Welcome to Racketstan. Haaretz [Israeli newspaper] May 27, 2001
"The Israeli temperament does not accept rules of behavior and rejects natural obedience to the law. The average Israeli is afraid to feel like a sucker, so scorns rules and regulations and regards the law as a area of ever-expendable space in which to maneuver, outwit, bypass, and bribe, if necessary, in order to achieve more ... Israel is a kind of Racketstan, where the system encourages racketeering."

Disaster Bares a National Flaw. (Jewish) Forward. June 1, 2001
"[There is] universal awareness that something is definitely rotten in the state of Israel. This is, after all, a country where bending the rules is said to be a national pasttime, cutting corners a way of life and cheating the authorities the proof of merit ... Sticklers for the law are ridiculed and abused, where anyone who works by the book is branded a sap, a 'freier,' the worst insult in modern Israeli lexicon ... Many people believe Israel's laxity, which borders on anarchy, is a national personality trait that cannot be eradicated by laws alone. Some trace the trait all the way back to the historic Jewish Diaspora, where Jews often found solace in bending the rules imposed by the often anti-Semitic authorities."

Intellectual Property Theft, Fraud. Haaretz [Israeli newspaper], June 22, 2001
"In 1998, an American delegation visited Israel to investigate the issue and found Israel to be 'an international center for pirate distribution' - estimating that the extent of the forgery industry reached tens, maybe hundreds, of millions of dollars. The U.S. delegation threatened to impose sanctions against Israel by increasing duty tax for Israeli exports to the United States. The delegation also noted that the Israeli forgery industry has grown in recent years because of the infiltration of organized crime."

How Unholy Business Thrives in the Holy Land,
The Independent [Great Britain, June 23, 2000
"Money laundering in Israel has reached colossal proportions in the last few years, fuelled by the rise of Russian organised-crime since the collapse of the Soviet Union, liberal banking laws and bank secrecy policies. Billions of illegally acquired dollars from Russia and the former Soviet republics, South America, Africa and Europe have passed through Israel in the last few years, securing its status as one of the world's leading money laundries. Israel's police believe Russian gangsters are taking advantage of the money-transfer laws aimed at attracting Jewish people to the country, to deposit profits and launder funds. Their operations include narcotics and prostitution rackets, bribes and cream-offs from government funds and loans. But they also involve the winnings from a massive asset-stripping exercise that began under the former president Mikhail Gorbachev and has been underway since, turning Russia into a kleptocracy in which corruption runs from the top to the bottom of the society. They are helped by the 1 million former Soviet citizens living in Israel who have arrived since 1991 ... Established as a safe-haven for the Jews, the country has not asked many questions about their riches."

Trafficking in Women Could Threaten U. S. Aid.
Haaretz [Israeli newspaper], July 13, 2001
"If the Israeli government does not take significant steps to halt trafficking in women, it will face U.S. sanctions. 'Israel does not yet meet the minimum standards for combating trafficking in persons, and has not yet made significant efforts to combat the problem,' the State Department said in a scalding report on human trafficking in 2001 issued last night. The report cites Israel as 'a destination country for women from Moldova, Russia, Ukraine, Brazil, Turkey, South Africa, and some countries in Asia' ... Israeli law enforcement officials estimate that 85 percent of the prostitutes in the country are illegal aliens smuggled into Israel via Sinai. They say present laws do little to protect the women and enable the pimps and slave traders to operate with relative impunity."

Israel Planning "Ethnic Bomb" as Saddam Caves In.
Sunday Times [London], November 15, 1998
"In developing their 'ethno-bomb,' Israeli scientists are trying to exploit medical advances by identifying distinctive genes carried by some Arabs, then create a genetically modified bacterium or virus. The intention is to use the ability of viruses and certain bacteria to alter the DNA inside their host's living cells. The scientists are trying to engineer deadly micro-organisms that attack only those bearing the distinctive genes. The programme is based at the biological institute in Nes Tziyona, the main research facility for Israel's clandestine arsenal of chemical and biological weapons. A scientist there said the task was hugely complicated because both Arabs and Jews are of semitic origin. But he added: 'They have, however, succeeded in pinpointing a particular characteristic in the genetic profile of certain Arab communities, particularly the Iraqi people.' The disease could be spread by spraying the organisms into the air or putting them in water supplies. The research mirrors biological studies conducted by South African scientists during the apartheid era and revealed in testimony before the truth and reconciliation commission. The idea of a Jewish state conducting such research has already provoked outrage in some quarters because of parallels with the genetic experiments of Dr Josef Mengele, the Nazi scientist at Auschwitz."

This Little Kidney Went to Market. New York Times Magazine (posted at freerepublic.com), May 26, 2001
"Moshe lives in Israel, which happens to be one of the more active nations in the international organ-trafficking market. The market, which is completely illegal, is so complex and well organized that a single transaction often crosses three continents ... Yet in Israel and a handful of other nations, including India, Turkey, China, Russia and Iraq, organ sales are conducted with only a scant nod toward secrecy. In Israel, there is even tacit government acceptance of the practice -- the national health-insurance program covers part, and sometimes all, of the cost of brokered transplants. Insurance companies are happy to pay, since the cost of kidney surgery, even in the relatively short run, is less than the cost of dialysis. According to the coordinator of kidney transplantation at Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem, 60 of the 244 patients currently receiving post-transplant care purchased their new kidney from a stranger -- just short of 25 percent of the patients at one of Israel's largest medical centers participating in the organ business. Relatively few transplant operations, illegal or legal, take place in Israel. Every proposed kidney transplant in the country between two unrelated people is carefully screened for evidence of impropriety by a national committee. Therefore, almost all of these illegal surgeries are performed elsewhere, in nations where the laws are easier to duck, including the United States. Israel also does not contribute much to the supply side of the equation. Organ donation is extremely low; an estimated 3 percent of Israelis have signed donor cards .... Paying for an organ has become so routine in Israel that there have been instances in which a patient has elected not to accept the offer of a kidney donation from a well-matched relative. 'Why risk harm to a family member?' one patient told me. Instead, these patients have decided that purchasing a kidney from someone they've never met -- in almost all cases someone who is impoverished and living in a foreign land -- is a far more palatable option."

1998 ICIJ Award Finalists/Onel of Kanal D Arena.
ICIJ (International Consortium of Investigative Journalists), 1998
"'The International Transplant Mafia,' broadcast in two installments in 1997, exposed a human organ black-market network linking Turkey, the Czech Republic, and Israel. An Istanbul man, struggling to raise two young children, had agreed to sell one of his kidneys for $8,000 U.S. dollars but later contacted Arena, Turkey's lead investigative TV program, fearing that more than a kidney might be lost. An Arena reporter with a hidden camera accompanied him over the next several days to meetings with organ brokers and a Turkish surgeon. The operation was aborted at the last minute, when the Arena crew entered the hospital, cameras rolling. The surgeon was denounced by the country's medical board and was later tried, but Arena discovered another syndicate operating several months later in another city. This time posing as the donor, an Arena reporter met with an organ broker and agreed to sell his kidney for $5,000. A trip to the Czech Republic for the operation fell apart after Arena alerted police. The man confessed he was paid to arrange kidney transplants by his boss in Israel, where Arena reporters later unsuccessfully searched for the syndicate boss. Instead, they found the president of an association of patients waiting for kidney transplants, who said 50 Israelis had been saved in the last year by Turkish kidneys."

Life After Death. Parkridge Center for the Study of Health, Faith, and Ethics, September 28, 2000
"After undergoing two kidney transplants, Hagai Boaz questions why the number of organ donations in Israel is among the lowest in the world - despite Israeli society's self-image as one founded on the ethic of 'he who saves a single life saves an entire world,' and mutual responsibility ... According to data accumulated by the National Center for Transplants, Israel has one of the lowest number of donors in the world. This statistic reveals a few gloomy facts about Israeli society and has led to the emergence of other avenues for those desperate to obtain organs: the payment of hundreds of thousands of dollars for a transplant overseas or the illicit trade in human organs. The low percentage of Israelis prepared to donate organs is perhaps surprising considering the self-image of a Jewish society founded on the ethic that 'all Jews are responsible for one another' and 'he who saves a single life saves an entire world.'"

Israel Likely Site. New York Daily News. August 8, 2001
"Israel is probably the unidentified Mediterranean country in which the first human cloning experiments will take place, according to reports in the Israeli media. Citing statements and actions by the project's participants, the reports said Dr. Severino Antinori is thought to have drawn up plans with Dr. Avi Ben-Abraham to work at a research institute in Caesarea, on the Mediterranean coast. Human cloning is outlawed in Europe and Turkey, and North African countries do not have the facilities necessary for such an undertaking."

Please Be Polite Children of Israel Told.
Electronic Telegraph. [United Kingdom] June 15, 2001
"Israelis who take pride in being blunt and outspoken are to teach children good manners in an attempt to cut the nation's tendency towards violence. From the next school year, 12-year-olds will be taught how to behave politely, which knife and fork to use at table, and how to resolve arguments without shouting or coming to blows. Ronit Tirosh, director-general of the Education Ministry said: 'We are a brutal and impatient society, and the delicacy learned through these lessons may reduce our society's violent tendencies.' Israelis are proud not to say please or thank you and relish the informality of life .... There is a darker side. Israeli life is a bruising contest in one-upmanship. The deepest fear is to be thought a 'sucker' who obeys the rules. Brusqueness has been cultivated by native-born Israelis as a reaction against the manners of Europe's Diaspora Jews, who were seen as cringing and subservient. The idea was to create a culture of Jewish self-assertion which would never permit the Holocaust to be repeated. But educationalists have become worried about the level of playground violence. Mrs Tirosh told the newspaper Haaretz: 'Children will learn how to present an opinion and argue it without using physical or verbal violence, as well as how to negotiate and reach compromises through non-violent means.'"

