Posted on October 21st, 2010 by Marian Houk
Palestinians have started to express objections and opposition to an OECD meeting that opened yesterday in Jerusalem — after months of public announcements and preparations. The OECD – Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development – is a Paris-based international organization grouping economically-developed countries who are also considered “democracies”. A public meeting has been called in [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, European Union, Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law, International Law, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians
Posted on October 20th, 2010 by Marian Houk
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-Israel) is reporting that a two-year-old girl diagnosed with lukemia died in Gaza on Saturday 16 October, ten days after a “referral” for emergency treatment in Israel. A “referral” means that the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah [in a state of bitter rivalry with the Hamas rulers of Gaza who routed [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Gaza, Human Rights
Posted on October 19th, 2010 by Marian Houk
Via a press release from a delegation of The Elders now visiting the Middle East, we learn that former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said today in Damascus: “My fellow Elders have briefed me on their visit to Gaza – which confirms my fears that the situation is deteriorating sharply for the people trapped there. The [...]
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Filed under: Gaza, Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law, International Law, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians
Posted on October 19th, 2010 by Marian Houk
Here is an informative — though not exhaustively, and not completely up to date either [there is no mention of Sheikh Jarrah or Silwan, two real hotspots over the last year and more] — put together by The Palestine Center in Washington D.C.: l Lesley Stahl’s report for the CBS news program 60 Minutes was [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, International Humanitarian Law, International Law, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians
Posted on October 18th, 2010 by Marian Houk
The Syrian poet in exile, Adonis [Ali Ahmad Said Esber], is quoted in a New York Times profile, here, as saying to students in a class he visited at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor: “Right now we feel Arab culture is paralyzed. We suffer from women’s sense of their lack of freedom, of [...]
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Filed under: Human Rights, Sexual Exploitation, Abuse, and Harassment
Posted on October 18th, 2010 by Marian Houk
In a monthly report to the UN Security Council today, the UN political affairs department has just reported that: (1) “[Palestinian] Prime Minister Salam] Fayyad briefed AHLC [Ad Hoc Liaison Committee, meaning major donors] members as well as Arab League Foreign Ministers that commitments of donor funding for 2010 remain critically below what is necessary [...]
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Filed under: Ambassadors and other diplomats, Gaza, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians, Quartet, UN Security Council
Posted on October 16th, 2010 by Marian Houk
The Elders have entered the Gaza Strip today via the Rafah crossing from Egypt, after holding talks in Cairo with Egyptian President Husni Mubarak. CORRECTION: Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is apparently not with the group in Gaza, but will instead join them later. Former Irish President Mary Robinson — who subsequently served as UN [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Egypt, Gaza, Human Rights, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians
Posted on October 16th, 2010 by Marian Houk
Three of Israel’s most distinguished and respected human rights groups testified before the Israeli-government-appointed Turkel Commission on Wednesday in a six-and-a-half hour marathon public session (with two 10-minute breaks). One Israeli media report afterwards described the rather mainstream groups [(1) B'Tselem, (2) Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, and (3) GISHA] as “left-wing”, and B’Tselem’s Director Jessica [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Gaza, Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law, International Law, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians
Posted on October 15th, 2010 by Marian Houk
The first formal announcement has come from the Israeli government — from its Ministry of Housing — that it is issuing new tenders for housing construction that will include some 238 housing units in two East Jerusalem settlements (Ramot and Pisgat Zeev). These are part of a package of some 4,000 housing units in various [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians
Posted on October 13th, 2010 by Marian Houk
Did he or didn’t he? UPDATE: Abed Rabbo is reportedly unavailable for comment on Thursday… Yasser Abed Rabbo, the Executive Secretary of the Palestine Liberation Organization [PLO] — the “sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, remember? — or, as Ma’an News Agency has identified him, “PLO Secretary-General Yasser Abed Rabbo” — reportedly told the [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Israel, Middle East Peace Process, Negotiators and negotiations, Palestine & Palestinians, USA
