30 years since Soweto Massacre | Weekly human rights report | Keeping the international eyewitnesses out | Palestinian Christians & Congress | Israel’s Wall Fixation | eIraq: Ramadi

Date: 17 June 2006 11:13:46 BDT

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UPDATE FROM THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA

electronicIntifada.net

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Diaries 30 YEARS AND THE DENIALS KEEP GOING Christopher Brown, Live from Palestine, 16 June 2006

My goodness, Israel – you certainly have learned your lesson well from the old apartheid South African government. Today marks 30 years since that infamous day in the township of Soweto when hundreds of thousands of students protested Bantu Education. The police waited for the marchers near a dusty intersection and unleashed hell on innocent children. Official reports claimed that 700 children died over the course of the year that the student uprisings occurred; more than likely, these were conservative estimates.

electronicIntifada.net/v2/article4814.shtml

Human Rights WEEKLY REPORT ON HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS Report, PCHR, 15 June 2006

During the reported period, IOF killed 28 Palestinians in the OPT, including 27 in the Gaza Strip. This number includes 21 unarmed civilians, including 7 children. Seven of the victims were from the same family (father, mother and 5 of their children), who were killed on Friday, 9 June 2006, when IOF fired a number of shells, while they were at the beach in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip. Field investigations conducted by PCHR and those conducted by a Human Rights Watch military expert refute this claim and prove that the victims were killed by shrapnel from IOF shelling.

electronicIntifada.net/v2/article4812.shtml

Activism News KEEPING THE INTERNATIONAL EYEWITNESSES OUT Rima Merriman, The Electronic Intifada, 15 June 2006

As the daily death toll of Palestinian men, women and children at the hands of Israelis clearly indicates, Israel’s policy towards the Palestinians is driven solely by violence and aggression. No other avenues (the non-violent kind) are open. Because of this, Israel is now escalating its practice of keeping internationals out of the West Bank and Gaza, the idea being that the presence of internationals puts a crimp in Israeli operations. When Palestinians protest on their own, the Israeli forces can and do use live ammunition against them. electronicIntifada.net/v2/article4813.shtml

Israel Lobby Watch CONGRESS GROSSLY MISLED ABOUT PLIGHT OF PALESTINIAN CHRISTIANS Press Release, Open Bethlehem, 15 June 2006

In a letter to the American Congress on 13 June, Open Bethlehem’s chief executive Leila Sansour, a Christian from Bethlehem, expressed her community’s shock at the gross misrepresentation of the threat facing the Christians of the Holy Land. She urged Congress to pay heed to the plight of the oldest Christian community in the world. The ill-conceived resolution accuses the Palestinians of discrimination towards their own Christian community – and does so without consulting any local churches or Christian organizations.

electronicIntifada.net/v2/article4811.shtml

Human Rights BEHIND THE WALLS: SEPARATION WALLS BETWEEN ARABS AND JEWS IN MIXED CITIES IN ISRAEL Report, Arab Association for Human Rights, 16 June 2006

The Palestinian Arab minority and the Jewish majority in the State of Israel live largely in separate areas. With the exception of the mixed cities, in which a significant Palestinian minority lives alongside a clear Jewish majority, most of the Palestinian population lives in its own communities, as does the Jewish majority. This territorial separation is also seen within the mixed cities: most of the Palestinian minority lives in its own neighborhoods, which are distinct from the neighborhoods inhabited by the Jewish majority.

electronicIntifada.net/v2/article4816.shtml

Development CREATING A SEMI-ENCLAVE: FOCUS ON ANATA, JERUSALEM GOVERNORATE Special Report, Palestinian Monitoring Group, 15 June 2006

In 1967, the boundaries of Anata, located in the Jerusalem Governorate, extended over 30,000 dunums (7,500 acres) of land. However, multiple Israeli policies affecting the town since then have led to its progressive loss. According to the Anata Local Council, upon completion of Wall construction, only some 2,300 dunums (575 acres) will remain for the use of Anata residents, the majority of which has already been built-up. Israel has appropriated or isolated the rest through construction and expansion of Israeli settlements, establishment of a major military base, and construction of the Wall and its “buffer zone”.

electronicIntifada.net/v2/article4815.shtml

FROM ELECTRONIC IRAQ

Eye on Ramadi electronicIraq.net/news/2375.shtml

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