Report Finds Israeli Jews Better Off Than Arabs, by Michael Carney.
Yahoo! Headlines, [from Reuters], July 4, 2001
"Israeli Arabs live in 'third-world-like' conditions, while Israeli Jews enjoy superior access to sewage systems, paved roads and government jobs, a group of Arab and Jewish activists have reported. Sikkuy, a non-profit group, said its annual review of civic equality in Israel showed institutional discrimination led to poor living conditions in Arab communities throughout Israel. 'The country as a whole has a pretty fair infrastructure with regard to electricity, sewage and roads, yet the Arab communities are like isolated islands within this infrastructure,' Shalom Dichter, the Jewish co-director of the group, told Reuters. Most Jewish households are connected to modern sewage systems, but the group said half of Israeli Arab households remain unconnected. Israeli Arabs comprise 18.6 percent of the Jewish state's population, but the review showed they accounted for only 5.7 percent of the public sector workforce, where they have been mostly excluded from high-level policymaking positions. 'So far, the State of Israel has yet to prove that with its Jewish definition it can also be a democratic state,' Dichter said ... . The Paris-based International Federation of Human Rights Leagues (FIDH) issued a report on Tuesday calling on Israel to take nine steps to end discrimination including instituting a constitutional ban on it."

Israeli Extraditon Law in Question. Deutsche Presse. June 27, 2001
"Israel media reported Wednesday that Justice Minister Meir Sheetrit plans to appeal a decision by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation which approved a law making it illegal to extradite an Israeli citizen over the age of 70. The law, the Ha'aretz daily wrote Wednesday, is 'tailor-made' for Haim Berger, an ultra-Orthodox Jew currently living in Israel after fleeing there once he had paid 5 million U.S. dollars in bail in America. Seven ministers on the committee voted in favour of the new law, and only three opposed it. It was the second time the committee discussed the bill, which was proposed by ultra-Orthodox politicians, backed by a scattering of right-wing and nationalist legislators. Justice Minister Sheetrit called the bill 'scandalous' and said he would appeal to the full cabinet to over-rule the committee. 'It's a shame and a disgrace. It's inconceivable that legislators would promulgate a law aimed entirely to stop the extradition of a criminal the U.S. wants to prosecute, and that ministers would lend a hand to such a thing,' Ha'aretz quoted him as saying. 'This legislation could seriously harm our relations with the U.S. in everything concerned with our extradition treaties,' he added. Attorney General Eliakim Rubinstein said 'passage of this law means turning Israel into a pariah state that does not abide by its international commitments.'''

The 1948 Massacre at Deir Yassin Revisited. The Historian, Winter 2001
"Between 9 and 11 April 1948, over 100 Arab townspeople were massacred by Jewish paramilitaries in Deir Yassin near Jerusalem in the British Mandate of Palestine. The incident was pivotal in modern Middle East history, becoming in one Israeli historian's words, 'a landmark in the chronicles of the Israel-Arab conflict and a symbol of the horrors of war.' It greatly stimulated Palestinian Arab refugee flight and appears to have been critical in the final decision of the Arab states to intervene directly in Palestine in 1948 to thwart the creation of the state of Israel. The Deir Yassin incident, therefore, is intimately connected to the two main issues that have defined the Arab-Israeli conflict: the armed hostility to Israel by the Arab states and the enduring Palestinian refugee issue ... Many attackers' violence and rage had expanded beyond simple execution of captives. Villagers have affirmed that while in Deir Yassin, prisoners were terrorized, robbed, and brutalized. Women were stripped of their traditional modest attire and their jewelry torn from their bodies. One woman's son was reported stabbed to death in her arms. The captives were told that 'they were going to slaughter us, and make `kifta' [meat kebab] out of us.' Old women apparently were assaulted as well. A British policeman recorded seeing a surviving elderly woman's head evidence battering by rifle butts. Some captives were taken to the Sheikh Bader neighborhood Lehi base where, Haganah intelligence recorded, a baby was killed and then its mother as she fainted. Lehi member Baruch Nadel has corroborated that in Deir Yassin 'there were people killed in the most brutal way.' Some village women and girls appear to have been raped, a few apparently killed afterwards. 'There is no doubt,' a British police investigation concluded, "that many sexual atrocities were committed.'"

Israel 'Torture' Hearings Open. BBC News. May 26, 1999
"Human rights groups ... estimate around 85% of all Palestinians detained in Israel in a given year are tortured by the government Shin Bet security agency [Israel's secret police]."

Prosecution of New Ambassador?
The Copenhagen Post [Denmark], July 11, 2001
"Warning that his country may have to re-introduce ‘moderate physical torture’ in the near future when interrogating suspected Palestinian terrorists, Israeli Ambassador [to Denmark] Carmi Gillon has caused massive political controversy before even setting foot in the country. ‘We banned this form of interrogation in Israel in 1999 because of the peace process. Unfortunately, it looks like we may have to start using it again,’ said Gillon, whose words carry more weight than usual in the diplomatic world given his former position as head of the Israel Security Service, Shin Beth. He was immediately attacked by the Danish Rehabilitation Centre for Torture Victims (RCT) in Copenhagen, who challenged the government to withhold its official recognition of the new Ambassador. ‘Israel is sending the wrong signal with its choice of Gillon,’ says RTC spokesman Tue Magnusson. ‘His statements are not only quite shocking, but also in direct contravention of UN convention. If Denmark really wants to promote peace in the Middle East, then the government’s acceptance of this man as Ambassador isn’t sending the correct signal.’ ... Leaders of humanitarian organisations in this country ... have called for legal proceedings to be undertaken against Gillon for his activities with Shin Beth, when he assumes his position in Copenhagen at the beginning of August. ‘He has committed the worst crimes one can commit...I believe that it can be documented, that as chief for the secret police, he is responsible for torture as it is described in the UN’s convention against torture,’ said Professor Bent Sørensen, who was assistant director of the UN’s Committee Against Torture until 2000. Sørensen believes that, according to the UN convention, this country not only should take action against Gillon, but will do so. Director of the Danish Centre for Human Rights, attorney Morten Kjærum, agrees. ‘There is an obligation in the torture convention to prosecute those who have participated in torture. So it’s clear that, if he has acknowledged torture, he’s guilty,’ said Kjærum."

What Lies Beneath. The Guardian [Great Britain], October 24, 2000
"Over the past month you will probably have been looking at the murder and mayhem in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza and asking yourselves what kind of people can behave like this? The killing of children, deliberately targeted - what kind of a person could commit such an act? What sort of people could, for years on end, deny the basic human rights of an oppressed nation? And the answer might come to you, for want of any other: heartless, monsters, that's who."

Return of the Terrorist. The Crimes of Ariel Sharon [the new prime minister of Israel]
Counterpunch. February 7, 2001
"Sharon's history offers a monochromatic record of moral corruption, with a documented record of war crimes going back to the early 1950s."

Israel's Army Under Fire for 'Cold-Blooded' Palestinian Cop Killing.
AFP/Yahoo! News. May 15, 2001

Killing of Five Palestinian Policemen a "Mistake" Says Israeli Minister. AFP/Yahoo!News. May 17, 2001

The Bingo Connection. How an Improbable Southern California Town
Became a Cash Machine for Controversial Jewish Settlements in the Middle East.
[MOTHER JONES magazine, Sept/Oct 2000]
"How an impoverished Southern California town became a cash machine for controversial Jewish settlements in the Middle East." The story of Irving Moskowitz, the right-wing Jewish American who milks a largely Hispanic metropolitan Los Angeles city to send millions of dollars to Israel.

Shot Leaves Palestinian Peace Activist Paralyzed.
Haaretz [Israeli newspaper] May 17, 2001
"Israeli soldiers shot a 32-year old resident of an Arab village near Ramallah on Tuesday morning, leaving him partially paralyzed. Villagers said the shots were fired in 'cold blood.'"

Occupation by Israelis, Violence Solidly Linked.
Rocky Mountain News. March 29, 2001
"Every day the casualties mount and the rage builds up on both sides. Six months into the intifada, there are no winners. The death toll is lopsided: 69 Israeli Jews, 13 Israeli Arabs and 354 Palestinians, a third of them children. More than 12,000 Palestinians have been injured, many crippled, says the Palestinian Red Crescent Society .... Thousands of Palestinians now live in tents. Their economy is in tatters .... One U.N. report warns of 'a collapse of some Palestinian institutions.' Another says 80 percent of the population in the Gaza Strip now requires food aid ... What the Israelis tend to forget, or ignore, is that schoolchildren and grandmothers are as actively involved in this uprising as the gunmen and suicide bombers. Why? Because every Palestinian, young and old, hates living under Israeli occupation. And no Israeli peace terms, however generous, ever offered to give back all their land. Writing in Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper, editorial writer Baruch Kimmerling acknowledges that 'since 1967, millions of Palestinians have been under a military occupation without any civil rights and most lacking even the most basic human rights. The continuing circumstances of occupation and repression give them, by any measure, the right to resist that occupation with any means at their disposal and to rise up in violence against the occupation. This right to resist is strengthened by the Fourth Geneva Convention's ban on creating irreversible facts on the ground in occupied territories, and especially the ban on transferring populations from the occupying state to the conquered. ... The legality and morality of Jewish settlements and holdings in the territories are highly doubtful' ... Kimmerling also accuses Israeli authorities of 'indiscriminate killing" and 'personal terrorism against those it defines as field commanders of the Palestinian uprising.' 'Even today, most of the public simply does not know that every violent step taken against the Palestinians, let alone the aggregate of those steps, borders on war crimes,' he wrote."

