Palestine: Information with Provenance
Palestine: Information with Provenance
#1127 In Israel, 'public' is a synonym for 'Jews'
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 6 October 1999
On March 5, 1996, Major General Ilan Biran, the IDF commander of the West Bank, issued an order declaring the entire area of the settlements a "closed military area." This action was necessary for security reasons, it was explained. Only the holders ...
#1128 Ethnic discrimination against Palestinians must end
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 8 December 1999
About a month and a half ago, B'tselem organized a tour for foreign diplomats of the settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim and the Palestinian villages on top of which this community was built and is being expanded. The diplomats were brought to the site of a ...
#3537 
Drinking the Sea at Gaza: Days and Nights in a Land Under Siege
by Amira Hass, Maxine Nunn (translator), June 2000
In 1993, Amira Hass, a young Israeli reporter, drove to Gaza to cover a story-and stayed, the first journalist to live in the grim Palestinian enclave so feared and despised by most Israelis that, in the local idiom, "Go to Gaza" is another way to sa ...
#1147 Barak's deceptive isolation
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 12 July 2000
Now that the obviously right-wing parties in the coalition have left, Ehud Barak and his government are wearing the shining halo of peace lovers. Peace Now salutes the government, Meretz is behind it the whole way, and the United States is set to con ...
#201 An Offer Too Good To Refuse
by Amira Hass in Israel Imperial News, 18 April 2001
It is hard to believe that the United Nations would have voted for the founding of a state for the Jewish People at the expense of another people, had it not been for the Holocaust. Had it not been for their past, it is hard to believe that European ...
#30772 After a Painfully Long Delay
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 23 May 2001
Katia Jarjoura is a young Canadian journalist. On Nakba Day, on May 15, she was wounded in the leg from a live bullet fired by an IDF soldier near the Ayosh junction. She had arrived at the junction after live IDF bullets had wounded a number of ston ...
#3869 IDF to probe efforts to evict cave dwellers
by Amos Harel, Moshe Reinfeld, Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 26 September 2001
The IDF's Central Command has opened an internal probe into what so far seems to have been an illegal effort to evict some 120 Palestinian families from the caves they inhabit near Hebron.
Based on the preliminary findings, the eviction seems to ...
#53270 What the army hides from the public
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 16 January 2002
On Friday a bus got stuck in the mud somewhere between Morag, a Gaza settlement, and Rafah on an unmarked dirt road that winds between fields and orchards, hothouses and stone houses scattered across the farmland. It's more a track than a road, carve ...
#164 Israel's Closure Policy: An Ineffective Strategy of Containment and Repression
by Amira Hass in Journal of Palestine Studies (JPS), Spring 2002
This article examines the Israeli policy of closure from its introduction in 1991 through its consolidation under Oslo, when its devastating potential was heightened by an intermeshing with Oslo II's division of the occupied territories into zones of ...
#126 The army has changed
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 20 March 2002
Dr. Mohammed Batrawi, a cardiologist and department chief at the Ramallah Hospital, found the following letter in his private clinic, written in English, and on his stationery: "Dear Dr. Batrawi, Staying in this office building with the Israeli milit ...
#435 Scraping the bottom of the cistern
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 16 October 2002
Where will America and the EU succeed more: In their pressure on Yasser Arafat to lead governmental, financial and security reforms, or in their pleas with Israel to guarantee enough water of reasonable quality and price to 200,000 Palestinians? ...
...
#500 It's the pits
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 25 October 2002
Four frightened farmers emerged from the old Renault that screeched to a halt in the center of the path. "The settlers didn't let us get to our grove," they told their fellow villagers of Akrabeh, who were picking olives along the sides of the path. ...
#643 Human Rights Watch blasts Palestinians for war crimes
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 1 November 2002
»Persons involved in suicide terror strikes commit crimes against humanity and war crimes, says Human Rights Watch, an international human rights organization based in New York. The
organization's conclusions on such terror strikes are be ...
#792 A fighter's life is worth more than a child's
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 13 November 2002
Over five days, K. was "caught" wiping away tears three times. The first time he spoke of his eldest son, sent to study abroad to distance him from any possible involvement in "futile efforts," as he put it against the Israeli occupation such as hurl ...
#869 Fear and loathing in Hebron
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 18 November 2002
Amira Hass hears about the travails of Arab residents and finds herself exposed to settler wrath. ...
#883 The shuttered houses on Holy Days
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 21 November 2002
The one and only meaning to the creation of "territorial contiguity" from Kiryat Arba to the Tomb of the Patriarchs, is expulsion. The expulsion of thousands more Palestinian residents of Hebron, people who were unlucky enough to find that their home ...
#911 A checkpoint for life
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 27 November 2002
Passage is forbidden to "ordinary" pedestrians from neighboring villages heading to Ramallah and back. Not even people who live around the corner are allowed through. Two young women are standing on the northern side of the checkpoint, before the ent ...
#3175 A Palestinian State?
by Amira Hass in Between the Lines, December 2002
In summation, the document states that Israeli construction policies in Jerusalem and in the North and South of the West Bank eliminate the prospect to leave Jerusalem an open joint city for two people and two states. The document warns that if “it [ ...
#1011 Fundamentalist logic
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 4 December 2002
Kiryat Arba's settlers, with active assistance from the Civil Administration and the IDF, are keeping their promise to create "territorial contiguity between Kiryat Arba and the Tomb of the Patriarchs." Less than three weeks after the lethal Islamic ...
#1125 Three groups, one nation
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 18 December 2002
Sometimes it seems as if there are two or even three different nations: the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, the Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem, and their relatives, one million Israeli citizens. These three groups live under three di ...
#1224 The other Nablus I know
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 25 December 2002
The commander of the paratroopers' brigade, Lieutenant Colonel Aviv Kochavi, was interviewed at length the day before yesterday on Israel Radio ...
H.S. is a father of four and was born in a refugee camp. He heard what Kochavi had to say and asked t ...
#1290 Breeding grounds of despair and fatigue
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 30 December 2002
Everywhere in Arab East Jerusalem, the residents who live there and visitors are struck by the disturbing and all-embracing presence of poverty and neglect - physical neglect, social neglect evident in the forgotten children and young wandering boys, ...
#1323 Five rules set by the Kingdom of the Settlements
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 1 January 2003
Nobody came up with the idea to set a rule that creates two entrances to buildings, one for Jews and the other for Arabs. Despite the ongoing discrimination against Israeli Arabs, that lack of discrimination sends an encouraging message: that we have ...
#1325 Looking for a rented apartment in a refugee camp
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 1 January 2003
From 1996, the Palestinians born in Jerusalem lost their rights as residents of the city if they were found to be living outside its municipal boundaries. This was the policy the Interior Ministry introduced in that year, in the final days of the Lab ...
#1436 Rites of death and killing
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 9 January 2003
It's disingenuous to claim that Yasser Arafat, imprisoned in the Muqata in Ramallah - and needing oxygen tanks to air out his room - could, even if he wanted to, order the security apparatus that he no longer has, the security officers who have been ...
#1517 Terror as a natural phenomenon
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 15 January 2003
"Every day between 5 and 20 Palestinians are arrested in the territories. Every few days the IDF invades some place and demolishes something. Every other day, in addition to armed Palestinians, and Palestinians plotting terror attacks being killed, P ...
#1577 They want Mitzna to bring the nightmare to an end
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 22 January 2003
Elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council were to have been held two days ago. ...
The rest is history: Israel had no intention of allowing the elections to be held, the United States backed Israel, the Israel Defense Forces deployed in all ...
#1581 You can drive along and never see an Arab
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 23 January 2003
Israel's decision-makers, who over the last 20 years have carefully planned the location of every Jewish settlement in the West Bank and every water pipe and electricity pylon, also knew how to plan a ramified network of roads that would become a key ...
#1592 Weapons of light construction
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 28 January 2003
Adnan Ismail, 45, stood at the door to his destroyed printing shop on Sunday morning and shook hands with visitors expressing their sympathies.
...
Early Sunday morning, when the neighbors telephoned to Ismail at home to tell him what happened, al ...
#1657 Under the noses of the Israeli police
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 4 February 2003
Drug dealers peddle drugs openly, many Palestinian kids are affected (increasingly younger addicts are found), and the police does nothing -- on purpose.
"The high rate of drug users and addicts in East Jerusalem is another clear indication of the c ...
#1778 Barred!
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 19 February 2003
At the end of last week, there were 1,149 Palestinians imprisoned at Ketziot: about 900 administrative detainees and another 240 who had been tried in a court. At Ketziot, as at all the other prisons in Israel, mobile phones are prohibited. Yet despi ...
#1793 Threats of enforced Mass Expulsion; Israel: a new Palestinian diaspora
by Amira Hass in Le Monde Diplomatique, 19 February 2003
More indications that "transfer" (i.e., the obscene euphemism for ethnic cleansing -- which itself is a euphemism...) is becoming increasingly acceptable within the Israeli political discourse.
"The real problem is that Israelis do not view the suic ...
#1812 Campus gauntlet
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 25 February 2003
»Jerusalem's Hebrew University is preventing a Technion student from entering the campus to borrow books from the library, citing "security reasons," despite a certificate of integrity from
the police – which the student obtained at ...
#1837 The routine calamities that destroy lives
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 26 February 2003
Lists the consequences of an Israeli "incursion" into Gaza for a so-called response against "rockets". People killed at random, houses demolished arbitrarily.
"In Israel, people are convinced this is how to fight terror and defeat it, as the army h ...
#1919 Completing the circle of proof
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 6 March 2003
The deadly attacks by Israel on crowded civilian areas is also proof for the Palestinians of the characteristic contempt for the blood of "the children." In the language of the Palestinians, it is state terror.
The Israeli argument that terrorist ...
#2033 In a limbo worse than hell
by Amira Hass, 17 March 2003
Y.J. is one of many - there are those who say many thousands - small informers who over the years have given information to Israel about relatively minor criminal and security matters. They receive payment commensurate to the information they give. T ...
#2060 As the war approaches, Palestinian fears rise
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 20 March 2003
While the whole world is concentrating on what is happening in Iraq, people think, there will be a heavier media blackout than usual on what the Israel Defense Forces does in the Palestinian territories, and who can guarantee that there will be no de ...
#2136 Horror scenarios coming true
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 26 March 2003
However, it could be said the warnings have been effective: The United States in particular, but also the European countries, have warned Israel not to escalate the situation at a time when the countries attacking Iraq need regional stability.
The ...
#2152 A babe in arms, at the age of 13 hours, Zina meets the IDF
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 27 March 2003
Zina heard her first shot when she was 13-hours-old. That was when she passed her first APC [armed personnel carrier]. Two hours earlier she had set out for the first adventure of her life, on a journey from the hospital in Nablus, where she was born ...
#2218 The soldier is evil, the soldier is Israel
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 2 April 2003
Last Thursday, someone from the village of Salem, east of Nablus, called and said the soldiers had been holding "hundreds of people - women, adults and children - for the past three hours" and were not allowing them to pass. Rifles held at an angle o ...
#2278 Confessions of a dangerous mind
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 4 April 2003
How can anyone make sense of the mass phenomenon of young Palestinians who blow themselves up for their cause, while also taking the lives of innocent people, including children? Interviews that veteran prisoner Walid Dakah conducted with fellow inma ...
#2279 Confessions of a dangerous mind (Part 2)
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 4 April 2003
#2280 Confessions of a dangerous mind (Part 3)
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 4 April 2003
#2350 When death is normal
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 9 April 2003
A'adi - Normal. That was the word that was repeated over and over again in conversations that security prisoner Walid Daka held with young Palestinians who failed in their efforts to become suicide bombers in Israel. It's totally normal to die.
... ...
#2352 PA minister: Establishment of the State Security Court was illegal from the outset
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 9 April 2003
Palestinian Interior Minister Hani al-Hassan said yesterday that "the Palestinian State Security Court no longer exists."
Al-Hassan made the declaration at a Ramallah conference on human rights that was held to mark the release of the Palestinian ...
#2469 Tell me, kid, did you throw stones?
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 15 April 2003
Over the last two years, hundreds of minors under 18 and even under 16 have been detained in this fashion. Israeli jails, prisons and detention facilities now hold some 300 Palestinian minors: Some are awaiting trial, some have already been tried for ...
#2545 Strangers in his house
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 21 April 2003
How should a man of about 50, an attorney, a lover of books and classical European music, welcome soldiers who, by all indications, are about to burst into his house, in a city under military occupation? Should he remain in his pajamas? Should he dre ...
#2579 The greening of the Civil Administration
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 30 April 2003
On May 4, the El Bireh Municipality could find that its waste disposal site has been shut down by the Israel Defense Forces and the Civil Administration. The motive for the move, the Civil Administration explains, is purely ecological, noting that an ...
#2644 The terror on the other side is just as faceless
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 4 May 2003
On April 19, a force of several dozen tanks, armored personnel carriers and huge bulldozers, accompanied by helicopters that did not fire anything - this time - took over a small quadrant of streets and alleys in the camp.
Five days after that Sa ...
#3049 The State Sharon Is Talking About
by Amira Hass in Z Magazine/ZNet, 28 May 2003
Some of the noises coming from Sharon & Co. imply that there will be peace negotiation. Hass points out that if you look at what is happening on the ground, then we know that something else is planned for.
...
#3283 Dahlan the suicidal
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, June 2003
The friends of Mohammed Dahlan, Fatah
members in the Gaza Strip, are calling him a
suicidal. This is because he accepted the
thankless task of being in charge of security
matters in the government of Mahmoud Abbas (Abu
Mazen), a task which is in ...
#3143 The Palestinian headlines are talking about the 'new Sharon'
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 4 June 2003
More than anything else, the Palestinians are
expecting the road map to lead to the rescinding
of the internal closure, which is impeding their
right of movement within the territories
themselves, or to Egypt and Jordan. Again and
again, expecta ...
