Posted on November 12th, 2009 by Marian Houk
Haaretz journalist Tomer Zarchin has conducted an email interview with South Africa’s Justice Richard Goldstone about recent Israeli criticism of his recent report on last winter’s Gaza war — and about him. According to the Haaretz account, “Judge Richard Goldstone told Haaretz Thursday that President Shimon Peres’ remarks criticizing him were ‘specious and ill-befitting the [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Gaza, Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law, International Law, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians
Posted on November 11th, 2009 by Marian Houk
There is, despite everything, a palpable feeling of loss and grief in Ramallah — mixed with massive amounts of cynicism and fresh despair — on the fifth anniversary of the death, in a Paris hospital, of iconic Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Palestinian television is doing live coverage of the main commemoration ceremony which is being [...]
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Filed under: Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law, International Law, Palestine & Palestinians
Posted on November 9th, 2009 by Marian Houk
Well it took a long time, but today Palestinian activists got together and pulled down a section of The Wall near the dreadful Qalandia checkpoint (or “border terminal” as Israel calls it) between Ramallah and Jerusalem. A late breaking news flash on Ma’an News Agency said that two persons have been arrested at the site [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Human Rights, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians, Register of damages due to The Wall
Posted on November 8th, 2009 by Marian Houk
This is what could be called a triumph of substance over style: In this photo, American folk singer Pete Seegar and Jeff Halper, American-Israeli head of the Israeli Coalition Against House Demolitions (ICHAD) wear identical ICAHD t-shirts (photo by Elyse Crystal) Haaretz today published the photo, along with an article by its correspondent Nir Hasson, [...]
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Filed under: Human Rights, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians, USA
Posted on November 7th, 2009 by Marian Houk
The AP’s indefatigable Edith Lederer has reported that “Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said yesterday he will send a report calling for Israel and the Palestinians to investigate alleged war crimes during last winter’s conflict in Gaza to the UN Security Council ‘as soon as possible’.” She added that “The 15 council members have already received copies [...]
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Filed under: BAN Ki-Moon, Gaza, Human Rights, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians, UN General Assembly, UN Secretary-General, UN Security Council
Posted on November 6th, 2009 by Marian Houk
There was applause in the UN General Assembly hall as the results showed up on the voting board: 114 states voted in favor, 18 voted against, and 44 abstained [while another 16 were absent during the vote] on a resolution endorsing the Goldstone report mandated by the UN’s Human Rights Council in Geneva that studied [...]
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Filed under: Gaza, Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians, UN General Assembly
Posted on November 5th, 2009 by Marian Houk
“We have made precious sacrifices until our right to establish our state is recognized … We placed ourselves under the sponsorship of the international community, and year after year we have been disappointed”, said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in a speech that was billed to journalists as a press conference called on one-and-a-half hours’ notice, [...]
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Filed under: Israel, Palestine & Palestinians
Posted on November 4th, 2009 by Marian Houk
This is how U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton is talking, now, about Israeli settlements that dot the Israeli-occupied West Bank. It was actually her predecessor, Condoleezza Rice, who worked up this formulation during the Annapolis process of negotiations in 2008 — determine the borders, first, and then we’ll know what’s legal, and what’s [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Israel, Negotiators and negotiations, Palestine & Palestinians, USA
Posted on November 3rd, 2009 by Marian Houk
For the fourth consecutive day Tuesday, torrents of winter rain fell from the skies, and rivers of water flowed through the streets of Jerusalem and the nearby areas. The ground is waterlogged, and can’t easily absorb any more — despite this being the best rainfall in a parched region in nearly five years. In these [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Human Rights, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians
Posted on November 1st, 2009 by Marian Houk
After huffing and puffing to blow the house down (well, to sue the Palestinian Authority, for Israel’s refusal to release sufficient telecommunications wavelengths), the Qatari and Kuwaiti-owned Wataniya mobile phone company made the surprise announcement that it had launched its service in Palestine today, just two weeks after the planned date — and despite Israel’s [...]
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Filed under: Israel, Palestine & Palestinians, Qatar, Quartet
