Madison-Rafah Journal

"Who thinks seriously that if we sit on another hilltop, on another hundred meters, that this is what will make the difference for the State of Israel’s basic security?" Maintaining sovereignty over an undivided Jerusalem would involve bringing 270,000 Palestinians inside Israel’s security barrier.

ETHAN BRONNER, New York Times, September 29, 2008

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in an interview published on Monday that Israel must withdraw from nearly all of the West Bank as well as East Jerusalem to attain peace with the Palestinians and that any occupied land it held onto would have to be exchanged for the same quantity of Israeli territory.

He also dismissed as “megalomania” any thought that Israel would or should attack Iran on its own to stop it from developing nuclear weapons, saying the international community and not Israel alone was charged with handling the issue.

In an unusually frank and soul-searching interview granted after he resigned to fight corruption charges — he remains interim prime minister until a new government is sworn in — Mr. Olmert discarded longstanding Israeli defense doctrine and called for radical new thinking, in words that are sure to stir controversy as his expected successor, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, tries to build a coalition.

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In conjunction with the play My Name is Rachel Corrie, a photo exhibition will be on display outside of Anderson Auditorium, Predolin Humanities Center, Edgewood College, from October 1 - 4. Free and open to the public, the exhibit features photos by award-winning Palestinian journalist, photographer and website host Mohammed Omer.

Requests for printed copies of any of the images can be made before or after the play performances, or by sign-up sheet at the exhibit, and purchased for delivery at a later date. All proceeds from the sale of the prints will go to support Omer, a native of Rafah.

For more information about Mohamed Omer, including an account of his recent detention and torture at the hands of Israeli officials while returning from Europe where he had been given the prestigious Martha Gellhorn prize for journalism, see rafah.virtualactivism.net/news/todaymain.htm.

For further information, contact Robin at 608-221-0809 or palestineinfocus (at) yahoo.com.

Friday, October 3 from 12 noon - 2 pm
Saturday, October 4 at 7:30 pm
Anderson Auditorium, Predolin Humanities Center
Edgewood College

We are pleased to announce that Edgewood College will host two performances of the play My Name is Rachel Corrie in October.

My Name is Rachel Corrie was created from the writings of Rachel Corrie, an American peace activist who was killed in Gaza in 2003. Brittany Jordt, who performed before standing-room only audiences in Madison last spring, will again play the role of Rachel.

These are expected to be the production's final Madison performances. Both performances will be free and open to the public.

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Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, 02 September 2008

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) is concerned over the expansion of strikes by employees across the education sector, as well as ongoing strikes amongst workers in the health sector and other public services in the Gaza Strip. PCHR is concerned about the impact of these ongoing strikes, that threaten the delivery of all public services in the Gaza Strip. Patients, students and other civilians are all being seriously affected by these politically motivated strikes.

On Saturday, 30 August 2008, public sector employees announced the start of an all-out strike in all governmental facilities in the Gaza Strip, in response to a call by the Palestinian Syndicate of Public Employees. Thousands of public sector employees joined the strike. At the beginning of last week, education sector employees launched an open strike in response to a call by the General Union of Palestinian Teachers. This strike was supported by the Government in Ramallah, who threatened to sack those who did not join the strikers, or to deprive them of their salaries. The Government in Gaza subsequently took measures that included arresting dozens of education sector employees, as well as threatening to dismiss those who commit to the strike, who they accused of attempting to destroy the education system in Gaza .

In view of the serious repercussions of the near paralysis of all public service, and the enormous negative impacts on teachers and medical staff, PCHR affirms that:

* In view of international work relations, it is alarming that the employer (in this case the Government in Ramallah) supports this strike, compels employees to commit to the strike, and threatens those who do not commit to be dismissed and/or deprived of their salaries. International good work practices demand that employers, either private or public, takes all necessary steps to prevent a strike by their employees.
* This exposes the strikes as politically motivated and renders them illegitimate. These strikes are completely politicized actions that lack all economic and social demands, and do not represent the real interests of public sector employees. Instead, these strikes represent severe internal political fragmentation, and the culmination of conflicting acts taken by the two conflicting parties. .
* The people who are really paying the price for these politically motivated strikes are the public who need and use the public sector services.
* Thousands of civilians are in need of daily healthcare, including those who are critically ill in hospitals and need intensive follow-up public health services.
* PCHR finds it very concerning that the parties involved in these strikes have not allocated teams for the delivery of emergency health and sanitation services.
* A strike is the biggest protest that employees can use in order to realize a set of demands and interests, and a genuine work strike is never compulsory or coercive. In the case of the strikes in Gaza , employees are being held hostage by threats of dismissal and deprivation of salary. These threats set a dangerous precedent of coercion and force.
* The civil service has become the victim of politically motivated official policies that threaten worker’s access to their jobs and their salaries.
* Under the modified Civil Service act no. 4 (2005), the Government does not have the right to cut the salary of a civil service employee, except if he or she breaches the law. Therefore all these threats are illegal, and represent arbitrary procedures that severely violate the right of every human being to work and to enjoy an adequate standard of living.
* Following the events of June 2007, there were warnings about the serious implications of suspending the services of the General Attorney's Office, and security services. These warnings were not heeded, and today the same mistakes are being made.
* PCHR praises the positions of the medical services in the Gaza Strip and the employees who have refused to commit to the strike, and who have called upon their members to commit to their work for the sake of delivering public services.
* PCHR condemns all procedures that have been taken by the security services in the Gaza Strip, including the harassment of dozens of public sector employees as well as arrests. PCHR also calls for the immediate release of all employees who have been arrested for these reasons.
* PCHR also calls for urgent dialogue between parties in order to resolve all disputes. The Centre also demands that public sector jobs are distributed and upgraded on the basis of competency and precedence, not political affiliation.