Red Cross Takes Issue with Israel. Associated Press/Yahoo!News. May 17, 2001
"Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza are 'a war crime,' the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the area said Thursday, triggering a harsh Israeli response."

International YMCA Team -- Visit to Palestine -- 12-16 November 2000. Report and Findings. YMCA International. May 2001
"The International YMCA community has to take firm and coordinated action along with churches and other concerned people as a matter of urgency. The one-sided nature of the [Israel-Palestinian] conflict demands that the YMCA take the side of the oppressed Palestinian people ... Palestinians suffer gross injustices and aberration of human rights."

Amnesty Condemns Israel Over Arabs.
The Independent, [Great Britain], November 12, 2000
"Damning new evidence of Israel's abuse of Arab children has emerged, adding another tier to the stack of human-rights violations committed over the past six weeks of violence. It comes amid deepening controversy surrounding the visit to the region of Mary Robinson, the UN Commissioner for Human Rights, whom Israel's Foreign Minister has refused to meet to discuss accusations of excessive force. A report by Amnesty International released last week, but barely publicised, describes how Arab teenagers have been arrested in the middle of the night, subjected to high-pressure interrogations - including beatings - and held behind bars for more than a month."

Israel/Occupied Territories: Amnesty International Condemns State Assassinations.
Amnesty International. February 21, 2001
"The targeting of Palestinians suspected of attacking Israelis amounts to a policy of state assassination, Amnesty International said today ... Other killings investigated by [Amnesty International] delegates involved a woman shot in a car passing a checkpoint and a child harvesting vegetables killed from about 800 meters away."

Israel Comes Under Fire From British Church Men.
Jewish Chronicle. April 6, 2001
"Leading British Christians have returned from a two-week Middle East fact-finding mission denouncing Israeli actions in the occupied territories and declaring that the Palestinians are facing 'indescribable suffering' ... The clergy also reported that an unnamed Israeli official had told them during their visit that 'if ther are more Palestinians dead, it is because we shoot better' ... The churchmen also called on the British and American governments to reassess their Middle East policies."

EU Slams Israelis. Jewish Chronicle. April 27, 2001
"The European Union has sharply criticized Israel for its retaliation against Palestinian mortar attacks on the Negev town of Sderot."

Message on the Occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. By South African President Thabo Mbeki.
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. Jan/Feb 2001
"To all our Palestinian brothers and sisters, I wish to reiterate that their struggle is for a legitimate cause ... It is an affront to all humanity that, while weare dealing with the challenges of and aspirations for the new millenium, our Palestinian brothers and sisters are still hankering for their basic human rights and, as a nation, for a realization of their rights to self-determination."

Israel's 50th Anniversary Gala in May Brings No Joy to Palestinian Hearts. National Catholic Reporter. March 27, 1998
"For Palestinians these last 50 years have been a disaster in which they have been impoverished, robbed of their lands, marginalized in or expelled from the country of their ancestors. In 1948 the army of the newly founded State of Israel drove out almost a million Palestinians from their homes and lands, leveling more than 400 villages. Many Jewish immigrants from Europe were moved into the remaining houses of Palestinians in the towns and cities of what became the state of Israel. Jewish land ownership, which had been only 10 percent before the 1948 war, rose to 90 percent as the Jewish state confiscated the lands of Palestinians they Claimed had become "absentees," even though many were still present as refugees. United Nations resolutions affirming the rights of Palestinians to return to their lands or be compensated were ignored. Swedish Count Folke Bernadotte, the U.N. representative who was preparing the case for this resolution, was assassinated by Israeli army leaders."

Annan: Israel Must End Assassinations. Yahoo! News [Associated Press], July 6, 2001
"[United Nations] Secretary-General Kofi Annan appealed to Israel on Thursday to immediately halt the 'targeted assassinations'' of Palestinian militants. In a strongly worded statement issued by his spokesman, Annan said the policy violates international law and 'contradicts the spirit, if not the letter, of the cease-fire agreement'' brokered by CIA director George Tenet on June 13. Brushing aside U.S. criticism, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his closest advisers said Tuesday that Israel would stick to its policy of tracking down and killing suspected Palestinian militants in a bid to prevent Palestinian attacks that have persisted despite the truce. A senior Palestinian official, Ahmed Abdel Rahman, called the Israeli policy 'the biggest violation'' yet of the faltering Mideast cease-fire. 'The secretary-general is deeply disturbed by the reported decision of the government of Israel to continue the practice of what have become known as targeted assassinations,' Annan's statement said. 'This policy is contrary not only to international law, in particular human rights law, but also to general principles of law.'''

A Jew Gets Death Threats for Questioning Israel.
[International Herald Tribune; from the Los Angeles Times]
May 23, 2001, by Michael Lerner
"'You subhuman leftist animals should all be exterminated,' ran one threat that was titled 'Die. Die.' Another began, 'Someone will come and kill you -- you should rot in hell.' Well, this is par for the course when you are criticizing Israeli policy."

Sharon Should Surrender to History. Financial Times [UK], May 24, 2001
"In [Israel's] refusing to acknowledge the facts of history, it reveals the poverty of its policies for Israel's future."

Fares Udah: Return of the Knight. by Israel Shamir
[posted at the Ukrainian Archives. May 19, 2001]
"Thousands of the lost sons and daughters of this land, the potential elite of the Palestinians have been exterminated. Once again, the Israeli army is being used to implement the same master plan to 'cool the restive natives' by routinely shooting potential rebels."

Israel Is Rapidly Running Out of Friends. By Eric Margolis.
Toronto Sun. May 27, 2001
"In North America, Palestinians are blamed by the usually pro-Israel media and politicians for the current wave of violence and terrorism. But here in Europe, and around the world, there is a rising wave of anger and condemnation against Israel's repression in the Occupied Territories. Only the United States stands behind Israel, and less so every day ... Senior EU [European Union] officials charge Israel with violating the Geneva convention and international human rights laws ... [Israeli Prime Minister] Ariel Sharon appears increasingly brutal and irrational, almost as much a menace to Israelis as he is to Palestinians."

[Green Party and Ralph Nader have "anti-Israel positions"].
NJDC in Action (National Jewish Democratic Council).11-2-00
"The anti-Israel positions of presidential candidate Ralph Nader (Green Party) and the Association of Green Parties (ASGP) have become clear ... Nader recently blamed Israel for 'overwhelmingly excessive use of force,' charactrerizes Vice President Al Gore's pro-Israel stance 'cowardly,' and emphasized that the Palestinians 'have a lot of reason for their rage.'"

B'Tselem: Abuse and Beatings on the Rise.
Haaretz [Israeli newspaper], May 29, 2001
"Beatings and abuse of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers and border police has risen sharply in the last eight months, according to a report published by B'Tselem -- the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories."

Hebrew U. professor: Jews Fabricated Holy Sites.
Jerusalem Post. May 29, 2001
"Jews fabricated the existence of holy sites in the West Bank after the Six Day War, said Hebrew University prof. Moshe Maoz to New York Jewish leaders on Friday during a visit that was sponsored by the Israeli government."

[Israel's] Nuclear Weapons. Federation of American Scientists (FAS). 2001
"[Israel's] nuclear weapons complex was variously explained as a textile plant, an
agricultural station, and a metallurgical research facility, until [prime minister] David
Ben Gurion stated in December 1960 that Dimona was a nuclear research center
built for 'peaceful purposes.'"

Group Urges A-G to Halt Torture of Minors.
Haaretz [Israel newspaper] May 30, 2001
"The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel urged Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein to intervene in the cases of over 300 Palestinian minors who have been arrested over the last eight months -- many of them allegedly routinely subjected to torture."

Middle East and North Africa [Israel]. Human Rights Watch. 2000
"Human Rights Watch's investigations in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza Strip in early October [2000] revealed a pattern of excessive, and often indiscriminate, use of lethal force by Israel security forces in which demonstrators were unarmed and posed no threat of death or serious injury to the security forces or to others."

Border Patrol Fired at Reporters, Video Shows.
Haaretz [Israeli newspaper] May 17, 2001
"A videotape broadcast worldwide last night of a shooting incident at the Ayosh junction during [Arab] Nakba day demonstrations clearly shows an Israeli Border policeman shooting directly at a group of reporters, wounding a French TV reporter who, if not for his flak jacket, might have been mortally wounded."

Foreign Press: Israel Ignoring IDF [Israel Defense Forces] Shooting of Reporters. Haaretz
[Israeli newspaper] May 25, 2001
"The Israeli government is refusing to deal with [the shooting of reporters by the Israeli army, says Howard Goller, chairman of the Foreign Press Association] ... Twenty foreign correspondents in the West Bank and Gaza have been shot at and hit with live ammunition or rubber-coated bullets since the start of the [Palestianian uprising]."

Protest Letter. Israel and the Occupied Territories. Journalist Injured in Ramallah.
Reporters Without Boundaries. May 15, 2001
"This is the fourth journalist to be shot and injured in 2001 during confrontations between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli soldiers. Close to forty media professionals have been shot by Tsahal [Israeli Defense Forces] in the last three years."

Journalists Behaving Badly. Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles. May 2001
"The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) recently found in a survey that 56 percent of major [American] newspaper editorials took a strong pro-Israel stance."

