The Electronic Intifada

Text of new IDF declaration to be signed by foreign nationals entering Gaza

The Electronic Intifada 8 May 2003

The Electronic Intifada has obtained the text of a document distributed by the Israeli military to foreign diplomatic representatives. The document is entitled “Form to be filled out and submitted to IDF authorities prior to entry to the Gaza Strip” and is aimed at excluding foreign peace activists from undertaking nonviolent direct action against Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip. 

The Evil Wall

Uri Avnery 6 May 2003


“For a fraction of a second, I was panic-stricken. The terrible monster coming towards me was not more than five meters away and continued to move as if I weren’t there. The giant bulldozer pushed a great heap of dirt and boulders before it. The driver, two meters above me, seemed a part of the machine. It was clear that nothing would stop him. I jumped aside at the last moment. Some weeks ago, in a similar situation, the American peace activist Rachel Corrie expected the driver to stop. He did not, and she was crushed to death.” Israeli activist Uri Avnery reports on the progress of Israel’s apartheid wall. 

Documentary review: "Jeremy Hardy vs. the Israeli Army"

Maureen Clare Murphy 27 May 2003


Although the film Jeremy Hardy vs. the Israeli Army was “on one hand [intended for] a British audience,” as explained by director Leila Sansour, it also aimed to communicate to the rest of the world that Palestine isn’t just a land of “sad faces and dead bodies.” Sansour wanted to show a universal audience “that it’s a hospitable place” like the Palestine that lives in her memory. Maureen Clare Murphy writes about Sansour’s documentary about the ISM. 

"We are not just numbers": Commemorating the war victims of Iraq and Palestine

Rosemary Sayigh 7 May 2003


The commemoration programme was built on the traditional Arab format of the condolence visit (ta’aziya). All participants were invited to wear mourning clothes, and behind the whole area hung an obituary notice, an eighteen-foot-long banner inscribed with words: ‘The sisters of the children of Baghdad and their families, and the paternal uncles of the families of Mosul, Al-Nasirya, Jenin, Rafah, and Nablus, and their kin living in the Arab world and abroad, mourn with deepest sorrow their dearly beloved deceased: The victims of American and Israeli aggression, cut down in their childhood, and their youth, and their prime, members of humanity’.” Rosemary Sayigh reports from Beirut on a symbolically charged protest action. 

Who's afraid of the Road Map?

Ali Abunimah 5 May 2003

Even before its publication, Israel’s supporters in the United States launched a vigorous campaign to sabotage the US-sponsored ‘Road Map’ for Israeli-Palestinian peace. Nearly 400 members of the US House and Senate signed letters circulated by the pro-Israeli lobby opposing the plan, and key figures have spoken out against it. EI’s Ali Abunimah looks at the arguments being used by the pro-Israel lobby to undermine the Road Map, and asks what chance there is of success in the face of this sustained campaign.