Palestinian Farmer Killed in Tulkarem
heather on June 19th, 2007The Israeli army is currently invading the village of Saida, in the Tulkarem district of the West Bank.
According to local sources, Israeli special forces were occupying an old, abandoned Palestinian house in the center of the village last night. At least two Israeli checkpoints were setup in the morning between Saida and the neighboring areas. Military jeeps along with bulldozers invaded the village later in the afternoon.
A 32 year old Palestinian farmer was killed (Mohammad Ali Ittwair) and two boys were injured (Mahdi Sahir, 14 years old, injured in the head and Saddam Hassan, 17 years, injured in the stomach). No information has been provided about the boy’s condition yet.
Since the beginning of the current Intifada, 23 Palestinians from the village of Saida have been killed and three homes were demolished.
For more information see
www.palsolidarity.org
CAABU Press Release: 40 years of conflict, 40 years of suffering, 40 years of occupation is too long
heather on June 5th, 2007Four decades after the devastating war of 1967, one can only conclude that the international community and especially the United Nations Security Council, has failed Israelis, Palestinians and other Arabs. Rather than try to resolve this major conflict that has undermined peace and security in the Middle East, the major powers, particularly the United States but also Britain, have dodged their responsibilities and condoned the systematic and prolonged flouting of international law and human rights standards. If prospects for peace look more remote than ever today, then a large part of that is due to this acute failure.
Few people in the ‘West’ remember or know what it is like to live under military occupation, to be controlled and humiliated by foreign troops, and to have your basic freedom taken away from you. Such occupations, whether for example in France, the Netherlands, and Norway in the Second World War, triggered active resistance that we still venerate to this day. This was something acknowledged by Moshe Dayan, the Israeli Defence Minister in 1967, who predicted that the Palestinians would resist with violence, because that is what he would have done had he been in their place. The Israeli army has occupied Palestinian lands by using ever increasing military force and brutal methods leading to the deaths of thousands of Palestinians. Sadly, Palestinian resistance has increasingly meant, especially in the last decade, attacks on Israeli civilians. Occupation has led to resistance, to repression and to more violence.
How then, can we in the ‘West’, understand life for Palestinians who have endured a 40-year Israeli occupation, and have seen their lands colonised by Israeli settlements stealing their vital land, water and other resources. Do we have any notion of what it is like to live on less than $2 a day? Gaza is one vast prison, one of the most overcrowded places on earth, where trade and travel are not permitted, and even fishing is viewed as a security threat. The West Bank is now a series of Palestinian city prisons, each surrounded by checkpoints, roadblocks and earth mounds, buttressed by the Israeli wall that serves to annex large chunks of the West Bank.
The continued Israeli occupation and colonisation of the Syrian Golan Heights also prolongs a cold war between Syria and Israel. This has largely been played out with devastating consequences in the cities, towns and villages of Lebanon. Moreover, who cares for or remembers those 20,000 Syrians who still survive under Israeli occupation, split from their families, friends and country?
Commenting on the anniversary, CAABU Director, Chris Doyle, stated “It was the 1967 war that led to CAABU’s establishment 40 years ago. Our message remains as valid today as it was then. To avoid another 40 years of misery, this conflict needs resolving, and a core part of that process is to end the occupation once and for all. This solution is all laid out in the Arab peace plan that envisages full withdrawal from Arab lands for full peace. It is time for the international community to get behind this before it is too late.”
Ends
Background information:
To see our page on 40 years of Israeli occupation: www.caabu.org/index.asp?homepage=key_issues&article=40_years_of_o
ccupation
For further information or interviews contact Chris Doyle, Director, CAABU (Council for Arab-British Understanding).
doylec@caabu.org. Tel:+ 44 207 832 1310 +44 7968 040281
