News Highlights:
- Palestinians across the Gaza Strip mourned the dead and wounded from the previous day’s Israeli air raids, and the Nusseirat refugee camp with 7 people killed was the scene of a mass funeral.
- International leaders and even some Israeli politicians criticized the air raids and their toll on innocent civilians.
- A 14-year-old Palestinian boy in Rafah was crushed to death in his partially destroyed home when a wall collapsed from Israeli fire, in 10 days Rafah alone has seen 15 Palestinians die and Amnesty International has called Israel’s destruction in Rafah a war crime.
- Israeli newspapers warn that the air strikes in Gaza are counter-productive and just a reaction to the “humiliating ambush” that killed 3 Israeli soldiers.
- The Palestinian film, Divine Intervention, that was banned from the 2003 Oscars has been granted an exemption and entered in the 2003 “Best Foreign Film” category.
- 8 U.S. Marines, including two officers, have been charged with brutal treatment of Iraqi POWs; this represents the second case in just 3 months.
Feature:
Mazin Qumiyseh, professor at Yale University and co-founder of Al Awda (Palestine Right to Return Coalition), spoke about his recent trip to Palestine and also about the new “Geneva Accords”. Mazin explained the difficulties he faced as a Palestinian-American entering the West Bank, and then talked about the daily suffering of the Palestinians as they attempt to work, go to school and simply survive. Against this background, he detailed some of the clauses in the new “Geneva Accords” and said that they go against international law and the recognized national rights of the Palestinians. Mazin explained that one clause allows Israel to set its own limits on how many refugees it wants to accept, and basically treats it like any other third country vis-à-vis the Palestinian refugee question.
Focus on Zionism:
The head of the National Religious Party in Israel branded the Israeli politicians who negotiated the “Geneva Accords” as traitors and called for them to be sentenced to death or life imprisonment.