[Peace-discuss] Fwd: The News in Brief

[Alfred Kagan]

I am forwarding this latest news summary because it brings together 
the issues that show the clarity of the situation. It addresses 
torture, the Jenin massacre, restrictions on movement, devastation of 
peace centers, and repression of academic freedom.

>Delivered-To: akagan at alexia.lis.uiuc.edu
>From: "PMC" <pmc at palestine-pmc.com>
>To: <Undisclosed-Recipient:@linux.palestine-pmc.com;>
>Subject: The News in Brief
>Date: Wed, 15 May 2002 17:57:35 +0200
>X-Priority: 3
>Status: RO
>
>The News in Brief
>
>
>
>
>15 May 2002
>Palestine Media Center (PMC)
><http://www.palestine-pmc.com/>http://www.palestine-pmc.com
>
>   
>
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>
>
>Amnesty Submits Letter On Torture Of Palestinians
>  Amnesty International has submitted yesterday a briefing on 
>"torture and ill-treatment of Palestinians by members of the Israeli 
>[occupation] forces and the General Security Services" to the United 
>Nations Committee against Torture (CAT), which is due to discuss the 
>situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
>
>In its letter, Amnesty International expressed its deep concern that 
>the recommendations made by the CAT in 2001 have not been 
>implemented but rather, the human rights situation has deteriorated 
>further.
>
>According to Amnesty's letter, "During the latest large-scale and 
>prolonged Israeli incursions into Palestinian refugee camps and 
>other residential areas, thousands of Palestinians have been 
>arrested, held in prolonged incommunicado detention and subjected to 
>cruel and degrading treatment. The CAT has previously stated that 
>administrative detention without charge or trial, which has recently 
>increased enormously, might constitute cruel, inhuman or degrading 
>treatment or punishment".
>
>Amnesty also pointed out, "In its conclusions in November, the 
>committee had stated that the policies of house demolition and 
>closures in some instances could amount to cruel, inhuman or 
>degrading treatment. Amnesty International considers the nature and 
>severity of the suffering inflicted by the systematic practice of 
>house demolitions without absolute military necessity, closures and 
>the use of human shields is so grave that they may amount to torture 
>as defined in Article 1 of the Convention against Torture".
>
>Amnesty also reminded the committee of article 2 of the Convention 
>against Torture, which states, "No exceptional circumstances 
>whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal 
>political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked 
>as a justification of torture".
>
>The Committee against Torture last considered Israel's adherence 
>with the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and 
>Degrading Treatment or Punishment in November 2001. 
>
>
>
>UN Agencies Squeezed by Israel:
>
>UN Secretariat to Draft Report on Israeli Army Offensives
>
>Following Israel's refusal to cooperate with the UN Fact-Finding 
>Committee on the Jenin refugee camp massacre as well as atrocities 
>committed in other Palestinian cities and towns, the UN Secretariat 
>is drafting letters to both the Government of Israel and the 
>Palestine National Authority, requesting information for a report on 
>recent Israeli occupation army offensives in the West Bank. The 
>decision came in response to a request by the General Assembly in 
>its resolution of 7 May.
>
>According to UN Spokesperson Fred Eckhard, the United Nations 
>expects that the UN Secretariat staff will take approximately six 
>weeks to draft the report. It would then be presented by 
>Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the General Assembly. 
>
>
>
>UNRWA Concerned about Possible Restrictions on Movement
>Rene Aquarone, the head of the Geneva office of the UN Relief and 
>Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), 
>expressed the Agency's worry about the implications of new 
>restrictions on freedom of movement of the Palestinian People, which 
>will be enforced by the Israeli occupation authorities.  
>
>Aquarone stressed that under the new system, any Palestinian wanting 
>to move from one city to another in the West Bank would need a 
>permit from the occupation's so-called "Civil Administration", which 
>would be valid for one month. Similarly, Palestinians holding 
>Occupied East Jerusalem ID cards would be prevented from travelling 
>to the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.  Meanwhile, UNRWA 
>and other agencies would have to use international drivers for all 
>transportation.
