Following our April 12th Action Item #11, CNN yet again portrayed the Israeli occupation as a Palestinian point of view, in a April 26th report titled, “Israel celebrates independence, Palestinians mourn deaths”: “But the Palestinians blame Israel for the violence, saying they employ heavy-handed methods to control Palestinian protesters — and that the presence of Israeli troops in the West Bank and Gaza amounts to an occupation of Palestinian territory.” Read more about CNN refers to the West Bank and Gaza Strip as part of Israel
Observing Israel’s propaganda campaign to deflect the current international spotlight away from its brutal military operation in Rafah, I am struck by the sheer scale of the lie and the blatantly premeditated campaign to cloud the issue instead of dealing transparently with the obvious and undeniable abuses. Even the hapless United States administration — whose contentedly culturally-ignorant and amoral soldiers were violating the human rights of Joe and Jane Iraqi long before the abuse in Abu Ghraib came to light — has enough of a clue when finally caught red-handed to understand that the only way out of the mess was to begin a process of prosecuting those responsible. Read more about Letter from and to America
Since the beginning of May 2004, Israel has dramatically increased its program of structural and ethnic cleansing of Rafah. While Israel claims that its military operations in Rafah are motivated by “security reasons”, numerous reports from human rights organisations paint a picture of arbitrary shootings of residents, including children, and nightly firing at border homes from Israeli watchtowers. EI co-founder Nigel Parry examines the various claims Israel has made about the ongoing “Operation Rainbow” and attempts to uncover some of the realities behind Israel’s distortions of what is happening in Rafah. Read more about Key Israeli distortions about "Operation Rainbow" in Rafah
Ali Abunimah, Nigel Parry and Michael F. Brown18 May 2004
The Electronic Intifada urges all concerned people to contact international and government officials to demand immediate action to halt Israel’s assault on Rafah refugee camp in Gaza. Israel is in the process of committing major war crimes with total impunity. The United States continues to give a green light to Israeli war crimes. In recent days, Secretary of State Colin Powell half-heartedly criticized the destruction in Gaza. Today, however, as the atrocities continue in Rafah, President Bush declared in a major address to the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC that Israel “has every right to defend itself from terror.” Bush made no criticism whatsoever of the Israeli attack on Rafah. Read more about Urgent: Protest Israeli war crimes against civilians in Rafah; Gaza
At 5:20AM on Monday 22 March 2004, Israeli helicopter gunships fired three rockets at wheelchair-bound HAMAS figurehead Sheikh Ahmed Yassin as he exited the Islamic Association Mosque in the densely populated al-Sabra neighborhood in the center of Gaza City. The obvious point to make is that, if Yassin was responsible for planning attacks on civilians then — like anyone who attempts to use us civilians as their latest gory political billboard advertisement — he deserved to be tried, convicted, and sentenced for his crimes. It is irony of the highest level that the very process by which Yassin was killed may place Israel in the dock one day to answer questions about its own crimes against humanity. EI’s Nigel Parry comments. Read more about The 'targeted killing' of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin
McDonald’s Israel has reportedly reversed it prohibition on its Arab workers speaking Arabic to each other and to customers, but its US headquarters continues to stonewall and provide contradictory information. According to the Arabic-language newspaper in Israel, Hadith an-Nass, the reversal of the no-Arabic policy was announced in a letter sent by McDonald’s Israel to the Mossawa center for Arab rights. In this alert, EI explains the latest developments, and urges readers to continue with their effective action. Read more about McConfusion: McDonald's Israel reportedly backs down, while McDonald's HQ stonewalls
The Electronic Intifada today publishes an exclusive investigative report by Jonathan Cook detailing evidence that supports the claim by a former worker at McDonald’s Israel that she was fired for speaking Arabic on the job. We renew our call on our readers to contact McDonald’s Corporation about this disturbing matter and demand justice for this and all its workers. Last week, Oak Brook, Illinois-based McDonald’s Corporation admitted in a statement sent to EI that its licensee in Israel maintains a policy requiring all its workers to speak only Hebrew. But the company asserted that it was “absolutely not true” that the worker, Abeer Zinaty, who had previously been recognized as an outstanding employee, was fired for speaking Arabic on the job. Read more about McBusted: Mounting evidence supports claim McDonald's Israel fired worker for speaking Arabic
McDonald’s Corporation today confirmed that it has a policy banning its employees from speaking Arabic in its restaurants in Israel, despite the fact that Palestinian citizens of Israel form 20% of its workforce, and Arabic is one of the two official languages of Israel. The Corporation denied, however, that Abeer Zinaty, a former “Excellent Worker 2003 — McDonald’s Israel,” was fired because she spoke Arabic on the job. Read more about McDonald's Confirms 'No Arabic' policy at its restaurants in Israel
McDonalds claims “McDonald’s has a long-standing and distinguished record for diversity — as an employer, franchiser, and purchaser of goods and services. We recognize not only a responsibility to provide opportunity, but also the advantages of having a workforce with diverse backgrounds and perspectives.” The Electronic Intifada urges its readers to contact McDonald’s Corporation to ask for a full investigation of allegations of institutionalized racism and discrimination against Arab employees by its subsidiary in Israel. At least one employee has reportedly been fired because she spoke Arabic to a co-worker. Read more about McDonald's Israel reportedly fires employee for speaking Arabic