#3164 We don't raze homes for no reason
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 5 June 2003
Usually, the IDF Spokesman's
Office reports why a house was
demolished: It was the family
of an arrested terrorist, a
wanted terrorist, a dead
terrorist, the house was used
to shoot at soldiers, the
neighborhood sheltered armed
men or tunnels ...
#3223 Clarifying the occupation lexicon
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 11 June 2003
Hass defines often used/abused terms:
closures: "It should be said for the
millionth time: The closure on
the Palestinians is never lifted; it is only
relaxed a little, sometimes."
"...Israel has maintained a sweeping policy
that prevents ...
#3259 Five in one month
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 16 June 2003
Suddenly, to the astonishment of many, Qaraout Bani
Zeid made the news. And the news is bad. Within a
single month - between April 24 and May 26 - the
Israel Defense Forces killed five inhabitants of
the village: a woman of 37, the mother of seve ...
#3280 What the doctor orders
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 20 June 2003
A conversation with Rantisi and Ismail Abu Shanab about Hamas' position regarding the ceasefire.
"Hass: After surviving the assassination attempt you
said the struggle will continue until the last
Jew leaves the country. How long will that
take, ...
#3824 
Reporting from Ramallah: An Israeli Journalist in an Occupied Land
by Amira Hass, July 2003
More than any other journalist, Amira Hass has intimate knowledge of the experience of both Israelis and Palestinians. The daughter of concentration camp survivors, Hass has chosen to live in a Palestinian town to provide a firsthand description of w ...
#3334 No end to the growing settlements insult
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 2 July 2003
Let's assume that the limited freedom of
movement as it existed in 2000 is restored, and
the Palestinian Authority succeeds in
preventing the military groups from violating
the cease-fire. Then what? Does anyone in
Israel expect the Palestinians ...
#3416 Making stupid comparisons
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 9 July 2003
Descriptions of Israeli control over the
Palestinians naturally arouses certain
associations in certain Jews. A child raising
both hands in the air before a soldier pointing
a rifle; a hidden, fenced-in detention center
(Ofer) only a few dozen m ...
#3498 The misleading term 'fence'
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 16 July 2003
Israelis still use the convenient and misleading
term "fence" to describe the system of
fortifications that is currently being erected on
Palestinian lands in the West Bank. Even "wall,"
the term more commonly used in foreign-language
reports, i ...
#3601 The IDF calls it security considerations, the inhabitants call it transfer
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 21 July 2003
About 100 Palestinian families lived in Seafeh
until not too long ago. Now only 45 families
remain, about 180 souls. The combination of
restrictions on movement and the destruction of
the greater part of the cultivated land has
caused many to fl ...
#3599 And they call this paradise
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 22 July 2003
Mawasi is surrounded by lush greenery and enjoys a cool breeze off the sea. But for its residents, battling for IDF permits to enter and exit their hometown, life is hell
A group of bearded men was sitting on a sandy
footpath by the mosque in ...
#3614 And They Call This Paradise
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 23 July 2003
Account of the Kafkaesque circumstances of Palestinians living in a small Gazan town. Permits, prohibitions, restrictions... ...
#3617 Primordial illogic and primitive cruelty
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 23 July 2003
There is nothing more logical than setting
arbitrary times of day when a Palestinian is
allowed to leave his home and come back to it.
There is nothing more logical than forbidding him
to leave his field in a pickup truck to take his
crops strai ...
#3696 Outside the envelope
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 1 August 2003
The Assads, residents of Qalandiyah, pay Jerusalem municipal taxes but get nothing in return. After the separation fence is completed, their land - devoid of an orchard that the army destroyed - will be on the
non-Jerusalem side. ...
#3699 The checkpoint, the rabbi and the goat
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 2 August 2003
The Surda roadblock, like many others, became a symbol of the intifada
Sunday, July 27, 10 A.M. Military bulldozer no.
911985 pushed two cement blocks away from the
center of the Surda road, north of Ramallah, and
placed them on a narrow sec ...
#3813 The sets for the prisoner release show
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 13 August 2003
It comes as no surprise that Israel released the
Palestinian prisoners and detainees that it did:
people convicted of minor security offenses whose
terms were up soon in any case; administrative
detainees who are being held without trial, and
wi ...
#3834 Decide for yourselves what is most urgent
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 14 August 2003
The entire naming project cost $39,504.15:
including work days, materials and equipment.
This is according to the detailed document
submitted by the municipality to the Norwegian
and Dutch representatives in the Palestinian
Authority. These two ...
#3940 On the corner of Acre and Safed streets
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 20 August 2003
when a veteran Fatah activist, a refugee
himself, is asked what he thinks about
Sha'ath's statements about fulfilling the right
of return inside Israel as part of a peace
agreement, he answers without hesitation, "he's
a liar." In other words, a ...
#3963 Judge, prosecutor and hangman
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 22 August 2003
Ahmed Shahrour was shot dead at short range in the heart of Ramallah; Kaid Abu Shalbiya was similarly murdered. In the Palestinian police, there is unwillingness to investigate who carries out the murder of suspected collaborators, let alone bring th ...
#4019 The Palestinians' dog days of summer
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 26 August 2003
Before a house or public building is constructed in
Dura, located in the Hebron area, a cistern is dug
to collect rainwater. The rain gutters that
collect every drop of water from the roof run down
to the cistern, whose sides are covered by
conc ...
#4037 They're not afraid of the IDF in Nablus
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 27 August 2003
There is no dearth of political-sociological
explanations that account for such
"Lebanonization" of Nablus. The explanations
include grinding poverty, unemployment,
pressures that have mounted under the ongoing
closure, class and social differen ...
#4052 With curfews and closures, the schools suffer
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 28 August 2003
This coming Sunday, 1,085,000 students are supposed
to attend 2,098 elementary and secondary schools
in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, with the
opening of the school year. About 48,000 teachers
will be waiting for them at 8 A.M. This will
hap ...
#4138 What the fatality statistics tell us
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 3 September 2003
Here are the disastrous proportions, in the hope
that someone in Israel will take notice: 80
percent of the Palestinians killed were not
connected to armed actions.
Like the Israelis, who experience the horror of
bus bombings, the Palestinian ...
#4188 Betwixt, between, bewildered
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 5 September 2003
It used to take five minutes by car for members of the Zawahara family to get to Beit Sahur. Then it was 15 minutes on foot. And then the electronic fence was installed.
...
Nevertheless they are shut in. Imprisoned in
the expanse between the Jer ...
#4226 No master plan
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 10 September 2003
In one of the villages beside Qalqilyah and close
to the Green Line, in which the threatening
separation fence has already gobbled up chunks of
land from most of the inhabitants and destroyed
their water reservoirs, A. and his family are
plannin ...
#4338 That well-developed military creativity
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 24 September 2003
The degree to which the Israel Defense Forces think
ahead can be seen from two reports by Felix Frisch
published on the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth's Web
site, Ynet. The first, from September 21, relates
that "the separation fence to be built in t ...
#4378 Don't make me laugh
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 26 September 2003
Palestinians find it hard to address seriously the statements by some settlers that they would prefer to remain as citizens of the new state rather than be evacuated.
...
Khalil Tufkaji is a geographer who worked for
years at the Institution of ...
#4472 IDF redefines Palestinians west of the fence
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 14 October 2003
Even before the
Palestinians had a chance to come to terms with
the loss of their land for the sake of the
series of fortifications that is known as the
"obstacle," they discovered that their ordinary
lives had been completely disrupted - that i ...
#4500 The army will decide who's a resident
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 15 October 2003
The route of the separation wall in those areas
where it has already gone up and where it is
planned proves once again that the Israeli
security-settlement establishment never misses an
opportunity to exploit the self-evident need of
Israelis to ...
#4508 Jabara residents struggle to deal with fence
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 21 October 2003
Up until October 9, the inhabitants of the village
of Jabara thought that their main challenge now
was the locked gate in the separation fence. The
separation fence - two barbed wire fences and
between them ditches, trackers' paths, an asphalt
r ...
#4515 Expulsion, little by little
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 22 October 2003
»The fears and suspicions, as usual, came true - and
very quickly. Hiding behind security rationales
and the seemingly neutral bureaucratic language of
military orders is the gateway for expulsion. Not
massive expulsion, heaven forbid, not on tru ...
#5747 A barrier that casts a long shadow
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 2 February 2004
Fifty percent of the Palestinian families west of the fence have been separated from their relatives, as have 37.3 percent of the families to the east.
Jaffar Omar is 15. Everyday, after finishing school in the village of Azoun-Atma south of Qa ...
#5746 One nurse for 4,700 people and the doctor faces a roadblock
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 3 February 2004
The small village Umm a-Rihan, home to some 360 residents, has found itself part of the same fenced off enclave that features the main "district city," Bartaa Sharkiyya, whose population is 3,500. The Palestinian Authority Health Ministry clinic at B ...
#5754 Sacrificing the holiday at the Erez checkpoint
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 4 February 2004
Israeli residents and citizens who, following prior planning and coordination with authorities, traveled to the Erez checkpoint Sunday morning with the hope of celebrating Id al-Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice) with family members in living in Gaza were ...
#5851 Far from the television screens, Gazan women mourn their dead
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 12 February 2004
The scene at the home of the Abu Sukheileh family in the Jabalya
refugee camp yesterday evening bore no resemblance to what is normally seen
on television - the pictures of people rejoicing at the death of their
beloved, who has become a shahee ...
#5845 This mortal coil
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 13 February 2004
A long list of how the residents of Ma'aniya quarter of Dir al-Balah in Gaza, next to the Kafr Darom settlement are being slowly ethnically cleansed and screwed. ...
#5920 Failed Predictions
by Amira Hass in Z Magazine/ZNet, 15 February 2004
»We have a new sentry to blame for what has gone wrong: the rather anonymous planners of the separation fence. Some sort of personal, individual limitation caused them to fail and not to predict the extent to which "the lives of innocent people would ...
#5894 Teaching them who's boss
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 18 February 2004
When soldiers in Gaza are not in tanks or other armored vehicles, they hide behind reinforced concrete positions with narrow gun-slits - like the two positions at the Gush Katif roadblock that dictate the movement of thousands of cars and trucks maki ...
#5958 A change of image?
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 20 February 2004
There are photo studios in Gaza that keep a broken Kalashnikov or an M-16 rifle that no longer works in a cupboard. Sometimes people come to get their picture taken and ask the photographer to stage them in a warlike pose, with the rifle. "Like we, i ...
#6024 Has the transfer of enclaves begun?
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 24 February 2004
H.A., an official in the Civil Administration's [planning department], which the frightened woman was referring to, came twice during the last two months to the small Bedouin town of Arab a-Ramadin, south of Qalqilyah, on December 28, 2003 and on Feb ...
#6033 What scared those who sent the bomber?
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 25 February 2004
»The opinion refers in both aspects to the “strategy” demonstrated with cynical cruelty last Sunday when bus No. 14 was blown up in another Jerusalem suicide attack. Under the umbrella heading of a
struggle against Israeli occupati ...
#6048 Injured in the fault line
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 27 February 2004
Halil Bashir's land and home was requisitioned and his greenhouses destroyed. Then his 15-year-old son was shot in the back.
The Israel Defense Forces spokesman at the Southern Command, who is very punctilious when he reports on Palestinian shoo ...
#6100 Words have failed us
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 3 March 2004
»The proximity of every expansive settlement to the densely populated, suffocating crowded Palestinian community is what causes the large number of Palestinian casualties in the Gaza Strip,
including many civilians. It is what determines the f ...
#6110 Nothing left but houses and backyards for land : Maybe the eastern fence starts here
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 4 March 2004
On February 5, soldiers appeared to the south of the little village of Mutilla in the northern Palestinian Authority and southeast of Mt. Gilboa, adjacent to the Green Line. They called to the owners of the land by megaphone to come and pick up order ...
#6440 Another red line is crossed
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 24 March 2004
There are four or five people in Gaza who now make up what is known as Hamas leadership. The liquidation of each one of them would ensure greater security, say government, IDF and Shin Bet officials. The liquidation of each one of them, says experien ...
#6519 Some people are going to miss Ahmed Yassin
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 28 March 2004
"Sheikh Ahmed Yassin was neither a religious leader nor a spiritual leader. He did not establish religious precedent and he was not a spiritual, religious man." So says S., a Hamas member in Gaza, who frequently met with Yassin.
"A spiritual, rel ...
#6544 When will Allah's pledge come to pass?
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 31 March 2004
The people of Hamas don't like the terms "extremist" and "moderate." It's a practical distinction, but also confusing, because the same Hamas officials have been heard on different occasions saying things that are "extreme" and "moderate" - especiall ...
#6575 Balance of pain
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 2 April 2004
A 2002 interview with Sheikh Ahmed Yassin made it clear that he considered the intifada a major achievement - it imposed, he said, a `deterrent balance' between Israel and the Palestinians.
Sometimes Sheikh Ahmed Yassin would answer with a ques ...
#6604 The Victimhood contest (Part 1)
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 5 April 2004
No other society deals so seriously and frankly with its stained past as does Germany. And yet, a growing number of Germans today dare to express anti-Semitic sentiments. How much of an effect does the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have, and what's th ...
#6605 The Victimhood contest (Part 2)
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 5 April 2004
#6618 A masked reality
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 7 April 2004
Within the Palestinian territories that were occupied 1967, there is a reality of rigorous, elaborate long-term master planning that disguises itself as confusion. This is a reality of evicting as many Palestinians as possible from their lands, conce ...
#6722 The democracy of the Likud rank and file
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 14 April 2004
If Bush and Mubarak "welcome" the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza - meaning the evacuation of all the settlers - then certainly every resident of Sayaffeh and Muwasi, on whose lands the settlements of the northern Gaza Strip and Gush Katif were built, w ...
#6823 Breaking an iron rule
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 21 April 2004
Every Jew, man or woman, citizen of any country in the world, has potentially more rights in Israel than any Arab native citizen in the state. The Jew will have more chances to find a job, respectable housing, financial aid for higher education, pers ...
