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Defining Apartheid: Israel's Record

The following document was compiled by Uri Strauss for the Electronic Intifada, from a UN document and from a report by Palestinian human rights organisations LAW and Al-Haq. The document presents the internationally-accepted definition of ‘Apartheid’ alongside relevant examples of Israel’s human rights record in the occupied territories. 

Spat upon, threatened, we stood for Palestine

“ ‘Arafat is filthy swine, there is no Palestine,’ and ‘Thank you for killing my cousins in Israel,’ were some of the more polite slogans shouted at Al-Awda activist Benjamin Doherty and me as we protested silently at the annual “Walk With Israel” on Chicago’s lakefront,” writes Ali Abunimah after a not so pleasant walk in Chicago’s beautiful lakefront park. 

Notes on a Visit to Palestine

“I had resolved to be as meek as necessary to ensure that the Israeli officials did not stamp my passport. But I could not and did not try to hide my grim face as I stood in line to be greeted by the Israeli security officials, after coming off the bus that brought me across the Allenby Bridge from Jordan,” writes Ali Abunimah 

A Visit to Shatila

As much as I may tell you about Shatila, I lack the ability to put in words what I saw and felt the day I visited that place. The name “Shatila” has lived in my consciousness as a Palestinian, since 1982, when along with “Sabra,” it came to represent unspeakable evil, the place where up to two thousand Palestinians were massacred by far-right Lebanese militias in 1982, as the Israeli army watched and covered them from positions outside the camp. 

Days of Darkness, Days of Awe: Yom Kippur in Palestine

“I was afraid you’d gone to Rafah”, I say to Ahmad over the wires to Gaza City. More families in Rafah lost their homes to Israeli bulldozers this past week and a young man died for objecting to the zillionth incursion onto his land. I worried that Ahmad had gone to investigate. His extended family lives there. “No one is going anywhere”, Ahmad responds cynically. “It’s Yom Kippur”.