Not in Our Name, by Meredith Tax.
The Nation [reposted by Social Action], June 4, 2001
"Despite the pusillanimity of the US press, the Internet has made it impossible to keep some of the Israeli human rights violations quiet (e.g., www.nimn.org). Appalled by the situation, 180 activists from five countries, most representing grassroots Jewish groups against the occupation, met at a "Junity" conference in Chicago May 4-6 to create a national network of Jewish Unity for a Just Peace. Most participants see re-igniting discussion of the occupation among American Jews as a strategic question because of the central role played by mainstream Jewish organizations in funding Israel, lobbying the US government, suppressing criticism of Israeli policies and manipulating Jewish guilt and fear with constant invocations of the Holocaust and portrayals of Israel, a regional superpower, as a pitiful victim."

Alameda Mayor Finds First Taste of Israel Inspiring.
Jewish Bulletin of Northern California. May 4, 2001
"[Mayor] Appezzato [from Northern California] was one of 46 mayors from 25 countries to attend the [Conference of Mayors in Jerusalem], sponsored by the American Jewish Congress ... 'Because of the intifada, tourism is down,' he said. 'It's absolutely wonderful to go to all the sites and not have to fight the crowds.'"

'Moment of Truth' for New York Jews. Pluralistic Coalition of Rabbis Setting Politics Aside in Unified Stand for Israel. The Jewish Week. May 30, 2001
"More than 100 rabbis and congregations have signed on, along with UJA [United JewishAppeal]- Federation of New York and regional federations through the tristate area ... The May 20 Salute to Israel Parade produced 120 groups and 65,000 marchers, with at least that many spectators."

Israel Furious at BBC for Sharon Claims. Guardian [United Kingdom], June 15, 2001
"Israeli officials attacked the BBC yesterday for a Panorama programme which concludes that the prime minister, Ariel Sharon, could be tried for war crimes in connection with the massacre of Palestinians in Lebanon in 1982."

US Professor Under Police Protection after Accusing [Israeli Prime Minister Arik] Sharon of War Crimes. The Independent [Great Britain], June 24, 2001
"Richard Falk took part in the BBC programme Panorama, which caused a storm in Israel last week for publicly accusing Mr Sharon of playing a leading role in the 1982 slaughter of 800 Palestinian refugees at the Sabra and Chatila camps in Lebanon."

Sharon Halts Belgian Visit Fearing War Crime Arrest.
Sydney Morning Herald [Australia], July 3, 2001
"The Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, has cancelled a planned visit to Belgium this week after the Brussels State Prosecutor's office ruled he could be indicted on war crime charges. The official explanation is that Mr Sharon, who is due to leave on Thursday, cannot visit because of a crowded schedule elsewhere in Europe, namely France and Germany. But some Israeli officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Brussels prosecutor's decision meant "high-level dialogue between the two countries will have to take place outside of Belgian territory". The decision of the Belgian State Prosecutor's office relates to the 1982 massacre of Palestinians in Lebanon by the Israeli-backed Christian Phalangist militiamen. An Israeli inquiry the following year recommended that Mr Sharon, then defence minister, should resign over the incident, which he did ... Israeli Government officials appear to be taking the matter seriously. Last week, Ms Irit Kahan, head of the international affairs department at the Israeli State Prosecutor's Office, was sent to Belgium to compile a dossier of evidence that could be used in a possible indictment against Mr Sharon. Israeli Foreign Ministry officials are monitoring developments. While the officials do not believe Belgium is going to issue an order for Mr Sharon's arrest and extradition, they concede that the issue is one of great public sensitivity following the handover of the former Yugoslav president, Slobodan Milosevic, to a United Nations war crimes tribunal. 'This is a very embarrassing, ugly topic and its not going to disappear soon,' one Israeli official said."

Idealizing Israel. Village Voice, March 7-13, 2001
"American Jewish leadership maintains not only a strong connection to Israel, but a personal identification. What's more, such identification is still deemed essential to a Jewish sense of self; mainstream attitudes toward Israel may say more about American Jewry's own identity issues than about Israeli policy. Preoccupied with Jewish continuity, community organizations spend much time and vast resources trying to develop young people's love for Israel. The Birthright Israel project—which is bankrolled by some dozen major donors, among them Marc Rich, and which sends thousands of college kids on free trips to Israel every year as a way of forging their Jewishness—is regarded as the best answer going to the crisis of a Jewish future. If Jewishness is to be exalted through Israel, then, supporters seem to think, Israel must be portrayed in an unquestioningly positive light."

With Solidarity Rallies Spreading, UJC Wants Support for Israel -- NOW
JTA (Jewish Telegraphic Agency), June 19, 2001
"The umbrella of [Jewish] North American federations is set to unveil a multi-pronged, $4 million solidarity campaign titled 'Israel NOW — and Forever' ... The first step will be this weekend's "Solidarity Shabbat" of UJC leadership in Jerusalem, where they will meet with Israeli leaders and hammer out final details of the campaign. Among the other campaign highlights: • Heavy promotion of solidarity missions to Israel. • Advocacy- and media-training for campus and community activists, in conjunction with local Hillels and Jewish community relations councils, 'to train their leadership to become strong advocates on behalf of Israel' .... • A fund-raising initiative to assist all Israeli families directly affected during the violence by death, injury, property destruction, psychological damage ... • A 'media tour' that will take Israeli spokesmen and U.S. Middle East experts — scholars, journalists and other opinion-shapers — into key communities across North America to meet with local media. • A major mission to Israel, called 'Journey to Solidarity I,' to be held Sept. 9-14."

ADL, Arabs: Israel Winning Media War. Jewish Week, June 29, 2001
"A new survey by the Anti-Defamation League found that in the three weeks prior to June 13, 'editorial opinion in the 50 top-circulation U.S. newspapers reflected a heavily pro-Israel, anti-Arafat tone and content' ... [An ADL survey showed] that most U.S. editorials favored Israel even in the first weeks of the war, and a Gallup poll which found Americans supporting Israel in greater numbers than at any time since 1991 ... That a pro-Israel media tide is rising was seconded by a study conducted by James Zogby, president of the Arab-American Institute and a senior adviser to last year’s Gore-Lieberman campaign. Writing for Arabs in the Jordan Times (June 19), Zogby credits the 'pro-Israel lobby' in the United States, which has 'focused extensively on media coverage,' swaying public opinion."

The Biased Reporting that Makes Killing Acceptable.
The Independent, November 14, 2000
"When CNN's Cairo bureau chief, Ben Wedeman, was shot in a gun battle in Gaza last month, I waited to hear how his employers would handle the story. Having visited the spot where Wedeman was hit in the back, I realised that the bullet must have been fired by Israeli soldiers at a location on the other side of the nearest crossroads. So, what happened? CNN reported that 'most of the bullets' fired came from the Israelis, but - according to a pathetic response from a company spokesman in London - CNN was not going to suggest who was to blame 'at this time.' Indeed not. The American Associated Press news agency later reported - a real killer, this one - that Wedeman had been 'caught up in crossfire.' So much, I thought, for the 150 or so Palestinians shot dead by Israeli troops over the past six weeks. If CNN didn't have the courage to tell the truth about the shooting of its own reporter, what chance did the Palestinians have?"

Aid Bill [for Israel] Moves Ahead. Jewish Week, July 6, 2001
"In a rare glimmer of good news for Israel, Congress is moving forward with a foreign aid bill that includes $2.7 billion in economic and military aid for Jerusalem -- and a symbolic slap at Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat ... The measure also includes $60 million for the resettlement of refugees in Israel, a pet program of Rep. Nita Lowey (D-Westchester). And it includes all the usual perks for Israel such as early disbursal of aid funds and 'offshore procurement' provisions that allow Israel to spend more U.S. military aid at home, an important boost for the Israeli economy."

Citing Limited Air Space, Israel Says Wants to Base Jets in U.S.
Haaretz [Israeli newspaper], August 2, 2001
"Israel has asked the United States to permanently base some Israeli fighter jets at a U.S. Air Force base in America for combat training of Israeli pilots, officials of the two countries said Wednesday. They told Reuters that Washington was considering the request to station a contingent of Israeli jets at a U.S. base but that no decision had been made."

Army Moles Hunt Israeli Troops Linked to Terror.
Sunday Times [London], July 22, 2001
"MOLES have been placed within the Israeli defence forces in an attempt to unearth army officers and soldiers collaborating with Jewish terrorists. An extremist anti-Arab movement is suspected of being behind last week's shooting of three members of a West Bank family, including a three-month-old girl. In the recriminations that followed, Avraham Dichter, head of Shin Bet - Israel's equivalent of MI5 - admitted to Israel's parliament that such extremist cells exist."

Remembering Israel Shahak. Antiwar.com
"'Here is a practical proposal to you,' he said to me at the end of our first meeting. 'Discuss the basic facts of the oppression of the Palestinians by Israel as much as you can, going right down to the basics of everyday racism. Point out the obvious contradiction between what the majority of American Jews demand for themselves in the USA and what they defend in Israel. Do not be intimidated in the struggle against racism and for human dignity, equality and freedom by any demagoguery about peace and democracy, if they are used in the cause of discrimination, and perhaps the words of the prophet (Amos, 5.15) will come true. ‘Hate the evil and love the good and establish judgment in the gate, it may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.'"

