Source:
Alternative Information Center
This report updates and expands upon the report: Foreign Aid to Palestine/Israel originally published by the Alternative Information Center in June 2005, and revised in February 2006. April 2009.
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BACKGROUND
The recent history of the Palestinian people, particularly from the 1940s onward, has been marked by confrontations, segregation, overcrowded living conditions and massive geographic displacements throughout the Middle East.
According to international law, Palestine is a 27,000 square-kilometre region situated west of the Jordan River, which the League of Nations gave to Great Britain to administer under "Mandate" in 1918. The British Foreign Secretary, Lord Balfour, had promised the Zionist movement that a "Jewish national homeland" would be established in Palestine. But his proposal for partitioning the territory –into two separate Jewish and Arab states- was rejected by the Arabs. After the end of World War II, Great Britain turned the problem over to the newly formed United Nations (UN).
The occupation
In 1947, the UN General Assembly approved a new Partition Plan. At that time there were 749,000 Arabs and 9,250 Jews in the territory proposed for the Arab state, while 497,000 Arabs and 498,000 Jews were living in the area assigned to the future Jewish state.
To force Palestinians to leave their lands, some Zionist groups resorted to terrorism. On 9 April 1948, forces of the organization Irgun, under the command of Menahem Begin, penetrated the village of Deir Yassin, killing 254 civilians. Terror spread over the population and led to the exodus of tens of thousands of Palestinians.
On 14 May 1948, Israel unilaterally declared itself an independent nation, and came out of the war with the neighboring Arab countries with a larger territory than the one proposed by the United Nations. More than half of the Palestinian population had fled their homes. Most of them lived as refugees on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which came under Egyptian government, but also in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, while few of them went to Iraq and Egypt.
For the United Nations and, therefore, for international law, Palestinians were not a people. Instead they were seen merely as refugees, a "problem" that needed to be solved.
Any political decisions concerning the Palestinian cause were adopted by the Arab governments, at least until 1964, when the Palestine National Council, gathering for the first time in Jerusalem, founded the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
Palestinian groups that were already operating underground, such as Al Fatah, were wary of this organization because it was backed by Arab governments and focused on diplomatic actions. These groups were convinced that the territory would only be recovered through military operations. On 1 January 1965 the first armed operation took place in Israel. Fighting intensified over the following months, leading up to the Seven Day War, which erupted in 1967. Israel forces occupied all of Jerusalem, the Syrian Golan Heights, the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt and the Palestine territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The defeat of regular Arab forces strengthened the conviction that guerrilla warfare was the only effective means for liberation. In March 1968, following the retreat of Israeli forces in the town of Al Karameh, armed groups joined the PLO, obtaining the support of the Arab governments. In February 1969, Yasser Arafat was elected chairman of the Organization.
The program of the PLO called for "the establishment of a secular and independent state in the whole of the Palestinian territory, where Muslims, Christians and Jews can live in peace, enjoying the same rights and duties." This necessarily implied the end of the present state of Israel. Without giving up this ultimate goal, however, the PLO gradually came to accept the “temporary solution” of setting up an independent Palestinian state “in any part of the territory that might be liberated by armed force, or from which Israel might withdraw."
The resistance
Thirty years later, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is still a problem awaiting solution. Several peace agreements have failed since then, including the Camp David (1980), Madrid (1991) and Oslo (1993) agreements, while the number of Jewish settlements in the West Bank has multiplied, more and more Palestinian lands have been taken over, and tension has increased in the occupied territories. Repeated votes against such measures at the United Nations proved totally ineffective in practice, as the US veto in the Security Council has made it impossible to this day to adopt any type of sanctions against Israel.
Isaac Rabin, the prime minister from the Labour Party and the main peace interlocutor of Arafat in the Oslo agreement, was assassinated by an Israeli fundamentalist in 1995. His assassination lead to the election of the Likud prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu, who interrupted the peace process and made a radical deviation in the Israeli position vis-à-vis the Palestinian state.
In January 1996, Arafat was elected President of the Palestinian Authority with 87% of the votes. The tension in the region never died down, although there were some periods of relative calm, interrupted by outbreaks of violence. But towards the year 2000, the issue of Jerusalem, a holy city for both Muslims and Jews, became the greatest obstacle to negotiations, as both sides intended to establish their capital in this city. In September of that year, the second Intifada (or Palestinian uprising) was launched. A few months later, former Defense Minister Ariel Sharon’s victory in the Israeli elections of February 2001 was seen as yet another blow to the injured peace process.
