Israel-Palestine
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News and Views
Leila Farsakh: Israel: an apartheid state? (Le Monde Diplomatique, November 2003) Persona non grata (Ha'aretz, 31 Oct 2003) U.N. Demands Israel Dismantle Fence (ABC News International, 22 Oct 2003)UNITED NATIONS - The United States used its political muscle Tuesday to thwart an unequivocal condemnation of Israel for the targeted assassination of a wheel-chair bound Palestinian described as the spiritual leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas.
A presidential statement by the 15-member U.N. Security Council condemning the killing of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, 67, was blocked by the United States because it insisted on changing the text to include a denunciation of Hamas for its ''terrorist activities''.
In return for EU support, the Palestinians and their supporters agreed to drop a second resolution that would have asked the International Court of Justice at The Hague, Netherlands, for an advisory opinion on the legality of the barrier.
UN Assembly demands Israel stop work on West Bank wall, urges sides to honour Road Map Israeli attacks in Gaza reportedly kill 11 (UPI, 21 October 2003) Israel plans to strike Iran nuke sites (PakTribune, 12 October 2003) Israeli plans for Iran attack (AFP, 12 October 2003) Israel Adds Fuel to Nuclear Dispute (Los Angeles Times, 12 October 2003) Israel deploys nuclear arms in submarines (Observer/UK, 12 October 2003) Tony Judt: 'Jewish State' Has Become an Anachronism (Los Angeles Times, 10 October 2003) Many Killed in Israeli Invasion (10 October 2003, Al Jazeera) UN Report Slams Israeli Wall as Illegal Annexation of Palestinian Land (Agence France Press, 30 September 2003) Arabs Say World Ignores Israel's Nuclear Program (Reuters, 29 September 2003) The end of Zionism: Israel must shed its illusions and choose between racist oppression and democracy (Guardian/UK, 15 September 2003) Jewish peace winner attacks Israel (AlJazeera.net, 01 September 2003)Jewish historian Reuven Moskovitz, who was awarded a prestigious peace prize, fired a broadside at Israel during his acceptance speech.
Frightening rumours leak out about sons held in cells (The Guardian [London], 25 July 2003) Human Rights Group Blasts Israeli Soldiers (AP, 22 July 2003) Israel asks ABC to can a program (The Sydney Morning Herald, 10 July 2003) Peace process in crisis as Hamas man is assassinated in missile attack (Independent.co.uk, 13 June 2003) Bush struggles to salvage road map (The Guardian, 12 June 2003) Victim was top Hamas fighter (The Guardian, 12 June 2003) Day of carnage leaves Middle East in chaos: Israel and Hamas count the dead (The Guardian, 12 June 2003) Palestinian militants call for ceasefire (Independent.co.uk, 21 May 2003) Crushed: the farmers caught between the Israeli army and Hamas (Independent.co.uk, 21 May 2003) Attacks jolt Mideast peace plan (Christian Science Monitor, 19 May 2003) Jerusalem suicide bomber kills seven (AP, 18 May 2003) Fresh violence overshadows Israel summit (Independent.co.uk, 18 May 2003) Villagers fear being forced out by being locked in (The Guardian, 14 May 2003)The mayor of Azzun Atma, a Palestinian village on the West Bank, traced his finger through the air to outline the path of the barrier which will encircle his village - around the school and carving through the olive groves. He said it was a strange thing to try to force people out by shutting them in.
Ibrahim Ahmad's hand came full circle at the only road into the village. He said the Israeli army would stand there as warder deciding who could leave and enter the village.
Sharon rejects US pressure on settlements: Israel will not surrender sovereignty of Jewish towns to Palestinian state, PM warns before Washington talks on Middle East peace deal (The Guardian, 14 May 2003) Straw under fire for ignoring Israeli attacks on UK nationals (The Guardian, 7 May 2003) Israelis fire on parents of injured British peace activist (Independent.co.uk, 6 May 2003) Dead cameraman 'carried white flag' (Independent.co.uk, 4 May 2003)Israeli soldiers who killed a British television cameraman, James Miller, in southern Gaza could have been in no doubt about his identity as a journalist, according to witnesses. They said yesterday that he was shot at close range while in a group carrying a large white flag and shouting repeatedly that they were journalists.
