Will Bethlehem annexations lead to Hebron-like H1/H2 disaster situation? 
Alternative Information Center, March 2, 2003 
By Nancy Hawker, Katrin Sommer, and Ahmad Jaradat, Alternative Information Center
On the 16th of February 2003 the Israeli army distributed military order 03/14/T – issued by Military Chief Commander in the West Bank Moshe Kaplinski – to seize 18 dunam (1 dunam = 1000m2) in the north of Bethlehem around Rachel’s Tomb. According to the military order, the land is confiscated for “military reasons due to a special security situation in the region” and will be under complete control of the IDF from 09/02/2003 till 31/12/2005.” This order is part of a broad project to expand the municipal borders of Jerusalem southwards at the expense of the Bethlehem and Beit Sahur urban centres. The project combines expansion with separation – the contradicting aims of all expansionist Israeli policies that want to keep Palestinians “out” but as much territory as possible “in.” Accordingly, a wall and fenced patrol road will be built on the land ordered for confiscation to physically separate Jerusalem – in its illegally expanded borders – from the Bethlehem district.

Speech by Raji Sourani, Director of PCHR, to World Social Forum 2003
Raji Sourani
The dawn of the International Criminal Court constitutes one of the greatest victories of justice to date.  Its ideals and aims have the possibility of affecting every person in the world and the power that comes with this must be nurtured as constructively and effectively as possible.  The ICC has taken a considerable time to come to the stage that it is currently at; and these final stages are of extreme significance and so must be considered as carefully and discussed as deeply as any of the other stages so far. Participation is key to the running of the ICC and it is undeniable that the Arab States’ attitude to ratification of the Rome Statute has been quite disappointing.  While most of the Arab States have signed the Rome Statute, only Jordan has ratified it and become a State Party to the Rome Statute.  This issue needs to be addressed and Arab States should provide reasons for their hesitation in ratifying the Statute.  There do not seem to be any clear justifications for their refusal to do so.  Unfortunately, the precedent set by the United States in withdrawing all of its support from the ICC has had some effect in legitimizing non-participation in the ICC.  With regards to the Arab States, the behavior of the United States, as well as Israel, tends to minimize worldwide belief in the ICC.  These two countries have actually signed the Statute, having first voted against it; but have continued to refuse to ratify their signatures.  Instead of encouraging and inspiring other countries to become a party to this step towards unimpaired justice, the United States continues to attempt to undermine the work of the ICC.  The motivation for this maneuvering is grounded purely in politics; one motivation that state parties to the ICC should not accept.  Such an outlook cannot be encouraged and serves only to weaken the world’s perception of the United States with regards to its support of global justice.

The other war for Iraq
By Graham Usher, Al-Ahram Weekly On-line, 6 - 12 March 2003
Most of the world is awaiting the war to come. In Gaza, it has already arrived. -- For Israel and the Palestinians the war for Iraq has already begun. The new Israeli government is using the preamble to establish realities it hopes will contain, in the aftermath, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on terms laid down by Ariel Sharon and approved by George Bush. The Palestinians, people and leadership alike, are seeking only to "outlive the crisis", aware that the blowback from Baghdad may prove every bit as lethal to their cause as the winds that swept the region after 11 September. The war is being fought, vicariously, in Gaza. On 15 February a roadside bomb killed four Israeli soldiers inside a tank, and Israel's Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz, vowed "a harsh war against Israel's enemy Hamas". Since then, 44 Palestinians (and one Israeli soldier) have been killed in 14 army raids on towns, villages and refugee camps throughout the Strip.

Al-Mawasi, Gaza Strip: Status Report: Impossible Life in an Isolated Enclave
B'tselem
"I reached the Tufakh checkpoint in an ambulance while on my way to Mubarak Hospital [in Khan Yunis] to give birth. When we got to the checkpoint so that we could leave al-Mawasi, the soldiers refused to let the ambulance through. My condition deteriorated. We waited for hours, and were allowed to pass only after we managed to coordinate matters with many officials. On my way home after giving birth, I was not allowed to pass because I was too young. I am waiting here in the wind and cold, which affects my health and the health of my baby daughter…. If I do get through, I will have to return in a couple of days to have my daughter immunized. Al-Mawasi does not have a gynecologist, obstetrician, or even a midwife." From the testimony of Sabah Kamel a-Najar, 25, married with seven children, resident of al-Mawasi.

