[VTJP] VTJP News & Articles 06-22-04

[Jamie Brooks]

Occupied Palestine 
and Israel: News and Articles
News 


Two 
Palestinians Killed, Three Other Wounded By IOF Firing In Beit 
Hanoon International Press Center 6/22/2004BEIT HANOON, June 22,2004 
(IPC+WAFA)---Two citizens were killed today noon and three others were wounded 
in Al Boura town, east of Beit Hanoon town, north of Gaza strip by the Israeli 
occupying forces firings. Witnesses said that an IOF contingent advanced deep 
into the aforementioned area earlier of the day to raze the citizens� owned 
lands and started shootings randomly towards the citizens� houses resulting in 
the killing of the two citizens...In a separate incident, scores of the Al Quds 
Open University in Yatta town, south of Hebron were suffocated by the tear gas 
canisters. Scores of 
the Palestinians Wounded during a Peaceful Protest in Al Zawyia including a 
Minister International Press Center 6/22/2004Al Zawyia, June 22 2004 
(IPC+Agencies)---, In Al Zawyia, west of Salfeet, tens of the residents were 
wounded today during a peaceful demonstration in counter of the continuation of 
building the Apartheid Wall, which threaten to isolate and expropriate more than 
30,000 Dunum, west of Salfeet province. Egyptian 
plan: Int'l force to be deployed in Gaza after pullout 
Ha'aretz 
6/23/2004According to an Egyptian plan revealed on Tuesday, international 
forces would be deployed in the Gaza City seaport following a withdrawal of 
Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip. The Egyptian plan also indicated a new 
seaport would be built on the Gaza coastline, the Strip's airport would be 
rehabilitated and a safe passage would be opened between the Gaza Strip and the 
West Bank.Bulldozers begin working in Deir Ballut village 
International Womens' Peace 
Service 6/21/2004Last evening bulldozers arrived in the village of Deir 
Ballut and began work on the construction of the apartheid wall.Approximately 
300 villagers met in the early morning hours to go to their land, hoping to save 
their land and their olive trees from the destruction of the bulldozers.The 
villagers have been heavily tear-gassed and sound bombs have been thrown by the 
IDF. Several injuries have been reported. Israeli 
Troops Wound a Boy and Blow up Two Houses in Dier Elbalah 
International Press Center 
6/22/2004DIER ELBALAH, Palestine, June 22, 2004 (IPC) - - Mohammad Allouh, 
8, of the Central Gaza Strip town of Dier Elbalah, has been critically shot and 
wounded Tuesday by the Israeli occupying forces (IOF), as two houses in the town 
were blown up by IOF explosives, IPC correspondent said.Palestinians reject Arab 'security role' Al-Jazeera 6/22/2004Ten 
Palestinian groups have denounced the proposed Egyptian and Jordanian 'security 
roles' envisaged by Israel as part of an overall 'disengagement' from the Gaza 
Strip. In a joint statement issued by their offices in Damascus, 10 Palestinian 
factions, including Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Popular and Democratic Fronts 
for the Liberation for Palestine, strongly rejected any "security role" proposed 
for Egypt and Jordan respectively in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. 
