Challenge # 75
September-October 2002 

Front Cover: Adapted from a woodcut by Albrecht Duerer, "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" (1498), based on Revelation 6: 1-8.

On re-invoking the need to topple Saddam Hussein, the Bush Administration has found but a single ally: Israel. Washington and Tel Aviv see eye-to-eye on the Middle East. They gallop alone into a bloody dawn, Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Meeting the "Palestinian threat to Israel's existence" (thus the new Chief of Staff, Bugi Ya'alon), the High Court has acceded to his wish and deported to Gaza ("assigned the residence of") the siblings of a suicide dispatcher. One of them committed crimes which included serving his brother a cup of tea.

As Israel's right rides into the dawn, its left cannot dismount from the sorry nag of the Labor Party. Instead it casts a lascivious eye on Amram Mitzna, yet another New Knight in Armor. 

In Israel's Arab sector the housing squeeze is on: Bulldozers Came Twice to Ali Salameh in the village of Majd al Krum. We tell the story of his house, demolished, rebuilt and demolished again. Twelve more in his village are targeted, 12,000 throughout the land.

WAC (The Workers Advice Center) has put 225 local construction workers back on the job. We review its Petition to the High Court, which challenges an attempt by globalizing contractors to weaken the working class.

Challenge also talks to songster Ze'ev Teneh ("Where Did We Go Wrong?"), who has taken a courageous stand in support of Conscientious Objection.

Finally, we report on three summer camps, held by the Baqa centers and WAC. Here Ghassan Kanafani and Naji al-Ali Met Again. We also bring the story of the birth of Hanthala, Naji al-Ali's famous child.