Palestine resistance to the occupation was met with selective killing of alleged terrorists by the Israeli army, who expanded its military offensive by attacking Palestinian villages and townships. This resulted in more suicide attacks against Israeli targets.
Recent scenario
In December 2001, Sharon severed all ties with Arafat. The new Israeli strategy was based on the non-acknowledgment of the Palestine leader as a valid interlocutor, and the breakup truncated any attempts at negotiation. Arafat was pressured into creating the office of prime minister, to whom he also entrusted the appointment of a new cabinet.
In late 2002, the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations presented a new peace plan known as the ‘Road Map’, which included the establishment of a Palestine state by the year 2005. The plan was accepted by both sides, although the Israeli government raised 14 objections on the proposed text. Israel did not diminish its aggressions on the Palestinian population and proceeded to build a security fence with the aim of stopping any Palestinian extremists from attempting to enter Israel. The international community condemned the construction of this wall, but Sharon’s government went ahead with its plans.
The same condemnation –with the explicit exception of United States- received the assassination of Ahmed Yassin, spiritual leader of the radical group Hamas. The action, held on 22 March 2004 in Gaza, was the 327th extrajudicial execution of a Palestinian by Israel, including 160 “collateral victims”.
The death of historical leader Yasser Arafat on 11 November 2004 and the triumph of Hamas in January 2006 parliamentary elections, radically changed the Palestinian political scenario.
In March of the same year, Israel’s elections confirmed Prime Minister Ehud Olmert – successor of seriously ill Ariel Sharon – in his post. His government has announced it will continue withdrawals of Jewish settlements from Gaza and has expressed its willingness to hold peace talks with Palestinians. However, it would act unilaterally if necessary, with the aim of establishing permanent borders for Israel by the year 2010.
The present economic, social and political conditions in Israel and Palestine are an indictment of the Zionist project and the nation state as the solution to the oppression of the Jews. The Zionist state was conceived as the answer to the problem of the European persecution of the Jews—a state where the Jews would find a safe haven, social justice and equality. It was realised in the form of a capitalist state created by the dispossession of another people and maintained through war and repression, and social inequality at home. Indeed, it is impossible when presenting this report, to avoid pointing out that the Jewish people, sections of whom have a long history in every progressive movement, not least the international socialist movement, are now themselves widely regarded as oppressors with blood on their hands. January 2009.
The systematic carving out of Palestine by Israel which involved forcing its inhabitants off their lands as well as killing them, began in 1948 after the UN decreed the establishment of the state of Israel. Below is a review of the book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappe who believes that exposing Israeli Jews to the “painful journey” into their past is the only way forward to peace for Palestinians and Israelis. January 2008.
That Europe owes a psychological and physical debt to the Jewish people is undeniable. That Europe has been trying for sometime now to come to grip with this debt and wipe the slate as clean as is possible is also undeniable. That Israel and the Jewish people have been steadfast in ensuring the repayment of this debt by any means necessary is also undeniable. That the repayment of the debt has been contracted in terms of words, hard currency, bloodshed and land is also irrefutable. However, what is not so well discussed is that the largest part of the down payment of that debt has been on the backs of and with the blood of a people not a party to the original and historic deeds—the Palestinian people. August 2006.
While traveling in the West Bank it is impossible to escape a view of Israel’s settlements, scattered all around. They are easily spot by their red roofs, the paved roads and nice green lawns. Were you in any other country, the image would be one of peaceful countryside life. But settlements are anything but a peaceful image. “Settlements are the occupation” itself, as Ran HaCohen has put it. July 2006.
In its comprehensive historical scope, the study ranges from the inception of the Zionist movement in the late 19th century, which paved the way for early Jewish immigration to Palestine and acquisition of land there, to very recent developments such as the building of ‘the Wall’ in the Israeli occupied West Bank and the wave of housing demolitions. It takes in: the late Ottoman period, which ended a few years after World War I; the British Mandate period, which began between the wars and ended with the creation of the State of Israel through force of arms in 1948; the subsequent destruction and depopulation of Arab villages and towns, the forced exodus of the Palestinian refugees; and the progressive encroachment on and constriction of Palestinian life and development, involving massive loss of territory, housing and other property, and ongoing erosion and violation of economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights. May 2005 (pdf version).