Palestinians Wary of Egypt's Role in Gaza The Guardian 6/22/2004JERUSALEM 
(AP) - On the eve of a visit by an Egyptian mediator, Palestinian officials sent 
conflicting signals Tuesday on how much involvement they will accept from their 
neighbor after an Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Egypt and the 
Palestinians have a historically uneasy relationship, and Egypt's proposed role 
in securing Gaza - once ruled by Cairo - has many Palestinians worried they'll 
be replacing one occupation with another.IDF 
spends hundreds of thousands on Gaza checkpoints Ha'aretz 6/22/2004Despite the 
plans for disengagement, the army recently spent hundreds of thousands of 
shekels on two checkpoints at Hila and Tufah, leading to the Mouassi enclave in 
the center of Gaza overlooking Gush Katif. RSF 
condemns violent attacks on Palestinian journalists 
Electronic Intifada/RSF 
6/21/2004In a 21 June 2004 letter to Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz, 
RSF protested a string of violent attacks by the Israeli Army against 
Palestinian journalists in the Nablus region of the West Bank between 10 and 15 
June. "The methods the Israeli Army uses to hamper the international media from 
covering its clashes with Palestinians over the construction of its security 
fence are unacceptable," RSF said. A Patient 
Dies at Rafah Border Crossing of Israeli Delays International Press Center 
6/22/2004RAFAH, Palestine, June 22, 2004 (IPC + Agencies)-- The Egyptian 
border police declared that a Palestinian citizen died after entering the 
Egyptian side of the borders, after being held for a long time pending the 
Israeli procedures. Khalil Abu Teir, 58, was clearly in a good health when he 
entered the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing, according to security 
sources, but died suddenly upon crossing to the Egyptian side, after being 
detained for seven hours at the Israeli side.Hamas 
condemns `dangerous' Arafat comments Ha'aretz 6/22/2004Hamas has 
attacked Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat for his interview with 
Haaretz, in which he said he recognized the Jewish character of the State of 
Israel, including the Jewish identification with the Western Wall. A statement 
on the Hamas Web site said that "Hamas is astonished by and has vehemently 
condemned statements made by Yasser Arafat to Haaretz, which included very 
dangerous positions representing new concessions that compound the concessions 
Arafat has been making since 1974 to this day."Israeli 
Troops Storm West Bank Cities, Tighten Grip Over Gaza Strip 
International Press Center 
6/22/2004PALESTINE, June 22, 2004 (IPC + WAFA)-- Israeli occupying forces 
(IOF) stormed on Tuesday morning different West Bank cities and tightened grip 
over some Gaza Strip areas, IPC correspondent reported. IOF military jeeps 
incurred early on Tuesday morning into the Qalqilia City from the eastern part, 
filming, with a video camera, the area they entered in, eyewitnesses told IPC 
correspondent.The 
Israeli Military "Construction and Destruction Company" 
International Press Center 
6/22/2004....The most prominent machines used in these internationally 
criticized collective punishments are mostly made by the US giant machine 