Israeli troops kill British cameraman in Gaza Strip (Independent.co.uk, 3 May 2003) Three killed and 45 hurt in Tel Aviv suicide bombing (Independent.co.uk, 30 April 2003) Israeli Ambassador to US Calls for 'Regime Change' in Iran, Syria (Reuters, 28 April 2003)WASHINGTON - The Israeli ambassador in Washington called for "regime change" in Iran and Syria on Monday through diplomatic isolation, economic sanctions and what he called "psychological pressure."
Ambassador Daniel Ayalon said the U.S. invasion of Iraq and overthrow of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein helped create great opportunities for Israel but it was "not enough."
"It has to follow through. We still have great threats of that magnitude coming from Syria, coming from Iran," he told a conference of the pro-Israeli Anti-Defamation League.
Uri Avnery: Abu against Abu (23 April 2003) Israeli army accused of targeting TV man killed in West Bank: British 'human shield' near death as soldiers are blamed for another civilian shooting (Independent.co.uk, 20 April 2003)"The soldier looked. He saw me and Nazeh," Mr Titi said. "I looked and saw that [Nazeh's] head was damaged severely. His brain was hanging out of his skull."
There were suggestions that the soldier might have been firing at stone-throwers behind the journalists, but Mr Titi stressed that all that was behind them was a wall and a doorway. The cameramen were experienced at working in Nablus, and had carefully positioned themselves so that they were not in the line of fire between the soldiers and the stone-throwers.
Mr Darwazeh was wearing a bright yellow vest clearly marked "Press". He leaves behind a wife and five children, the youngest six months old. His death, so soon after journalists were killed when a US tank deliberately fired a shell into the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad, will raise new concerns that journalists are being targeted.
Amira Hass: A stone's throw from here (Ha'aretz, 17 April 2003) Israeli army 'targeted' peace activist: Parents of injured British student demand investigation into 'deliberately reckless actions' (Independent.co.uk, 13 April 2003) Civilians killed in Israeli assassination of Hamas militant (9 April 2003) Israeli Defense Forces shoot American peace activist in the face (5 April 2003) Another busy day for IDF bulldozers (5 April 2003)It's been a busy day today for Israeli bulldozers.
They had to do 16 houses by sundown, and they couldn't start until the men who live in them had gone off to work in the morning. But those machines are tireless, and by the end of the day, you could find 16 families sitting on heaps of rubble, weeping and cursing. Children, too.
In Congress, sharp debate on foreign aid Photo story: Israeli bulldozer driver murders American peace activist (16 March 2003) British UN worker killed in Jenin (22 November 2002) Media Distortions and the UN Report on Jenin (1 August 2002) Richard Sale: News Analysis: Hamas history tied to Israel (UPI, 18 June 2002) Bush Throws US Support Behind Israel (Agence France Presse, 18 April 2002President George W. Bush again threw US support behind Israel, calling Prime Minister Ariel Sharon a "man of peace" as aid workers picked through the rubble of his army's attack on the West Bank.
Secretary Colin L. Powell: Remarks at David Citadel Hotel, Jerusalem April 17, 2002 Someone Even Managed to Defecate into the Photocopier: The IDF Soldiers Who Moved into West Bank Cities Left Behind Destruction and Degradation (6 May 2002) Powell: No evidence yet of Jenin massacre (24 April 2002) Israel assesses Jenin action (19 April 2002) National Capital Insiders Vote AIPAC, Israel's American Lobby, Second Most Powerful Interest Group in Washington (Washington Report on Middle Eastern Affairs, January/February 1998, pp65-66)Maps
Click here for a larger color map.