Israel has long lived in fear of the so-called "demographic bomb" -- the fact that the Palestinian population in Israel and the occupied territories is increasing much faster than the Israeli Jewish population. While Israeli Jews thought the day they would become a minority was perhaps still twenty years away, the evidence is increasing that the bomb has already exploded and Palestinians are already a majority in historic Palestine, as they were until Israel was created. March 2005.
Based on intensive research and an original public opinion poll, the study details the changes the Palestinian family has undergone during the present Intifada, the attitudes of the Palestinian family toward women's and children's rights, and the hardships the family faces as a result of the Israeli occupation (pdf version).
Dispossessed, deprived of their birthright and denied basic human rights and freedoms, millions of Palestinians daily endure a rare fate. A special report.
Around 4000 BC, the Canaanites, a Semitic people from the inner Arabian peninsula, settled in the land which became known as Canaan and later, Palestine. The Jebusites, one of the Canaanite peoples, built a settlement that they called Urusalim (Jerusalem), meaning ‘the city of peace’…
PASSIA has endeavored to present here a broad range of maps covering much of Palestine's modern history. While many of these maps represent PASSIA's own work, others are drawn from secondary sources - as indicated beneath the individual maps. In the event of discrepancy, confusion or mistake, please see the original sources for clarification.
Palestinian dependence on Israel for water and on the international community for healthcare services underscores the crippled state of Palestinian welfare and its subjugation to Israeli military decisions. This is not the result of shortcomings of the traditional development approaches (in particular the differing incentive and sanction structures behind state and market approaches to basic service provision) but of Israeli military and government policy towards the West Bank and Gaza.
Israel must address the occupation and violation of human rights and international humanitarian law it engenders in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and "not invoke the justification of terrorism as a distraction, as a pretext for failure to confront the root cause of Palestinian violence: the occupation". This message was highlighted by United Nations Special Rapporteur John Dugard in his latest report on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967. February 2008.
The UN's Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, John Dugard, has issued a harshly critical report on Israel's human rights record in regards to its treatment of the Palestinians in occupied Palestine. "The international community, speaking through the United Nations, has identified three regimes as inimical to human rights: foreign occupation, apartheid and colonialism," Dugard says. In his report, the South African law professor accuses Israeli regime of all three. February 2007.
One year after Israel and the Palestinian Authority signed an Agreement on movement and access to Gaza strip, Israel has considerably restrained Palestinian access to the West Bank and the outside world, invoking "security reasons." According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), such limitation on Palestinian movement has led, since March 2006, to serious constraints on economic activities, mounting unemployment and increased violence in Gaza. Some observers qualify the worsening of the situation in Gaza to a "siege" of the Palestinian territory. December 2006 (pdf version).
This report from UNCTAD argues that the severity of the current crisis requires urgent, innovative measures to sustain and protect the Palestinian economy. Shocks to the economy following the January 2006 elections have included increased Israeli restrictions on financial flows and the movement of goods and people, the destruction of physical capital, Israel's decision to withhold the tax and customs revenue collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (PA), and the cessation of direct support to the PA by most traditional donors. October 2006 (pdf version).
At this site, you may access information on important issues related to Palestine and the United Nations, as well as information regarding the work and official documents of the Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine to the United Nations. You will also find information on Palestinian affairs including, historical pieces and documents of the Middle East peace process. Featured as well is the monthly publication of Palestine & The UN.
The Division for Palestinian Rights in the United Nations Department of Political Affairs (DPA) works to heighten international awareness of the Question of Palestine and gains wider recognition of and support for the achievement of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.
The Security Council is the United Nations' most powerful body. It has "primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security." Since 1948, the Security Council has addressed the situation in the Middle East and the Palestinian Question on many occasions.
Report of the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights, John Dugard, submitted in accordance with Commission resolution 1993/2 A. September 2003.
There has been a cumulative damage to Palestinian homes and land under Israeli occupation, and the occupying power bears legal responsibility, the Special Rapporteur on housing has said in a report.
The Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) are on the verge of humanitarian catastrophe, largely as the result of extremely harsh security measures imposed by the occupying Israeli forces since the outbreak of the second intifada in September 2000. The Special Rapporteur expresses his deep compassion and sympathy for both Israelis and Palestinians, who are living through a horrifying tragedy, but he cannot ignore the terrible situation of malnutrition that is being created in the OPT today (pdf version).