manufacturer Caterpillar, which supplies the Israeli army with large track-type 
tractors, commonly referred to as "bulldozers", as well as earth movers. The 
D-9R and D-10R track-type bulldozer models, manufactured by Caterpillar and used 
widely by the Israeli forces, more widely than the Israeli "Merkava" super tank 
and armored personnel carriers, have been a major asset to the Israeli 
aggression on the Palestinian cities, towns, villages and refugee camps. 
Destitute 
Laborers Rally in a Desperate Attempt for Salvage International Press Center 
6/22/2004GAZA, Palestine, June 22, 2004 (IPC) - - Nearly more than a 
thousand unemployed laborers who lost their jobs due to the Israeli closure of 
the Gaza Strip and the industrial zone at Beit Hanoon, north of Gaza Strip that 
came out in the framework of implementing the Israeli unilateral withdrawal from 
Gaza Strip, demonstrated today morning peacefully before the HQ of the 
Palestinian ministers cabinet in Gaza.IDF chief 
meets Steinitz, Rivlin in effort to calm Iraq row Ha'aretz 6/22/2004Israel Defense 
Forces Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon met Tuesday evening with Knesset Speaker 
Reuven Rivlin and Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Yuval 
Steinitz, in an effort to end a row between the military and the Knesset panel 
over hearings on the war in Iraq. Earlier Tuesday, Steinitz accused Ya'alon of 
waging a vendetta against the committee because of a highly critical report it 
issue several months ago regarding military intelligence's evaluation ahead of 
the Iraq war.UN 
Rapporteur Visits Gaza to Investigate IOF Crimes International Press Center 
6/22/2004GAZA, Palestine, June 22, 2004 (IPC) - - The Special United Nation 
(UN) Rapporteur on the situation of Human rights in the Palestinian territories, 
Mr. John Dougard, is currently visiting the Gaza Strip to investigate the crimes 
committed by the Israeli occupying forces (IOF) there, particularly in the city 
of Rafah.Kurds 
deny 'Israeli infiltration' BBC 6/22/2004Iraqi Kurdish leader 
Jalal Talabani has denied reports that Israeli military and intelligence teams 
are at work in the Kurdish zones of northern Iraq. Mr Talabani is quoted by 
Turkish news agency Anatolia as saying the reports were "total fabrications". US 
journalist Seymour Hersh made the claims in Sunday's New Yorker 
magazine....Correspondents say Israel has historically cultivated ties with the 
restive Kurdish minority of the region, regarding them as a potential buffer 
against the anti-Israeli stance of neighbouring Arab states.PCHR 
Calls Upon International Governments and Organizations to Provide Aid for 
Homeless Civilians in Rafah Palestinian Centre for Human Rights 
6/21/2004PCHR remains gravely concerned about the living conditions of 
Palestinian civilians, who have been made homeless, following the destruction of 
their homes by Israeli occupying forces.These civilians have resorted to 
temporary refugee centers, living under extremely difficult conditions.Rafah is 
suffering from a humanitarian crisis following the destruction of hundreds of 
houses and the civilian infrastructure of the town by Israeli occupying forces. 
