fence which will eventually surround the West Bank. 

A quiet night on Rafah's sliding scale

Lora Gordon Rafah, Gaza Strip 19 June 2003

“It is still light out when we get to Abu Jameel’s garden. Rows of cactus line the road, bulbous green hedges expanding the boundaries between gardens. Cement box houses punctuate the land, which is a flat expanse of greenery and sand. It is the season for corn, and stalks reach high as somebody’s head. Watermelon vines cover the earth, weaving here and there around large squashes.” Laura Gordon writes from Rafah 

The ghosts of Rafah

Lora Gordon Rafah, Gaza Strip 19 June 2003


“Rafah, you are going to break my heart. People coming, people leaving, bleary eyed ghosts. The football moon illuminates the soft city full of soft people laying down to dreams unraveling in their hands. Even the concrete fades into sand. Even the refuse, covered with sand, catches fire in the night. The dreams of waste are heavenbound.” Laura Gordon writes from beseiged Rafah. 

Promises of an unpredicatable future

Jordan Topp 19 June 2003

There is no work this summer for the majority of people in Bourj el Barajneh refugee camp. Less work than last summer, I am told, when local NGOs estimated unemployment rates were around 60- 80% for those Palestinians living here. With hope of Return looking bleaker under current negotiations, people here—especially the young men—are doing whatever they can to leave. Jordan Topp reports from Bourj el Barajneh Refugee Camp, Beirut, Lebanon.