This Site

Abbreviations

IDF: Israel Defence Force (Israeli army)

OCHA: UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs

OPT: Occupied Palestinian Territories

PA: Palestinian Authority

PLO: Palestinian Liberation Movement

UNRA: United Nations Refugee Agency

UNHCR: United Nations Human Rights Council

UNRWA: United Nations Relief and Works Agency (for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East).

Acknowledgements

I have been so grateful to a number of people, more knowledgeable than I and specialists in their area, who have been so good as to check material that I have written. Avi Shlaim looked through an earlier version of the ‘History and Background’. Desmond Travers, the military expert on the committee which produced the Goldstone Report, has graciously answered detailed questions and has read through the pages ‘Goldstone Report’ and ‘Arms Exports’. Shir Hever of the Alternative Information Centre suggested improvements to the entry on ‘Economy’. Defence for Children International Palestine have checked the material on Palestinian child prisoners in Israeli jails under ‘Prisoners’. Others have made various suggestions or given me help with the website. I am grateful also to the people and organisations who have given me permission to reproduce their photographs free of charge: Susan Berry (a member of the group with whom I visited Israel/Palestine), Swee Ang for pictures of the consequences of the onslaught on Gaza, Gerard Horton, and War on Want. All unattributed photographs are my own. Jeff Halper of ICAHD has been a source of inspiration and kindly gave permission for the maps under ‘Maps and the Land’ to be reproduced. Though I have drawn heavily on the work of others I must emphasis that I alone am responsible for the evaluation I make and the conclusions which I draw. No one else has as much as commented on these.

Authorship of the Site

The decision to keep the authorship of the site anonymous was a difficult one. Circumstances are however such that I have been advised to do so. As I indicate at one point or another on the site I am British and female, an academic by training with a background in politics and modern history. I am neither Jewish

Ceiling, Dome of the Chain

Haram al-Sharif/ Temple Mount, Jerusalem

nor Palestinian and had no particular prior reason to become involved with this issue. I’m just one of the many thousands who in recent years has been moved to play her part in doing what she could about it. Being who I am it seemed to me that what I could best do would be to create the site which I myself lacked when I was first learning about the situation; a site which now also includes a lot more advanced material which many campaigners and simply those who wish to be informed would find useful. The site of course has multiple links and cross references to all manner of specialist sites.

I shall be extremely grateful for any feedback, constructive suggestions or information on factual errors. I am of course glad to listen to any reasoned argument and to think things through. Mere abuse will leave me saddened but unmoved.

Contact

Your Help

Man at prayer

Haram al-Sharif/ Temple Mount, Jerusalem

This website can only fulfil its intended role if others will be so kind as to speed it on its way. Please consider whether you could put a link to it on your website, or Facebook page, or mention it in your blog. More especially please commend it to others, encouraging members of any campaigning organisation to which you belong to make use of it. Since the site is free from ties to any particular organisation it will take this kind of networking and collaboration for it to be found and come into its own. Though you may not be known to me, thank you so much for your help.

Sabil of Quaitbey (15th Century)

Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount, Jerusalem