Protesters Demand Israel Stop Torture -- of Geese for Foie Gras. Jerusalem Post, July 31, 2001
"A small group of demonstrators gathered outside the Israeli Embassy here yesterday to protest against Israeli torture - of geese ... Now animal rights groups are rallying against a wholly different kind of Israeli physical pressure - the force-feeding of roughly 700,000 geese and 100,000 ducks in breeding farms every year ... To produce the liver delicacy, workers shove metal pipes down the throats of geese and ducks thrice daily and pump seven pounds of corn mush into their stomachs - the equivalent of 16 pounds of pasta being force fed into a person. Many birds die when their stomachs burst or when their necks are gouged by the pipes. The survivors are killed and their livers are turned into the pate".

Orient House Is In Our Hands,by Uri Avnery. Israel Insider, August 11, 2001
"In a daring action, in the middle of the night, the elite units of the border police and the picked commandos of the paratroops stormed the 'Orient House' in East Jerusalem and the Palestinian governor's office in Abu-Dis. In a heroic battle, the two empty buildings were conquered. Our glorious forces suffered no casualties ... The 'conquest' of this building is a cynical, treacherous, stupid, evil and disastrous act ... Where to go now? One doesn't have to search long: just around the corner, the golden Dome of the Rock is shining. No doubt, that is the real aim of this madness: the Temple Mount, the Holy Sanctuary, the Dome of the Rock, al-Aksa. That is where the dance of the daemons started, where Ehud Barak and Shlomo Ben-Ami let Sharon loose. And that is where it will end, in a regional blood bath. I do not know when this will happen. But as from this week I am convinced that it will come, if the world does not pound on Sharon's table with an iron fist."

Palestinian Leaders Accuse U.S. of 'Bias' as Bush Support for Israel Remains Solid, Haaretz, August 26, 2001
"Palestinian spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi harshly criticized [US President George] Bush's remarks, saying 'we have now a full and absolute American bias. An American president,' she said, 'is parroting the Israeli point of view.' Ashrawi told The Associated Press that the Americans 'are providing support to the point where they have become complicit to the crime.' PA Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo also lashed out at the Americans on Sunday, telling Palestine Radio that Bush's adoption of [Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon's no-talks-under-fire policy was intended to block a possible meeting between Arafat and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres. Abed Rabbo said the Americans had no interest in playing an active role in getting the two sides back to the negotiating table, and also did not want any other party filling this role. The U.S., he added, wanted to maintain the present situation and so was encouraging 'Israeli terror' against the Palestinian people."

Digging In. Israel's Troops Fortify in Palestinian Town.
abcnews.com [from Associated Press] August 29, 2001
"But in Beit Jalla, Israeli forces were hunkering down in armored vehicles and atop Palestinian apartments, while Palestinian security forces were lurking only a block or two away on Virgin Mary Street. The Israelis also took over a Lutheran Church compound that includes an orphanage with 45 children, ages 6 to 16. The children, who like most of Beit Jalla were placed under curfew, took cover from gunfire in a basement. Troops set up a machine gun position on the roof of an adjacent five-story church hostel under construction, witnesses said. 'We demand that the army immediately withdraw from our church premises,' said Munib Younan, the Lutheran bishop of Jerusalem."

Facing Daily Gun and Bomb Attacks, Soldiers Now Face Charges of Abuse,
JTA (Jewish Telegraphic Agency), August 27, 2001
"Last week ... an Israeli military court indicted four soldiers from the elite Shimshon Brigade on charges of abusing Palestinians residents from the Hebron area. According to the indictments, on July 23 the soldiers forced nine Palestinian passengers out of two taxis, slapped them around, used a helmet to hit one of them in the face and beat others with their fists. The soldiers also allegedly smashed the cars' windows and slashed their tires. That case is just the tip of the iceberg, according to Lior Yavneh, an official with the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem. 'The number of cases which are being investigated is very small, and the investigations themselves are very superficial,' Yavneh told JTA. Eleven months after the outbreak of the Palestinian intifada, the Israel Defense Force has investigated 12 cases where soldiers allegedly abused Palestinian civilians. B'Tselem argues that the actual amount of abuse is much higher. 'The case of the Shimshon soldiers was the only one that received serious treatment by army investigators,' said Yavneh, 'and that was only because it was exposed in the press.'"

Fighting as Israeli Tanks Enter West Bank Town,
Independent [London], August 14, 2001
"Earlier, at the Arab 'day of rage' protest at the Israeli occupation of Orient House, the Israelis were the ones demonstrating their rage. A Palestinian youth who dared to hold up a Palestinian flag made of paper was seized by six border guards and plain-clothes police, kicked, beaten, punched in the face and the back, and then kneed in the groin in front of us all. Many of the police had come from Haifa, where a Palestinian suicide bomber had blown himself up a few hours earlier in a vain effort to murder Israelis in a café, and there was a tangible desire to inflict pain on some of the crowd. A tall, thin, young man who tried to escape a policeman's grasp at the iron security barriers was dragged back into the police lines and set upon by eight men. There must have been 20 television cameras and a score of photographers running level with the Shin Bet intelligence boys as they dragged the man screaming up the road towards Orient House, kicking him in the chest and forcing back his head until he choked. The moment he was in the back seat of a police van, an Israeli plain-clothes man in a red shirt set upon him. As he was held down, the Israeli kicked him again and again between the legs until he was crying in a high, animal voice. It was, as one of the foreign protesters muttered, enough to turn a Palestinian into a suicide-bomber. It was also very, very weird. Here we were, perhaps a hundred journalists watching a hundred 'peace' demonstrators, European, American, Christian and Jew, and Palestinian, and every few minutes, on a signal from a fat policeman in a blue shirt, his colleagues would run amok. After all the talk of Israel being a peace-loving state, founded upon the rule of law, the police would suddenly prove that those constant Palestinian complaints of beatings and brutality were true, right in front of us."

A Non-Racist Zionism? Al-Ahram [Cairo, Egypt], August 23-29, 2001
"All of this confirms that Zionism is not, as its adherents would have the world believe, merely the national expression of Jewish self-determination, but an intrinsically racist ideology that justifies the most brutal acts of repression against the Palestinians as necessary for the security of one specific racial group. How can the United Nations, which has issued countless resolutions condemning doctrines of racial differentiation and superiority as morally reprehensible and socially unjust, refuse to even consider a resolution equating Zionism with racism? ... And when it comes to equating Zionism with racism, the criterion cannot be what Israel, or the US for that matter, has to say on the issue, but what the parties suffering from the racist practices of Israel have to say, notably the Palestinians, particularly with the present escalation of violence in the occupied territories, where Israel's systematic war of extermination and expropriation against a native civilian population displays all the characteristics of a policy of ethnic cleansing -- which the United Nations has defined as a war crime."

Israel Upset By Finland Minister,
Washington Post [from Associated Press], August 30, 2001
"In a magazine article last week, [Finland] Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja was quoted as saying Israel's intent in its clashes with Palestinians is 'to suppress, humiliate, subdue and impoverish the Palestinians.' Suomen Kuvalehti magazine on Aug. 24 further quoted Tuomioja as saying: 'It is quite shocking that they (the Jews) should continue toward the Palestinians policies similar to which they were victims of in the 1930s.' From Israel, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said Tuomioja's statement is 'based on a total lack of knowledge.... The statement is shocking and outrageous, not only to every Israeli and every Jew, but also to every enlightened person in the world.' Avner Shalev, director of the government's Holocaust memorial and research center also protested sharply."

Israel to Pay Pollard $1 Million. Haaretz, August 31, 2001
"Jonathan Pollard [a Jewish American], jailed for life in the U.S. as an Israeli spy, will be getting $1 million from the Israeli government to help pay for his and his wife's expenses, according to the recommendations of two committees and at the initiative of Minister without Portfolio Danny Naveh. The two committees, one headed by Maj. Gen. Moshe Kaplansky, the prime minister's military liaision, and the other by Defense Ministry Deputy Director General Moshe Kohonovksy, decided on the grant after Naveh lobbied for aid to Pollard. Naveh was a key proponent of Israel's official recognition of Pollard as an Israeli spy. The $1 million is based on a calculation of $5,000 a month for every month Pollard has already spent in jail - 16 years. Pollard spent years demanding the Israeli government recognize him as a spy - and pay him accordingly. Naveh decided to press for the grant to help Pollard's wife, Esther. Even after the decision was made to grant the money to Pollard, government sources here are nervous that publicity about the payment in the U.S. could be bad for Israel, which gets close to $3 billion a year in aid from the country that Pollard, then a[n American] navy lieutenant, spied against. The sources said the payment will also greatly reduce any chances of amnesty or a pardon for Pollard, who anyway faces stiff resistance to an early jail release because of opposition from the U.S. State Department, Defense Department, Justice Department, and the intelligence community. There are no expectations that President George W. Bush will move on behalf of Pollard during his first term in office."

Israel Branded Apartheid State, New York Daily News, September 2, 2001
"Israel was branded a 'racist apartheid' state early today by thousands of non-governmental organizations attending a forum in South Africa that was part of the UN Conference against Racism. The harsh anti-Israeli language in the forum's final declaration injected new Middle East tension into the wider conference in Durban. Stunned Israeli delegates walked out after the declaration was adopted by 3,000 groups in 44 regional and interest-based caucuses. 'The decision of the conference of the NGOs adopted this morning is outright incitement, whose only purpose is to delegitimize the Jewish state and its people,' delegation spokesman Noam Katz said."

