What is BDS? BDS stands for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions. On July 9, 2005, one year after the historic Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which found Israel's Wall built on occupied Palestinian territory to be illegal, an overwhelming majority of Palestinian civil society called upon international civil society organizations and people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel, similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era. 

On the morning of June 5, the MV Rachel Corrie, a 1,200-ton cargo ship named after the young American woman who was crushed to death in Gaza in 2003 by an Israeli bulldozer, was illegally seized by the Israeli Navy and taken against the crew's will to the Israeli port city of Ashdod. Part of the multinational nonviolent humanitarian effort known as the Freedom Flotilla, the Rachel Corrie carried more than 1,000 tons of medical and construction supplies to besieged Gaza. 

On 16 March 2003 in Rafah, occupied Gaza, 23-year-old American peace activist Rachel Corrie from Olympia, Washington, was murdered by an Israeli bulldozer driver. Rachel was in Gaza opposing the bulldozing of a Palestinian home as a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement. 

 

Nakba means "Catastrophe" in Arabic. It refers to the destruction of Palestinian society in 1948 when more than 700,000 Palestinians fled or were forced into exile by Israeli troops. Because the Palestinians were not Jewish, their presence and predominant ownership of the land were obstacles to the creation of a Jewish state. Their exodus, or Nakba, was already nearly half-complete by May 1948, when Israel declared its independence and the Arab states entered the fray. 

Controversy has been sparked over a batch of T-shirts worn by Israeli soldiers that many say foment anti-Palestinian violence and human rights abuses. According to Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper: "Dead babies, mothers weeping on their children's graves, a gun aimed at a child and bombed-out mosques - these are a few examples of the images Israel Defense Forces soldiers design these days to print on shirts they order to mark the end of training, or of field duty. 

On March 10, 1948, Zionist political and military leaders met at the "Red House" in Tel Aviv and agreed to Plan Dalet, which called for the systematic expulsion of Palestinians from areas sought for the soon-to-be-founded state of Israel. The plan led to what Palestinians refer to as the Nakba. 

This paper examines some of the major trends in the fatalities of Palestinians and Israelis since the beginning of the second intifada until July 2007. Amongst the most notable trends are: the continuing high rate of fatalities amongst civilians, who account for more than half the total of all those killed; the declining number of Israelis killed; and a continuing high death rate for Palestinian adults and children, particularly in the Gaza Strip.  

The Palestine Media Unit of the Public Relations Department at the An-Najah National University in Nablus recently issued the English version of the book Narrations of the Palestinian 1948 Catastrophe, a compilation of first-hand accounts of the events constituting what Palestinians call the Nakba, or catastrophe, in which hundreds of thousands fled from their homes in what was to become the new state of Israel. The entire book has been published online in PDF format. 

Today, 11th of February 2007, we, the Palestinian labour federations, vocational and professional trade unions, and the grassroots Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, have convened a press conference to announce a call for solidarity with our workers and the Palestinian people endorsed by the General Union of Palestinian Workers, Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions, the Coalition of Independent Democratic Trade Unions and other professional unions. 

We urge international civil society and the academic community to join our call to comprehensively boycott Israeli academics who contribute or refuse to stand up against the occupation, until: Israel withdraws its military from the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem; removes all its colonies in those lands and agrees to United Nations resolutions relevant to the restitution of Palestinian refugees rights. 

"Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God." (Matthew 5:9) Christian Zionism is a modern theological and political movement that embraces the most extreme ideological positions of Zionism, thereby becoming detrimental to a just peace within Palestine and Israel. The Christian Zionist programme provides a worldview where the Gospel is identified with the ideology of empire, colonialism and militarism. 

The survey covered a number of issues that examined the state of mind of Palestinians and how they perceive some aspects related to their life especially at a time of increasing unemployment, lack of prospects of a political settlement, a deepening hardship, etc. As such, NEC has used a "depression" indicator that was used in Kosovo by some international agencies. 

In lieu of the recent attacks on churches and mass demonstrations which are a direct result of the Pope's negative statements regarding Islam, 91% of Palestinians oppose these attacks on Palestinian churches, with 63% of Palestinians strongly opposing these attacks and 28% generally opposing these attacks. There is only minimal support for attacks on Palestinian churches as a mere 4% of Palestinians strongly support attacks on churches and 6% generally support these acts. 

Nablus is the West Bank's second largest governorate with a population of 327,000. In the past five years, it has been one of the most severely hit by the conflict, experiencing the highest number of casualties, the most severe physical damage and intense restrictions on movement. This report examines the result of five years of conflict on Nablus, by examining the effects of Israeli occupation policies on personal security, the economy, freedom of movement, and human rights. 

One year after the historic Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which found Israel's Wall built on occupied Palestinian territory to be illegal, Israel continues its construction of the colonial Wall with total disregard to the Court's decision. Thirty eight years into Israel's occupation of the Palestinian West Bank (including East Jerusalem), Gaza Strip and the Syrian Golan Heights, Israel continues to expand Jewish colonies.