Years of bloody conflict have weakened both Israeli and Palestinian economies, though the latter has suffered the brunt of the decline. Because the Israeli-Palestinian conflict plays a central role in international politics, significant aid has been sent to the region. Currently, foreign aid (in the form of humanitarian assistance and development aid) is a defining feature of the Palestinian economy. The amounts of aid sent to the OPT and Israel are among the highest per-capita aid disbursements in the world. This report will attempt to understand the reasons for this, and to assess the ways in which aid affects the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. November 2008.
In April 2006, key donors including the USA, EU, and Canada suspended international aid to the Palestinian Authority government (PA), following the overwhelming victory of Hamas in parliamentary elections. One year later, the number of Palestinian people living in poverty has jumped by 30 per cent, essential services are facing meltdown, and previously unknown levels of factional violence plague Palestinian streets. April 2007.
The United Nations humanitarian agencies working in the occupied Palestinian territory are deeply alarmed by the impact continuing violence is having on civilians and civilian infrastructure in Gaza, which has resulted in a sharp decline in the humanitarian situation facing 1.4 million people, more than half of them children. August 2006.
This paper examines the humanitarian risks in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the coming months. It warns of an extremely bleak humanitarian situation for the Palestinian people. The analysis has been organised according to three scenarios. Scenario 1 reflects the current situation. A more critical forecast is related to the withdrawal of funding to the Palestinian Authority (PA). This has prompted humanitarian agencies to initiate planning based on two further scenarios (2 and 3). April 2006 (pdf version).
UNRWA provides education, health, and relief and social services to 3.9 million registered Palestine refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, the Syrian Arab Republic, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
National humanitarian society that provides a wide range of health, social and other humanitarian services for the Palestinian people throughout the Middle East.
During the month of May 2004, the Gaza Strip witnessed a shocking upsurge in the level of violence and destruction, with the Israeli Defence Forces conducting largescale incursions into densely populated areas of Rafah. Sixty Palestinians were reported killed and 221 wounded, including many civilians. Some 298 residential buildings housing 710 families were destroyed or damaged beyond repair. Apart from 47 buildings, all were occupied by Palestine refugees. In the wake of these events, the population in the areas affected find themselves in a dire humanitarian situation, one that is more bleak and precarious than at any time since the start of the Intifada (pdf version).
Palestinian collective revolts are not a singular response to singular problems caused by outsiders, for example the British mandate, Zionist colonial designs, Israeli occupation, and so on. What is often missed are the internal factors which anger the Palestinian masses, such as their leadership's failures, divisions, u-turns, corruption, nepotism, and so on. November 2008.
Over the past six years – since the start of the Aqsa Intifada on September 29, 2000 - all sectors of Palestinian society have suffered under the various measures put in place by the Israeli occupation throughout the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. However, as one marginalized sector of society, Palestinian women have bore the brunt of these measures. July 2006.
The report examines the impact on women of the spiralling violence and unprecedented level of restrictions of movements imposed by Israel on Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, as well as increased violence against women in the family and discriminatory laws and practices. Sweeping restrictions have led to unprecedented levels of poverty, unemployment and health problems for the entire Palestinian population in the Occupied Territories. Mobility restrictions, refusal or delay of passage at Israeli army checkpoints, blockades and curfews, have caused multiple complications for women in need of medical care, and in some cases have even resulted in the death of patients. March 2005.
Since the start of the Intifada on the 28th of September 2000 -triggered by Ariel Sharon's famous visit to the Haram Al Sharif- 4,342 Palestinians and Israelis have been killed. Of those 1,008 were Israeli and 3,334 Palestinian. 82% of Palestinians killed were civilians, and 621 were children below the age of 17, all victims of the Israeli occupation forces. September 2004.
Dr Ilan Pappe is one of Israel's most prominent ‘new historians’. In May 2002, Pappe was threatened with expulsion from his university, the University of Haifa, for supporting a Jewish graduate student whose dissertation documented a massacre of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers. The expulsion proceedings were suspended due to a protest by international academics. Green Left Weekly's Nick Everett spoke with Pappe during his recent visit to Australia. September 2004.
Whether a student, community activist, politician or an average citizen, these fact sheets will provide you with concise information on the different issues related to the current Intifada and Palestine.
The Palestinian uprising against Israel has entered its fourth year, making it clear that the bloody conflict in the Middle East cannot be resolved by force, as the loss of more than 3,200 lives since the Intifada began three years ago proves.