Lutherans Charge Israelis Using Schoolchildren as Human Shields, by Elaine Ruth Fletcher. San Diego Union-Tribune, August 31, 2001
"Lutheran church officials around the world have decried the invasion by Israeli army troops into a Lutheran church boarding school in the Palestinian-controlled village of Beit Jallah earlier this week. The Rev. Jadallah Shehade, pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Reformation and principal of the church's boarding school, charged the children were being used as 'human shields' by the Israelis, who had postioned themselves on the rooftop of the church compound. Ironically, the soldiers had stationed themselves on a new church building known as Abraham's Residence, which was being built as a seminar center for Christian-Muslim-Jewish peace dialogues. 'We denounce in the strongest possible terms the Israeli occupation of our buildings and demand that the army immediately withdraw from our church premises as well as from Beit Jallah,' said Bishop Munib Younan, head of the Lutheran church in the Holy Land. Younan said he was appealing to human rights organizations and Lutheran church bodies overseas to protest the Israeli action. In Geneva, the Lutheran World Federation sharply condemned the occupation of the town near Bethlehem, particuarlly 'the forces' misuse of the Lutheran church as a base for weapons fire and military activities. In a brief note to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the Rev. Ishmael Noko, Lutheran World Federation general secretary, called the incursion 'an outrage' and said the troops had invaded 'one of the holy places of the Christian community.'"

Acid Test Failed,  by Israel Shamir, Media Monitors, January 6, 2001
"Our Jewish army murders civilians, demolishes houses, starves millions and imposes the siege on the Palestinian villages. Our crimes exceeded the Russian crimes committed in Chechnya and Afghanistan, the American crimes in Vietnam and Serb crimes in Bosnia. Surely, the Israeli intellectuals demonstrate en masse on our equivalent of Pennsylvania Avenue or Trafalgar Square, American Jews raise their voice against the America-armed killers of Palestinians, Russian Jews speak up for the human rights of the enslaved Gentiles of the Holy Land? No fear, our literati exalt the courage of our Jewish soldiers, venerate the steady hand of our Jewish snipers and glorify the immense humanity of the Jewish folk, who could pulverize all the Gentiles of Palestine, but kindly limit ourselves to a few hundred wounded and maimed a day. My grandfather in the Pale of Settlement complained against the restrictions of the free movement of Jews in the Russian Empire, while in our generation Anatoli Sharansky became a symbol of struggle for human rights. In our own country, the Gentiles are fenced into reservations and concentration camps that the Pale pales in comparison with. A Palestinian cannot go to the next village without the Jewish ausweis, he is forever checked by our Checkists. He can only dream of the sea, washing the shores of his ancestral home? We do not let Palestinians to pollute the Jewish purity of our beaches."

Israeli Extremists Take Revenge on Palestinians, USA Today, September 4, 2001
"After a quick prayer, Avi Shapiro and 12 other Jewish settlers put on their religious skullcaps, grabbed their semi-automatic rifles and headed toward Highway 60. There, they pushed boulders, stretched barbed wire and set tires afire to form a barricade that, they said, would stop even the biggest of Palestinian taxis. Then they waited for a vehicle to arrive. As they crouched in a ditch beside the road, Shapiro, the leader of the group, gave the settlers orders: Surround any taxi, 'open fire' and kill as many of the 'blood-sucking Arab' passengers as possible. 'We are doing what (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon promised but has failed to do: drive these sons of Arab whores from the land of Israel,' said Shapiro, 42, who moved here with his wife and four children three years ago from Brooklyn. 'If he won't get rid of the Muslim filth, then we will' ... Since the start of the latest surge of violence in Israel a year ago this month, at least 119 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli civilians in the West Bank and Gaza, according to B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights group that has been sympathetic to the Palestinians' plight. Hundreds of others have been hospitalized, it says. During the same time, at least 30 settlers have been killed by Palestinian gunmen. In July, Jewish vigilantes killed three Palestinians, including a 3-month-old boy, in Nablus. The State Department condemned the attack as a "barbaric act" of "unconscionable vigilantism." No one has been charged in the attack ... Last week, 85 European Community monitors who had patrolled Hebron since 1994 withdrew after complaining of weeks of verbal and physical abuse by the settlers. 'Every day, we were kicked, dragged and beaten by the settlers,' says Karl-Henrik Sjursen of Norway, chief of the observer mission. 'They made life impossible for us.'"

Palestinian Mother, 24, Is Among Loners Mounting Attacks on Israel, Yahoo! News [from AFP], September 6, 2001
"'Mummy is in a Jewish prison,' says four-year-old Samah of her 24-year-old mother, Iman Ghazawi, in jail for a month now for allegedly trying to attack a bus station in Tel Aviv. The case highlights a new phenomenon of great concern to Israelis -- that of the emergence of Palestinians with no political attachment or background, yet prepared to carry out attacks against their Jewish occupiers. The Israeli police say Ghazawi, who comes from the West Bank town of Nablus, was carrying five kilograms (11 pounds) of explosives that she was preparing to place in the bus station when she was arrested ... Like Iman, other Palestinians thought not capable of such acts have carried out anti-Israeli attacks ... According to a senior Palestinian official talking on condition of anonymity, 'these individual attempts from people who have no link with (organised political) movements demonstrate the consequences of Israeli policy.' Palestinian psychologist Tayssir Diab says 'the individual and spontaneous actions are carried out by people suffering from the shock of the violence, be it killings or raids.' 'The anger resulting from that can prompt unconsidered actions, unlike those of the militants, whose acts are generally carefully studied and planned,' he added. Lea Tsemel, an Israeli lawyer who has for several years represented Palestinian detainees, says that 'in the past parents thought they could protect their children by stopping them from getting involved in anti-Israeli activities.' 'Today, they are convinced that they can't guarantee a future for the children without the existence of a Palestinian state which will protect them, and they have begun to act in a way as to speed up the liberation of their children from the yoke of occupation,' she explained."

Israeli Students Defy Military Call-Up,
The Times [of London], September 7, 2001
"Sixty-two Israeli high school students refused yesterday to do military service in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, accusing their Government of aggressive and racist policies towards Palestinians. In an open letter to Ariel Sharon, the Prime Minister, the teenagers, who face two weeks in jail if they refuse when conscripted at 18, said that their consciences prevented them from taking part in oppression. 'Land expropriation, arrests, executions without trial, house demolition, closure, torture and the prevention of healthcare are only some of the crimes the state of Israel carries out,' they said. 'We do not intend to take part in the execution of this policy'.”

Text of 18 U.S. Church Leaders' June 7, 2001, Letter to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, News from the National Council of Churches, June 7, 2001
"Few things have done more to destroy the hope and pursuit of peace through negotiations than Israel's unrelenting settlement activity. Over these recent years, we have heard from our Palestinian Christian partners, and seen for ourselves, the destructive impact of Israel's settlement policy -- separating village from village, confiscating more and more Palestinian land, creating friction with its military checkpoints. For over twenty years our churches have appealed to the U.S. government to require Israel to cease this transfer of its civilian population into occupied territory, a clear violation of international law and United Nations resolutions. Each administration has spoken in opposition to the settlement activity, only to watch the settlements increase and expand as Israel ignores the advice. It is time for the United States to do what it must to bring Israel's settlement activity to an end. We urge you to make clear to Israel and the Palestinians that the United States is committed to a negotiated end of Israel's military occupation of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem as called for in U.N.S.C. Res. 242 and that an immediate freezing by Israel of its settlement activity including 'natural growth' is imperative. It will likely require considerable diplomatic pressure, and possibly economic pressure as well, to convince the government of Israel to recognize that this is a major policy concern of the United States."

U.S. Assistance to Israel, FY 1949-FY2000,
Jewish Virtual Library [The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise]
A detailed, year by year look at the over 81 BILLION dollars the United States has given Israel, from 1949 through 2000.

Israel's Assassination Policy, Tikkun, August 30, 2001
"PFLP leader Abu Ali Mustafa Zabri was the latest victim of Israel's policy of assassinations. In the course of this Intifada, Israel extra-judicially assassinated at least 32 Palestinians. In the course of these assassinations an additional thirteen Palestinian bystanders were killed, including two children. These killings are part of an explicit policy to assassinate Palestinians suspected of acts of violence against Israelis. Israel did not devise the assassination policy in the wake of the current Intifada, but has employed this policy in the Occupied Territories and abroad for over 30 years ... The assassination policy violates the right to life, the most fundamental of all human rights, enshrined in international and Israeli law. Unnamed security personnel make a decision to kill a person, and the decision is carried out with no legal process whatsoever. The method Israel uses to carry out the assassinations raises several concerns which, in and of themselves, are sufficient to render the policy illegal. Most of the assassinations are conducted in densely populated civilian areas, and there is a high risk that bystanders will be killed - as has happened on several occasions. Errors may also occur both when selecting the target and while carrying out the assassination. The decision to assassinate a person is made in back rooms with no judicial process to examine the intelligence information on which it is based. The target of the assassination is not given a chance to present evidence in his defense or to refute the allegations against him."

An Israeli Soldier Says. A Note From A Military Prison, by David Haham Herson, Tikkun, August 5, 2001
"I am a God-fearing Jew, and as such forbidden to take part in denying freedom and serving in occupied territory. I am imprisoned, but yet feel freer than most of the Israelis I've met, for one simple reason: I don't bear the burden of vindictiveness and the perverse gratification attending it. I don't bear the burden of denial and callousness. I am concerned for humans as such. For those denied the right to live like me, with food and clothes and fun and good health and dreams of success and a car. I am concerned for people who are humiliated every day, who are denied the right to work, who are imprisoned within their towns and villages. I am concerned for those whose homes have been demolished and their fruit groves devastated. I am concerned because I know that the terrible hatred towards me is justified. This hatred has led to horrifying and perverted manifestations, like the young suicide bombers, but we create the conditions that lead to this monstrosity. I am concerned because I know that the cries of exultation over the killings drown out the sobs of the numerous victims, Jews and Arabs, of the widows and orphans, of the cripples who will suffer for the rest of their lives because of that pride and callousness. This is a concern unlike that of most of the Israeli people."

