This week, the European Union’s Parliament passed a resolution endorsing the implementation of the recommendations of the Goldstone Report, which investigated war crimes in the attack on Gaza last year. While the motion was received with support from many NGOs, such as the Women’s Peace Coalition, it did not indicate specific actions the EU will actually take. The same has been true for the UN’s process as members of the Security Council said they would veto the report. Many are therefore taking it in their own hands to hold Israeli leaders accountable for alleged war crimes. The legal tool they’re using is called universal jurisdiction and refers to the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 that said countries must be able to prosecute anyone who commits grave crimes. The Real News’ Lia Tarachansky investigates what universal jurisdiction is, how it is used, and how Israel is fighting against it.
This program was produced by The Real News for March 12, 2010.
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Protests in the Occupied Palestinian city of Hebron continue for a fifth consecutive day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a new Israeli “heritage” plan. In his plan, national and holy sites in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories will be classified as Israeli “heritage.” This move comes at a time when tensions in the city are already high due to settler takeovers and the commemoration of the 16th annual day of solidarity in memory of the 1994 Cave of the Patriarchs massacre.
This program was produced by The Real News for February 28, 2010.
Michael Ratner reports on his recent visit to the West Bank. Ratner is President of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) in New York. He has taught at Yale Law School, lectured at Columbia Law School, and was President of the National Lawyers Guild.
This program was produced by The Real News for February 16, 2010.
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In weekly Friday protest in Bi’lin, Palestinian territories, thousands tear through segregation barrier.
During the weekly protest in the Palestinian village of Bil’in, thousands of activists assembled to celebrate five years of non-violent resistance. This form of popular struggle has spread to many other Palestinian villages and areas in East Jerusalem. The protests are made to show opposition to the confiscation of roughly half of the village’s land by the Israeli Jewish-only settlement colony of Modi’in Illit. In 2007, after the village protested every Friday for almost 3 years, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that the barrier does not serve a security purpose and ordered it rerouted. The Israeli army however, did not start to reroute the barrier until last week and informed the village that it will only return 364 (or 60%) of its 575 taken acres. During this week’s protest the army fired dozens of tear gas canisters, shock grenades, and sprayed the crowd with liquid smelling like sewer and feces.
This program was produced by The Real News for February 21, 2010.
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Michael Ratner reports on his recent visit to the West Bank. Ratner is President of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) in New York. He has taught at Yale Law School, lectured at Columbia Law School, and was President of the National Lawyers Guild.
This program was produced by The Real News for February 15, 2010.
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The three month deadline the United Nations General Assembly gave Israel and the Palestinians to begin investigations into allegations of war crimes in last year’s attack expired last week. Now, the Secretary General was expected to issue his conclusions regarding sending the Goldstone’s recommendations for implementation by the UN Security Council. Because the five member organization has indicated it will not pursue it further and the investigations the Israelis and Palestinians conducted were “inadequate,” and “disappointing” The Real News’ Lia Tarachansky asks what alternatives exist.
This program was produced by The Real News for February 12, 2010.
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Official Goldstone Report site
Over the weekend, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu reaffirmed the Israeli government’s support of the settlement movement by planting a tree in each one of the three biggest settlement blocks in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Despite the Israeli government’s support, funding, and approval of settlers, they are often presented in the media as in conflict with the state and the army. In this report, The Real News’ Lia Tarachansky looks at this claim through a recent lecture by Shir Hever, an economist with the Alternative Information Center. A perfect example of the methodology Hever describes can be seen in the settlement of Kedumim which lies adjacent to the Palestinian village of Kaft Qadum. The Real News spoke to the village council of the Palestinian village and the associate mayor of the settlement about how they’ve expanded and the impact this has had on their lives.
This program was produced by The Real News for January 28, 2010.
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Lia Tarachansky is a journalist with the Real News Network, currently based in Israel/Palestine. She has reported for many grassroots independent media outlets over the years such as the Domion, Znet, and Rabble.ca. She currently helped to launch The Daily Nuisance, an online news portal for independent media from Israel/Palestine, which went online in early January.
Here she tells us about the mission of The Daily Nuisance, the potential for independent media in Israel/Palestine, and other news stories she has been covering.
This program was produced for CKUT Radio for January 5, 2010.
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http://thedailynuisance.com
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http://sevendeadlymyths.webs.com
Over the weekend, a march of thousands of Israelis through Tel Aviv marked the end of 10 days of protest in the region against the siege on Gaza. Activists in Cairo, the port of Al-Arish, Tel Aviv, the Northern border with Gaza, and in the Occupied Palestinian cities of Nablus, Ramallah, and Bethlehem brought global attention to the current situation and the effect of the ongoing closures on the Gaza strip.
This program was produced by The Real News for January 6, 2010.
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For months international, Israeli, and Palestinian activists have been planning the Gaza Freedom March. Organizers hoped an international delegation of 1300 activists from around the world would break the siege on Gaza by marching through Gaza to the northern border and through the Erez crossing, then joining the Israeli march. The Real News reporters attended the Israeli side of the protest, and though the Egyptian government prevented the activists from entering Gaza, hundreds gathered to raise awareness of the desperate situation in Gaza a year after Operation Cast Lead.
This program was produced by The Real News for January 1, 2010.
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http://gazafreedommarch.org