The Palestinians have long sought, and Israel has long resisted, the internationalization of efforts to construct a process that would lead to a durable and comprehensive peace. Independent advocates for a just peace have echoed this call out of the realization that the near monopoly of Washington on stewardship of Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy has hindered (and even obstructed) meaningful progress. April 2007.
135 respected global leaders -- former presidents, prime ministers, foreign and defence ministers, congressional leaders and heads of international organisations -- have today joined in a call for urgent international action to comprehensively resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict. The outlines of what is needed are well known, based on UN Security Council resolutions 242 of 1967 and 338 of 1973, the Camp David peace accords of 1978, the Clinton Parameters of 2000, the Arab League Initiative of 2002, and the Roadmap proposed in 2003 by the Quartet (UN, US, EU and Russia). The goal must be security and full recognition to the state of Israel within internationally recognized borders, an end to the occupation for the Palestinian people in a viable independent, sovereign state, and the return of lost land to Syria. October 2006.
Interview with Tanya Reinhart, a Professor of Linguistics at Tel Aviv University and the author of "Israel/Palestine: How to End the War of 1948" and "The Roadmap to Nowhere". October 2006.
The following is a performance-based and goal driven roadmap, with clear phases, timelines, target dates, and benchmarks aiming at progress through reciprocal steps by the two parties in the political, security, economic, humanitarian, and institution-building fields, under the auspices of the Quartet (US, Russia, European Union and United Nations) (pdf version).
On April 24-27, 2003 a group of Israelis and Palestinians participated in a workshop during which time a “Road Map for Jerusalem” was produced. This Road Map is directed to the Israeli Government, the PLO and the Members of the Quartet. The authors of the document firmly believe that it is essential to include the issue of Jerusalem in the Quartet’s Road Map in order to ensure a greater possibility of success for peace.
With the current leaderships in Israel, Palestine and the US, the Road Map for Peace remains the only accepted political process for moving from a state of violence towards peace between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Despite some initial optimism following the outcome of the Palestinian presidential elections, there has been no obvious progress towards peace negotiations. This is of little surprise, since the conditions for holding negotiations simply do not exist and possibly have not even been thought through by either party. While opportunities for peace talks are fast disappearing as the region appears again to slide into outright confrontation, the writers, former anti-apartheid activists from the Netherlands, South Africa and Great Britain respectively, look back on this crucial period in South African history in the first of two articles in a series, to reflect upon and provide inspiration to the Palestinian struggle for liberation. February 2005.
On the eve of the meeting intended to restart negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians at Annapolis, Maryland, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced that Israel will build no new West Bank settlements, but will not "strangle" existing Israel settlements. This means that construction in the 149 existing Israeli settlements throughout the West Bank that are strangling Palestinians will continue unchecked. Olmert's cynical announcement underlines the fear that Israel, with US support, will insist on retaining most West Bank settlements in the upcoming negotiations, locking Palestinians into a "separate but unequal" position. November 2007.
Pretty much no one is taking it seriously. Even mainstream analysts usually willing to take Bush administration Middle East initiatives at face value are rolling their collective eyes. The New York Times' senior correspondent Steven Erlanger immediately acknowledged that Bush's latest "vision," a U.S.-Israeli-Fatah alliance creating a model Palestine in the West Bank designed to snub the isolated "Hamastan" in Gaza, is not a "vision shared by other American allies or other members of the so-called quartet - Russia, the European Union and the United Nations." (Yes even the Times said "so-called" quartet). August 2007.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's "convergence plan" (now renamed a "realignment plan"), based on the massive "facts on the ground" Israel continues to impose unilaterally with overt American support, cannot possibly give rise to a viable Palestinian state. According to Jeff Halper of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, the bottom line of his convergence plan is clear: the establishment of a permanent, institutionalized regime of Israeli domination over Palestinians based on separation between Jews and Arabs. May 2006.
"The sheer fact that the Israeli military are getting away with killing hundreds and hundreds of innocent children, without paying any consequences whatsoever, is so outrageous, so unbelievable, that it paralyses you", says Leigh Brady writing from Yamun, occupied Palestine. "It renders you helpless, unable to react, unable to focus on what actions to take to remedy the situation." April 2006.
The Oslo agreement was explicit in emphasizing the need to maintain the geographic integrity of the occupied Palestinian territory, particularly to create a geo-political link between the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Geographic integrity is a necessary condition for the creation of a viable state, making this link of the highest priority. March 2006.