#6854 The wanderings of Umm Ghassan
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 23 April 2004
Nadia Abdullah was born in Acre in 1919. Her life has been divided between three main stations - Acre, Beirut and Ramallah - but she has also lived in Haifa, Nablus, Jaffa, Tiberias, Naqura, Al-Zib ("you call it Achziv," she says) and Metula. She has ...
#6957 Was it just some guy who's afraid of dogs?
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 28 April 2004
»No more than five minutes passed after they left the house, Delal Abu Laimun said: she and her sister-in-law were about 10 meters away from her husband when gunfire suddenly erupted from the direction of the oak tree, behind which, it turned out, so ...
#7027 A choice between work or family
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 5 May 2004
Dr. Ibrahim Ashur, a native of Haifa, is an anesthesiologist who works in Be'er Sheva. His wife, a native of Gaza, lives in Gaza with their children. Their request for "family reunification" has yet to receive final approval, even though their childr ...
#7031 IDF lets Israeli visit wife in Gaza, but must stay 3 months
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 5 May 2004
An Israeli Arab married to a Gazan is allowed to visit a spouse if they stay in Gaza and don't return home for a minimum period of three months, under new regulations issued by Southern Command Maj. Gen. Dan Harel.
Since March 22, when the IDF k ...
#7065 Silence in the court
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 7 May 2004
Palestinian detainees who tried to greet their families in a military courtroom were set upon and beaten by police guards, their lawyers say. Here is their testimony.
The lawyers who were sitting in the waiting room at the Military Court at the Of ...
#7117 Terrorists, seven times
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 12 May 2004
On May 2, policemen from the Nachshon unit of the Prison Services severely beat six Palestinian detainees who were brought from the Russian Compound to the military courtroom at Ofer for the commencement of their trial.
The policemen beat the men ...
#7129 Gazans pile up their belongings and flee
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 17 May 2004
The streets of Rafah were filled yesterday evening with horse-drawn carts, trucks and pick-ups, all laden to the brim with any and every item that the town's residents could remove from their homes - mattresses, water tanks taken down from roofs, clo ...
#7132 While 'rumors kill Rafah'
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 18 May 2004
04:00-04:15 - Lengthy bursts of machine gun fire wake up the neighborhood. There are explosions from the border area. Y. explains that it's routine, almost every night. IDF patrols shoot at the abandoned houses on the border. ...
#7134 Two magic phrases
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 19 May 2004
There are two magic phrases that the government uses to enlist soldiers, pilots and their families for the assault on Rafah: "armed men" and "smuggling tunnels." The sound of those two threatening phrases overcomes the sounds of gunfire by the air fo ...
#7135 For Rafah residents, the worries are all too familiar
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 19 May 2004
In every Israel Defense Forces invasion of a Palestinian city, the population has a similar daily schedule of difficulty and anxiety. Here is a partial list:
1. The sounds are first. People wake up to the sound of bullets and explosions, trying t ...
#7165 Some of the bodies were put two to a box
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 20 May 2004
Suddenly there was a shout from outside: "Leave everything. The Jews have fired missiles at the demonstration. Lots of casualties. Send ambulances." The man shouting ran into the small hut in the hospital's yard from where the ambulance drivers leave ...
#7194 One step ahead of the bulldozer
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 21 May 2004
Palestinian families who live close to the Egyptian border learned the lesson years ago: They keep small bags filled with important documents, some cash and a few sentimental items always ready. Whenever bulldozers plowed toward them, or whenever tan ...
#7203 Darkness at noon
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 21 May 2004
RAFAH - Some say they heard it at 10 A.M. - others said they heard it at 11 A.M. on Wednesday: Loudspeakers calling the men of Tel Sultan to leave their homes and proceed to the Omariya School. The refugee neighborhood of 25,000 souls has been under ...
#7211 Residents seethe as dead go unburied
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 23 May 2004
The tanks remained in the background. Contrary to reports that they had left the neighborhood on Friday morning, the tanks had only moved a few dozen meters in the direction of the border road and took up positions behind mounds of sand and debris. I ...
#7217 A story about generals
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 24 May 2004
On the face of it, this is a story about 14-year-old Mohammed Shaqfa from Block O in Rafah, whose house was destroyed by an IDF bulldozer on May 13. One of some 70 homes completely demolished in two days there.
His family was sitting in the house ...
#7218 How one house is spared destruction
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 24 May 2004
People had hoped to wake up yesterday with news that the tanks and bulldozers had pulled out of the Brazil quarter and that residents of Tel Sultan could finally bury their dead. Instead, Rafah residents were awakened by the roar of tanks rolling clo ...
#7298 Disengaged from reality
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 2 June 2004
Disconnecting Gaza's residents from the West Bankers began a long time ago - in 1991, when Israel began the policy of closures and reduced Palestinian freedom of movement to a minimum. The disconnection has worsened since 1994. In effect, it became o ...
#7356 The ridiculous flyer
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 6 June 2004
When the Israel Defense Forces tanks and bulldozers left the heart of the Brazil and Tel Sultan neighborhoods of Rafah on Friday, May 21, the residents discovered pink flyers among the ruins of their houses with a message from the "defense force." It ...
#7397 Economic pressure to secure control
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 9 June 2004
»But Gazans were not waiting for Israeli fruit. There were waiting for more basic food staples that since the middle of March have been dwindling due to operating restrictions at Karni Crossing.
They were waiting for rice, flour, sugar, animal ...
#7427 Rafah's second front
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 14 June 2004
Residents took advantage of the lull last week in IDF attacks on Rafah to try and nip in the bud a blood feud that had erupted between the Lafi and Abu Ghali families.
...
This family feud is new and directly related to the IDF's actions, on th ...
#7441 The occupier is not convinced
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 16 June 2004
The unilateral disengagement plan is also progressing in the West Bank. And, just as in the Gaza Strip, it is less a security disengagement between Israel and the Palestinian areas than it is a political plan for isolating each Palestinian area from ...
#7467 Full text of Amira Hass speech in Stockholm
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 20 June 2004
An overview of Israeli journalists covering the issues of occupation and the intifada. She catalogs the reporting of some of her Israeli collegues, how society responds to this reporting, and the pressures on journalists to conform.
» ...
#7520 A `non-intelligence' approach
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 24 June 2004
It's no wonder that 61 percent of the participants in the Bir Zeit poll reported feeling insecure regarding the fate of their home and property. This deep insecurity has to do with what Palestinians feel is an Israeli policy that is viewed as indepen ...
#7545 Across the great divide
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 25 June 2004
The separation fence is seriously damaging the `Christian Triangle' in the Bethlehem area. Meanwhile, pro-Palestinian Christians in America are trying to breach the wall of evangelical support for Israeli policies.
At the end of March, a number ...
#7614 It's only a choir
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 30 June 2004
There's no reason why the fate of this local choir formed in 1955 - which sings a wide repertoire from Christian liturgy - should attract the attention of the Western Christian world more than the status of senior citizen facilities and orphanages ru ...
#7615 Separation fence forces expanded UN food program
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 30 June 2004
WFP assessors took account of the fact that that the construction of the fence caused the loss of a substantial portion of the most fertile agricultural lands in the northern area of the fence. They had produced annual yields of $90,000 per hectare ( ...
#7696 Detainee: Shin Bet wants me to be a collaborator
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 4 July 2004
An administrative detainee says the Shin Bet is trying to force him into becoming a collaborator by branding him as one - and are thus endangering his life.
The Shin Bet incarcerated Iyad Milham, 29, with Israeli and Palestinian criminal prisoner ...
#7737 What really influences the High Court
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 8 July 2004
»There’s no way to know what really influenced the High Court justices when they decided last week to cancel 30 kilometers of the separation fence route that cuts through Palestinian areas
northwest of Jerusalem. The naked facts presente ...
#7843 Out from under Arafat's shadow
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 14 July 2004
»There is nothing easier than chalking up Fatah’s internal weakness to Arafat’s omnipotent machinations. This is how personal and collective responsibility is removed from the shoulders of
thousands – senior and grassroots ac ...
#7889 Living beside the checkpoints
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 22 July 2004
»The eastern checkpoint at Beit Furik, which separates the village and five other villages, was also hermetically closed that day. Many residents wanting to go home were made to wait for hours.
Hundreds of people sat on the ground to wait. The ...
#7913 The rooftop youth of Nablus
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 27 July 2004
»A total of 213 Palestinians were killed in Nablus between September 29, 2000 and July 20, 2004 (according to B'Tselem figures). About half were killed in the old city, which has a population of 30,000. Twenty-three Palestinians were killed in ...
#7920 And thanks to the IDF
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 28 July 2004
»According to the army, Tambuz was involved "in some shooting attacks and attempts to launch suicide bombers," and Awaida, said the incriminating information, was also a well-known Fatah operative.
The license to kill that the IDF has granted ...
#7944 Palestinian parents' nightmare in Nablus
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 1 August 2004
»"Go to the school and ask 12-year-olds what they dream about and they’ll say ‘istshihad’ (sacrificial death) – not necessarily meaning by an explosives belt, but in the sense of facing down a tank
or army patrol, throw ...
#7952 There is order in the anarchy
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 4 August 2004
»Quite a few surprises await someone looking in Nablus for the fawda, the anarchy. The doors to homes are not locked, the city has functioned without a mayor and with a truncated budget, the
streets are clean, roads that were chewed up for two ...
#7958 No more business in blocked-off Nablus
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 5 August 2004
»Abu Fahmi's garage is still open; the carpentry shop owned by his brother, Abu Bashar, is closed. All of the business was with Israel, says his son, Bashar, where the raw materials were bought and the couches and sofas were sold. Now the Israe ...
#8023 Labor's acquiescence
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 11 August 2004
The Labor Party is negotiating with the Likud on joining the coalition, backed by the support of many Israelis for the disengagement plan.
...
When the stage after the evacuation of settlements from the Gaza Strip arrives, the settlement dynami ...
#8056 Gandhi's grandson to kick off unarmed Palestinian campaign
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 13 August 2004
»The grandson of former Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi, Arun Gandhi, is to kick off a Palestinian campaign for an unarmed, popular struggle against the Israeli occupation.« ...
#8122 IDF closes Nablus for most of the day
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 17 August 2004
Hundreds gathered at the Beit Iba checkpoint in the hope of being allowed to leave, but only those living in the four nearest villages were allowed to do so.
In the process, a soldier confiscated the identity cards of about 10 people who asked to ...
#8123 Palestinian says soldier assaulted him for possessing poster of dead terrorist
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 17 August 2004
An IDF soldier at a mobile checkpoint on Sunday hit a Palestinian man after finding a poster in his car displaying a man killed two weeks ago in an IDF operation. Mohammed Kuzmar, 53, of Tulkarm testified that he managed to grab the soldier's hands a ...
#8146 Refusing to be blinded in the other eye
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 18 August 2004
»One convention, for example, is that the number of those killed (on both sides) is a measure of the struggle’s success. Another is that a weapon makes he who wields it into a fighter. To
earn this title, it is enough to be photographed ...
#8221 Between violence and non-violence
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 25 August 2004
The Mahatma Gandhi's grandson is visiting the country this week at the invitation of Palestinians who want to advance the idea of a popular struggle against the Israeli occupation. Gandhi is slated to speak to Palestinians about non-violent struggle, ...
#8288 The grand experiment: Municipal elections in the PA
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 27 August 2004
»Voter registration begins on September 4, for general elections for the Legislative Council and the presidency – an election date has not been set – as well as for local elections. On
that same day, the minister of local governmen ...
#8287 Checkpoint behavior
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 2 September 2004
»Israel Defense Forces officers were among the first to understand the moral danger involved in checkpoints, way before the general public in Israel was prepared to hear about rude or even abusive
behavior on the part of the soldiers. Those in ...
#8353 Israel asks PA donors to fund new, upgraded West Bank roads
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 5 September 2004
Israel has asked countries that contribute funding to the Palestinian Authority to finance the construction of new roads and the upgrading of existing ones in the West Bank, according to foreign diplomatic and Palestinian sources. Roads on which Pale ...
#8408 Israel wants to move the Rafah crossing, World Bank is told
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 7 September 2004
Under the disengagement plan, Israel seeks to move the Rafah crossing to the south, to the Israel-Egypt-Gaza Strip border point, according to a paper submitted to the World Bank by the National Security Council in response to the bank's report on the ...
#8427 Donating to apartheid
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 8 September 2004
Seemingly, it's a temporary, innocent solution, essentially reactive, answering the need to protect the safety of Israeli citizens because of the current reality. In effect, the creation of two separate road networks is a logical step, utterly not in ...
#8668 Security prisoners charge guards with humiliating them
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 19 September 2004
Palestinian security prisoners have alleged that guards and Prisons Service officers at Nafha Prison deliberately humiliated them during the hunger strike. The inmates, some of whom have been in prison for over a decade, said they had never before ex ...
#8711 And still the occupation
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 22 September 2004
»Support and sympathy from parts of the Israeli peace camp for the disengagement is a dangerous part of the plan because it enables Sharon and his partners in his world view to continue executing
their real plan and to do so without public cri ...
#8717 Gazans are now stuck in a medical limbo
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 22 September 2004
»A.N. never arrived for her first treatment on August 10. After a six-hour wait at the checkpoint, she discovered that her entry permit did not cover her wheelchair, and she is physically incapable
of switching wheelchairs several times. Pales ...
#8854 What does the Turk have against us?
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 29 September 2004
A contemporary echo to the view of that same Jewish mother can be found in the reports in the Israeli media last weekend. They unquestioningly adopted the label "terrorists" applied by IDF commanders and spokesmen to the three young Palestinians who ...
#8931 Volunteers attacked while escorting Palestinian children
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 1 October 2004
Unidentified assailants attacked two American Christian volunteers who were escorting Palestinian schoolchildren on Wednesday morning near the Maon outpost south of Hebron.
