News

Schooling at Gunpoint: Palestinian Children's Learning Environment in War Like Conditions (part 2 of 2)

Rita Giacaman, Anita Abdullah, Rula Abu Safieh and Luna Shamieh Ramallah 6 December 2002

This report was first published on 1 December 2002 and offers a devastating look at the effect of the Israeli occupation on one aspect of Palestinian civil life — school education — in one area, Ramallah. 

Schooling at Gunpoint: Palestinian Children's Learning Environment in War Like Conditions (part 1 of 2)

Rita Giacaman, Anita Abdullah, Rula Abu Safieh and Luna Shamieh Ramallah 6 December 2002


By the end of the 2001-2002 school year, the Palestinian Ministry of Education reported that: 216 students were killed, 2514 injured, and 164 arrested; 17 teachers and staff in the education sector were killed and 71 were arrested; 1289 schools were closed for at least 3 consecutive weeks during the Israeli invasion between March 29 and up till the end of the school year; and approximately 50% of school children and 35,000 employees in the education sector were prevented from reaching their schools. 

Ban on Israeli goods has shoppers in uproar: Some demand Rainbow co-op end boycott

Jenny Strasburg 5 December 2002

Rainbow Grocery’s ban on carrying certain Israeli-made goods has angered some customers and prompted the Jewish Community Relations Council in San Francisco to demand that the Mission District co-op reverse its boycott immediately. Jenny Strasburg reports for The San Francisco Chronicle. 

The background music in Rafah

Darren Ell Montreal, Canada 5 December 2002

I am home now, sitting comfortably in the quiet of my office, but the deafening machine gun fire, explosions, and anxious faces of the inhabitants of Block O in the southern Gazan city of Rafah are still with me. Now I feel compelled to keep my promises to people and tell the world what I saw. Darren Ell reports. 

The end of Ramadan

Kristen Ess Gaza Strip 4 December 2002

On this, the final day of Ramadan 2002, Israel continues its decades old illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Israeli soldiers killed two Palestinians in the West Bank city of Khalil (Hebron), under effective curfew for years. Apache helicopter missiles fired into Gaza City. Israeli bulldozers continued to raze houses in the Gaza Strip and thousands of Palestinians were held under another day of curfew throughout the occupied West Bank and parts of the Gaza Strip. Kristen Ess writes from Occupied Gaza. 

Middle East unrest hits grocery store

Jenny Strasburg 4 December 2002

The tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have spilled into the aisles of a San Francisco supermarket, where certain departments of the co-op Rainbow Grocery have removed Israeli-made products from their shelves. Although Israeli products remain on the shelves of other Rainbow departments, which are run independently, some workers are pushing for a storewide boycott, an employee of the Mission District store said Tuesday. Jenny Strasburg reports in The San Francisco Chronicle. 

Curfew tensions in Bethlehem

Toine van Teeffelen Bethlehem 30 November 2002


While walking up into the main Madbasseh street, Mary saw a toshe (quarrel) at a falafel place; about nothing she later heard, but the atmosphere and people’s faces were so threatening that she decided not to do shopping and return home. The tension is also palpable in the refugee camps which are crowded and bear a large share of the arrests. Toine van Teeffelen writes from Bethlehem. 

Palestinian Children in the Night

Sam Bahour Ramallah 29 November 2002

We found ourselves in the midst of a crowd of over 300 cheering Palestinians. Between us and another group of a few dozen Palestinian youth were two United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) representatives. The two representatives were clearly American, in looks and accents. A few of the Palestinians standing behind the UNDP representatives slowly walked up behind them and one pulled from a bag what looked like a one-meter wooden bat. 

"Jenin Jenin" features at International Documentary Filmfestival

Arjan El Fassed 27 November 2002

“Jenin Jenin”, a 54-minute documentary made by Palestinian filmmaker/actor Muhammad Bakri, features at the International Documentary Filmfestival (IDFA) in Amsterdam. This film is Bakri’s most cutting statement yet. Bakri says that the film is about “human suffering as such - about a wounded soul, a demolished home, a felled tree, a picked flower, a broken heart.” 

Israel's killing of British citizen Iain Hook, UNRWA's Project Manager in Jenin

Caoimhe Butterly and Annie Higgins Jenin refugee camp 22 November 2002


“Iain Hook came out of the UN compound waving a blue UN flag, and the Israeli soldiers’ only response was to broadcast with their microphone in English, ‘We don’t care if you are the United Nations or who you are. Fuck off and go home!’ They were trying to go home. Iain said that things were not going well.” Caoimhe Butterly reports from Jenin.