MERIP
Media Resource List, July 11, 2005
AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEWS
on the following topic:
- Israel to speed up construction of barrier at one-year anniversary
of International Court of Justice ruling that the wall is
illegal; in Jerusalem, Israeli officials admit barrier will
cut off 55,000 Palestinians from the city
NADIA
HIJAB
Nadia
Hijab is a senior fellow at the Institute for Palestine Studies.
A former journalist, UN development officer and frequent speaker
on the Middle East, she is currently an independent consultant
for international organizations on human rights, human development,
gender and the media. She is a
founding member of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation. She
said today: "Israel's continued construction of the illegal
wall in the West Bank and Jerusalem involves the US itself
in violation of international law. The ICJ ruling not only
affirms the wall's illegality on occupied territory, but also
notes that all UN member states are obliged not to recognize
or assist the illegal situation that results. President
George Bush recently seemed to back away from his earlier
support of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plans and
Israel's own Supreme Court has cold feet. But Sharon continues
to use US money and equipment to raze orchards and demolish
property, with devastating effects on people's lives and the
prospects for peace."
JAMIL
DAKWAR
Jamil
Dakwar is an international human rights lawyer. He
was a senior attorney with Adalah, one of the most prominent
human rights groups in Israel defending the rights of Arab
Palestinian citizens. Dakwar has also worked at Human Rights
Watch on issues of torture and detention in Egypt, Morocco
and Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territories.
He said today: “A
year after the ICJ advisory opinion, Israel continues to disregard
its international obligations as the occupying power in the
Palestinian territories. Israel's expected unilateral withdrawal
from Gaza will not only leave Gaza in a legal limbo and subsequently
turn it into one big Palestinian prison under de facto Israeli
control, but it has so far succeeded in diverting the world's
attention from the ongoing human rights violations committed
in the West Bank as a result of the construction of the ‘security
barrier' and the expansion of Israeli settlements.”
Background
:
+
New York Times, July 11, 2005: “Israeli Barrier in Jerusalem
Will Cut Off 55,000 Arabs” http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/11/international/middleeast/11mideast.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1121092057-bxRQo7JPbyj6hOZtDApMqw
+
Advisory opinion by the UN's International Court of Justice
on the “legal consequences of the construction of a wall in
the occupied Palestinian territory”
http://www.icj-cij.org/icjwww/idocket/imwp/imwpframe.htm
+
Nidal Sliman, “World Court's Ruling on Wall Speaks with Utmost
Clarity,” Middle East Report Online , July 27, 2004
http://www.merip.org/mero/mero072704.html
+
Catherine Cook, “Final Status in the Shape of a Wall,” Middle
East Report Online, September 3, 2003 http://www.merip.org/mero/mero090303.html
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