>
>"We are very concerned because if these announced measures are put 
>into effect, this will cripple the activities of the agency, its 
>relief and emergency activities and its normal activities", Aquarone 
>told reporters in Geneva.
>
>He added that UNRWA was in discussion with Israeli occupation 
>authorities to try to explain to them that this is not in conformity 
>with the responsibilities of Israel as an occupying power, and 
>certainly not in accordance with its responsibilities to a UN agency.
>
>
>
>City of Peace Shocked by Israeli-Made Havoc:
>
>Bethlehem Peace Center: Israeli Actions Reflect Total Disrespect for 
>Civil society and Human Dignity
>
>The Bethlehem Peace Center issued a press release detailing the 
>extensive damage and destruction left behind by the Israeli 
>occupation forces during their 38-day occupation of Bethlehem.
>
>Immediately after their invasion, Israeli occupation soldiers set up 
>their headquarters in the Bethlehem Peace Center, making liberal use 
>of each office and space in the building for logistical, 
>administrative, and military purposes for the duration of their 
>re-occupation. The center was also used for interrogations and 
>temporary detention of Palestinians and internationals during the 
>siege of the Church of the Nativity.
>
>According to the center's report, "the traces of what must have 
>transpired inside the Bethlehem Peace Center between 2 April and 10 
>May 2002 speaks of unimaginable arrogance, violence, insolence and a 
>total disrespect for civil society and human dignity".
>
>The director of the Bethlehem Peace Center entered the premises of 
>the Bethlehem Peace Center the evening of Friday 10 May, while the 
>Israeli occupation soldiers were still evacuating the town from the 
>back of the building. Within the hour, diplomats of the Swedish 
>Consulate General in Jerusalem joined him. "What we encountered was 
>a scene of utter devastation, inexplicable and inexcusable even 
>under the circumstance of a military occupation. This is certainly 
>not the hallmark of a civilized army", he expressed.
>
>The Bethlehem Peace Center - which had been a gift of Sweden to 
>Bethlehem and is dedicated to the promotion of peace, democracy, 
>religious tolerance and cultural diversity - was coated in a mixture 
>of dirt, beer, wine, urine, eggs, rotting food, spilt coffee and tea 
>from wall to wall, room to room and floor to floor. The bathrooms 
>had feces and vomit in the toilets, on the floors and on the walls, 
>the center reported.
>
>The report added that the center's furniture was rearranged to meet 
>the needs of the Israeli military administration, with not a single 
>desk or chair remaining in its original place. Doors and drawers 
>were forced open, a number of them having been blasted with 
>dynamite. Hundreds of keys were strewn throughout the building, 
>including under various toilet seats. All cash boxes were 
>compromised.
>   
>Moreover, the center reported at least 7 computers and printers, fax 
>machines, a heavy-duty photocopier, all the telephones in the 
>building, a laminator, two scanners, a video projector, a DVD, a 
>VCR, two televisions, two slide projectors, two sound mixers, CD 
>players, microphones and a digital camera - were stolen by the 
>Israeli occupation forces. Many official files and scores of 
>personal items, including private family photographs, were also 
>taken.
>
>To this day, Israel insists that its operation was aimed at rooting 
>out "the terrorist infrastructure" in the Occupied Palestinian 
>Territory. Reports of looting and vandalism are explained as "single 
>and isolated" incidents, allegedly perpetrated by individual and 
>exceptional criminal elements in the occupation army. It is argued 
>that theft and vandalism is neither the intent nor the interest of 
>the Israeli occupation forces.
>
>"The case of the outrageous defilement of the Bethlehem Peace 
>Center, a cultural center of the highest order in Palestine, 
>dedicated entirely to aesthetic and cultural pursuits, would prove 
>quite the opposite to be true. While it is not the only civic 
>institution to suffer this fate during the Israeli incursions into 
>Palestinian-controlled areas, the mere extent of the devastation, 
>and the fact that the Bethlehem Peace Center served as the [Israeli 
>occupation army]'s headquarters for 38 days, belies Israel's denials 
>of intent," stressed the report.
