Caoimhe Butterly and Annie HigginsJenin refugee camp22 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. Read more about Israel's killing of British citizen Iain Hook, UNRWA's Project Manager in Jenin
Caoimhe ButterlyJenin refugee camp16 November 2002
As we tried to wrench open the locked door we could hear the beating that lasted all night as his mother wept outside and a group of adults put a hood over the head of a skinny 12-year old and beat him savagely. The same “lesson”: to fear and comply or risk subjugation by force they tried to beat into the memory of ten other children between the ages of eight and thirteen on the same night in different occupied houses. Caoimhe Butterly writes from Jenin Refugee Camp. Read more about Report on the full-scale reinvasion of Jenin
Christian Peacemaker Teams visited the area where hundreds of Palestinian homes may be slated for demolition in an Israeli plan to expand illegal colonies in the Occupied West Bank. They urge immediate contact with public officials to stop the threatened demolitions. Read more about Stop mass home demolitions in Hebron
On the occasion of Independence day, November 15, some 60 school and university students and teachers leave together for a fieldtrip to the village of Taybeh north-east of Ramallah. Toine van Teeffelen writes from Bethlehem. Read more about Field trip to Taybeh
The city and the Refugee Camp breathed more easily when the Israeli Army withdrew from its two-week invasion about a week ago, but everyone knew that the Army would maintain its presence, if slightly less visibly. Annie Higgins writes from Jenin. Read more about Update from Jenin
Gaza City did not sleep last night. 35 Israeli tanks plowed into the Tal Al-Hawa area in the south of the city. Apache missiles were fired from the sky. The explosions lasted throughout the night. A man called out that the international community must wake up. He said, “They are killing our children but we are here to stay. The world must listen to the truth.” Another said quietly, “No one heard you.” Kristen Ess writes from Gaza, where the reality of international apathy is measured by the daily tank and helicopter attacks. Read more about Every day is a major invasion in Gaza
No one writes about the checkpoints nowadays. They have become a permanent, almost “normal”, fixture of Palestine. So it is alright. It is no longer worthy of attention. It is no longer an affront to human dignity. Giulia El Dardiry writes from Ramallah, occupied Palestine. Read more about Checkpoints
David Williams was for many years Middle East history librarian for the Chicago Public Library. Williams was transferred from his job, he has learned, primarily in
retaliation for his activities to educate the city about Palestinian human rights and a lecture series he helped organize. He also believes that this retaliation was prompted by his informational leafletting of an appearance by Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor and author and apologist for Israel, at the Chicago Public
Library. Read more about Chicago Mideast Librarian suffers retaliation for doing his job
Israeli soldiers targeted a two year-old boy yesterday. Even they could not come up with an excuse for shooting him in the head. At his funeral today Fatah Youth flags flew in the breeze, the baby’s body covered in purple-pink flowers. He was carried on a stretcher along side another small boy, 9 years old, who died from two day old injuries. Kristen Ess writes from occupied Gaza. Read more about More reports from Block O in Rafah
Last month a group of over seventy-five Columbia and Barnard faculty members launched a petition campaign demanding that Columbia University divest from all firms that produce or sell arms or military hardware to be used by the state of Israel. Tonight in an open hearing, the case will be presented to Columbia’s Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investing. Read more about Columbia faculty demand university divests from Israel