The assailants beat the volunteers and robbed them. The two were taken by ...
#8932 Half an hour later, people were still collecting body parts
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 1 October 2004
At 10 A.M., B. arrived at his family's house in the Jabalya refugee camp to try and persuade his parents, uncles and sisters to leave the danger zone and spend a few days at his house in Gaza City. Since Tuesday night, the camp has been under incessa ...
#8992 Palestinians accuse Shin Bet of harassment at Rafah border
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 4 October 2004
»Palestinian officials have told men between the ages of 16 and 35 not to go to Rafah border crossing because of "Shin Bet harassment." Men in that age bracket are prevented from crossing to Egypt
and this holds up all passenger traffic at the ...
#9021 Palestinian periodical reprints Israeli critique of guerrillas
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 5 October 2004
A harsh critique of "Palestinian guerrilla organizations" by independent journalist Gideon Spiro appeared yesterday in the Palestinian Al-Tariq, which comes out twice a month and is distributed along with the newspaper Al-Ayam. In the article "Red Fl ...
#9027 What would Israel do without UNRWA?
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 6 October 2004
But the Israeli assault on UNRWA could turn out to be a double-edged sword, if it leads to a cutback in the donations upon which the organization's budget depends. Because UNRWA is one of the most important safety nets the international community has ...
#9096 A pall on the poll
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 8 October 2004
Even in the only village in the territories that elected its own municipality - and reaped a host of benefits - no one is particularly excited by the prospect of Palestinian general elections
...
A lot of cars with yellow Israeli lice ...
#9223 Poisoning the village wells
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 12 October 2004
Madama residents, like the residents of other villages bordering settlements in the Nablus area - have long complained about "mysterious" fires in their groves and fields, and about armed settlers who try to chase the Palestinians off their lands.
...
#9276 Illusions and delusions of combat
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 13 October 2004
In Jabalya refugee camp, one of the residents says people believe 20-40 Israeli soldiers were killed by Palestinian fighters resisting the IDF incursion. Hamas spread this story.
For those who believe the tall tale, it is easier to bear the hard ...
#9528 Harassment as a military duty
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 20 October 2004
»Every day soldiers confiscate the identity cards of West Bank Palestinians even though this is prohibited by the law – even by military orders, except under very specific conditions. It
looks like a concentrated mass violation of army i ...
#9655 Half Palestinian deficit due to Israel funds seizure
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 24 October 2004
About half of the Palestinian Authority budget deficit was caused by seizures imposed by Israeli courts on PA funds, Palestinian sources say. ...
#9702 State to underwrite damages awarded to Israelis in suits against PA
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 25 October 2004
Israel will cover damages awarded to Israeli plaintiffs suing the Palestinian Authority and will deduct the funds from the PA only thereafter, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz said last week. ...
#9800 Wheels of justice grinding reason
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 27 October 2004
The proof of Israel's almost absolute control over the Palestinians' fate is not to be sought only in the Likud central committee, in the air and armed forces, and in the offices of the civil administration. ...
#9856 Move afoot for Abbas to assume Arafat's powers
by Arnon Regular, Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 29 October 2004
move is afoot among leaders of the Palestinian Authority, led by Mahmoud Abbas and Ahmed Qureia, whereby Abu Mazen would replace Yasser Arafat as chairman of the Palestinian Authority after he is flown abroad for medical treatment, or alternatively, ...
#9874 Who's afraid of a war of inheritance?
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 29 October 2004
#9928 Arafat is still in the picture
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 31 October 2004
#10027 Judge revokes administrative detention order for Budrus man
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 3 November 2004
#10038 Is everything his fault?
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 3 November 2004
It is convenient among the Palestinian elite and many activists to shrug off any personal and collective responsibility for what is happening. ...
#10091 In Ramallah, life goes on as usual
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 5 November 2004
Apart from a handful of journalists, no one left the family table to go to the Muqata to try and distill the truth from the rumors about Arafat's condition. ...
#10153 Fear underlies Palestinian worry: `It's the first time a rais is dying on us'
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 7 November 2004
#10264 Non-violence frightens the army
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 10 November 2004
Ahmed Awad is dangerous for public security. That's what the Shin Bet thinks, that's what Col. Yossi Adiri thinks, that's what military prosecutor Itai Pollak thinks. ...
#10282 Prisoners say only heir is Barghouti
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 11 November 2004
Palestinian security detainees are waiting to hear what prisoner Marwan Barghouti has to say: What is his position on the emerging leadership? Does he intend to contend in the planned elections? ...
#10305 Judge frees NIS 130m in PA funds
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 11 November 2004
#10334 Ramallah plunged into mourning
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 12 November 2004
At 5:30 yesterday morning, when it was still dark out, someone was heard walking around a western Ramallah neighborhood, screaming over and over that the president was dead. ...
#10434 The mourning reception - an informal affair of the people
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 14 November 2004
#10530 Down in the dumps
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 16 November 2004
In a garbage dump in a Jewish city in the center of Israel, a group of illegal Palestinian workers has made its home. They live in constant fear of the police and long for the days before the separation fence. ...
#10563 After his death, still the occupation
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 17 November 2004
As long as the individual and collective Israeli interests in the continuation of the occupation are not affected - and it does not look like they are being affected - there is not a chance that a broad popular movement will arise in Israel that will ...
#10749 Israel bars Italian woman from joining family in West Bank
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 23 November 2004
An applicant must submit an orderly request 'to the relevant population administration bureau.' But for West Bank Palestinians, the 'relevant' bureau is known as the Civil Administration, of which the CLA is a part. ...
#10787 Qalandiyah in the rain
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 24 November 2004
»But the soldiers, male and female, did their work with serious faces. Residents of Jerusalem who hold blue identity cards are permitted to cross. Also permitted are residents of the West Bank who
live in villages in the Ramallah area and hold ...
#10796 Qalandiyah in the rain
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 24 November 2004
The young soldiers at Qalandiyah who permit or forbid passage with the wave of a hand are tools serving a policy of annexation and dissection, wrapped in the guise of security. ...
#11008 Donor countries won't fund Israeli-planned separate roads for Palestinians
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 30 November 2004
The representatives of the donor countries, including the U.S. consul general in Jerusalem, have officially said they do not intend to finance any project against the will of the PA. ...
#11076 PA: Road system shows Israel intends to keep settlements
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 1 December 2004
The map of alternate roads and passages for Palestinians only, which Israel asked the donor countries to finance, is consistent with the remarks made by the prime minister's adviser, Dov Weisglass, in a recent Haaretz interview. The map demonstrates ...
#11078 A surprising decision by the PA cabinet
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 1 December 2004
This is surprising because since 1994, the PA has acted as if it is incapable of doing a thing to counter the Israeli policy of creating Palestinian enclaves in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. One aspect of this policy was the accelerated construct ...
#12396 Palestinian election committee moves to prevent voting fraud
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 4 January 2005
#12414 Dump the checkpoints
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 5 January 2005
Blatant discrimination, draconian restrictions, indirect control and continuation of the conflict: these are the synonyms, framed by reality, for "leaving the settlement blocs in place." ...
#12512 Palestinian intellectual: New PA head to wield little power
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 7 January 2005
Fayssal Hourani says supporters of leading candidate Mahmoud Abbas have very limited expectations of him ...
#12597 Rumors swirl around Mustafa Barghouti
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 9 January 2005
'Fatah is like the Zionist Movement,' someone explained yesterday in Gaza. 'It needs a common enemy and then it unites against it. That enemy is Mustafa Barghouti.' ...
#12638 Disappointment at low voter turnout in PA elections
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 10 January 2005
When it was reported yesterday, at around 5 P.M., that the Palestinian Central Elections Committee would keep the polls open another two hours, until 9 P.M., people in the Jabalya refugee camp knew the official reason given (Israeli delays of voting ...
#12642 Vote for anyone but Abu Mazen, says wanted Fatah activist
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 10 January 2005
#12690 PA court rejects petition on voting procedures
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 11 January 2005
The Palestinian Court of Appeals yesterday rejected a petition against the Palestinian Central Election Committee's decision to allow people to vote on the basis of their identification cards, even if they did not appear in the Population Registry.
...
#12730 A political abstention
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 12 January 2005
The Palestinian public is not suffering from the illusion about who really rules over its life. It is not Abu Mazen, or Fatah, but the Israeli government and its emissary, the army. At no point on election day was it possible to forget that. ...
#12992 The army can't close Gaza checkpoints - they were already closed
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 17 January 2005
Israel's announcement that it is closing the three checkpoints around the Gaza Strip in the wake of last Thursday's terror attack at the Karni crossing has created the impression that all the crossings have been open recently. This, however ...
#13089 Who's in charge here?
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 19 January 2005
Sderot residents, suffering under the Qassam barrages and their lethal strikes, are the victims of a deliberate IDF policy of escalation that has been in force since the first day of the current intifada. ...
#13298 PA town gets female mayor
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 23 January 2005
Management doesn't intimidate Fathiya Barghouti, and she also expects to learn a lot from courses the Palestinian Authority local authority office will run for her and other municipal heads. ...
#13378 E. J'lemites will need permits to visit Ramallah
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 25 January 2005
Starting in July, East Jerusalem Palestinians will be denied freedom of movement into Ramallah, Binyamin region brigade commander Col. Mickey Edelstein has confirmed to Machsom Watch, a voluntary women's group that monitors checkpoints. ...
#13415 Separating 'Jerusalem' from the 'West Bank'
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 26 January 2005
»They need to know that giving Palestinians the right to take part in an election process in the PA is nothing more than a symbolic gesture when in the same breath, a secret decision by Israel
enables it to steal private property, within the a ...
#13777 Optimism is one thing, bulldozers another
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 2 February 2005
The dictionaries of the victors and those possessing military superiority do not define their occupation as `terrorism and violence.' ...
#13863 Analysis / A `gesture' of humiliation
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 4 February 2005
Minister Haim Ramon said yesterday that the decision to release 900 Palestinian prisoners was necessary to strengthen Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen). But in the same Israel Radio interview, he stressed that only prisoners wh ...
#14062 Palestinians suspect their leaders don't care about the prisoners
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 8 February 2005
A trail of suspicion accompanies every announcement of negotiations concerning the release of prisoners. It is internal Palestinian suspicion, which has deepened since it turned out that the prisoners and their release were left out of the discussion ...
#14063 Palestinian minister: Israeli authorities should release long-serving inmates
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 8 February 2005
There can be no peace settlement or enduring cease-fire without the release of prisoners, Palestinian Authority Minister for Prisoners Affairs Hisham Abd al-Raziq said on Sunday in an interview with Haaretz. ...
#14085 The blood of Iman al-Hamas
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 9 February 2005
Those who speak about gestures and then only free Marwan Barghouti's son, even if it was at Abbas' request, continue to operate with the old diskette of the colonialist who throws candy to the natives. ...
#14319 Prisoners slated for release were told they're staying in prison
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 14 February 2005
Most of the Palestinian prisoners that Israel plans to release were about to complete their term, Palestinian Authority officials handling the release said. ...
#14338 Barghouti's son was not involved in killing
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 14 February 2005
Marwan Barghouti's son, Qassam Barghouti, was not charged with wounding or killing Israelis or sentenced for such acts, contrary to Israel's statements yesterday. ...
#14434 Maybe seven states instead of 11
by Amira Hass in BitterLemons, 14 February 2005
»Yet just because this is the impression enforced by Israeli superiority doesn't make it right. The brutal, violent gap between the promises of Oslo that the "occupation was over" and the reality
experienced by the Palestinians – of ever ...
#14385 Come pray, and tell us about your 'military' connections
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 15 February 2005
Prisoners are brought to a special wing containing 'asafir,' birds in Palestinian slang, whose job it is to chat them up and obtain incriminating information. ...
#14450 A matter of principle
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 17 February 2005
Israel acted during the "Oslo years" in clear defiance of one of the only articles in the Oslo Accords that could be considered positive and promising for the Palestinian side: the article that determines that the Gaza Strip and the West Ba ...
#14626 Vandals foul Palestinian village's water supply
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 21 February 2005
»The Madama village’s spring was deliberately contaminated and its water supply system was sabotaged 10 days ago, village council head Ayed Kamal said Sunday. This is the sixth time in the past three years that the spring, the only sourc ...
#14656 Bitterness of those left in Israeli jails overshadows PLC vote
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 22 February 2005
»"The thing that really bothers me is not the well-known Israeli position, but the helplessness of the Palestinians and their failure to cope with Israeli logic and arguments," wrote a long-time Palestinian prisoner to his family recently. Just ...
#14679 The natives' time is cheap
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 23 February 2005
»Each of the two lines collaborates the consistent Israeli policy of creating apartheid roads in the West Bank. There is one system of roads for the natives, and it is winding, narrow, long, bumpy, sown with military checkpoints and frequently ...
#15010 It's not the state, it's the liberation
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 2 March 2005
»The excitement that accompanied the rejection of the original composition of the Palestinian government by the Palestinian Legislative Council last week blurred the fact that there was no debate about the purpose of the new Palestinian governm ...
#31544 Oslo All Over Again: It's Not the State; It's the Liberation
by Amira Hass in CounterPunch, 3 March 2005
The excitement that accompanied the rejection of the original composition of the Palestinian government by the Palestinian Legislative Council last week blurred the fact that there was no debate about the purpose of the new Palestinian government.
...
#15176 A new tactic for the Border Police?
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 6 March 2005
»Are the Border Police employing a new tactic to prevent Israelis from participating in demonstrations against the separation fence that take place on the Palestinian side of the barrier? This was the question on the mind of anti-fence protesters in ...
#15264 The fence will never be completed
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 9 March 2005
»In the public atmosphere that was created in Israel during 2001, the Palestinians' suicide bombings were perceived as a strategic danger. The fear experienced by every individual was self-evident. The fact that the fear was nurtured by ignoran ...
