Ha’aretz

Pro-Israeli lobby forges unholy alliance with the Christian right

Akiva Eldar 7 April 2003

“Evangelical Christians from South Carolina paid for the huge billboard on Israel’s Ayalon highway declaring ‘There’s no land for peace.’ TV evangelist Pat Robertson last week reprimanded Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, saying ‘Who do you think you are, handing Jerusalem over to Arafat?’ With Christian friends like these close to the president’s ear, the right-wing government in Israel does not need Jewish friends to rebuff political initiatives like the road map.” Haaretz’s Akiva Eldar charts the growing — and troubling — influence of Christian Evangelical Zionists in Washington, DC. 

"Where shall we go? Baghdad?"

Arnon Regular 4 April 2003

“The soldiers divided arrivals into two groups, separating those aged 15-20 from those aged 20-40. The younger group was led into classrooms, forced to tear pictures of shahid (martyrs) off the walls and step on them. At around 9 AM, a few hours after the operation began, a Druze officer reportedly told a few hundred men on site: ‘You are leaving the camp. Don’t come back until it is all over.’ Abd a-Latif a-Sudani, 30, recalls: ‘We asked him - `Where are we to go? To Baghdad?’ And he said: `You’d be better off there.’” Arnon Regular of Haaretz reports on a disturbing IDF operation in Tul Karm which has turned refugees into refugees once again. 

Amendments to Belgian war crimes law will not affect suit against Sharon, Yaron

Sharon Sadeh 27 March 2003

“Belgium plans to impose restrictions on the Universal Jurisdiction Law, which facilitates indicting and trying foreigners for crimes against humanity not committed on Belgian soil. The amendments, however, would not affect the suit against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, since they would refer to charges brought only after July 2002. ” Sharon Sadeh reports for Haaretz. 

Ninja in Nazareth

Goel Pinto 9 February 2003

“When people ask me if the film is about the occupation of the Palestinian people, I say right away that this isn’t a film about anything. If it has to be reduced to one subject, I say it’s a film about occupation in the world as a whole — it focuses on Israel only because Israel serves as a kind of microcosm.” Elia Suleiman, director of the award-winning film “Divine Intervention,” which has just opened in Israel, talks to Goel Pinto of Ha’aretz about the ideas behind the film. 

Where is the democracy here?

Aeyal Gross 27 December 2002

The Legal Advisor to the government has asked the Central Elections Committee to bar the Balad list and MK Azmi Bashara from standing in the forthcoming elections. Aeyal Gross, lecturer in Constitutional and International Law at Tel Aviv University, wonders, however, what is really the major threat to Israeli democracy?