YMCA Web Site Linked to Pro-Palestinian Sites,
Canadian Jewish News, September 28, 2001
"The World Alliance of YMCAs has responded to criticism that its Web site is pro-Palestinian by adding 38 links to new Web sites - only one of which might be considered a strong supporter of Israeli policy ... Most sites listed as Israeli are highly critical of the Jewish state, with B'Tselem, a human rights group, and Peace Now, the best known. The others include The Other Israel, Not in My Name, Bat Shalom and The Arab Association for Human Rights, which pull no punches in attacking Israel. ... 'It's unbelievable,' said Harold Brief, vice-chair of international relations for Canadian Jewish Congress. 'It's an absolute obscenity.'"

Ze'evi Killing Reopens Debate about Israel's Policy of 'Targeted' Killings,
JTA (Jewish Telegraphic Agency, October 22, 2001
"Israel finds itself in a bind after the assassination of Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi. Not only do Israeli officials have to come up with a credible response to the slaying, they have to contend with claims that the murder of Ze'evi by Arab militants was little different than Israel's policy of killing Arab terror ringleaders before they can carry out attacks against Israeli targets ... the policy has elicited repeated criticism from the United States — which calls it 'unproductive' — and a host of other Western powers. Last week, Israeli officials were aghast after Denmark's foreign minister, Mogens Lykketoft, equated the assassination of Ze'evi and Israel's targeted killings of suspected Palestinian terrorists ... . A Dahaf opinion poll [in Israel] released over the weekend — after Ze'evi's assassination — indicated that 62 percent of Israeli respondents want to continue the policy."

Poll: Israelis See Anti-Semitism Rising, and They Feel More Jewish as a Result, JTA (Jewish Telegraphic Agency), October 29, 2001
"A new poll released by the World Jewish Congress shows that Israelis feel increasingly worried about worldwide anti-Semitism and see themselves as responsible for rescuing Jews in danger anywhere. Supporting the notion that bad times make better Jews, both secular and religious Israelis say they have a stronger Jewish identity after more than a year of Palestinian violence and the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States ... Most — 75 percent — agreed that international anti-Israel sentiment is motivated by anti-Semitism. In addition, 67 percent said anti-Israel politics at the United Nations is driven by anti-Semitism. Respondents had little interest in seeing the United Nations play a role in the Mideast peace process, WJC officials said. Among the other findings: Forty-eight percent of respondents identify primarily as part of the Jewish people, 36 percent as citizens of the state of Israel and 13 percent as members of humanity ... The most admired characteristic of U.S. Jews is 'their cultural and political influence' — 34 percent — followed by 'Jewish pride' — 22 percent — and their 'sense of unity and community' — 21 percent ... An overwhelming majority — 76 percent — agreed that Diaspora Jews are Israel's most important ally; and fifty percent of respondents said the United States was a safer country for Jews than England, France, Germany and the former Soviet Union — but 26 percent said none of those countries is truly safe for Jews."

Religious Extremism Not Limited to Followers of Islam, Says Rabbi,
Cleveland Jewish News, October 12, 2001
"The Sept. 11 terrorists attacks in New York and Washington served as a wake-up call about religious zealotry which should have special resonance for American Jews and for Zionists throughout the world, says Rabbi Uri Regev, a leader of Reform Jews in Israel ... During his impassioned Friday night sermon, Regev outlined a chilling parallel between Islamic and Israeli religious extremists ... There is no room in the world for a religion that preaches hate and intolerance, says Regev. 'But in Israel, we have our own religious extremists who feel they have the right to rule other people's lives, spreading the venom of religious fundamentalism.' The group Regev is referring to is the Haredi, fervently religious Orthodox Jews who comprise about 6% of the Israeli population and reject any form of secularism ... 'They have distorted Torah (teachings) and interpreted them as giving license to get rid of infidels,' said Regev. The fervently Orthodox also have maintained a stranglehold on the government."

Church Seeks to Reclaim Property,
Yahoo!News (from Associated Press, October 25, 2001
"The patriarch of the Greek Orthodox church said in an interview published Sunday that the church intends to repossess land holdings in Israel, including the land under Israel's parliament. Newly elected Patriarch Eireneos I said a team of experts is to examine all transfers of church property, particularly during the past seven years, with the aim of repossessing as much land as possible, the Jerusalem Post reported. However, Eireneos - who was elected more than two months ago - has not won approval as patriarch from the Israeli government. A law dating back to the sixth-century Byzantine Emperor Justinian requires the patriarch-elect, and even candidates for the post, to obtain government approval. In contrast, Eirenoes won quick approval from Jordan and the Palestinian Authority), which also fall within his ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Earlier, the Israeli government had refused to approve Eireneos' candidacy but backed down when the church appealed to Israel's Supreme Court, accusing Israel of interfering in church affairs, a position supported by the judges. A Justice Ministry spokesman said a challenge to the election was pending before the Supreme Court, and that the government cannot grant approval until a ruling." [CONTEXT: Jewish organizations continue to successfully pursue reparations for all sorts of lost European World War II property -- even the home (today a religious museum) where the Pope was raised in Wadowice, Poland]

Jewish Cell Believed Behind Shooting of Six Palestinians, Haaretz, October 31, 2001
"Police and the Shin Bet security services believe that a Jewish terror cell is responsible for a shooting attack yesterday morning near Hebron in which six Palestinians were injured. In the attack, a taxi van carrying workers to work came under fire from a car with Israeli license plates near the village of Bnei Naim, east of Hebron ... This is believed to be the sixth or seventh attack carried out by right-wing Jews in the territories over the last year in which at least six Palestinians have died and dozens more have been injured. No one has taken responsibility for the attacks. The Shin Bet believes that two separate Jewish terror cells are at work in the territories; one in the Hebron area responsible for the death of three members of a Palestinian family, and the second in the Nablus-Ramallah area. Not one member of the cells has been apprehended by police, nor has any progress been reported in the investigations."

Bishops Join Pro-Palestinian Rally, Boston Globe, October 31, 2001
"In a dramatic illustration of increasing concerns among Christian leaders about Israeli conduct, the three bishops of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts yesterday joined a pro-Palestinian demonstration in front of the Israeli consulate in Boston. The bishops, clad in the flowing purple cassocks and pectoral crosses that signify their high church office, held candles and signs with such slogans as ''Christian-Muslim solidarity in the face of Israeli invasion'' and ''Destruction in Bethlehem.'' Although many Catholic and Protestant clergy have previously expressed concern about the plight of Palestinians, Episcopal Bishops M. Thomas Shaw, Barbara C. Harris, and Roy F. Cederholm Jr. are apparently the first local denominational leaders to take their concern from the pulpit to the picket line. The bishops, who lead the largest Episcopal diocese in the country, decided over the weekend that escalating violence in the Mideast in recent days required them to be more public about their concerns."

LIBI. The Fund for Strengthening Israel's Defense [Here American Jews can get U.S. tax deductions for donations to the Israeli army]

Anatomy of Racism, by Hannan Ashrawi, Z magazine, October 18, 2000
"[Israel's] version of events [about two Israelis murdered by a Palestinian mob] presented the Israeli agents as reservists who had mistakenly 'strayed' into Ramallah and then were 'lynched' by the mob. References to 'slaughter' and 'blood thirst' and 'savagery' became the prevalent verbal currency. While no one would condone the killing of the soldiers, it is important however, to deal with the real facts and the context: Ramallah, as a city under total Israeli military siege, was closed off to all movement in or out of the city. Only one entrance was open, entirely under the control of multiple Israeli military checkpoints. Thus to 'stray' into Ramallah would require deliberate and repeated attempts requiring tenacity, persistence, and even guile. The two Israeli agents were clearly infiltrated and planted into the midst of a protest march in the heart of the city. The occasion was the funeral of a Palestinian man, Issam Joudeh Hamad, from the village of Umm Safa, who had been abducted by Israeli settlers and tortured to death in a most grisly manner. Gruesome footage and photographs of the body, plus the testimony of the doctors who had examined it, were not repeatedly displayed before the eyes of the world for the sake of scoring points or dehumanizing the Israelis. Some Arab stations informed me that the images were so horrific that they refrained from using them. Most of the people participating in the march (in the besieged Palestinian city of Ramallah) knew the victim, and some had seen the body. The two undercover Israeli agents that had infiltrated the march were recognized by the Palestinians as members of the 'Death Squads' that had been responsible for assassinations and provocations. Despite the fact that the Palestinian police tried to protect them, the two were killed before the cameras. This immediately became an instant justification for branding all Palestinians as murderers, and for the most systematic, venomous, hate campaign in recent history. It was also used as a justification for the Israeli aerial attacks on Ramallah and other Palestinian cities."

