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The news  16-22 February 2004:

Sharon’s ‘withdrawal’


Sharon was fine-tuning his plan, while settler rabbis rallied against withdrawal.

The US has its ‘red lines’ -no annexations: no fence on the Eastern side: no resettlement of Jews from Gaza in the West Bank; and no closing of the door on a later, full and negotiated settlement.

While top-level US delegation went to Israel to discuss the details with Sharon, the UN envoy to the region, and the Palestinian PM, both gave warm words to the idea of withdrawal, subject to conditions which Sharon sems unwilling to accept.

Later reports of the meeting with US officials suggested Washington would accept relocation of settlers from Gaza to the main settlement blocs on the West Bank, if withdrawal was carried out in co-ordination with the US.

Sara Roy of Harvard’s Centre for Middle Eastern Studies, explains how Sharon’s Gaza plan is in continuity with long-standing Israeli policy for consolidating control over the whole of Palestine.

Norton Mezvinsky considers Sharon’s Gaza withdrawal initiative is merely a ploy. So does Uri Avnery.

Sharon’s withdrawal talk seems no more than that when set against his record, says Nehemiah Strasler in his Brief History of Sharonism.

under occupation


The Palestinian Council for Peace and Justice has issued a report on Israeli human rights violations for the month of January 2004.

The Red Cross has slammed Sharon’s plan for the fence.

Thre are mixed reactions to the route of the Fence in Jerusalem.

Jenny Tonge MP travelled to Israel and the West Bank at the invitation of the BBC’s Today programme, and met with both the families of suicide bombers, and the families of their victims.

A leader in Ha’aretz protests at official complicity in the actions of settler ‘hooligans in Hebron’ in forcing Palestinians out of their homes by harassment insult and force.

Administrative detention without trial, right of representation, or the right to know the charges or evidence is now used not only against those involved in terrorist organisations, but against political opposition, critics allege - in one case, for ‘incitement against the fence’.

Israel’s last commander in Gaza argues the route of the fence will increase terrorism, and is meant as a means of pressure for ‘voluntary transfer’.

Palestinians claimed the wall had already taken its first victim - a boy who died on the way to hospital after what should have been a 2.5km journey took 40 minutes to the half-way point, where an ambulance waiting to pick up the boy found that he was dead.

Amira Hass describes a routine example of the IDF in Gaza making a display of “who’ s boss”. Gideon Levy describes a similar macho display at a West Bank checkpoint.

Despite Sharon’s pullout plan, a Knesset committee voted $20m in aid to settlements. And Palestinian Ministers complained Arafat was blocking a key reform to pay salaries directly to PA officials.

Palestinians use the internet to get round closure and curfew - and as a promising growth sector in the Palestinian economy.

Yossi Sarid gets angry at the way that Israel’s misdeeds, from crimes to petty acts of humiliation, are always committed ‘according to the proper procedures’.

This report from the village of Jayyous describes a new stage in Israel’s campaign to throttle the economy and society of Palestinian communities along the line of the fence.

More on the non-violent struggle against the wall by the villagers of Budrus

Amira Hass reports from Gaza on the self-destructive bravado of a militarised concept of resistance, wedded to fighting on a terrain where the occupier will always win.

The EU has announced the release of E40m in aid to the Palestinian Authority. But many Palestinians are asking if this money is not just a subsidy to the Israeli occupation.

A Jerusalem Post reporter joined a group of Israeli journalists invited to meet with Arafat’s security adviser Jibril Rajoub. Sadly, the comments by Jerusalem Post readers tell us as much about the conflict as Rajoub’s reported remarks.

inside Israel


MJ Rosenberg of the Doveish US ‘Israel Policy Forum’ reports on a recent visit to Israel, and on the impact on one Palestinian of discovering a US Jew who understood their plight.

Hedy Epstein, holocaust survivor, reports her experiences as an ISM volunteer.

The secular leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine [PFLP] has been making overtures to Israeli leftists, in talks with members of Meretz and with Hadash Knesset member Mohammed Barakei.

A recent poll shows high levels of mistrust and disillusion among the Israeli public.

The Economist’s correspondent spent some time talking to ordinary Israelis and Palestinians.

There are further Kafkaesque developments in the cases of the jailed refuseniks.

Rightist rabbis denounced Sharon in terms which reminded some observers of the hate-speech that preceded the assassination of Sharon.

While Sharon spends billions on the wall, single mums in Israel have their benefits cut and are reduced to stealing from supermarkets to feed their families.

Smear stories in the Israeli press about Mordechai Vanunu, the whistle-blower who exposed the country’s nuclear weapons programme, have heightened concerns that harsh restrictions may be imposed on his movements when he is released from jail on April 21. But Vanunu has denied that he has any more nuclear secrets.

in the USA


President Bush continues to hone his projected initiative to promote democracy in the Middle East. But how much reality is there behind the rhetoric, asks Brian Whitaker?

Some Arab Americans are rallying to Bush.

A news report from the US alleges that a key role in many upcoming Congressional contests will be played by ‘Jewish money’. But don’t start complaining about ‘antisemitism’ just yet - the report is from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Despite Senator John Kerry’s immaculate pro-Israel voting record, some pro-Israel lobbyists are not satisfied that he is sufficiently free of any signs of independent thinking on the Middle East.

elsewhere


Staff at al-Jezeera describe their difficulties in maintaining their independence.

A plan to recreate part of the historic Jewish quarter of Vilnius is not supported by the few remaining Jews.

EU Commission President Romano Prodi told a conference on antisemitism in Europe that to compare modern antisemitism to that of the 1930s is an insult to the victims of the Holocaust. According to the report in Ha’aretz, the conference was first and foremost a victory for Europe’s Jews. Former Knesset speaker Avram Burg was impressed by the prospect for a united front against all forms of racism.

The Economist had a judicious feature on the issue.

The EU’s anti-fraud unit has found no evidence that EU money is being used by the PA to fund terrorism, according to a French newspaper report.

Rami Khouri has some reasons for scepticism about the impending US ‘democratic initiative’ in the Middle East, as well as some ideas for a positive alternative.

Thomas Friedman sees evidence of a new post-Iraq readiness to demand democratic change in the Arab world.

Palestinian and Israeli demonstrators and their supporters are making their way to the Hague for the Court hearings on the Wall. Mustafa Barghouti gave a Palestinian view of the case and Noam Chomsky gave a trenchant analysis of the issues behind the wall.

Daphna Baram was proud to be among those included on a right-wing ‘shit list’ of ‘self-hating Jews’.

2002

 

 

 

 


 

 

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