US media ignore Sharon's embrace of ethnic cleansers in new Israeli cabinet
By Ali Abunimah, Michael Brown & Nigel Parry, The Electronic Intifada, March 3, 2003
The inclusion in the new Israeli government of the racist National Union, which openly calls for the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians, received muted coverage in the US media and passed largely without comment. The National Union is an alliance of three small parties: Moledet, Tekuma and Yisrael Beitenu. Moledet calls openly for "solving" the Palestinian-Israeli conflict by forcing millions of Palestinians out of their homeland, while the National Union's joint platform states that all three parties espouse "transfer" and "population exchange." On its website, Moledet, led by Benny Elon, states that the party, whose name means "homeland," is "an ideological political party in Israel that embraces the idea of population transfer as an integral part of comprehensive plan [sic] to achieve real peace between the Jews and the Arabs Living in the Land of Israel." The party boasts that, "Moledet has successfully raised the idea of transfer in the public discourse and political arena in both Israel and abroad." The party claims total ethnic cleansing offers a "solution" to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that is both "practical" and "moral."

Letter from Jenin
By Annie Higgins, The Electronic Intifada, February 26, 2003
On the twenty-eighth of January, young men were letting out triumphant whoops and jumping up and down in a victory dance. Campaign headquarters in Tel Aviv? No, Faisal Street, a main artery in downtown Jenin. The Army snipers on the roof of a commercial building are congratulating one another on their 'victory' over an unarmed Palestinian policeman in civilian clothes, Rashad al-'Arrabi, wearing no protective vest or helmet, and having no tank or airborne defense. The first attack downed him but he was still breathing, recounted a shop owner whose cubby-hole shop has a full panorama of the scene. So the tank snipers finished him off. When another shop owner went to offer help, Nidal Mahmoud Kastouni, 18, Israeli soldiers shot him dead with 7 live bullets in the back, the abdomen and the feet. The snipers could afford to waste more bullets than necessary - plenty of funds rolling in from US tax coffers.

Nablus: Terror and Resistance
MIFTAH/International Solidarity Movement, February 24, 2003
Today is the fourth day of the Israeli Army's campaign of terror against the Old City of Nablus, during which ISM activists based in the city worked with Palestinian UPMRC (first aid) volunteers in the delivery of food and medicine to stranded households, rescuing the injured, evacuating families from occupied houses and monitoring the activities of Israeli troops. In their rescue operations they were frequently hindered by Israeli soldiers who denied them access to areas where wounded people were stranded. On two occasions yesterday they were able to rescue families who called out to them from the top floors of their occupied houses. With the ISM activists looking on, the families were able to escape from the houses without interference from the soldiers occupying the house. However, today they were unable to rescue a woman, her ten year old son and new baby from a house under occupation by Israeli special forces. The woman's husband has been taken into detention by the Israelis and the soldiers denied that the woman wanted to leave her home. When the activists insisted on talking to her the soldiers took her to window while keeping her children in another room. With the soldiers standing behind her the visibly terrified woman, whose arm had been injured, told the activists that she didn't want to leave. Later the soldiers vacated the house for the house across the road. They had been there only an hour when the activists arrived with a doctor who had come to give a tranquilising injection to a hysterical teenage girl who was traumatised by the soldiers' behaviour but already the house had been thoroughly vandalised. The family of eight were all being kept in a small room.

Who Is In Charge?
By Edward Said, MIFTAH, March 07, 2003
The Bush administration's relentless unilateral march towards war is profoundly disturbing for many reasons, but so far as American citizens are concerned the whole grotesque show is a tremendous failure in democracy. An immensely wealthy and powerful republic has been hijacked by a small cabal of individuals, all of them unelected and therefore unresponsive to public pressure, and simply turned on its head. It is no exaggeration to say that this war is the most unpopular in modern history. Before the war has begun there have been more people protesting it in this country alone than was the case at the height of the anti- Vietnam war demonstrations during the 60s and 70s. Note also that those rallies took place after the war had been going on for several years: this one has yet to begin, even though a large number of overtly aggressive and belligerent steps have already been taken by the US and its loyal puppy, the UK government of the increasingly ridiculous Tony Blair.