"Just as the wishes of the 1.4 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip play no part in the public debate being waged in Israel over the withdrawal, the fact that Palestinians have now become the disengagement's first victims has been lost amid a sea of blue and orange ribbons, representing the current competition between Jewish and ultra-Jewish nationalism." August 2005.
"As you know, Amnesty International has repeatedly condemned and called for an end to human rights abuses committed by Israeli security forces and by Palestinian security forces and Palestinian armed groups. Today, I am writing to express our deep concern about a number of issues related to human rights contained in your recent letter to Mr Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister of Israel, and in your statement to the press of 14 April 2004, on the occasion of your meeting with Mr Sharon. We note that some of these positions are contrary to international law and appear to be at variance with previous United States (US) government policy. We fear that these statements may contribute to a further deterioration of the human rights situation in Israel and the Occupied Territories."
The visit of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to Washington on April 14, 2004, intended to solicit American support for Sharon's unilateral plan for Gaza and to formalize letters of assurances between Sharon and United States President George W. Bush, was an unprecedented affair, not only in Israeli-American relations, but in the history of American foreign policy. It is difficult to remember any previous occasion on which an American president so bluntly contradicted specific stipulations of United Nations Security Council resolutions and international law.
Politicians and commentators are declaring that Sharon is mad and that by killing Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, he is throwing the whole area, if not the world, into chaos. "But I don't think Sharon is mad or acting in retaliation", says Eyad el Sarraj. "He has a plan, and it is working."
The killing of Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, spiritual leader of Hamas, in March 2004 was a new kind of killing, even in the midst of the protracted conflict that began in the fall of 2000 and has claimed some 2,800 Palestinian and some 900 Israeli lives.
Two years ago, Israel completed its unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. We all remember the intense media campaign shamelessly portraying the settlers as dispossessed victims of a bold move for peace. Among others, Harvard economist Sara Roy argued that Israel's version of disengagement would bring disaster to an already desperate Gaza. Today, we are witnessing emergence of an unparalleled economic catastrophe in the Gaza Strip and with it, the evaporation of the last remaining hopes for a Palestinian state. November 2007.
Calling to the international community to get mobilised and bring the Israeli occupation to an end, Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights has launched an international campaign to demonstrate that the Gaza Strip remains under Israeli effective control despite its claims otherwise. The campaign comes one year after the completion of the Israeli Unilateral Disengagement from Gaza in September 2005. October 2006.
"Mr. Sharon was not a man that the Palestinian people in general liked. He's identified in the mind with Sabra and Chatila, Qibya ... and many other massacres and horrible days. He's also identified ... with settlements and the building of new settlements," said Dr. Nabil Sha'ath, deputy prime minister of the Palestinian Authority. January 2006.
While world attention is focused on Israel as it begins evicting the last Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip, it should be noted that the Gaza settlers represent only 2% of the 430,00 Israelis who now live on land taken from the Palestinians since 1967. Also, observers point out that, after the withdrawal, if the Israeli army remains along Gaza’s border with Egypt, ‘Gaza will still be one big prison’. August 2005.
The disengagement plan is intended to forestall international intervention and Israeli public dissension. As incomplete as Palestinians perceive the roadmap plan to be, this broadly accepted document talks about ending the occupation, establishing a viable Palestinian state, and incorporating an international framework outside the sole purview of the United States. "Sharon will fight with a few more settlers, everyone will say that is wonderful, and the roadmap will be discarded," predicts Jeff Halper of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions. In the meantime, the strategic settlement project will grow. May 2005.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan for unilateral "disengagement" from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank has left many observers scratching their heads. It is especially perplexing that disengagement now seems to be the prelude to a larger Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank. After all, Sharon has been an outspoken opponent of past Israeli evacuations of occupied Palestinian territory, and a long-time ally of the very settlers he now accuses of having a "messianic complex." Is Sharon really now prepared to countenance an independent, viable Palestinian state on lands he and his allies have considered part of Greater Israel? In this provocative essay, Gary Sussman of Tel Aviv University suggests another possibility. What if the Israeli premier has quietly held on to his once openly expressed belief that "Jordan is Palestine"? March 2005.
Away from international attention, the destiny being prepared for the Palestinian people is showing its true face more clearly than ever before in the new Israeli plans presented to the public in the past few months. The Apartheid Wall, with its horrendous effects on Palestinian life and land, does not stand alone, but is today merging with the longstanding Israeli settlement policy and the creation of Jewish-only infrastructure into a comprehensive scheme for colonial domination and conquest. January 2005.