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From: prof abdelwahed Date: Monday, September 1, 2008, 5:34 AM

Hello there!

It seems that matters will go to worse choices in this month of Ramadan. In addition to the general strike by teachers led by the Palestinian Authority (PA) government in Ramallah, on Sunday 31st August, 2008 the medical sector in the Gaza Strip suffered a great deal of confusion with serious calls from the Palestinian Authority's government for a general strike, accompanied by grim threats of dismissing any employee if he or she does not abide with the orders issued from Ramallah, where the PA works hard to break down the Hamas movement in Gaza.

The complication is that the Ramallah government pays salaries for the employees in the two departments of health and education. Hamas reacts violently to the situation of the two strikes! They have sent hundreds of young people and newly graduated to run the school, regardless of their capabilities or qualification. They try to fill in the huge gap created by the strike. The situation at schools is pathetic with the absence of organization and lack of experience everywhere; it a commotion!

The main problem is in the health sector as approximately 90% of the employees have stayed home despite warnings by Hamas and regardless of the health hazards and hospitals' needs for surgeons and other medical doctors, pharmacists, nurses, physiotherapists, technicians, staff, etc. There is a real vacuum in hospitals and clinics. Even the ICU's have been ignored. Many people including children died last night because they did not have anyone to take care of them! Last night Hamas forced some striking doctors to go to hospitals to work but there was no alternative!

Looking at the situation from another angle, it becomes crystal clear that the humanitarian aspect in the conflict has been totally driven aside! My four school children complain that this year is unlike previous ones as there are no teachers and if there is any, he or she is not the right person in the right place. The ugly reality is that those conflicting factions are careless about the children and upcoming generations.

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ZOHAIR M. ABU SHABAN, The Hartford Courant, August 31, 2008

As a Palestinian from the Gaza Strip, I could not have been more proud to learn last June that I had earned a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship to study in the United States.

As a child, I would wonder how televisions, computers and washing machines actually worked. I took this fascination to the Islamic University of Gaza, the only Gazan university offering a degree in electrical engineering. There, I developed an ECG monitoring system that enables patients' hearts to be monitored at home through a personal computer and an Internet link. I won the university prize for distinguished projects for my innovation. I long dreamed of the other advances I might make after an education at the University of Connecticut, where I was scheduled to study this fall for a master's degree in electrical engineering.

Now, my dream has been stolen from me. I am devastated; my parents heartbroken. Though Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, it still controls our borders and determines who and what enters or exits. Since a 2006 election that brought a Hamas majority to the Palestinian Legislative Council, Israel has steadily diminished access into and out of Gaza. Many Palestinians reportedly died in the past year because they could not leave to obtain medical care they desperately needed. Food, fuel and medicine are scarce. Hundreds of students like me, with scholarships to study abroad, are being arbitrarily denied the right to leave Gaza to fulfill our educational aspirations.

A few weeks ago when I went to the Erez Checkpoint between Gaza and Israel, I was told by the Israeli official that I could not leave unless I collaborated with the Israeli occupation. I refused. My conscience and my people's right to freedom and equal rights mean more to me than even the finest education.

U.S. officials came to my aid. They held special visa interviews along the Israeli-Gaza border for me and two other Fulbright scholars in a similar position. The U.S. granted my visa. Once again I could imagine taking my seat in a lecture hall in America. I packed my bags, bought souvenirs for my future friends in America and bade farewell to my family.

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IBRAHIM BARZAK, The Associated Press, August 30, 2008

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Egypt opened its sealed border crossing with the Gaza Strip on Saturday, allowing hundreds of people to enter and leave the coastal territory in a goodwill gesture before the holy Muslim month of Ramadan begins, officials said.

Palestinians who live abroad or are seeking medical treatment and Egyptians stuck in Gaza because of the sealed border gathered at dawn in a nearby sporting center, where Hamas police shipped them to the Rafah crossing in buses.

On the Egyptian side of the border, hundreds of Palestinians massed to cross back into Gaza after being shut out for months.

"I am going back home," said Umm Usama, an Egyptian woman married to a Palestinian man, who came to Gaza to visit relatives. "Thank you, President Mubarak, for letting us return home before Ramadan," which begins early next week.

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