PCHR calls upon the international community to provide immediate assistance to 
ensure that homeless civilians find shelter and live in stability and 
security.Palestine's neglected refugees Al-Jazeera 6/21/2004In the 
cramped Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, large, colourful 
murals spray-painted on the shanty town's crumbling cement walls staunchly 
declare: "We shall never drop the right of return." It is here, first in tents, 
and then in tiny cement-block shelters packed closely together, that Palestine's 
first refugees made their homes some 56 years ago. SIS 
Report: 3,345 Palestinians Killed and 40,000 others wounded by IOF during 44 
months of al Aqsa Intifada International Press Center 
6/22/2004GAZA, June22, 2004 (IPC) - - Palestinian State Information Service 
(SIS) confirmed that the Palestinian death toll has climbed to 3,345 as 40,000 
others have been wounded by Israeli occupying forces (IOF) throughout 
Palestinian cities, towns, villages and refugee camps since the eruption of Al 
Aqsa Intifada in Sep 2000 until the end of last May.Rafah: Israeli Sniper 
Posts Rafah Today 6/20/2004Photo: An Israeli watching tower in the 
borderline of Block "J" area in Rafah where the British peace activist Tom 
Hurndall was killed and where the British politicians were shot at. Many have 
been killed by similar kinds of towers. -- A group of British politicians were 
shot at by Israeli soldiers during a UN-supervised trip. The Israeli watching 
tower in Rafah Camp fired towards a cross-party group visiting the Rafah Camp, 
where UK peace activism Tom Hurndall was killed. Media resources said the 
British group included MPs Huw Irranca-Davies and Crispin Blunt. 
Iraq: 
Palestinian refugees still waiting to be moved ReliefWeb/IRIN 6/21/2004BAGHDAD, 
21 June (IRIN) - They may be the world's longest-suffering refugees, but the 
Palestinian families sitting in the sweltering heat of the dusty football field 
at Haifa Sports Club in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Sunday had no idea that it 
was World Refugee Day. "I hope this occasion of World Refugee Day can serve as a 
bridge for us to help us go home," Huda Naif Sahaa, 43, told IRIN. "I've never 
heard of this World Refugee Day, but I want to know more about it if it helps 
us."Immigration Police make false arrests, ministry official 
says Ha'aretz 6/22/2004The Immigration Police are concealing documents and 
passports and making false arrests of foreign workers to fill the quota of 
deportations the government has set, according to a letter written by Ilan Elad, 
a senior official in the Interior Ministry. Elad, responsible for enforcement of 
foreign workers' residency laws in the Tel Aviv area, sent a letter last week to 
the commander of the Immigration Police, Amir Gal.Israeli 
financial markets nearing all-time highs Ha'aretz 6/22/2004Israeli 
financial markets have rebounded to set price and turnover highs unseen in the 
past few years, since the beginning of the Al Aqsa intifada. The Maof 25-blue 
chip index crossed the 550 line to 551.3 points, its highest level since October 
2000 and just 26 points shy of its all-time high. The broader TA-100 index 
gained 1.05 percent to close at a record 589.1, besting the March 2000 mark of 
585.99 points.Sailors 
'admit' entering Iranian waters The Guardian 6/22/2004Iran 
tonight ratcheted up the pressure in the growing diplomatic crisis over the 
detention of the eight Royal Navy sailors, parading them blindfolded on 
state-run television. Downing Street warned Tehran that it expected the men to 
be treated in accordance with international law after the pictures were 
broadcast on the official Arab-language Al-Aram station. Syrian 
Police Disperse Protestors Demanding Release of Political 
Prisoners Al-Nahar 6/22/2004Police have dispersed scores of protesters who had 
gathered for a sit-in at a main square to call for the release of political 
prisoners, human rights groups said. Eleven pro-democracy and human rights 
groups had called for the sit-in Monday to mark what they called "Syrian 
Political Prisoner Day." But police quickly surrounded Arnous Square and 
dispersed the congregating crowd. The protesters left 
peacefully.Mid-East 
coverage baffles Britons BBC 6/22/2004UK television news 
coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is confusing viewers and favouring 
the Israeli position, a new report says. The study, by the Media Group at 
Scotland's Glasgow University, found Israelis were quoted more than twice as 
much as Palestinians in reports. Mubarak's 
Surgery Postponed by German Doctors Al-Nahar 6/22/2004Egyptian 
President Hosni Mubarak has received new medication at a clinic in Germany and 
his back operation will be delayed while it is tested, Egypt's Health Minister 
Mohammed Awad Tajeddin said....The operation -- relatively minor surgery for 
complications surrounding a slipped disc -- comes amid a flurry of rumors since 
last week that the health of the 76-year-old head of state has been rapidly 
deteriorating.Syria 
seeks closer trade ties with China Al-Jazeera 6/22/2004Syrian 
President Bashar al-Asad met with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao on Tuesday 
seeking support after his country came under fresh US economic sanctions over 
its support to Palestinian resistance fighters. Al-Asad, the first Syrian 
president to visit China since the two established bilateral relations in 1956, 
is seeking to open a new chapter in relations between the two countries. 
Clinton 
Advises Bush And Sharon to Deal With President Arafat 
International Press Center 
6/22/2004GAZA, June 22, 2004 (IPC + the Guardian)-- The Former US President 
Bill Clinton asserted that the current President George Bush and Israeli Prime 
Minister Ariel Sharon did not have any choice but to work with President Arafat 
in order to achieve peace in the Middle East. In an interview with the UK-based 
The Guardian newspaper, Clinton said that Bush and Sharon made a mistake when 
they thought they could ignore President Arafat.Evangelist warns against Mideast ethnic cleaning 
Come And See 
6/10/2004Evangelist and sociologist Tony Campolo, speaking to United 
Methodist leaders in Birmingham on Monday, warned that too many Christians have 
become "evangelical Zionists" who favor ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the 
Middle East. He says this one-sided view is prevalent among Southern 
Baptists.
