News

A smaller space each day

Kristen Ess Rafah, Gaza Strip 5 November 2002


A pile of gray cement, once a family’s home, sits next to the street. Directly in front is a small white tent. This is where the family now lives. There is no furniture, no clothes, no family pictures. They are all somewhere under the rubble. Each day at least 6 Palestinian homes are demolished, except Saturday which is a holiday for Israelis. Kristen Ess writes from Rafah, Gaza. 

Deported!

Kathleen Kern 5 November 2002


Peace activist Kathy Kern was recently deported from Ben Gurion airport after arriving for her 11th term of service with the Hebron-based Christian Peacemaker Teams. In this article about the experience, Kathy asks why the Israeli government is afraid of people reporting what it is doing in the Occupied Territories? 

The farmers of Qaffin

Rachel Engler-Stringer Tulkarem, Palestine 4 November 2002

Just after we came home for the evening we received a call informing us that the army was attacking the Tulkarem refugee camp. We also learned that people in the camp had been shot, and there were helicopters circling overhead. Rachel Engler-Stringer reports from Tulkarem. 

Israeli general linked to Jenin atrocities named defence chief

Justin Huggler 1 November 2002

A former Israeli army chief who presided over the controversial invasion of Jenin this year, and who is being investigated by Scotland Yard over allegations of war crimes, was named as Israel’s new Defence Minister yesterday, an aide to Ariel Sharon said. Lieutenant-General Shaul Mofaz, who has flown back to Israel after Scotland Yard started investigating him during a fund-raising tour of Britain, had been Chief of Staff for most of the current Palestinian intifada until he retired in July. Justin Huggler writes in The Independent, 

Cross the Line

Marthame Sanders and Elizabeth Sanders Zababdeh 30 October 2002


For the past six months, people in the Jenin district have been struggling under curfews and closures with varying degrees of strictness. Today, like yesterday and the day before, was one of the stricter days. Marthame and Elizabeth Sanders report from nearby Zababdeh. 

Naboth had a Vineyard

Uri Avnery Havarah 26 October 2002

Had they been there last Saturday at sunset, most Israelis would not have believed their eyes. In the middle of Havarah, a small village south of Nablus, 63 Israelis, men and women, young and old, were standing together with dozens of Palestinian villagers. Jews and Arabs talked together, drank juice offered by the hosts, exchanged addresses and phone numbers. Uri Avnery writes. 

Israel's daily destruction of Gaza

Kristen Ess Gaza Strip 28 October 2002


In Namsawi, an area of Khan Younis refugee camp directly in the line of Israeli fire, displaced families live in buildings with holes the size of Volkswagen bugs. Apache missle fire and tank shelling have destroyed many areas of the camp made up of soccer fields and cement apartment buildings. There are children playing in the sandy dirt who scatter when shots are fired. Half the population is under 15. Kristen Ess reports from Gaza. 

PCHR position on collaborators

Palestinian Center for Human Rights 28 October 2002

In this position paper, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights tackles the thorny question of how one deals with traitors in wartime. PCHR concludes that suspected collaborators should be investigated and tried in accordance with international standards, including the rights to fair trial, not to be subjected to torture and ill treatment, right to legal counsel and others. 

Misery in Mawasi

Kristen Ess Qarrara, Gaza Strip 23 October 2002


At 30 mph, cars seem as if they are speeding on the dusty road of Qarrara, a village just south of Abu Ali checkpoint and a few minutes north of Khan Younis, in the middle of the Gaza Strip. The checkpoint is open now. F-16s are rumbling overhead on their way to terrorize Rafah. Israeli soldiers are shooting in nearby Mawasi. Kristen Ess writes from Qarrara, Occupied Gaza.