#15297 You can trust the Israelis, can't you?
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 9 March 2005
For the Husan-Nahalin bloc near Bethlehem, the future looks bleak. The separation fence will cut them off from Bethlehem and the 'green lung' it provides. ...
#15568 Army blames dog for killing of innocent Palestinian
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 15 March 2005
»The Defense Ministry is blaming an army dog for the death of an innocent Palestinian, who was shot by Israel Defense Forces troops 10 months ago. According to Deputy Defense Minister Ze'ev Boim (Likud), the dog had mistaken the Palestinian's ...
#15596 Using the Holocaust to ward off criticism
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 16 March 2005
»The crowd of world leaders visiting the new Holocaust History Museum at Yad Vashem attests to the strength of Israel's position in the West.
Israel is often criticized in the home country of these leaders, but many Israelis and Jews will, as ...
#15813 During Tul Karm countdown, anguish in Atil
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 21 March 2005
»Some 48 hours before the planned withdrawal of Israeli forces from the area of Tul Karm, an Israel Defense Forces unit took the trouble to commandeer a home in Atil - a nearby village that will also be handed over to the Palestinian Authority ...
#15890 Tul Karm has been liberated?
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 23 March 2005
»This is how he describes the situation: "The kids [armed Fatah youngsters] are roaming the streets, shooting in the air and believing their own declarations that they have been set free. If and when the Israeli army wants to reenter the town, it wil ...
#16085 Arab Israelis barred from using Road 557 to enter West Bank
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 28 March 2005
»For the past few Saturdays, Israel Defense Forces soldiers have been preventing Arab citizens of Israel from entering the West Bank using Road 557, which stretches east from Taibeh and passes through the Avnei Hefetz and Einav settlements. Jew ...
#16087 Palestinians' new IDs to allow easier access
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 28 March 2005
»The Civil Administration in the territories has started issuing Palestinians with a new type of magnetic cards that employ biometric identification techniques - face-prints, handprints, eye-prints and fingerprints.
The new identity cards, k ...
#16135 IDF said changing its checkpoint policy
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 29 March 2005
»More and more Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem who return home from the Bethlehem and southern West Bank area through the so-called "Container" checkpoint east of Abu Dis are being called in for questioning by police for violating a mil ...
#16193 Palestinians also sleep in the day
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 31 March 2005
»About two months ago, Israelis and Palestinians were shocked to read the news item that said that starting in July, when the separation wall is completed in the area of Qalandiya, East Jerusalemites will have to ask for permits to go to Ramall ...
#16588 East Jerusalem woman is stateless in her own city
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 6 April 2005
Twenty-eight-year-old Basama Bourkan doesn't dare move beyond a radius of five kilometers inside Jerusalem, between her home in Abu Tor, the private school in the Old City where she works as a social worker and the private medical center where s ...
#16776 Arafat's feminist legacy
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 12 April 2005
It could be that if the late Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat were still alive, the demonstration that is planned for one of the next few days would not have to be held. It could be that Arafat would have made some members of the Palestin ...
#17114 Israel and the Palestinian prisoners / First in a series - The positives of prisoner release for the peace process
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 18 April 2005
The release of prisoners is the best way for PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to distinguish himself from his predecessor, the late Yasser Arafat, according to Yohanan Tsoref, a researcher at the International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism at The I ...
#17196 The guard would not release Abu Hadwan's restraints, even when he was dying of cancer
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 19 April 2005
»As far back as the 1990s, Mohammed Abu Hadwan's fellow prisoners knew he had increasing trouble breathing. The Shikma prison in Ashkelon allowed him – as it did other older, sick prisoners – to remain for long hours in the yard, be ...
#17678 The prisoner who said 'No thanks' when offered his freedom
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 27 April 2005
»The battle of nerves lasted an hour and a half. On February 21, the day 500 Palestinian prisoners were released by Israel, the last bus leaving the Ketziot compound was delayed. The reason: Prisoner Ibrahim al-Zir refused to leave prison. Zir, ...
#17744 Jailed for 17 years with no `blood on his hands,' no luck
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 28 April 2005
On January 26, 2005, Nimr Shaaban, 37, began his 17th year in prison. Shaaban, 37, is serving a 21-year sentence for 25 counts of throwing stones (as a minor), throwing Molotov cocktails at vehicles, and torching cars and a number of buildings. The d ...
#18004 Israel and the Palestinian Prisoners / Israeli Arabs suffer double discrimination
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 2 May 2005
»A few months ago, on her 75th birthday, Leila Burgal received a special present: a picture of herself with her imprisoned son Mukhlas Burgal. According to Israel Prisons Service regulations, Palestinian security prisoners are not permitted lea ...
#20640 When lawlessness gets the upper hand
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 14 June 2005
Palestinian passersby found themselves in the midst of exchanges of gunfire between armed men wearing civilian clothes. 'Jews,' said 5-year-old T. to his mother. 'No, they're ours, safeguarding our security,' she replied with ...
#21189 They look at the burns and are silent
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 23 June 2005
The moment the young woman was caught at the Erez checkpoint planning to die "for the homeland," as she declared, nobody asks publicly how her death will help or harm the homeland. They look at her burned hands, and are silent. ...
#21937 There's a settler in every Israeli
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 6 July 2005
In the heart of every Israeli lives a little settler. Therefore, today's criticism is narrowly focused and completely misses the real point, which is the illegal and immoral colonization policy. This policy ultimately benefits an ever-growing po ...
#22121 Gate to nowhere
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 8 July 2005
»For the past two months and more, 7,500 olive saplings ready for planting have lain scattered about the village of Qafin, in the northwest area of the West Bank. Al Ahali, an association
from Nazareth, donated the trees as part of an effort t ...
#22333 For residents of Ras Hamis, the `separation obstacle' moves ever closer
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 12 July 2005
At best, the eight-meter-high wall, part of the separation fence going up north of Shoafat on Jerusalem's northern flank, will only block the windows of Mohsein a-Natshe's house. At best, it will only block the view of the wadi and the grov ...
#22335 High Court rejects petition to halt work on Shoafat fence
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 12 July 2005
The High Court of Justice rejected on Sunday a request by attorney Danny Zeidman to issue an injunction suspending construction work on the separation fence in the area of Shoafat, Jerusalem. Nevertheless, Zeidman's petition against that section ...
#22377 'It is all Israel'
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 13 July 2005
In Israel, as every soldier knows, the "public" is the same as the "Jews." And so will the mistake of 1948 be rectified. At that time, some 18,000 dunams from Qafin became part of Israel, became Jewish land. Now it will happen to ...
#22571 Analysis: Palestinian infighting behind upsurge in violence
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 17 July 2005
Hamas angry about PA's postponement of elections; senior PA official accuses Israel of acting to weaken PA. ...
#22587 In Gaza they're asking, `What will we do with all those Qassams after pullout?'
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 17 July 2005
GAZA - A Palestinian journalist asked an armed Hamas militant yesterday why his organization had suddenly begun to fire Qassam rockets again after two months of quiet. His answer: "Do you know how many Qassams we have? What are we going to do with th ...
#22808 On the slope of Jewish democracy
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 21 July 2005
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is not dividing Jerusalem. Neither is Minister Haim Ramon. They have simply found a faster and more efficient way than those tried before to get rid of tens of thousands of Palestinian residents of Jerusalem - after the pr ...
#23197 The village near the settlement is unlawful
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 27 July 2005
"I was born here, in Khirbet Tana, and I inherited the land from my grandfather. I am a shepherd and have a family of 10. All of us are shepherds, and that is our sole source of livelihood. In June I moved to Beit Furik, because in the summer the she ...
#23594 What business is it of Chirac?
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 3 August 2005
»A European journalist was asked to write about the wall being built around Anata, which will transform it into an enclosed ghetto within Jerusalem. Sorry, she said, the paper's editors are only interested in the disengagement. It has it all: u ...
#23988 Punishment depends on nationality
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 10 August 2005
Shortly after the murders in Shfaram, it was reported that those wounded and the families of the murder victims would receive recognition as victims of terrorism, dealt with and compensated accordingly. And the question immediately arose, since when ...
#24202 Khan Yunis / No compensation for Arabs losing their jobs in Katif
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 14 August 2005
Today is Omar's last day of work for his employer in one of the religious settlements of Gush Katif. He will finish what he began a week ago: packing up the contents of the house and dismantling whatever can be dismantled. "I asked my boss if he ...
#24267 Khan Yunis / Palestinians' political ping-pong heats up
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 15 August 2005
Like every other coastal city, in Gaza City, too, the summer heat drives people to the beach. So it was not immediately apparent yesterday evening that the crowd on one part of the promenade was an organized one. Dozens of youths in uniform - pants, ...
#24362 Khan Yunis / Old Bedouin's visions come true as Dugit rises, then fades away
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 16 August 2005
Many years ago, when the road from Gaza to Tel Aviv was still open and people used to get into their cars and drive to the big city to work or vacation in Jaffa, there lived in the northern Gaza Strip an old Bedouin called Abu Ata.Abu Ata, who died a ...
#24366 PA police absent as 'death squad' beats up Beit Lahia resident
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 16 August 2005
»Numerous Palestinian policemen were deployed in the northern Gaza Strip yesterday as part of the Palestinian Authority's efforts to ensure that the evacuation of Israeli settlements
proceeds smoothly. Several were even stationed in the streets of B ...
#24440 North Gaza villagers between a rock and a hard place
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 17 August 2005
»For the past four years, the gate to Siyafa has been opened by the IDF two or three times a day. Entry is permitted only to residents, not to relatives or friends. Cars are not allowed in
and out; a donkey and cart need a special pass. Some o ...
#24454 Cheap labor, cheap deal
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 17 August 2005
»Omar had a reason to laugh: Good people from Tel Aviv are agitated that the Evacuation Compensation Law passed by the Knesset discriminates against Palestinian and foreign workers, on the
one hand, compared to Israeli workers. The good people ...
#24615 Israeli youth trash W. Bank gas station
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 19 August 2005
A group of Israeli youths vandalized the gas station at the entrance to the northern West Bank settlement of Sa-Nur yesterday at noon. The station is owned by Camil Gerard, a native of the adjacent village of Jebaa who is a Canadian citizen.According ...
#24616 Dir al-Balah / Watching the drama unfold next door
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 19 August 2005
The slogans and calls for soldiers to disobey orders that settlers from Kfar Yam were broadcasting over loudspeakers were audible from the roof of Yihye Bashir's house in Dir al-Balah. Sometimes, it was singing or clapping instead of words. And ...
#24628 Rosy memories of the White City
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 19 August 2005
The eyes grow a bit hooded, a faint smile passes across the lips, sometimes even accompanied by a sigh. "Ah, Tel Aviv." This is the almost uniform reaction of Gazans aged 35 and above when they discover that their interlocutor is an Israeli. Some me ...
#24732 Free to go on the roof in Khan Yunis
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 21 August 2005
Until five years ago, the home of Abu Al Abd in the Khan Yunis refugee camp in the Gaza Strip was in the 14th or 15th row of homes from the border between the camp and the industrial area of Neveh Dekalim. Now, it's in the fifth or sixth row. Al ...
#24809 Khan Yunis / What Netzarim cost Sheikh Ajlin: 114 lives, 1,900 dunams, 105 homes
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 22 August 2005
For the first time in five years, stands selling grapes, figs, peppers and cucumbers in the south of the Sheikh Ajlin neighborhood, across from the concrete military post guarding Netzarim, were operating this summer. The stands are not far from what ...
#24979 The remaining 99.5 percent
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 24 August 2005
"I want to ask you as a Jew to a Jewess," the young man said a few days ago. In these days, a beginning such as this invites a dialogue of the kind in which we have been drowning for several weeks now - a dialogue in which the definition "Jew" has be ...
#24980 The remaining 99.5 percent
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 24 August 2005
"I want to ask you as a Jew to a Jewess," the young man said a few days ago. In these days, a beginning such as this invites a dialogue of the kind in which we have been drowning for several weeks now - a dialogue in which the definition "Jew" has be ...
#24981 The remaining 99.5 percent
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 24 August 2005
"I want to ask you as a Jew to a Jewess," the young man said a few days ago. In these days, a beginning such as this invites a dialogue of the kind in which we have been drowning for several weeks now - a dialogue in which the definition "Jew" has be ...
#25050 The settlers are gone, the polluted water remains
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 25 August 2005
»On the eve of the evacuation of settlements from the Gaza Strip, two assumptions relating to water sources took wing among Palestinians. The first: behind Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's
decision to leave the Strip lies the fact that the supply ...
#25373 PA under fire for accepting gift of Gaza hothouses
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 31 August 2005
The purchase by wealthy foreign Jews of hothouses belonging to Gush Katif settlers for the Palestinian Authority has received a great deal of publicity in recent weeks, but little has been said about Palestinian concerns about the deal."We received a ...
#25469 Where will the water come from?
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 1 September 2005
For about 10 years, Omar and Khaled of Khan Yunis - who until recently worked in the hothouses of the settlers in Muasi (Gush Katif) - "hitched a ride" on Israeli water statistics. While they worked in the hothouses, they could enjoy clean, clear wat ...
#25622 From dust to dust
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 4 September 2005
»At the end of the 1970s, when Yazuri and his contractor brother assembled prefabricated houses in Netzer Hazani, the former was already a skilled construction worker. Born in 1959, he had
already worked in Yamit, Netiv Ha'asara and Talmei Yos ...
#25792 Gun envy
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 7 September 2005
»Suddenly, the two-year-old Talal clutches the knees of his mother in fright, saying that he is afraid because there are Jews. The word "Jew" is synonymous in the eyes of many children with
the soldier at a checkpoint or tank or attack helicop ...
#25819 Mystery surrounds Moussa Arafat's murder
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 8 September 2005
Moussa Arafat, in his former role as Palestinian security chief, became friendly with Kamal Hamad, considered the most senior collaborator with Israel. Hamad, a contractor who built apartment buildings in Gaza (one of them the former home of Moussa A ...
