“Benefiting from a growing international focus on Iraq and the folly of the US global ‘war on terror,’ Israel enjoyed enhanced impunity for its violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and a raft of UN resolutions throughout 2003. Even the supposedly ‘positive’ developments of 2003 — the US-backed ‘Road Map’ to peace and the Geneva Accords — are based on a tacit premise that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and several UN resolutions can be ignored or suspended so as to legitimate and excuse Israeli violations of Palestinian rights, lives, lands, and resources.” EI’s Laurie King-Irani reviews the prevailing legal trends of 2003 in Occupied Palestine. (Part I of II) Read more about 2003: A year of US and Israeli defiance of International Law (1/2)
In 2003, Israel continued its attacks on the press. Two journalists, a Palestinian cameraman and a British documentary filmmaker were killed by the Israeli army. Media watchdogs counted attacks and harrassment of journalists and the increasing restrictions imposed on foreign and Palestinian journalists. In January 2004, new Israeli guidelines for press accreditation will impose more restrictions on the work of foreign journalist trying to cover events on the ground in the occupied Palestinian territories. EI’s Arjan El Fassed highlights journalists in danger in 2003. Read more about 2003: Israeli attacks on the Press
The year 2003 started and ended with Israeli forces invading Rafah refugee camp and demolishing refugee homes. This year, in Rafah alone, Israeli forces killed at least 60 Palestinians, an American peace activist and a British TV cameraman. In three years, Israeli forces have demolished 800 homes in Rafah alone. Rafah in 2003 is an example of occupied Palestine in 2003. Despite road maps and declarations, the residents of Rafah are in urgent need of protection. They want to stop counting the deaths. EI’s Arjan El Fassed reviews 2003. Read more about Rafah in 2003
It’s hard to talk about the provisions of the recent Geneva Accord, and offer some kind of analysis without reference to the facts on the ground — right now — inside Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. But without understanding this context of repression and violence, without recognizing this ongoing process of colonization and military occupation, we will never understand the Geneva Accord itself, nor comprehend the real reasons for its inevitable and predictable failure. ISM Canada’s Paul Burrows looks at the Accord in depth. Read more about Geneva Accord: Analysis of the Bankruptcy
Comprised of teenagers from the Dheisheh Refugee Camp in the West Bank, the Ibdaa dance troupe performs internationally, has been featured in documentaries, and are no strangers to the press. And while to some this may seem like a glamorous lifestyle, it seems to the performers it’s anything but. Having to repeatedly communicate to American audiences the every day struggles that come with life under military occupation is disheartening when they return to the West Bank to find that the status quo of curfews and human losses continues unabated while the whole world watches. Read more about Photostory: Dancing towards freedom
In the early afternoon today, in the middle of a direct, nonviolent action against the Apartheid system of walls and fences in the occupied West Bank, an Israeli citizen was shot in his leg by soldiers of the Israeli army. Gil Na’amati, whom I hadn’t met until today, was on the front line of Israeli activists who went to the fence to cut it or break it down. I was a few meters behind him, watching the soldiers and helping to take care of the barrier of the road just behind the fence. Israeli student peace activist Dan Shohet recounts what happened. Photos by IWPS. Read more about An account of the shooting of Israeli protestor Gil Na'amati
One of the most important changes that the Oslo process brought about was the de facto transformation, indeed the ultimate corruption, of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, from a liberation movement representing the entire Palestinian people, into a vassal regime called the Palestinian Authority (PA), representing only one third of the Palestinian people, writes EI contributor, Joseph Massad. This has had an immensely deleterious effect on refugees and exiles, and Palestinians living inside Israel’s racial “democracy.” Read more about Reducing the Palestinians
A protest camp in Dir-Balut village is a joint Palestinian, Israeli, and international action against the Apartheid Wall. The protest camp was created on Friday the 19th, and will stay there till next Friday, January 2nd. The camp is located in the yard of the newly built primary school of the village of Dir Balut. The works on the new school were stoped by the occupation authorities, as the building stands on the path of the Wall, and is now due to distruction. Dan Shohet offers some details about the camp. Read more about Protest camp in Deir Balut village, Salfit district
Many leading media sources were quick to declare that an Israeli assassination in Gaza, followed by a Palestinian bombing in Tel Aviv on 25 December marked the end of a period of “relative calm” or “lull” in Israeli-Palestinian violence, that had supposedly lasted since the last Palestinian suicide attack in Haifa on 4 October. In fact, the period since 4 October has been one of intense Israeli violence, in which 117 Palestinians were killed, including 23 children. At the same time, Israel destroyed almost five hundred Palestinian homes throughout the Occupied Territories. EI’s Ali Abunimah examines the systematic media misrepresentation of the latest events. Read more about 117 Palestinians killed, hundreds injured during media's "relative calm"
He read out the written text of his speech, word for word, without raising his eyes from the page. It was vital for him to stick to the exact wording, since it was an encoded text. It is impossible to decipher it without breaking the code. And it is impossible to break the code without knowing Ariel Sharon very well indeed. So it is no surprise that the flood of interpretations in Israel and abroad was ridiculous. The commentators just did not understand what they had heard. Veteran Israeli peace activist Uri Avery comments. Read more about Sharon's Speech: The Decoded Version
