The PHRC's Week In Review
PHRC
         
 
  Israeli-Palestinian relations and terrorism
  Israel backs down in EU trade row
Israel has bowed to five years of pressure from the EU and agreed to drop labels claiming that goods produced in Jewish settlements and in the occupied territories are made in Israel.
 
  Twilight Zone / `I punched an Arab in the face'
Staff Sergeant (res.) Liran Ron Furer cannot just routinely get on with his life anymore. He is haunted by images from his three years of military service in Gaza and the thought that this could be a syndrome afflicting everyone who serves at checkpoints gives him no respite.
 
 
 
  Maher Mughrabi / PHRC
The central political difficulty in moving forward towards a peaceful settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the absence of accountability within and between the parties. As exercises in accountability, recent Israeli military attacks on the Occupied Territories, Lebanon and Syria, which Israel seeks to justify in terms of the right to self-defence, are far from satisfactory. They are not concerned with establishing guilt in any systematic way, nor do they supply the families of those Israelis who are killed in Palestinian attacks with any kind of tangible justice. With that said, is there any hope for peace? Maher Mughrabi looks for an answer
 
   
 
  'Spartheid' in Jerusalem
 
  Dr. Menachem Klein / Foundation for Middle East Peace
Enveloping Jerusalem is an attractive line for Israel since it is built on the Zionist ethos of 'taking our fate into our own hands', undertaking unilateral action and creating facts on the ground in accordance with exclusive Israeli interests. This ethos has an enormous attraction in Israel and it has only been strengthened by the assumption, a wrong one in my view, that 'there is no partner for a peace arrangement' or that 'there is nobody to talk to'.
 
   
 
  Sharon goes back on settlements pledge
 
  Chris McGreal / The Guardian
Ariel Sharon has gone back on a personal commitment to George Bush to dismantle illegal Jewish outposts in the West Bank by saying he would allow some to remain for security reasons
       
 
  Israel: an apartheid state?
 
  Leila Farsakh / Le Monde Diplomatique
BISHOP DESMOND TUTU, the South African Nobel Prize winner, described how he saw on his visit to Israel "much like what happened to us black people in South Africa. I have seen the humiliation of the Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks, suffering like us when young white police officers prevented us from moving about" (1). Comparisons between apartheid South Africa and Israel/Palestine have often been made, but not always clearly explained. Many factors have made the comparison attractive.
       
 
  Facility 1391: Israel’s Guantanamo
 
  Jonathan Cook / Le Monde Diplomatique
FACILITY 1391, a concrete fortress in central Israel on a rise overlooking a kibbutz, is almost obscured by high walls and fir trees. It is not marked on maps, it has been erased from aerial photographs and recently its numbered signpost was removed. Censors have excised all mention of its location from the Israeli media, with the government saying that secrecy is essential to "prevent harm to the country’s security". Facility 1391 is "Israel’s Guantanamo"
         
  Visit the WIR Archive for previous issues      
 

Subscribe | Unsubscribe

The Week In Review Newsletter is sent to PHRC subscribers or anyone else who has expressed an interest in our service.
Powered by the Palestine Human Rights Campaign