Palestinians never took seriously the verbal Israeli commitments to withdraw from Gaza. This is not only as a result of long, bitter Palestinian experience not to expect anything good especially from such a right-wing Israeli government, but also because Palestinians have learned that there is always a rather large gap between what Israeli leaders say and do. This edition of Bitterlemons offers four points of view on the issue, by Israelis and Palestinians.
The Israeli armed forces have illegally razed thousands of homes, regardless of military necessity, to clear Palestinians from the Gaza-Egypt border and create a “buffer zone,” Human Rights Watch said in a report called "Razing Rafah: Mass Home Demolitions in the Gaza Strip". The Israeli government is calling for the destruction of hundreds more homes to widen the zone as part of a plan to “disengage” from the territory. October 2004.
Israel's plan to "disengage" from Gaza, which is part of a scheme to break up Palestinian territory into a series of Bantustans and torpedo the project of Palestinian statehood altogether, must be opposed worldwide - just as apartheid was. July 2004.
Many critics of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon depict him as an adroit tactician who has a ready answer for every immediate problem, but entirely lacks a long-term strategy. Ari Shavit, a columnist for the liberal Israeli daily Haaretz, recently characterized the present Sharon government as having "no principles, inspiration or vision...no comprehensive, coherent concept." Of course, Shavit's comment referred above all to the prime minister himself. On the eve of Sharon's April 2004 visit to the United States, where he seeks George W. Bush's license for a unilateral Israeli "disengagement" from the Gaza Strip, many speculated that this scheme, too, is only a tactic.
The Egyptian efforts simply stem from the different components and obligations that make up the first phase of the roadmap, in addition to other components taken from the Sharon plan of unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip. This report by Bitterlemons offers four different points of view on the subject.
On 27 December 2008, Israeli occupying forces launched a full-scale military offensive on the Gaza Strip from the sea, land and air. For 22 days the Israeli military indiscriminately shelled homes, mosques and schools, leaving no area of Gazan society untouched. During Israel's barbaric military campaign, approximately 1300 Palestinians were killed. According to Al-Mezan for Human Rights almost 4 of every 5 persons killed was a civilian. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, more than 1 of every 3 fatalities was a child . Practices and tactics adopted by the Israeli military during its offensive, which included bombing and shelling densely populated areas, strongly indicate that civilians were deliberately targeted. January 2009.
Oxford professor of international relations Avi Shlaim served in the Israeli army and has never questioned the state's legitimacy. But its merciless assault on Gaza has led him to devastating conclusions. January 2009.
It is hard to demarcate Israel's Palestine policy from the former South Africa's egregious ideology and politics of apartheid, says Praful Bidwai. He also comments on the now-rejected Sharon proposal for unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. The plan had nothing to do with Palestinian independence, Bidawi says, but was rather a way of getting rid of a "trouble-spot" to consolidate the much larger settlement issue in the West Bank preventing the emergence of a sovereign Palestinian state.
Israeli forces invaded the northern part of Gaza Strip on Tuesday September 28, 2004. Dozens of tanks and bulldozers, backed by Apache helicopters have been used in Israel’s operation “Days of Penitence”. More than 129 Palestinians, including several children and women, have been killed and more than 400 wounded since the army's operations in Gaza. The Palestine Monitor calls upon the international community to take urgent action, to speak out against the Israeli massacre of a civilian population and to demand that Israel is held to international law. October 2004.
Operation Days of Penitence, launched on September 29, 2004, is the Israeli military's most extensive incursion into the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the current Palestinian uprising and its largest offensive within the Occupied Territories since the 2002 reconquest of West Bank cities during Operation Defensive Shield. The backdrop for the incursion is, of course, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan for "unilateral disengagement" from the Gaza Strip, initially unveiled in late 2003. November 2004.
On 9 June 2006, an Israeli naval boat stationed off the coast of Beit Lahya fired seven successive artillery shells at civilians on a Gaza beach, killing Seven civilians from the same family (father, mother and five children). A further thirty-two civilians, including thirteen children, were injured. On 13 June another attack was carried out on a Gazan highway, killing eleven and injuring thirty. Israel's Defense Minister Amir Peretz announced that Israel is preparing a global "propaganda offensive" to counter the recent barrage of news reports and writings that condemned Israel for the recent killing of 10 civilians, including 5 children, on a Gaza beach. June 2006.