#26012 Fearing arrest for war crimes, ex-IDF officer flees U.K.
by Aluf Benn, Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 12 September 2005
Doron Almog, former head of the Israel Defense Forces' Southern Command, escaped arrest yesterday by Britain's anti-terrorist and war crimes unit, when he remained on an aircraft that had landed in Heathrow airport and returned with it to I ...
#26087 Gazans celebrate freedom of movement
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 13 September 2005
The joy of liberation was felt first and foremost yesterday, and with more intensity than anyone else, by the thousands of Gazans whose lives had been totally disrupted and who had been just plain imprisoned in their homes and neighborhoods by the se ...
#26176 A different Gaza
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 14 September 2005
Every group of armed snot-noses gets more air time than the most courageous Palestinian-Gazan organization to arise in recent years: the independent workers' committees. Inflamed mobs waving a mortar in the air and chanting what the intelligence ...
#26178 Workers of Gaza unite!
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 14 September 2005
Another demand was added last week to the list of demands of the Independent Workers Committees in Gaza, which they have been presenting in the past few months to institutions of the Palestinian Authority and its leadership. The new demand is the ind ...
#26325 Now that the fear has gone
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 16 September 2005
GAZA - First of all, the fear has disappeared. That is the summary of the first days after the exit of the Israel Defense Forces from the Gaza Strip. The absence of fear is as tangible as an autumn leaf crumbling between one's fingers, more tang ...
#26677 A talent for destruction
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 22 September 2005
"When you see something that looks like Rafah, you'll know that was a settlement." That's how people in Gaza are giving instructions to their friends who for the first time in their lives, or the first time in many years, entered the areas ...
#26705 After the pullout / Thousands stuck in Gaza Strip until Rafah crossing reopens
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 23 September 2005
For the first time since Israel occupied the Gaza Strip in 1967, Palestinians were supposed to be able to cross the border to Egypt through the Rafah checkpoint today without being stopped and examined by Israelis. Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahm ...
#26827 First Palestinians cross at Rafah without Shin Bet interrogation
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 25 September 2005
»The first operation of the Rafah crossing without Israeli presence and supervision Friday would have been front-page news if not for the deadly Hamas parade in Jabalya, the Qassam rockets
on Sderot and the Israeli response. As Palestinian Aut ...
#26875 Gaza after the pullout / Israeli control over the population registry means continued control over Gaza Strip
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 26 September 2005
»Next month, as is the case every October, the Palestinian Interior Ministry in Gaza will begin issuing 16-year-olds their first identity cards. Each 16-year-old will bring photographs and
documentation to his school, which will pass them on t ...
#26990 You exist if the Israeli computer says so
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 28 September 2005
»Commentators in the media and elsewhere proclaimed after the disengagement from Gaza that "the frontier posts in the Strip are now international crossings," and that "removing Israeli
control of access to Gaza is in line with the national int ...
#27084 After the pullout / A good daughter finds herself in no-woman's-land
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 30 September 2005
»Three weeks ago, for the first time in six years, Dunia Ismail saw her mother. Ismail lives in Gaza City, where she was born in 1971. Her mother and brother live in El Arish, Egypt, where
Israeli authorities deported her father in 1981. Dunia ...
#27214 Gaza after the pullout / No way out: Released from Israeli jails, 42 former prisoners find themselves
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 3 October 2005
»They are no different from all the other Gazans who expected that the withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces from the Gaza Strip would enable them to pack suitcases and go abroad via
Egypt. Like many others, they want to see relatives they h ...
#27318 Machsom Watch: Palestinian beaten at Hawara checkpoint
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 7 October 2005
IDF soldiers severely beat a Palestinian man at the Hawara checkpoint south of Nablus on Tuesday while their female colleagues egged them on, according to a Machsom Watch - Women for Human Rights activist who witnessed the incident.Median Amran, 28, ...
#27395 Gaza after the pullout / State's refusal to register address changes sentences many to exile
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 9 October 2005
Salah Wared is a Palestinian who was born in Yemen and arrived with his family in Gaza as part of the Oslo Accords in 1994, when he was 9 years old. He lived in Gaza for two years and then moved to Jenin in the West Bank. In 1999, the Palestinian Aut ...
#27581 No direction home
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 12 October 2005
»Imagine a situation in which a resident of Haifa is prohibited from entering Tel Aviv without a permit (which is difficult to obtain) from the Israel Police. Imagine also that the Interior
Ministry does not allow people to change their place ...
#27682 PA: Israeli meddling in vote could boost Hamas
by Aluf Benn, Arnon Regular, Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 16 October 2005
The Palestinian Authority (PA) has asked Israel not to meddle in the elections to the Palestinian Legislative Council, and not to attempt to prevent the participation of Hamas, lest this serve only to strengthen the organization."Don't interfere ...
#27693 Israel relents on Kerem Shalom crossing
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 16 October 2005
Israel has dropped the idea of using the new Kerem Shalom terminal as a temporary crossing point for travelers to and from the Gaza Strip after the Palestinians refused to operate it, a Palestinian source told Haaretz yesterday.If Israel does not har ...
#27782 When Adam courted Eve
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 19 October 2005
The young boy, who later turned out to be an 11th grade student, just skinny and short for his age, suggested visiting Abu al-Rijal (in Arabic, the father of men). The guests, a team from the Riwaq organization, understood that he was one of the elde ...
#27803 Analysis / W. Bank roadblocks come and go
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 20 October 2005
The restrictions on Palestinian traffic in the West Bank, which were removed during the disengagement talks, were reinstated once the pullout was carried out.More than a year ago the defense establishment formulated a proposal for two separate transp ...
#27805 IDF ends escort of Palestinian children in South Hebron
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 20 October 2005
The IDF's Central Command has decided to cancel the military escort for Palestinian children on their way to school in the south of Hebron, Haaretz has learned.The military escort, which was introduced about a year ago, protected the children fr ...
#27877 The lovely stones
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 21 October 2005
Every village tour turns up surprises, even for people as experienced as those who work for the Riwaq Center for Architectural Conservation in Ramallah. Sunday two weeks ago, the first surprise cropped up in Jammala, a village that was not on the ori ...
#27962 Quartet envoy: Israel acting as if disengagement never happened
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 24 October 2005
»James Wolfensohn, the Quartet's special envoy for the disengagement, has criticized Israel for holding up agreements on opening Gaza Strip border crossings to the passage of people and
goods and on improving Palestinian mobility in the West B ...
#28024 It's no wonder envoy is frustrated
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 26 October 2005
Will James Wolfensohn succeed where others have failed and cause Israel to release its grip on Palestinian freedom of movement? The Quartet's special envoy on disengagement affairs didn't mince words last week when he expressed his frustrat ...
#28026 If you play it, they will come
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 26 October 2005
How to plan the door, fence and roof was solved in a dream: literally. Architect Khaldun Bshara from the Riwaq Center for Architectural Conservation had been working for a month on a plan to renovate a stone building in Ramallah's Old City for t ...
#28107 Quartet envoy James Wolfensohn: Israel asked World Bank to stop study of Gaza-West Bank link
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 28 October 2005
Israel has asked the World Bank and the U.S. government's development agency, USAID, to stop a study aimed at determining the best method of creating a transportation link between Gaza and the West Bank, according to James Wolfensohn, the Quarte ...
#28183 New checkpoint to sever W. Bank south of Nablus
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 30 October 2005
»The Israel Defense Forces has been constructing a major new checkpoint south of Nablus, at the Zaatara (Tapuah) junction, for checking Palestinian cars arriving from the northern and
western parts of the West Bank. The checkpoint was decided ...
#28191 Envoy: Israel seeks end to study of Gaza-West Bank road link
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 30 October 2005
Israel has asked the World Bank and the U.S. government's development agency, USAID, to stop a study aimed at determining the best method of creating a transportation link between the Gaza Strip and West Bank, according to James Wolfensohn, the ...
#28350 How the PA failed
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 2 November 2005
»A recent study placed the Palestinian Authority a dubious 107th on a list of corrupt countries, with number 159 being the most corrupt. The study, carried out by the NGO Transparency
International (TI), headquartered in Berlin, analyzes levels of c ...
#28488 Broken bones and broken hopes
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 4 November 2005
»For Palestinians, Yitzhak Rabin is remembered first of all as someone who instructed soldiers to break their arms and legs, when they began their popular uprising against the Israeli
occupation in 1987.
Before the handshake on the White Hous ...
#28769 The IDF tars a road
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 9 November 2005
»But when this tarring takes place on a road north of Bir Zeit, and the one executing it is the Israel Defense Forces, which also grabbed under GOC order dozens of dunams belonging to
several Palestinian families, and commandeered one family's ...
#29127 The frog is exhausted
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 16 November 2005
If you throw a frog into boiling water, it will jump out and save its life. But a frog swimming in room temperature water that is gradually heated will grow used to the heat; by the time the water boils, it's too late and the frog dies. That ...
#29501 The border of the state of Ramallah
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 23 November 2005
»In contrast to the "big bangs," or the election of MK Amir Peretz as Labor Party chairman and the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon from the Likud, the establishment of the southern border of the state of Ramallah is happening with na ...
#29672 EU slams Israeli moves in East Jerusalem
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 27 November 2005
Europe must resume ministerial-level meetings with representatives of the Palestinian Authority in East Jerusalem, as part of other political meetings that should be held there, a new European Union report recommends.The publication of the report, pr ...
#29856 The facade of peace
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 30 November 2005
Even those who don't understand a thing about soccer cannot ignore its importance in the lives of Palestinians. That's why the much ballyhooed initiative by the Peres Center for Peace - to organize an Israeli-Palestinian soccer team to play ...
#30034 IDF makes hospital keep Palestinian teen in restraints
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 4 December 2005
»A 14-year-old Palestinian who was hospitalized in Israel after being shot in the leg by Israel Defense Forces soldiers has been held in arm and leg restraints since Friday, even though he is guarded 24 hours a day by two Military Police office ...
#30084 Despite pledge, Israel still denying Gaza students permits to study in West Bank
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 5 December 2005
»Students from the Gaza Strip are still being met with a blanket denial of requests to study in the West Bank. The blanket denial comes in spite of Israel's pledge as part of the passage
agreement with the Palestinians that bus convoy links be ...
#30226 The IDF rules in the hospitals, too
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 7 December 2005
»It turns out the Israel Defense Forces are sovereign not only in the West Bank, but also in the hospitals. The views of a 19-year-old soldier and a Military Police (MP) officer overrule
that of a medical doctor in the matter of the conditions under ...
#30606 Go study in Australia?
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 14 December 2005
»Births, deaths and marriages are all entered into the Israeli computer, and only in that way do they get a seal of approval. The details of every Palestinian born in the Gaza Strip or the
West Bank appear on the ministry's computer, and can b ...
#30609 'I refused, and he hit me'
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 14 December 2005
»Fourteen-year-old Taher Ouda from Madma, a Palestinian village south of Nablus, was the subject of a story in Haaretz last week. Under Israel Defense Forces orders, he was kept in arm and
leg restraints and under around-the-clock guard by two milit ...
#30904 Fatah and offshoot finalize lists for PLC
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 20 December 2005
The official lists of candidates running for the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) were published yesterday. Marwan Barghouti, serving life imprisonment in Israel, had his name struck off the Fatah list after making it clear to Palestinian Author ...
#31006 On the three lies of Hamas
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 21 December 2005
»The surprising thing about Hamas' municipal victories is that they surprised anyone in the Palestinian Authority and the Fatah movement. And that some of them are comforting themselves by
saying that the reason for the Hamas victory is the ri ...
#31036 Abbas: We may be forced to reexamine PA election
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 22 December 2005
»Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said yesterday that the PA would have to reexamine holding next month's election in view of Israel's intention to bar East Jerusalem residents
from voting. Abbas' firm stand on holding the election ...
#31108 Wanted: a caliphate
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 22 December 2005
»Campaign activists race in and out of the office of one of the Fatah "rebels" who broke away from Fatah last week and hastily drew up a competing list called Al-Mustaqbal ("The Future").
Marwan Barghouti, serving out a life sentence, heads th ...
#31597 Palestinian media reports Fatah, Al-Mustaqbal to reach compromise
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 22 December 2005
»Palestinian media sources reported Thursday morning that a compromise is near regarding the reunification of the ruling Fatah party and its breakaway faction Al-Mustaqbal.«
»If the lists are combined, Fatah's standings in Palest ...
#31089 Fatah lists may merge
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 23 December 2005
The two rival Fatah lists for the Palestinian Authority's parliamentary elections are likely to merge and run as a single list, Palestinian sources said yesterday.Though the Palestinian Central Elections Commission refused yesterday to reopen th ...
#31092 EU envoys boycott tour of crossing at Qalandiyah
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 23 December 2005
»The representatives of the European Union and other diplomats boycotted a tour last Monday – sponsored by the West Bank Civil Administration – of the new Qalandiyah crossing for
pedestrians. A diplomatic source told Haaretz they r ...
#31095 IDF raids headquarters of anti-fence organization
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 23 December 2005
Israel Defense Force soldiers confiscated documents belonging to the Committee for the Popular Struggle against the Separation Fence during a nighttime raid on the northern West Bank village of Qafin, a committee activist said yesterday. Apparently, ...
#31188 Qureia quits PA election race, to remain as prime minister
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 25 December 2005
»Less than a day after the Fatah movement decided to unify its two competing lists for the upcoming general elections, in keeping with an agreement reached with young guard leader Marwan
Barghouti, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Qu ...
#31367 It's not all in the details
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 28 December 2005
»Also of secondary importance is the decision to open the "humanitarian gate" (which is intended for the passage of those in wheelchairs, parents with baby strollers, and Palestinian
cleaning workers employed by a contracting firm), in the mor ...
