By Meredith Lee-Clark

Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

 

SDEROT, Israel – Israeli newspapers reported that two qassam rockets had been launched into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip during the third week in December. Since the beginning of 2009, there has been a ninety percent decrease in rockets launched from Gaza into Israel.

 

Still, as the year anniversary of the fighting between the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and Hamas in the Gaza Strip approaches, residents of the towns in southern Israel are hesitant to let down their guard. Many residents are continuing to build bomb shelters to protect against Hamas rocket attacks. One such resident is Ramon Dahan, mother of five, who lives in the town of Sderot, less than a mile from the Israel-Gaza border. Dahan said that most of her neighbors’ houses have been hit multiple times from Palestinian rockets, and the current cease-fire has allowed Dahan to finally build a shelter.

 

Israeli border towns have experienced an economic improvement as a result of the ceasefire. Many middle class Israeli families have moved down to the South, as they have been outpriced from neighborhoods and towns in central Israel. The economic upturn in southern Israel contrasts with the situation of their Palestinian neighbors, who live less than a mile away, and are in the midst of the area’s worst recession as they attempt to rebuild from the fighting.

 

Despite the outward improvement, the impact of years of cross-border rockets remains. Though many of the Israeli border towns look like a town found in suburban America, one therapist in the Sderot area, Judith Bar-Hay, estimates that at least twenty percent of the town’s residents suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. Bar-Hay says that there are also growing behavioral problems among the area’s youth.

 

The rockets launched from Gaza in December came despite a moratorium on attacks announced by Hamas, the ruling party of the Palestinian territory. One report said that the attacks may have been in retaliation for the death of a fifty-year-old Palestinian farmer who was reportedly killed by IDF forces in the al-Bureij refugee camp in Gaza. No group has claimed responsibility for the rocket attacks.

 

For more information, please see:

 

Ha’aretz – Two Qassams Hit Israel, in Second Gaza Rocket Attack This Week – 16 December 2009

 

Ma’an News Agency – Israeli Media Claims Projectiles Fired From Gaza – 16 December 2009

 

NPR – Shell Shock Lingers For Israelis After Gaza War – 15 December 2009

 

Associated Press – With Gaza Cease-Fire, South Israel Blossoms – 14 December 2009

 

Ynet News – 2 Rockets Fired From Gaza; None Injured – 13 December 2009

By Meredith Lee-Clark

Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

 

RAFAH, Egypt – Human Rights Watch has called for Israel and Egypt to halt their practice of deporting African refugees without giving the refugees an opportunity to claim asylum. In a statement dated December 12, Human Rights Watch said that Egypt routinely imprisons and then deports such refugees back to their country of origin, against United Nations refugee policy and the International Convention Against Torture. Human Rights Watch said that Israel’s practice of sending refugees back across the border into Egypt makes Israel complicit with Egypt’s serious human rights violations. Once sent back to their countries, the refugees are certain to face the violence and political situations they originally sought to escape.

 

Human Rights Watch called on the Israeli High Court to put an end to the “hot returns” policy, which authorizes Israeli soldiers along the Israel-Egypt border to return migrants to Egypt within twenty-four hours of crossing the border. The Israeli Defense Forces said that its soldiers fire flares when they see migrants attempting to cross the border, to alert their Egyptian counterparts, even though Egyptian border forces have been known to fire live ammunition at the crossing migrants. As of November 2009, Egyptian forces had killed sixteen African migrants as they attempted to cross into Israel.

 

One of those killed was Iskander Byen, the nineteen-year-old son of Ugalan Byen, who left her home country of Sudan to seek refuge in Israel. When the family got close to the border, Ms. Byen held on to her nine- and five-year-olds, and Iskander held his three-year-old sister, Rosa. As they approached the border, the shooting began. Iskander was shot several times, and a bullet went through Rosa’s leg. The family managed to duck underneath the wire that marks the Egypt-Israel border, but Iskander died en route to the hospital. Even after such a loss, Ms. Byen has no official papers and is in danger of being deported back to Sudan.

 

Hanass Jihahn, a researcher with the Israeli NGO African Relief Development Center, said the issue of refugees is a complicated one in Israel, as it is intrinsically tied up with the Palestinians and the Palestinian right of return.

 

“[T]here is a fear that if we allow them [the African refugees] to come here then perhaps the Palestinians later would say and what about us,” said Jihahn.

 

For more information, please see:

 

NPR – Egyptian Forces Accused of Shooting Asylum Seekers – 14 December 2009

 

Human Rights Watch – Israel: Court Should Halt Forced Returns of Migrants to Egypt – 12 December 2009

 

The National – Refugees Set Their Sights on Israel – 11 December 2009

 

Time – For African Seeking Asylum in Israel, dangers Abound – 11 December 2009

 

Christian Science Monitor – Crossing Into Israel, African Migrants Dodge Egyptian Bullets, Israeli Jail Threat – 14 November 2009

By Bobby Rajabi
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

TEHRAN, Iran – On December 12 Iran announced a new offer for the swapping of uranium for fuel. Manouchehr Mottaki said, according to Iran’s state-run broadcasting, that the Islamic Republic was “ready to exchange some four hundred kilograms of three point five percent enriched uranium in Iran’s Kish Island and received twenty percent enriched fuel.”