>
>It added, "The defilement of the Bethlehem Peace Center proves 
>beyond the shadow of a doubt that the destruction of Palestinian 
>civil society and the looting was not only tolerated by the 
>military, but was orchestrated by the [Israeli occupation army] at 
>the highest level and was, indeed, one of the objectives of 
>'Objective Defensive Shield'".
>
>
>
>Democracy in Israel:
>
>Appeal From Israeli University Lecturer
>
>A senior Israeli Political Science lecturer at Haifa University and 
>Academic Director of the Research Institute for Peace at Givat 
>Haviva, Ilan Pappe, has been prosecuted for expressing support for 
>the Israeli reserve soldiers who refuse to serve in the Occupied 
>Palestinian Territory. The lecturer is now also being prosecuted for 
>having accepted a thesis uncovering the Tanttura massacre, committed 
>against defenceless Palestinian civilians in 1948.
>
>Israel continues to deny that the massacre ever took place, after 
>having completely erased any remnants of the village.
>
>The lecturer wrote an appeal, stressing that Israeli academic 
>freedom in general is under attack. Below is a transcript:
>
>Dear Friends,
>
>I have received today an invitation to stand for a trial in my 
>university, the University of Haifa. The prosecution, represented by 
>Haifa Dean's of humanities demands my expulsion from the university 
>due to the positions I have taken on the Katz affair. It calls upon 
>the court 'to judge Dr. Pappe on the offences he has committed and 
>to use to the full the court's legal authority to expel him from the 
>university". These offences are in a nutshell my past critique of 
>the university's conduct in the Katz affair, the MA student who 
>discovered the Tantura massacre in 1948 and was disqualified for 
>that. The reason the university waited so long is that now the time 
>is ripe in Israel for any act of silencing academic freedom. My 
>intent to teach a course on the Nakbah next year and my support for 
>a boycott on Israel has led the university to the conclusion that I 
>can only be stopped by expulsion.
>
>
>
>Judging by past procedures this is not a request, but already a 
>verdict, given the position of the person in question in the 
>university and the way things had been done in the past. The 
>ostensible procedure of a 'fair trial' does not exist and hence I do 
>not even intend to participate in a McCarthyist charade.
>
>
>
>I do not appeal to you for my own sake. I ask you at this stage 
>before a final decision has been taken to voice your opinion in 
>whatever form you can and to whatever stage you have access to, not 
>in order to prevent my expulsion (in many ways in the present 
>atmosphere in Israel it will come now, and if not now later on, as 
>the Israeli academia has deiced almost unanimously to support the 
>government and to help silence any criticism). I ask those who are 
>willing to do so, to take this case as part of your overall 
>appreciation of, and attitude to, the preset situation in Israel.
>
>
>
>This should shed light also on the debate whether or not to boycott 
>Israeli academia. This is not, I stress, an appeal for personal help 
>- my situation is far better than that of my colleagues in the 
>occupied territories living under the daily harassment and brutal 
>abuses of the Israeli army. It is an opening gambit and many of 
>colleagues, especially my Palestinian Israeli colleagues, can be 
>next. A testimony to the tragic circumstances of my own university 
>is that I know there is no use in distributing this letter on its 
>internal web-site, as all of my colleagues in the past when it came 
>to the crucial moment - for understandable reasons - felt they could 
>do very little to help me, without risking their own position in the 
>university.
>
>
>
>I know many of you have access to world media and can help to expose 
>the already dismal picture and false pretense of Israel of being the 
>'only democracy in the Middle East'.