#31411 Fatah files united list just minutes before PLC deadline
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 29 December 2005
Some 20 minutes before the cut-off time yesterday for registering candidates in the upcoming elections to the Palestinian Legislative Council (the parliament), Fatah representatives submitted their united list to the offices of the Palestinian Centra ...
#31471 Search for kidnapped Britons continues
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 30 December 2005
The whereabouts of three Britons kidnapped in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday afternoon were still unknown last night, as were the identities of the kidnappers and their demands.Despite huge deployment by Palestinian security forces in Rafah, where Kate ...
#31565 Abbas vows to end chaos as PLC vote looms
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 1 January 2006
The unrest instigated by armed Fatah members over the past few days and the growing bitterness in the movement over the united list for the Palestinian Authority parliamentary elections are further weakening support for the movement and reducing the ...
#31623 Rights group keeps Palestinians farming, and the settlers at bay
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 2 January 2006
»Settlers yesterday tried to prevent Palestinian farmers from plowing three plots of land in the West Bank village of Tulat east of Qalqilyah. Only after human rights group Yesh Din
intervened and alerted security forces to the area were the f ...
#31648 Faraj has spent 44 months in prison without trial
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 2 January 2006
»At first, the military commander, acting on the Shin Bet's recommendation, issues a decision to send the detainee into administrative detention for six months, because they suspect that he
constitutes a "threat to the security of the region a ...
#31746 Just plain fed up
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 04 January 2006
»The latest foreigner kidnapped and released in Gaza (as of yesterday morning) is a young Italian. At a news conference after his release, he said the kidnapping does not change his
opposition to the Israeli occupation. But it is not his opini ...
#31947 W. Bank villagers: 120 olive trees destroyed
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 8 January 2006
Some 120 olive trees belonging to a Palestinian family were cut down in the southern Hebron Hills, the family said Friday.The olive grove is located across from the West Bank village of Tawaneh, and belongs to a family from the village of Yata. Child ...
#32025 Expressing the `closure of thought'
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 9 January 2006
The impression upon leafing through a computerized album of paintings by artist Hani Zu'rob is that the earlier works, from 1999 and 2000, are "airy" and very colorful: Human figures dance in them, arms stretched out wide, almost reaching outsi ...
#32055 Police: We can't end harvest incidents
by Jonathan Lis, Amira Hass, David Ratner in Ha'aretz, 10 January 2006
»The Judea and Samaria District Police has amassed a long list of what they call "Harvest Incidents 2005." In recent months these have included physical attacks on Palestinian harvesters,
who have been pelted with stones; the theft of harveste ...
#32113 Experts: Palestinian trees were vandalized, not pruned
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 11 January 2006
»Palestinian olive trees in the West Bank are clearly being vandalized rather than pruned, two experts said yesterday. They were responding to the Yesha Council of settlements' contention
that Palestinians sometimes label pruned trees as havin ...
#32128 It's not the olive trees
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 11 January 2006
There is something very human about these stumps of olive trees, hundreds upon hundreds of them, their amputated branches reaching skyward as if to ask for help. Last Friday, in Tawana in the southern Hebron hills, 120 trees; In Burin, south of Nablu ...
#32130 The obstacle course to school
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 11 January 2006
»He began first grade even before turning five. In ninth grade, he began attending a school for gifted students. He loved physics, and thought of pursuing the subject at the university
level, but his mother thought he would be better off learn ...
#32203 IDF cantonizes West Bank, sealing in 800,000 Palestinians
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 13 January 2006
»For a month now, since the second week of December 2005, the Israel Defense Forces has severed the northern part of the West Bank from other parts, and prohibited residents from traveling
toward Ramallah and points southward. The ban applies ...
#32303 Ministry pledges minimum wage for Palestinians at settlements
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 15 January 2006
» The Industry, Trade and Employment Ministry has promised to enforce a minimum wage payment for Palestinians employed at West Bank settlements, the legal bureau of the workers advocacy
organization Kav La'Oved reported last week.
Kav La'Oved ...
#32490 The soldier knows what he's saying
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 18 January 2006
»The women of MachsomWatch, who for five years have been monitoring the checkpoints and who have witnessed varying degrees of rudeness and abuse by soldiers, felt the need to make public a
detailed report of the soldiers' behavior witnessed by ...
#32499 The soldier knows what he's saying
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 18 January 2006
No, it cannot be assumed that all soldiers at checkpoints always behave the way those stationed recently at the Hawara checkpoint south of Nablus do. Other soldiers do not necessarily speak as rudely to the hundreds of people waiting in the cold and ...
#32839 The obligation of the occupied
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 25 January 2006
The elections taking place today in the Palestinian Authority are fluctuating between two poles: The Israeli occupation and its tremendous involvement in Palestinian lives, and the responsibility that the occupied have for their own lives. The world, ...
#32852 Exit poll gives Fatah narrow win
by Amos Harel, Arnon Regular, Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 26 January 2006
The polls indicate that neither party is likely to win a majority in the 132-member parliament, meaning that it is possible Hamas could form the next government. However, senior pollster Khalil Shikaki of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey ...
#32854 Air full of festivity - not bullets - on election day in Jenin
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 26 January 2006
JENIN - Only one shot - probably made in error - was heard in the Jenin refugee camp from the eve of elections until yesterday afternoon. No more than one or two armed men had patrolled at night. A few Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades members even stro ...
#32906 PA citizens complain at checkpoints: `We're sick of thieves stealing our money'
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 27 January 2006
As usual, there was a long wait at the Taysir checkpoint, in the northern Jordan Valley, on Monday. Waiting drivers passed the time by chatting. The problem of the checkpoints was the main topic of conversation, but people also talked about the elect ...
#32967 Umm Mohammed talks politics
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 27 January 2006
Two months still to go to the Israeli elections. Sigh ...
#33010 Fatah activists, PA police storm parliament buildings
by Haaretz staff, Agencies, Amos Harel, Arnon Regular, Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 29 January 2006
Dozens of Fatah activists and Palestinian Authority police officers briefly took over the parliament buildings in Ramallah and Gaza City yesterday, pledging loyalty to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas while calling for the resignation of the Fatah Central C ...
#33158 Hamas opposes Abbas control of security forces
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 1 February 2006
Hamas will oppose any attempt to transfer authority over the Palestinian security services from the government to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, the head of Hamas' parliamentary slate told Haaretz yesterday. Ismail Haniyeh, who st ...
#33237 Parents wonder how the IDF shot their 9-year-old daughter
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 2 February 2006
»Khan Yunis, Gaza. A week ago today, at about 7:00 P.M., Israel Defense Forces soldiers killed Aya al-Astal, 9, of Khan Yunis. She was killed east of the city, close to where the Kissufim
checkpoint was located. Aya's grieving parents cannot u ...
#33248 In the footsteps of Arafat
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 2 February 2006
There was no point asking Ismail Haniya, head of the victorious Hamas list, whether his movement would recognize Israel's right to exist, for two reasons. First, the answer was obvious - no, the movement would not recognize Israel's right t ...
#33359 Hamas official: Israel has a 'golden opportunity' to reach acceptable solution
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 5 February 2006
»The conversation with Yihya Musa, number 18 on the Hamas list, started on the concrete steps of his house with a comment on the amount of work Hamas was creating for reporters. "Leave us
alone and you won't have work," Musa proposed. Clearly, ...
#33413 Green is for nature and pubs are for drinking
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 6 February 2006
A painting of a ?Swiss? landscape decorates the living room of Yihye Musa?s house in the Gaza Strip. Musa, who is a professor of education, was recently elected a member of the Palestinian parliament on the Hamas national slate, but his living room c ...
#33520 Revenge is the word in the background
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 8 February 2006
The young woman who came into the corner grocery in the Jenin refugee camp did not hide her hostility when told there was an Israeli guest. It seemed that it was even difficult for her to sit in the same room as the guest, whom the grocer honored wit ...
#33791 In Ze'evi's footsteps
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 15 February 2006
»Someone who apparently had an especially sarcastic sense of humor decided to officially name the Jordan Valley Road, Route 90, the "Gandhi Road." The reference is not to Mahatma Gandhi, but
to Rehavam Ze'evi, who advocated "transfer" – ...
#33869 IDF establishes 'Israeli-only' entry points from W. Bank
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 17 February 2006
A military order that took effect last week bars Palestinians with permits to enter Israel from entering via the roads that Israelis use to enter the country from the territories. The order also forbids Israelis to transport Palestinians with valid e ...
#34106 They just wanted to go home together
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 22 February 2006
R. had a work meeting in Ramallah. She planned to return home, to East Jerusalem, with M., her partner, who works in Ramallah. They reached the Hizma checkpoint, east of the Pisgat Ze'ev settlement, where there is a permanent Israel Defense Forc ...
#34209 Peace activists photograph masked police rounding up terror suspects
by Amira Hass, Jonathan Lis in Ha'aretz, 24 February 2006
»British peace activists on Saturday documented through the window of a bus a police operation intended to locate terror suspects in Beit Hanina. The photos show police from an elite
Jerusalem unit wearing masks. Seven Palestinian suspects are ...
#34486 Palestinians are being robbed by Israel
by Amira Hass in Los Angeles Times, 28 February 2006
IT IS EVIDENTLY difficult to scrub off the sticker that is glued onto the front window. That's why when a new car from Germany or South Korea or the United States rolls onto the packed streets of Gaza or Ramallah, it generally has the big label with ...
#34469 A nation of beggars
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 1 March 2006
»It is not the Palestinians who should be welcoming the European Union's decision to hastily donate another $142 million before the Hamas government is formed. It is Israel that ought to be
pleased that the Western states will continue compensating ...
#34544 Court asked to fire settler who planned route of separation fence
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 3 March 2006
»Palestinians yesterday petitioned the High Court of Justice to order the state to dismiss Danny Tirza, the man responsible for planning the route of the separation fence, arguing that Tirza
has a conflict of interests because he lives in a se ...
#34687 A cruel equation
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 6 March 2006
»Like other natives of Gaza who live in the West Bank, Al-Shwaikh has in effect been imprisoned in his city, Ramallah, for more than five years. On the one hand, for about 10 years Israel has been preventing Gazans from changing the address in ...
#34792 Fear of the doctoral student in math
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 8 March 2006
»The state claims that it is not obligated to permit Palestinians from the territories into Israel. Its main contention – that "he was active in the Popular Front terror organization" – was
accompanied by intelligence information p ...
#34885 Groups balk at demands on seam-line workers
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 10 March 2006
An Israeli demand that Palestinians working for international organizations request a permit to enter the seam-line area between the West Bank separation fence and the Green Line has generated tension between the security establishment and the intern ...
#35139 Saadat's wife: At least he's alive
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 15 March 2006
»News of the siege spread through Jericho, Gaza, Ramallah, and other cities, finally reaching news bulletins and TV. The reports concluded unequivocally: an Israeli-American-British plot. From the Israeli media they gleaned that the British had ...
#35158 Playing two different games
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 15 March 2006
»The Palestinians are busy forming a government. It is too early to say how the events in Jericho will affect its composition, but what in the past was an internal game of musical chairs
among Fatah and its satellites – a competition ove ...
#35263 Palestinian Authority mulls responses to Jericho jail raid
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 17 March 2006
Declaring Palestinian sovereignty in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, dismantling the Palestinian Authority, and petitioning the International Court of Justice against the "criminal abduction" of the six Palestinians from Jericho Prison - these are the ...
#35265 Hamas to present cabinet; smaller factions may not join
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 17 March 2006
Hamas is slated to present its cabinet to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas tomorrow and bring it to the Palestinian parliament for approval Monday, Hamas representatives in Gaza said yesterday. The announcement came after talks yesterday ...
#35350 Hamas activists doubt gov't can work without Fatah
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 19 March 2006
The demeanor and voice of Ismail Haniyeh, the next Palestinian prime minister, emanated gravitas at yesterday's news conference. Hamas activists pinched themselves with disbelief. "Had someone told me a year ago that we would be putting together ...
#35529 Strangled in Gaza
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 22 March 2006
In the elections, Israelis will not be voting just for themselves. Not only will they choose parties that affect their own lives for four years, but also those of 3.5 million occupied Palestinians - as they have done for 39 years now. The winners in ...
#35610 The roads not taken
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 24 March 2006
The regime of restriction on movement imposed by Israel on the Palestinians has crumbled the West Bank into dozens of closed or partially closed enclaves isolated from each other despite their geographical proximity. Permanent and mobile checkpoints, ...
#35621 'Travel on the road is not banned, but getting to it is'
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 24 March 2006
»Except for two access roads north of the Yatta enclave – the Zif junction in the east and al-Fuwar in the west – the blockade around Yatta and some 12 surrounding rural
communities was complete. The ring includes concrete blocks, ...
#35622 Four types of enclave in the West Bank
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 24 March 2006
»The restrictions on movement that Israel imposes on Palestinians in the West Bank have effectively created four different types of enclaves.«
»Closed-off populated enclaves: Entry is permitted only to residents. Such enclaves are closed off both ...
#35623 LEXICON
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 24 March 2006
Terms used in military documents or by soldiers at roadblocks
Territorial unit – a Palestinian enclave surrounded by roadblocks
Shunt – unblocked entrance to an enclave
Sterile road – off limits to Palestinian traffic
...
#35773 Maze of checkpoints separates sisters
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 27 March 2006
The first question Salwa Tabari asked was how rehearsals were coming for the big concert marking the Jerusalem Choir's jubilee year. Actually, that was her second question. The first, almost rhetorical question, was: Why did it take you so long ...
#35841 IDF paving roads for Palestinians
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 28 March 2006
»Three organizations are busy renovating, upgrading and improving roads in the West Bank in response to the transportation problems created by the Israel Defense Forces barriers and the diversion of Palestinian vehicles to secondary roads. The ...
