GAZA, 11 April 2005, (WAFA) — Happiness and fear, hope and despair, eagerness and oppression, dreaming and deep thinking marked the chat between a group of deportees from the Nativity Church seige who were closely watching the TV in their flat, near the Presidential office in Gaza City. Some of them sat on a sofa, others on chairs and the ground, the ringing of mobile phones does not stop. As one of them speaks via mobile, the others stare at him, waiting for new information. “I have not slept for four days. I am thinking of returning home and hugging my mother. I have not seen her for three years,” said Issa Abu Ahoor, 39, from Bethlehem. Read more about The Nativity Church Deportees' Right to Return
Jonathan Pollak is an Israeli activist who grew up in Tel Aviv and lives in Jaffa. He has been involved in nonviolent direct action in the West Bank for the last two-and-a-half years, participating in more than 200 protests with Palestinians in the West Bank with the Israeli nonviolent direct action group Anarchists Against the Wall and with the International Solidarity Movement. On April 3, 2005 an Israeli soldier shot Jonathan in the head with a teargas canister from an M-16 from a distance of approximately thirty meters at a peaceful protest against the Wall in the West Bank village of Bil’in. Bil’in is one of tens of West Bank Palestinian villages losing land because of Israel’s wall construction. Pat O’Connor interviewed Jonathan Pollak by telephone on 7 April 2005. Read more about An Interview with Israeli Activist Jonathan Pollak
Alan Dershowitz is a well-known lawyer and professor at Harvard Law School, a prolific author, and makes regular appearances in the media. When it comes to Israel, he is particularly outspoken and taken quite seriously within certain segments of the North American mainstream. Whether he deserves to be taken seriously is another issue altogether. In a recent talk at York University in Toronto, Canada, Professor Dershowitz repeated many of the controversial claims of his recent book, The Case for Israel, but one claim struck me as — even by his standards — exceptionally far-reaching. Read more about The Case Against Alan Dershowitz: The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel vs. Alan Dershowitz
GAZA, 14 April 2005, (WAFA) — The neighing of horses and the chirping of sparrows break the silence covering the Palestine Horsemanship Club (PHC) along the Gaza shore. Broken tiles cover the roof of the winter hall while cracks mark the walls. Silence and gloom have replaced the cheers of the crowds that used to be heard during the local competitive horse riding championships. Sami Abu Salem reports for WAFA from occupied Gaza. Read more about Horsemanship in Gaza: Palestinian dreams and Israeli obstacles
The Palestinian Authority is likely to postpone elections, due on 17 July, in a move that Hamas says would be political meddling by its rival, the ruling Fatah party. Fatah Minister of Parliament Hatim Abd al-Qadir said the postponement was expected to be announced in a few days and that it had more to do with procedural matters than other considerations. The Palestinian cabinet is responsible for the postponement. The opposition parties reacted strongly to the possibility of a delay. Parliament is expected to vote on Sunday on a modified election law. Read more about Palestinian parliamentary elections may be delayed
Nablus, 11 April 2005 — Early this morning, about two dozen jeeps from the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) assisted by a helicopter entered Nablus and surrounded a house on the Jabal Shamaliya, the northern mountain of the town. During the military operation 15 people were arrested, of whom two remain in custody. Six people were injured and taken to Rafidia Hospital, one of them in serious condition. Although today’s military operation was the largest launched by the IOF during the day for the last few months, it might seem that Nablus is “pacified”. Reality looks different. Read more about Israeli Occupation Forces Invade Nablus
We are preparing now for lock down. I have this sense that perhaps a prison guard has in an American high security prison. I’ve seen it in the movies. The prisoners are causing too much trouble and you hear the heavy black boots of the guards stomp down the iron corridors. Then one of them shouts “lock down!” or some other phrase that hides the brutality of what is about to happen. Someone else pulls a huge switch and the sound of metal clanking metal is awesome. That’s the preparation now. The Israeli occupation army is building everywhere. I thought they were mean to be disengaging? Eóin Murray reports from Gaza. Read more about Lock down in Gaza
Some of the most committed Israeli opponents of their state’s illegal military occupation of the Palestinian territories have recently expressed serious reservations about, if not strident opposition to, the Palestinian call for boycott of Israel’s academic and cultural institutions. We think that their concerns are worth addressing. Almost all of the publicized reservations we have seen are prefaced with moral support for the right of Palestinians to resist the occupation – nonviolently, most would write – even by calling for boycotts to achieve that goal. Read more about Academic Boycott and the Israeli Left
Olympia friends and supporters of Rachel Corrie and her family have called on concerned people worldwide to join them in demonstrating on the International Day of Action Against Caterpillar, April 13. They hope that a vigorous turnout will not only send a strong message to Caterpillar but will also send a positive message of solidarity with the Corrie family as they go forth with what is sure to be a long and difficult landmark legal struggle against the equipment manufacturer. Read more about Activist groups and Corrie family call for International Day of Action against Caterpillar on April 13
Why are so many children born with mental and physical disabilities in Jenin? It is this question the staff of the Local Committee for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled (LCORD) set out to answer after more than a decade of working with such children and their families. LCORD carried out some research, to try to discover what was causing so many cases in their region. They interviewed 215 mothers of CP sufferers, and found something they had not been looking for: that almost 70 per cent of them (150 of the mothers) were all using the same, cheap contraceptives. Read more about Struggling to be self-reliant in Jenin