>
>
>
>Yours
>
>
>
>Ilan Pappe
>
>
>
>
>
>Sharon's War on Palestine
>
>Day 49
>
>
>
>15 May 2002
>Palestine Media Center (PMC)
><http://www.palestine-pmc.com/>http://www.palestine-pmc.com
>
>
>
>The Palestinian People Remember 1948 Catastrophe - Al-Nakbah
>
>Palestinian People recalled today the 54th anniversary of Al-Nakbah 
>by standing three minutes of silence in memory of over 700,000 
>people, who were forcibly expelled from their villages, towns, and 
>cities by Israel during the 1948 war.
>
>Cities and towns all over West Bank and Gaza Strip witnessed 
>gatherings of thousands of residents as President Yasser Arafat 
>addressed the nation. During his speech, the President stressed that 
>despite the continuous Israeli aggression against the Palestinian 
>cities, towns, and refugee camps, which are reminiscent of the 
>suffering endured during the Catastrophe, the Palestinian People is 
>still determined to achieve peace with Israel, based on UN 
>resolutions 242 and 338. He emphasized that Palestinian independence 
>and freedom were the only guarantee for peace and security in the 
>region, assuring the nation that these long-sought goals were closer 
>than ever.
>
>
>
>Gaza Cities Under Fire
>
>Three Palestinian women were injured today when Israeli occupation 
>forces opened fire towards them near Al-Mawassi Junction in Rafah. 
>Medical sources, who confirmed the report, said that the three 
>victims are now being treated in the hospital and that their 
>condition is stable.  
>
>Moreover, Israeli occupation forces carried out an incursion today 
>in Al-Mawassi area and uprooted tens of olive trees, which belong to 
>Zareb family.
>
>Also today in the Gaza Strip, Israeli occupation forces carried out 
>an incursion into the Palestinian-controlled city of Rafah. 
>Eyewitnesses also confirmed that Israeli occupation soldiers raided 
>a number of homes.
>
>Meanwhile, Palestinian medical sources declared last night that 15 
>year-old Salem Sami Al-Sha'er died of wounds he sustained last week 
>as he was shot by Israeli occupation soldiers in his hometown of 
>Rafah on 7 May.
>
>Moreover, Palestinian security sources reported last night that 
>Israeli occupation forces arrested eight residents at the Abu Holi 
>Check roadblock, near Der Al-Balah City. Of those arrested, the 
>sources were only able to identify the following: Mahmoud Al-Farra, 
>Sami Abu Shosha, Raja' Madi, Mahmoud Madi and Ahmed Darabseh.
>
>Last night in Khan Younis, Israeli occupation forces bulldozed 50 
>dunoms (1 dunom = 1,000 square meters) of agricultural land, and 
>destroyed a farm at Abasan Al-Jadida area, east of the city. 
>According to eyewitnesses, an Israeli occupation bulldozer, backed 
>by three tanks, came from an Israeli military post inside the Green 
>Line, and proceeded to raze the residents' land, which lies 200 
>meters far away from the Palestinian-Egyptian border. The occupation 
>forces also opened fire at the farmers, but no injuries were 
>reported.
>
>
>
>Ministry Of Supplies: The Gaza Strip Receiving Only One Tenth Of 
>Needed Flour Supply
>
>The Ministry of Supplies warned today of severe shortage in flour 
>supplies in the Gaza Strip because of the continuous Israeli siege, 
>which prevented the transportation of such supplies, especially to 
>the most severely affected areas.
>
>According to a statement issued by the Ministry in Gaza City, only 
>one tenth of the daily flour supplies reaches the Strip because of 
>the Israeli siege. "Only 39,5 tons of flour are delivered every day 
>to the Gaza Strip, while the needed amount reaches 410 tons", one 
>official from the Ministry pointed out.
>
>The official further warned that the available flour supplies would 
>only be enough for the coming three or four days unless Israel lifts 
>its enduring siege, which has been imposed on the Gaza Strip since 
>October 2000.


-- 


Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801, USA

tel. 217-333-6519
fax. 217-333-2214
e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu
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