MERIP
Media Resource List, May 18, 2004
AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEWS on the following topic:
- Israel’s attack on Gaza
MICHAEL BROWN
Michael Brown is executive director of Partners for Peace
in Washington, DC. He has spent considerable time in the Gaza
Strip since 1993, working with the Gaza Community Mental Health
Program and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. In December
2000, he witnessed Israel’s first incursion into a refugee
camp in Khan Yunis. Discussing Israel’s current
military attack on the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah,
Brown said today: “Thirty years ago John Kerry asked
Congress: 'How do you ask a man to be the last man to die
for a mistake?' The question now needs to be put to Ariel
Sharon as he charges through Rafah dispossessing Palestinian
refugees once again. How many lives -- Palestinian and Israeli
-- will Sharon waste in trying to look tough as he implicitly
admits his mistakes in Gaza? Sharon's actions in Rafah have
been widely criticized, but not where it matters most -- the
White House. By looking the other way, George W. Bush gives
people the world over the impression that the US accepts Sharon's
decision to attack refugees."
MARK LANCE
Mark Lance is associate professor of philosophy and associate
professor of justice and peace at Georgetown University. He
is a founder and former director of the Georgetown Program
on Justice and Peace, and co-editor of Peace and Change. Lance
is also a founding member of Stop US Tax-funded Aid to Israel
Now! (SUSTAIN). Lance said today: “Once again the Israeli
government is rejecting the course of negotiations, rejecting
the framework of international law and pursuing a course of
mass violence, collective punishment and ethnic cleansing.
The mass attacks on the homes of civilians in Gaza are not
only crimes serving to further the ongoing destruction of
Palestinian society, but they will almost inevitably lead
to another violent response against Israeli civilians. Though
Secretary of State Colin Powell has criticized Israel’s
attack, the US is doing nothing to actually stop the Israeli
government. In the face of such a dire and immediate humanitarian
crisis, it is the duty of every American to demand action
from our government.”
NADIA HIJAB
Nadia Hijab is executive director of the Palestine Center
in Washington, DC. She is the author of “Womanpower:
The Arab Debate on Women at Work” (Cambridge University
Press, 1988) and co-author of “Citizens Apart: A Portrait
of Palestinians in Israel” (I.B. Tauris, 1990). Hijab
said today: “Israel's attacks in Rafah have repercussions
for US interests in the Middle East. Arabs see Israel
destroying Palestinian homes, killing civilians and creating
a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and the West Bank, without
any action by the US to prevent it -- all the while the US
provides Israel with $3 billion a year in aid. While human
rights groups refer to Israel's actions as war crimes, the
US administration calls them ‘unhelpful’ and ‘troubling.’
The US has further eroded its credibility just when it is
trying to launch a regional initiative for reform and democracy
and when its own human rights record is under attack. The
US should call for an immediate and full withdrawal of Israeli
troops and the dispatch of an international protection force
to Gaza and the West Bank that can protect civilians
on all sides until a final peace agreement is reached.”
The following contacts are located in Israel and the Occupied
Palestinian Territories. Please note that local time is GMT
+2:
JEFF HALPER
Jeff Halper is the Coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against
Home Demolitions, based in Jerusalem. Referring to Israel’s
mass home demolition campaign in Gaza, Halper said: “Virtually
all the weapons deployed against Palestinians are American-made
and purchased, from the D-9 Caterpillar bulldozers used to
demolish Palestinian homes to the F-16s used to bomb Palestinian
cities. Their use against civilian populations violates the
US Arms Control Export Act, which prohibits the use of American
arms in situations that violate fundamental human rights.”
UNITED NATIONS RELIEF AND WORKS AGENCY (UNRWA)
Contact Paul McCann
UNRWA is the UN agency responsible for Palestinian refugees.
According to a May 16 release (http://www.un.org/unrwa/news/releases/pr-2004/hqg-1004.pdf),
2,197 Palestinians have been made homeless following the demolition
of 191 homes throughout the Gaza Strip this month. The worst
affected area is Rafah, where 1,064 newly homeless people
were added in two days to the more than 11,000 who had already
lost their homes since September 2000.
PALESTINIAN CENTER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS (PCHR)
Contact Raji Sourani, Director or PCHR office
According to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, located
in Gaza City, at least 12 Palestinians from Rafah have been
killed and more than 20 injured since yesterday. The organization
reported that the May 13-15 invasion of Rafah refugee camp
resulted in the deaths of 14 Palestinian civilians. Thirty
others were wounded.
About Rafah, by PCHR: Rafah town and the refugee camp have
a combined total population of approximately 145,000. At
least 82 percent of the population are registered refugees
with UNRWA. Rafah refugee camp is the second largest refugee
camp in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
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