UN Maps related to the question of Palestine Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics Map of Palestine Map of West Bank Applied Research Institute Jerusalem: An Atlas of Palestine Duke University: Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Internet Resources Not In My Name: Maps of Palestinian Villages and Israeli Settlements Palestinian Red Crescent Society: Reference Maps International Development Research Centre: Producing an Atlas of Palestine in Digital Format (CD-ROM)
Jan de Jong maps
Projection of the West Bank Final Status Map presented by Israel, Camp David, July 2000 Final Status Map Presented by Israel, Taba, January 2001 Israeli Settlement Outposts - January 2002Many other maps are available at the Foundation for Middle East Peace settlement map page
Resources
Settlements
Settlements August 2004United Nations
Documents and Resolutions
Other UN Documents and Resources
Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine to the United Nations United Nations Division for Palestinian Rights UNISPAL --- UN Information System on the Question of Palestine Question of Palestine at the United Nations International Human Rights Instruments United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Inquiry in Palestinian Territories Report of the human rights inquiry commission established pursuant to Commission resolution S-5/1 of 19 October 2000 (pdf)Images
Aerial Photographs of Jenin, April 2002 Alan Pogue photographs Strategic Israel: The Secret Arsenal of the Jewish StateBooks
Ronit Chacham: Breaking Ranks: Refusing to Serve in the West Bank and Gaza StripOther resources
Electronic Intifada Crisisweb: A Middle East Roadmap To Where? MIFTAH's Intifada Report: Statistics and numbers documented September 28th, 2000 - May 10, 2003 US-Israel ties: first 50 years U.S Financial Aid To Israel: Figures, Facts, and Impact Summary MIFTAH Fact Sheet: US foreign aid to IsraelNews Sources
London Independent Ha'aretz Flashpoints Radio Democracy Now!The 25 April 2002 edition features a piece entitled WHAT REALLY HAPPENED IN JENIN? THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER OF BRITAIN HAS PUBLISHED THE FIRST COMPREHENSIVE INVESTIGATION. Guests include Justin Huggler, reporter with the Independent of London, author of a seven page report on war crimes in Jenin, and Peter Bouckaert, senior researcher for Human Rights Watch.
The 23 April 2002 edition features a piece entitled ARIEL SHARON PLANS TO ANNEX HALF OF THE WEST BANK: A DEBATE ON THE HISTORY OF THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT AND ZIONISM featuring Ilan Pappe, Meir Pail, and Norman Finkelstein.
Democracy Now! is one of the only US news outlets that covered the killing of 21-year-old US citizen Suraida Saleh by Israeli soldiers. According to reports, the soldiers stopped her car, shot her in her head and her chest while she was holding her 9-month-old baby in her lap, shot her husband several times, then left them. Her other children were also in the car. The interview with her father appears here, and the interview with her sister and cousin appears here. The US press showed zero interest in the incident. Hussein Ibish of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee also speaks in the interview.
Other resources
Churches for Middle East Peace: QUOTES FROM U.S. GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS ON ISRAELI SETTLEMENTS Frida Berrigan and William Hartung: U.S. Arms Transfers and Security Assistance to Israel Letter from Gail J. Boling, J.D. on Israel's land confiscation program Council for the Advancement of Arab-British UnderstandingCAABU was formed after the 1967 Middle East war, when a questionnaire revealed that 98 per cent of the British public had no knowledge of the Arab world.
Yale University Library Near East Collection"In support of Near Eastern, Islamic, and Arabic studies at Yale, the curator collects materials from the Near East and North Africa (excluding Israel) in all languages in a wide range of subjects, such as social sciences, Arabic literature, and Islam. The curator also collects materials in Arabic from around the world. To suggest additional books that are appropriate for the collection, contact the Curator of the Near East Collection, Mr. Simon Samoeil."
Palestinian Intifadah Images at the collectionPersonalities
Robert Fisk
Robert Fisk is Britain's most decorated foreign correspondent. His series of articles on NATO bombings in Yugoslavia for the independent earned him a 2000 Amnesty International Media Award. His articles include When journalists refuse to tell the truth about Israel, Easter in the Holy Land: families watch as their homes are destroyed, and Death in Bethlehem, made in America, and After 19 years, The Truth at Last?. There is an unofficial archive of his articles at robert-fisk.com.
In his 7 July 1998 interview in The Progressive, he talks about the dangers of covering war, the 1996 Israeli shelling of the U.N. compound in Qana, Lebanon, where 800 refugees had gone from nearby villages to escape Israeli shelling, and the 13 April 1996 rocketing of an ambulance on the coastal road to Sidon, Lebanon.
He can be heard on a recent Flashpoints 5 April 2002 interview along with Siham Rasheed of Palestinian Counseling Center in Jerusalem. The program also features peace demonstrators from Washington D.C. being arrested for speaking out against the invasion and the occupation.
There is also an audio recording of a recent address where he describes in detail, line by line, just how pathetic Anglo-American news coverage of the Middle East has become.
Fisk Independent articles
Edward Said
Edward Said is a University Professor at Columbia who writes extensively from the Palestinian perspective. There is an interview with him in the November 2001 issue of The Progressive.