The United States and other country have been negotiating with Iran to have the Islamic Republic send low-enriched uranium abroad. It would then be turned into material that could be used in a reactor.

The US rejected the new proposal by Iran. A senior State Department official commented on the new plan, saying that “Iran’s proposal does not appear to be consistent with the fair balanced draft agreement proposed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).”

The original draft agreement, which was formulated in consultation with the US, Russia and France, called for Iran to exchange it’s uranium all at once. The IAEA reportedly fears that carrying out the nuclear excahnge in slow stages could lead to Iran being in control of enough uranium to make a bomb. The specific terms of the original draft agreement called for Iran to send twelve hundred kilograms of its low-enriched uranium to Russia in one batch. It would then be sent to France for fabrication into fuel assemblies before being sent back to Iran. The goal would be to power a research reactor in Tehran that produces medical isotopes.

While Iran continues to insist that its nuclear plans are for peaceful purposes such as producing fuel for power plants, the majority of the international community remains skeptical. The senior State Department official commented that the US remains committed to the original terms of the draft agreement, but “Iran has been unwilling to engage in further talks on its nuclear program.”

In November Iran was formerly chastised for its action with its nuclear program. The IAEA’s thirty five-nation board endorsed a resolution proposed by the US, Russia, China, France, Germany and Britain that criticized Iran for defying a UN security council ban on uranium enrichment. Iran was also criticized for continuing to expand its nuclear operations.

For more information, please see:

Al Jazeera – US Rejects Iran Nuclear Offer – 13 December 2009

CNN – Iran ‘Ready to Swap Uranium For Fuel’ – 13 December 2009

Press TV – Washington ‘Rejects Iran Uranium Swap Offer’ – 13 December 2009

UPI – U.S.: Iran Nuke Offer Doesn’t Comply – 13 December 2009

On June 24, a judge of the Iraqi High Tribunal (IHT) delivered the verdict as the Anfal trial ended after ten months.  The defendants were changed with various crimes against humanity relating to the Anfal campaign against the Kurds in 1988.  During this campaign Kurds were systematically murdered, tortured, detained, and displaced.  The number of Kurds killed during this year long campaign ranges from 50,000 to 180,000.  During the past ten months, the IHT heard testimony from survivors detailing mass graves, the use of chemical weapons, and mistreatment of detainees.

By Meredith Lee-Clark

Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

 

RAFAH, Egypt – Egypt has begun building a barrier wall along its border with the Gaza Strip, according to the BBC. The wall would be Egypt’s most dramatic move in its fight against smuggling between northern Egypt and the Gaza Strip.

 

Egyptian officials have not confirmed or commented on the allegations, and locals in the border town of Rafah have reported that civil engineers have been bringing in earth movers and placing steel tubes at short intervals in the ground. One Egyptian official said that the engineers were installing a smuggling detection device along the border, but would not comment on any plans for a wall.

 

Smuggling has been a constant problem along the Egypt-Gaza border since Israel imposed a semi-blockade of Gaza after the Palestinian party Hamas won parliamentary elections in 2007. Since then, Palestinians have built numerous tunnels, many of which are structurally unsound. Egyptian border officials have repeatedly tried to close the smuggling tunnels, though new tunnels are built as soon as existing ones are discovered.

 

Egypt has drawn criticism from many of its neighboring countries for being complicit with Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians. In addition to the new wall, critics cite Egypt’s refusal to open the border while the Gaza Strip was bombed during Israel’s Operation Cast Lead in December 2008 and January 2009, as well as arrests for Hezbollah supporters and blocking weapons going into Gaza.

 

The BBC reports that the smuggling wall would stretch six to seven miles along the border and eighteen to thirty meters (fifty-four to ninety feet) below the surface. Egyptian engineers are also reportedly being assisted by American army engineers, and that the fence is being constructed in the United States, though this cannot be confirmed. The wall would be bombproof, and sources say the Egyptians hope it will cut down on smuggling traffic.

 

It is unlikely, however, that the wall will completely halt smuggling into Gaza, as the Gazan economy has been crippled by the Israeli blockade and civilians have little access to goods.

 

For more information, please see:

 

Afrik.com – Egypt Building Strong Underground Wall on Gaza Border – 11 December 2009

 

Xinhua News – Egypt Denies Building Iron Wall on Gaza Border – 10 December 2009

 

London Telegraph – Egypt Digs Underground Wall to Stop Gaza Tunnels – 10 December 2009

 

BBC News – Egypt Starts Building Steel Wall on Gaza Strip Border – 9 December 2009

 

Ha’aretz – Egypt Building Iron Wall on Gaza Border to Stop Smuggling – 9 December 2009