Pope Joins Criticism of Killing in Bethlehem, Times [of London], October 22, 2001
"Israel yesterday resisted pressure from the US and France to withdraw its tanks from six nominally Palestinian-controlled West Bank towns as four more Palestinians were killed. The Israeli Government also rejected strongly worded appeals from the heads of the Christian churches in Jerusalem to withdraw its troops from Bethlehem. The streets there have been turned into a shooting gallery since Israeli forces took control of large areas close to Palestinian security headquarters in retaliation for the assassination of Rehavam Zeevi, the Tourism Minister, last week. An Israeli soldier was wounded by a Palestinian bullet near Rachel’s Tomb on the outskirts yesterday. Last night the Palestinian Authority outlawed the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the group that claimed responsibility for killing Mr Zeevi. Israel shrugged off rare criticism by the Pope, who yesterday expressed public sorrow over the death on Saturday of a 19-year-old Arab, Johnny Thaljieh, killed a few yards from the Church of the Nativity in Manger Square by a stray machinegun bullet. Hanna Nasser, the Mayor of Bethlehem, sent letters to the Vatican, the UN, the US and Bethlehem’s twin cities abroad, pleading for diplomatic backing and condemning Israel’s 'aggressive, sadist policy.' At noon prayers in the Vatican, the Pope said: 'War and death arrived even on the square of the basilica of the Nativity of Our Lord. Violence is for everybody only a path of death and destruction which dishonours the holiness of God and the dignity of man.'”

The Compatability of a Nation's Values, by Bill Maxwell, St. Petersberg Times [Florida], Octobe 24, 2001
"How about a little straight talk about the relationship among Israel, the Palestinians and the United States? ... I maintain that American values should not be confused with those of Israel, that the Jewish state's policies toward the Palestinians should not be ours ... For decades, the Jewish state has brutalized an entire people, bulldozed homes, dynamited others, raided neighborhoods with powerful gunships. Do these state-sponsored actions manifest American values? ... one of the best ways to determine the values of a nation is to follow the money. America is Israel's most loyal and vocal international ally. We hand the Jewish state $270-million in economic aid and about $2-billion in military aid. How much of this money funds the continued dehumanization and disenfranchisement of the Palestinian people?"

Israeli Scientists Report Growing Heart Cells from Embryonic Stem Cells,
Anchorage Daily News, August 12, 2001
"A day after the U.S. House of Representatives voted to ban human cloning in any form, scientists in Israel announced Wednesday that they have succeeded for the first time in growing heart cells from human embryonic stem cells. Research using human embryo stem cells has come under fire on moral grounds, even though scientists say it could be used to find cures for diseases like Alzheimer's, which are considered incurable today."

Israel Destroys Tunnel on Egypt's Border, Highmark Funds [from UPI], November 3, 2001
"The Israeli army destroyed an underground tunnel Saturday on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, apparently burying three Palestinians. The Palestinian residents of Rafah, on the southern tip of the Gaza Strip, confirmed for United Press International that there were three people, apparently smugglers, buried alive when the Israeli army tanks and bulldozers filled the tunnel ... Witnesses did say tunnels were used to smuggle drugs and weapons into the Gaza Strip. Khader, who preferred to give just his first name, said residents of the town have been digging in the area in hopes of finding the three people dead or alive. He too confirmed the three were smugglers from Rafah and were inside the tunnel when the Israelis destroyed it."

Israel and the States, Jewish Virtual Library
(A Division of the American-Israeli Cooperation Enterprise), 2001
A detailed listing of economic -- and other -- relationships between Israel and various American states.

Newsletter, Holy Land Trust, October 31, 2001
"To Palestinians, this nightmare has become part of their lives. No one knows when it will end. Those who were 'liberated' from the Israeli incursion have returned to the reality of the city-prisons where they have lived for over a year, not able to travel or transport their products between Palestinian cities, let alone the rest of the world. Israeli bullets and missiles killed fifty-five Palestinians during the past ten days and Israeli tanks and missiles caused millions of dollars worth of damage to homes, buildings, churches, mosques and streets. We cannot forget the image of the Israeli bullets hitting the crosses on the Church of Nativity. In Bethlehem alone, the damage represents an extremely high percentage of the city’s annual budget, not calculating the current economic strangulation imposed on the city by the Israeli army closure and restrictions on travel and trade. As we walked around the streets of Bethlehem and the refugee camps, all we saw was the sorrow and pain on the faces of the those who have lost their loved ones or their homes. We expect this to be the seen for a long time to come."

Alienating Israel's Arabs, Haaretz, November 6, 2001
"The Knesset [Israeli Parliament] House Committee's decision to strip [Arab] MK [Member of the Knesset] Azmi Bishara of his parliamentary immunity is being interpreted by Israeli Arabs not only as a delegitimization of an Arab leader and his political movement, but as a step toward delegitimization of the mainstream political view in the Israeli Arab public, and even as a deliberate act of marginalization of the entire Israeli Arab community. The message, in the eyes of many Israeli Arabs, is that Israel is a limited democracy, where a Jewish consensus is unable to tolerate other views, which make up the consensus of the Arab community. MK Ahmed Tibi, Bishara's sworn political enemy, when asked once what he thought about Israel as a Jewish-democratic state, said that 'Israel is a democratic state for the Jews - and a Jewish state for the Arabs.'"

Melchoir Planning International Body to Fight Anti-Semitism,
Jerusalem Post, November 6, 2001
"A new international forum to combat anti-Semitism is being launched, [Israeli] Deputy Foreign Minister Michael Melchior said yesterday. 'Anti-Semitism is today not just a Jewish problem, but a problem for all of humanity, which encompasses an existential danger to democratic values,' Melchior told The Jerusalem Post, after a Sunday meeting of Israel's Forum for Countering Anti-Semitism, which he heads. Declaring that he sees a direct link between the UN anti-racism conference in Durban which ended with a castigation of Israel and the September 11 terror attack on the US, Melchior said that the Israel sensed a necessity to 'upgrade' its struggle against anti-Semitism beyond the local level. 'The idea is to garner the support and input of groups around the world and form a coalition against anti-Semitism,' said ADL Israel director Wayne Firestone, who, along with representatives of various Jewish groups, took part in the meeting ... As a worldwide body, the forum will be made up of mainly non-Jews."

America and Israel: As Different as Night and Day, Arizona Daily Star, November 5, 2001
"The US respects human rights while Israel practices state-sponsored terrorism. The US is an open society that has always welcomed immigrants from the world over, irrespective of their race or creed, and given them a chance to lead better lives. Israel, on the other hand, offers its citizenship automatically to any Jew, regardless of his birth place, if he chooses to move to Israel under its 'right of return' laws, while it denies it to hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees who were themselves or whose parents were born in Israel and whose property was illegally confiscated by immigrants to the newly-founded state ... What of the thousands of innocent Arabs who fell victims to Israeli state-sponsored terrorism before and after the founding of the State of Israel and who still die with its bullets every single day? What of the civilians killed by Israeli gangs in Deir Yassin and by Israeli warplanes in Bahr al-Bakar and in Qana, to name but a few examples? What of killing UN mediator Count Bernadot and blowing up the King David Hotel in Jerusalem by an Israeli gang led by Ishac Shamir, who was later elected as Israel’s prime minister?"

Dormant Holocaust-Era Assets Valued at NIS 25b,
Jerusalem Post, November 9, 2001
"Unclaimed Holocaust-era assets held by banks, the state, and various public institutions in Israel are worth as much as NIS 25 billion [around $8 billion], [Israeli Member of Parliament] MK Colette Avital (Labor) said yesterday ... At issue is land that was purchased, or bank accounts that were opened, in what was then Palestine by European Jews in the 1920s and 1930s, and which assets are still unclaimed at the land registry or in bank coffers ... According to a statement issued by the Justice Ministry yesterday, an investigation conducted over the last 18 months has revealed that of some two-thirds of 13,400 files pertaining to dormant assets, it is probable that at least 2,100 concern Jews who perished in the Holocaust."

Human Rights Group Accuses Israel of Routine Torture Against Palestinians,
Nando Times (from Associated Press), November 11, 2001
"Israeli authorities torture Palestinian detainees regularly - inflicting punishments such as sleep deprivation, shackling in painful positions for prolonged periods and beatings - despite a 1999 Supreme Court ban on the practice, three local and international human rights groups said in a report Sunday. The document cited affidavits from detainees, including a 16-year-old who said he was soaked in freezing water, made to carry a heavy wooden beam while manacled and then beaten ... The joint document by the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, or PCATI, the Palestinian rights group LAW and the Swiss-based World Organization Against Torture contends that the September 1999 Supreme Court ruling has been regularly flouted, particularly since the outbreak of fighting between Israeli and the Palestinians in September 2000. 'Torture and other forms of ill-treatment are still widely used against Palestinian detainees, both in GSS (General Security Service) interrogation facilities and by members of the Israeli army and police,' it says. The GSS is also known by its Hebrew acronym, Shin Bet. The report cites nine affidavits by Arab detainees saying they were interrogated with methods expressly forbidden under the 1999 ruling or by existing Israeli or international law."

An Appeal, Matzpun (Hebrew for Conscience)
"The authors of this appeal are Israeli citizens and Jews of other nationalities whose families have been victims of racism and genocide in past generations, and who feel they cannot remain silent ... After six months of relentless military oppression of Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territories, the government of Israel has made daily life even more intolerable for the Palestinians by imposing a physical siege on their villages and towns. This siege has brought upon the Palestinians a complete cessation of 'normal' life. For the majority of them there is no going to work, no shopping for food and other necessities, no medical services, and in many cases no water or electricity. In 1948 the state of Israel dispossessed the Palestinians, evicted hundreds of thousands of them from their homes into refugee camps and did not allow them to return when the war ended. The same state is now preventing the victims of 1948 from having even the most basic services in their refugee camps and remaining villages and towns. The inhumane oppressor hopes that starving will help force the Palestinians to surrender, without having any 'negative public opinion problems' that live ammunition may have had in Western media. Indeed, public opinion in the West has largely relaxed any protest against the Israeli government's policies of killing civilians --men, women and children-- since much of the killing is now being done away from the TV cameras. Human rights violations by the Palestinian Authority have also helped Israel to falsely portray itself again as the righteous victim."