Israel Shamir
Israel Shamir is a Russian Israeli writer and journalist. He favors a single state solution where everyone has equal rights, one vote, and simply goes about their business.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
In a 13 April 2002 speech at Boston's Old South Church, Nobel
Peace Prize winner and famed anti-apartheid spokesman Archbishop
Desmond Tutu said about the occupied territories, I've been very
depressed in my visit to the Holy Land; it reminded me so much of
what happened to us blacks in South Africa [...] I have seen the
humiliation of the Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks
suffer like us when young white police officers prevented us from
moving about.
More text of the speech is available at the Guardian Unlimited, and the speech is covered at MIT's The Tech online newspaper. The full text appears in the print edition of the Church Times.
Richard A. Falk
Richard A. Falk is Albert G. Milbank Professor of International Law and Practice at Princeton University.
Jan de Jong
Jan de Jong is a researcher for the Palestine Geographic Research and Information Center in Jerusalem.
Amira Hass
Amira Hass is an Israeli journalist who went to live in Gaza.
She writes for Ha'aretz.
In Fisk's article, Amira Hass:
Life under Israeli occupation - by an Israeli, she describes
her desire to live in Gaza as follows: In the end,
she
wrote, my desire to live in Gaza stemmed neither from
adventurism nor from insanity, but from that dread of being a
bystander, from my need to understand, down to the last detail, a
world that is, to the best of my political and historical
comprehension, a profoundly Israeli creation. To me, Gaza embodies
the entire saga of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; it represents
the central contradiction of the state of Israel --- democracy for
some, dispossession for others; it is our exposed nerve.
Her recent article in counterpunch provides an insight on the asymmetries of the occupation and other topics. She speaks on an audio interview on Flashpoints which also features Adam Shapiro of the International Solidarity Movement and Abu Khalil. The interviews are followed by the speech by Fidel Castro at the International Conference for Economic Development that apparently got him kicked out of the conference under pressure from the Bush administration. It was reported that the Bush entourage actually waited until Castro was gone before they got there. The speech received thunderous applause.
Ali Abunimah
Ali Abunimah runs the website electronicintifada.net, and has been published in the New York Times. He is an articulate commentator on Israel-Palestine. He can be heard discussing recent events on an audio debate about Israel's aggression against Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and the reported massacres in Jenin on Friday April 12 on Pacifica Radio's Democracy Now with Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez. The debate guests were Jeff Halper of the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions, Dr. Raphael Cohen-Almagor a professor at Haifa University and Ali Abunimah.
Fadia Rafeedie
Fadia Rafeedie is a Palestinian who turned her valedictory speech at Berkeley into a protest of the UN sanctions on Iraq. There is an interview on Radio Islam.
Francis Boyle
Interview with Radio Islam on the Al Aqsa Uprising
The Big Lie: Palestine, Palestinians and International Law Israel's war crimes against PalestiniansNoam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky: U.S. Middle East Policy and the American Peace Movement, May 14, 1984
Noam Chomsky is an outspoken critic of U.S. and Israeli policy. The following speeches are from the Berkeley Language Center Speech Archive.
A more recent speech from Flashpoints is available here.
Benny Morris
Dr. Benny Morris teaches Middle East history at Ben-Gurion
University of the Negev, Beersheba. He is the author of The
Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947-49 (Cambridge
University Press, 1988).
Ilan Pappe
Ilan Pappe is a senior lecturer in the Department of Political Science at Haifa University and author of The Making of the Arab-Israeli Conflict. He speaks in the audio debate mentioned above.
Norman Finkelstein
Norman Finkelstein is a lecturer at De Paul University in
Chicago and author of The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on
the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering (Published by Verso),
and Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine
Conflict. His earlier book A Nation on Trial on
Daniel Goldhagen's Hitler's Willing Executioners was named a
notable book for 1998 by The New York Times Book
Review.
He speaks in the aforementioned debate about the formation of Israel, as well as in another debate with Ronald Zweig, Senior lecturer of Jewish History at Tel Aviv University, and Leon Strabinsky, President of the California Association of Holocaust Child Survivors.
Dr. Dallal Muhammad
Dr. Dallal Muhammad is the head of Kinder USA, a charity organization with the following mission: "to alleviate the suffering of children and their families - regardless of ethnicity or religious beliefs - by bringing material goods into war zones and areas of disaster, to provide material support to those living in refugee camps, to initiate educational, health, and rehabilitation programs, and to dynamically reverse the psychological damage caused to these innocent beings due to the horrors of conflict." She was arrested in and interrogated in Israel along with Dr. Riad Abdelkarim for "security reasons." Listen to the interview here.