Articles 

The 
story TV news won't tell By Tim Llewellyn, The Guardian 
6/20/2004    For 10 years Tim Llewellyn was the BBC's Middle 
East correspondent. In this passionately argued polemic he accuses British 
broadcasters, including his former employer, of systematic bias in covering the 
Arab-Israeli conflict, giving undue prominence to the views of Jerusalem while 
disregarding the roots of the crisis -- Since the Palestinians began their armed 
uprising against Israel's military occupation three years and eight months ago, 
British television and radio's reporting of it has been, in the main, dishonest 
- in concept, approach and execution.      In my 
judgment as a journalist and Middle East specialist, the broadcasters' language 
favours the occupying soldiers over the occupied Arabs, depicting the latter, 
essentially, as alien tribes threatening the survival of Israel, rather than 
vice versa. The struggle between Israel and the Palestinians is shown, most 
especially on mainstream bulletins, as a battle between two 'forces', possessed 
equally of right and wrong and responsibility. It is the tyranny of spurious 
equivalence. Book: Bad 
News from Israel Glasgow University Mass Media Unit 
June 2004    This is a study of TV new coverage of the 
Israeli-Palestinian conflict and of how this coverage relates to the 
understanding, beliefs and attitudes of the television audience. The work was 
undertaken with support from the Economic and Social Research Council whose help 
we would like to acknowledge. In producing this study out intention was not to 
'monitor' the media or to criticise individual journalists. Our intention was to 
discuss the pressures and structures within which they work to show the effects 
of those on new content and to examine the role of the media in the construction 
of public knowledge. It is a very extensive study with an audience sample of 
over 800 people and a detailed analysis of TV news over a two-year period. This 
work also raises a series of important theoretical issues in mass 
communications. The main focus of the book is on giving a clear exposition of 
our methods and results, but the theoretical concerns are latent and there is a 
more detailed discussion of them in other work by the Media Group. (For a 
discussion of issues in popular culture and audience response, including the 
active audience, resistance and post-modern accounts see Philo, G. and Miller, 
D. Market Killing Pearson / Longman. 2001).      The 
study suggests that television news on the Israel/Palestinian conflict confuses 
viewers and substantially features Israeli government views. Israelis are quoted 
and speak in interviews over twice as much as Palestinians and there are major 
differences in the language used to describe the two sides. This operates in 
favours of the Israelis and influences how viewers understand the conflict. The 
study focused on BBC One and ITV News from the start of the current Palestinian 
intifada, the Glasgow researchers examined around 200 news programmes and 
interviewed and questioned over 800 people. The study is unique in that for the 
first time it brought senior broadcasters together with ordinary viewers to work 
in research groups, analysing how the news informs people and how it could be 
improved....Catch 22: The 
end of the two-state solution By Arjan El Fassed, Electronic 
Intifada 6/22/2004    A majority of Israeli Jews - 63.7 percent - 
believes the Israeli government should encourage Palestinians to leave the 
country, according to a poll conducted by the Haifa University, which was 
released yesterday. This poll comes at a time when Ariel Sharon, Israel's Prime 
Minister is working on his unilateral "disengagement plan". While various 
governments are trying to influence the process, contribute to security, and 
debating their own role, they fail to see developments on the 
ground.     Last year, Tony Judt, the Erich Maria 
Remarque Professor of European Studies at New York University, known for his 
writings on European history, published a 2,900 essay in the October edition of 
The New York Review of Books, in which he argues that the "true alternative" 
facing the Middle East in coming years will be "between an ethnically cleansed 
Greater Israel and a single, integrated, binational state of Jews and Arabs, 
Israelis and Palestinians."View on the 
Sea By 
Toine van Teeffelen, Electronic Intifada 6/22/2004    5 May 2004 � 
The view from the Bahai temple on the Carmel mountain of Haifa is on a beautiful 
day simply beyond description. Green plateaus covered with flowers form a huge, 
inviting staircase waving down from the mountain towards the sea. The horizon 
shows little boats imperceptibly moving foreword. The temple itself is 
surrounded by a large garden with trees and plants that are extremely well taken 
care off. The little things that deviate from the harmonious order, such as an 
orange fallen down on the ground, appear like the finishing touch of a painting. 
We - three Dutch visitors, educators - silently watch, almost with reverence, a 
spectacular tree out of which colorful hanging plants straddle down along the 
stem. The tree of life.     That morning we had visited 
a school in Haifa to explore the possibility of Dutch, Palestinian and Israeli 
schools conducting a computer exchange. One of our interlocutors was an Israeli 
school student with 'Seeds for Peace' experience, an American sponsored 
Palestinian-Israeli exchange project. The boy harbored youthful enthusiasm for 
our newly proposed project. (His teacher gently told him not to speak too fast). 
He asked whether there was really a need to have the Dutch included. After all, 
we, the Israelis and Palestinians, had to live together, not the Dutch and 
Israelis, he said, and why not having contact with the Palestinians directly, 
face to face, instead of all this distant communication through the Internet? He 
was aware of the existing inequality in almost any contact between Palestinians 
and Israelis but thought it could be dealt with, as long as intentions were 
good. I made the point that good intentions in such exchange projects can be 
easily undermined....More material available from 
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