MERIP Media Resource
List, July 12, 2006
AVAILABLE
FOR INTERVIEWS on
the following topics:
- Hizballah captures
two Israeli soldiers
- Israeli military operations
in Gaza
- Palestinian child prisoners
in Israeli jails
BASSEL SALLOUKH
Bassel Salloukh is assistant professor of political science
at the Lebanese American University, Beirut. His research
is on post-war state building in Lebanon; the domestic and
foreign politics of Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan; electoral
engineering in divided societies, especially Lebanon, and
the politics of authoritarianism in the Arab world. He is
author of "Syria and Lebanon: A Brotherhood Transformed,"
Middle East Report 236 (Fall 2005). He commented today: "Like
everything Lebanese, views here are divided about the timing
of Hizballah's actions. Hizballah says taking the two Israeli
soldiers is part of their ongoing struggle to liberate 'hostages'
held in Israeli jails. Others suspect that this is part of
a larger regional confrontation. They believe that Hizballah
is acting on behalf of Syria and Iran to heat things up for
the US and Israel in the region, especially as Iran is in
negotiations over its nuclear program."
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 manages the Policy Notes project at the Institute
for Palestine Studies. She commented today: "The Israeli
attacks on Palestinians in Gaza and the flareup of the conflict
between Israel and Lebanon show the limits of military power.
Israel can crush any number of Gaza buildings and target countless
militants, with losses among the civilian population. But
it has not been able to impose its will. Now Israeli
prisoners of war have been captured on two fronts. Israel's
options: reoccupation of Gaza, reinvasion of Lebanon,
even war with Syria -- or allowing the Egyptians and the US
to negotiate it off the hook."
CATHERINE
RICHARDS
Catherine Richards has been working as the International Advocacy
coordinator for Defence for Children International/Palestine
Section for the past two years, where she was based in Ramallah.
She commented today: "As many as 5,000 Palestinian children
have been arrested since September 2000 and there are some
380 in prison today. The majority of children are arrested
by Israeli soldiers from their family homes, often in the
middle of the night, handcuffed and blindfolded in front of
their family, then made to sit on the floor of a military
jeep while they are transferred to a detention center.
They are routinely mistreated and often not informed of their
rights or the reasons for their arrest. Frequently, children
are held for up to eight days without being charged, then
released. Others are interrogated without a lawyer present
and held pending trial -- a process that can last months.
Children are tried before Israeli military courts and denied
all aspects of the special treatment due to them as children
under international standards regulating the administration
of juvenile justice."
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