#35934 Intertwined debates on two sides
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 29 March 2006
»In Israel at this time, the decisive internal debate is taking place entirely in one framework. The Kadima school of unilateralism, the settlement blocs of the Labor Party and the rest of
the center parties, and those that call for the greate ...
#36301 Convergence to a border of convenience
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 5 April 2006
For the "convergence" plan to be presented to the Western world as a giant concession worthy of praise, the dimensions of Jewish support for the "vision of the Greater Land of Israel" must be inflated. But if the Greater Land of Israel really were th ...
#36704 The uber-wardens
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 12 April 2006
»Two weeks ago, on Election Day, at 8 A.M., drivers wishing to leave Tul Karm from the eastern exit (toward Anabta) discovered that their permits were invalid. A soldier at the checkpoint,
who prevented the passage of the drivers, apologized: ...
#37126 Hungry and shell-shocked
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 21 April 2006
»Where will the next blow land? That is the question. Not if it will come, but rather when, and on whom will it land, and what kind will it be? Five-year-old L. believes the solution is to
sleep every night in his parents' bed, and in that way ...
#41367 No longer afraid, Gazans shout back
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 9 July 2006
Last Thursday morning, some 60 Israel Defense Forces soldiers invaded Hannan as-Siam's home in Beit Lahia and turned it into their base. "I wanted to hug my youngest son, who was afraid, but the soldier aimed his gun at me. 'You want to use ...
#41413 Israel bars Palestinian Americans for first time since 1967
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 10 July 2006
»For the first time since 1967, Israel is preventing the entry of Palestinians with foreign citizenship, most of them Americans. Most of those refused entry are arriving from abroad, but
have lived and worked for years in the West Bank. According to ...
#41424 For the first time since 1967, Israel bars entry to Palestinian Americans
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 10 July 2006
»For the first time since 1967, Israel is preventing the entry of Palestinians with foreign citizenship, most of them Americans, who are arriving from abroad, but have lived and worked for
years in the West Bank. According to a growing number ...
#41425 After 30 years, wife loses right to enter Israel
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 10 July 2006
"It must be a mistake, the caprice of a clerk at border control," Aadel Samara responded when his wife Enayeh informed him by phone on May 26 that her entry to Israel, through the Sheikh Hussein Terminal (near Beit She'an), was not permitted. Th ...
#41723 Expulsion by the sovereign
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 14 July 2006
It might seem that there is no less appropriate moment than now to discuss bureaucratic troubles, even if they are the lot of thousands of people who live in the Gaza Strip and on the West Bank, and whom Israel forbids to return to their homes and fa ...
#41724 Expulsion by the sovereign
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 14 July 2006
It might seem that there is no less appropriate moment than now to discuss bureaucratic troubles, even if they are the lot of thousands of people who live in the Gaza Strip and on the West Bank, and whom Israel forbids to return to their homes and fa ...
#43799 Their power of endurance
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 9 August 2006
»Hezbollah's Al-Manar television station would dismiss as feminine and sentimental the view that peoples don't win wars. Like other Arab analysts, they regard attacking Israeli civilians and
engaging the IDF in fierce battles as an A ...
#44409 Nasrallah didn't mean to
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 16 August 2006
»During the past month, Hezbollah's Katyushas killed 18 Israeli Arabs among the 41 Israeli civilians who died in the war. Clearly, Hassan Nasrallah didn't mean to kill them. But as someone
who knows that many Arabs live in northern I ...
#44869 The occupier defines justice
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 23 August 2006
On Jerusalem's Jabotinsky Street, opposite the President's Residence, a medium-sized plaque is fixed on a locked gate, enclosing a broad building and a lovely garden: "This building was the location of the British Mandate Government's ...
#45131 Accidental emigrant
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 28 August 2006
»The authorities didn't allow him to pass through the Allenby border crossing, he told her. What? At first she thought she misheard him, then she didn't take him seriously. But he wasn't
joking. Hayan Ju'beh was born and re ...
#45133 A policy of no-return
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 28 August 2006
»Since April 2006, Israel has imposed a sweeping ban on the return to the country of Palestinians of Western nationality, primarily Americans, who have been living and working in the West
Bank for many years. The Interior Ministry and Civil Ad ...
#45252 Can you really not see?
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 30 August 2006
Let us leave aside those Israelis whose ideology supports the dispossession of the Palestinian people because "God chose us." Leave aside the judges who whitewash every military policy of killing and destruction. Leave aside the military commanders w ...
#45541 The Silent Expulsion / Palestinian businessmen wonder why Israel wants them out of the territories
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 4 September 2006
In the middle of the conversation in the spacious CEO's office at the Palestinian National Beverage Company in Ramallah 10 days ago, Zahi Khouri's mobile phone danced on the table. It was M., from the Palestinian Standards Institute, callin ...
#45597 The slippery slope of expulsion
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 5 September 2006
When a Civil Administration officer at the Beit El military base extended the tourist visa of Sam Bahour, a Palestinian-American businessman from Ramallah, and wrote on it "last permit," he did not do so on his own initiative. When the officer issued ...
#46435 In the name of security, but not for its sake
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 20 September 2006
»Cohen's research relies mainly on police documents from the period, which have recently been opened for public perusal (the Shin Bet documents are still classified). They relate, for
example, that the provision of weapons to collaborator ...
#46750 Missing the government of thieves
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 27 September 2006
»The continued strike at PA offices, the rallies of the clerks and the demands for a unity government - all call on the Hamas-led government to recognize the negative balance of its brief
tenure. There is justification for the complaints: A go ...
#46950 Doors of re-entry shut to Palestinians
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 1 October 2006
»His wife, Saada Shobaki, took a half-year's leave of absence from the Palestinian Economy Ministry. His kids left their school and kindergarten. They now live in a rented, furnished flat
without personal character except for the charming ...
#47111 Not an internal Palestinian matter
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 4 October 2006
»The experiment was a success: The Palestinians are killing each other. They are behaving as expected at the end of the extended experiment called "what happens when you imprison 1.3 million
human beings in an enclosed space like battery hens. ...
#47413 IDF aims to keep out harvest 'escorts'
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 9 October 2006
»The Israel Defense Forces is demanding that Palestinian farmers not allow Israeli and foreign sympathizers to escort them during the olive harvest to places where military protection is
needed against abusive settlers, Palestinian sources in ...
#47546 Forbidden to settlers, not the state
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 11 October 2006
#47663 In debt, under siege
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 13 October 2006
»For more than a week now, there has been an acute shortage of fuel in Nablus. The Palestinian Authority has not paid its debts to Dor Energy, and the latter has suspended the fuel supply.
In parallel, the Palestinian fuel company has cut back ...
#47799 We don't get no education
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 16 October 2006
»NABLUS - Iyyad and Majdi, 11-year-old boys from Nablus, could be expected to envy their friends and neighbors whose government schools have been on strike since September 1. This is not the
case. Iyyad attends a school run by the United Natio ...
#47909 Even Palestinian-Americans are being turned back at the border
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 18 October 2006
During the summer months, the city was "empty," according to people in Ramallah and the neighboring city of El Bireh. Residents of both cities, as well as of the surrounding villages, employed this hyperbole to express the extent to which they felt t ...
#47920 What are 20 tons of explosives?
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 18 October 2006
Hamas has smuggled 20 tons of explosives into the Gaza Strip, and that is aside from the anti-aircraft and antitank missiles. That is what the Israel Defense Forces has calculated, and it made sure to pump this frightening information into the Israel ...
#48137 Gone in 60 seconds
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 22 October 2006
»Sitting in the parking lot of the apartment house in Nablus' Rafidia neighborhood was a big clean white 2006 Mazda, without a scratch on it. With a yellow license plate - meaning the car was from Israel. Whose car is it? What is it doing ...
#48298 Not only the right to worship is sacred
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 25 October 2006
»On Fridays of the month of Ramadan, the Palestinians once again proved the extent to which they are prepared to endanger themselves, collectively, for the sake of a shared aim they consider
sublime: worship at Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. The ...
#48428 Twenty-six hours, minute by minute
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 27 October 2006
Almost every day during Ramadan, Michael Philips, a student from New Orleans, was invited to eat the Iftar (the meal that breaks the fast) with one of his acquaintances or friends in Nablus. He spent only four and a half months in the city, where he ...
#48586 Palestinians wait in vain for taken ID's
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 31 October 2006
»Four young Palestinians from the Nablus area, who were caught trying to reach Jerusalem illegally from Ramallah recently, waited in vain for the Border Police to return their identity
cards. Border policemen confiscated the Palestinians' ...
#48598 Palestinian cardiologist treating patients in the U.S. may not be allowed to come home
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 31 October 2006
»Dr. Tareq Ramahi, a 45-year-old cardiologist, is one of the great hopes of Al Quds University in Abu Dis. University management is hoping that Ramahi will expand the medical faculty, which
currently comprises only three full time professors. ...
#48607 'National' weapons in Nablus
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 31 October 2006
#48991 Two lobbies defend the oppression
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 8 November 2006
»There could not have been a worse time to release the Human Rights Watch report on violence against women within Palestinian families and society: yesterday, November 7, at the same time
the Israeli army withdrew from Beit Hanun after a six-d ...
#49319 How a Beit Hanun family was destroyed
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 13 November 2006
»Zahar, 33, is now lying wounded in the hospital in Beit Hanun; she has undergone one operation to remove shrapnel from her abdomen and is waiting for another on her leg. She was unhurt by
the first shell. So was her 9-year-old son Sa'ed. ...
#49448 Preparing for the next invasion
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 15 November 2006
The management of the Beit Hanun hospital decided to dig a well in the hospital's yard. By Saturday, laborers and bulldozers were already on the job. That is how the hospital is readying itself for the next invasion by the Israeli army.
The ...
#49701 25-year-old Palestinian shot for protesting IDF's treatment of women
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 19 November 2006
»A critically wounded Palestinian youth is hospitalized at Beilinson, allegedly after Israeli soldiers shot at him for protesting their treatment of women. Heitham Yassin, 25 years old, has
been under heavy sedation and on a respirator since t ...
#49924 No more hitching in the W. Bank
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 22 November 2006
»The OC Central Command, Yair Naveh, dropped a cluster bomb early this week. He signed an order barring Israeli citizens from taking Palestinian passengers in their Israeli vehicles within
the West Bank. The order will take effect on January 1 ...
#50161 Palestinians banned from Israeli cars near Green Line
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 26 November 2006
The ban on allowing Palestinians to ride in Israeli cars in the West Bank will mainly be enforced near the border with Israel, and not throughout the West Bank, a senior Israel Defense Forces officer told Haaretz.
The officer said that he himself ...
#50389 The checkpoint generation
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 29 November 2006
For nearly a month now, a young Palestinian has been hospitalized at Beilinson Hospital; soldiers shot him at a checkpoint in northern Nablus on Saturday, November 4. Haitem Yassin, 25, is conscious now, but he is still hooked up to a respirator. In ...
#50496 IDF soldier gets two weeks for shooting Palestinian
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 1 December 2006
»An Israel Defense Forces soldier who shot and seriously injured a Palestinian at a roadblock, was sentenced to 14 days in a military prison. Military Police wll investigate further. Haytem
Yasin, 25, was shot by the soldier on November 4, at ...
#50794 A regrettable indifference
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 6 December 2006
»In Nablus, several dozen kilometers from the home of the family of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, lives the family of Palestinian prisoner Said al-Atabeh, which is also following
shreds of information about the status of negotiations ...
#51198 No Palestinian fishing rod
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 13 December 2006
»More than 1.3 million Palestinians, out of a population of 3.7 million (including the inhabitants of East Jerusalem), were defined as poor in 2005. More than half of them, 820,000, were
defined as sunk in "deep poverty." The Palestinian Natio ...
#51595 Human rights groups reject West Bank travel ban
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 19 December 2006
»International organizations in the territories are still reviewing the implications of a ban prohibiting Israelis to give rides to Palestinians within the West Bank. The order was issued by
GOC Central Command Yair Naveh. Officials from a few ...
#51803 Cease-fire number 2
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 22 December 2006
»The checkpoint was manned by Force 17, Mazen and his friends immediately noticed, having taken the risk on Monday of going out in Gaza's Rimal neighborhood to take the pulse of the first
cease-fire - declared the night before and broken ...
#52127 New regulation expected to let foreigners return to PA
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 26 December 2006
»Enaya Samara, Hayan Ju'beh and Somaida Abbas are only three of the thousands of Palestinians with foreign passports who are waiting impatiently for the Coordinator of Government Activities
in the Territories to publish its new regulation ...
#52128 Entry denied, despite promises
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 26 December 2006
»On December 14, Linda was turned away at Ben-Gurion International Airport when she came to visit her brother and her aunt. Linda and her brother Shukri, who are both deaf and mute from
birth, are U.S. citizens. The reason for denied access: H ...
#52398 The new refugees
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 27 December 2006
Until Enaya Samara, who has been living in forced exile for the past eight months returns to her village near Ramallah, and until Someida Abbas, who was banished from his home 10 months ago accompanies his children to kindergarten again, it will not ...
#52646 Barghouti's children aren't in a hurry
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 29 December 2006
»Na'il Barghouti wanted to study music; Fakhri Barghouti, his cousin, was a shepherd. In 1978, Na'il had just finished his high school matriculation exams; Fakhri, 23, was already married
with a baby. They were living in the village ...
#53767 Marking the territory
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 3 January 2007
At 6:30 last Friday morning, two cars waited for soldiers to open the checkpoint at the eastern entrance to Ramallah. This checkpoint is only for diplomats, Palestinian VIPs, journalists, employees of international organizations and anyone whose pres ...
#55160 When Hamas learns how to adapt
by Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, 10 January 2007
»A resident of a refugee camp in Nablus, a member of Fatah, used to worship at a mosque that is identified with Hamas. As an employee of the public sector, he is one of tens of thousands of
wage-earners who are not getting a regular salary. On ...
#55302 Agricultural crossing opens in Jordan Valley, despite the objections of settlers in the area
by