According to Turkish officials, Syrian President Bashar Assad informed Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan that face-to-face talks with Israel were about to be announced between the two countries, but Israel’s assault on Gaza killed any such plans. The Israeli daily Ha’aretz also reported on February 13 that a joint statement had even been drafted between Israel and Syria. Erdogan said he felt “betrayed” that Israel had worked towards these negotiations while planning Operation Cast Lead.
In Gaza, a projectile and Grad missile were fired into Israel on February 8. The Grad landed close to Ashkelon, but no injuries were reported. The next day, a Palestinian was killed after Israel launched two raids on the Gaza Strip that morning. The first raid targeted a police station in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, while the second raid on Beit Lahiya in the north killed the 22-year old Palestinian. On February 12, an Israeli helicopter fired two missiles at an already bombed Palestinian security compound in Khan Younis. No injuries were reported.
Friday the 13th lived up to its superstitious reputation in Gaza and the West Bank. That day, the Gaza death toll rose when the 1,374th Palestinian died from her injuries. Twenty-four year old Nay Fayiz Hasan died despite being transferred to an Egyptian hospital for treatment. That same day, the number of injured and dead increased even further when an Israeli airstrike on a carpentry workshop injured six Palestinians. Another strike killed a Palestinian and injured two others later that day near Khan Younis. The strikes were reportedly in retaliation for the firing a homemade projectile which landed in southern Israel earlier that morning. No injuries were reported by Israel. In Gaza, aid is still flowing in, though intermittently. Palestinian Water Authority official Rebhi Ash-Sheikh said on February 12 that many international projects will have to be cancelled unless Israel lifts its ban on the entry of building and repair equipment into Gaza, citing security concerns.
Also on February 13, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a 14-year old boy in Hebron near the Ibrahimi Mosque. Clashes erupted between Palestinians and Israeli forces after Israeli troops prevented Palestinians from entering the Mosque to pray. Residents of the village of Bil'in near Ramallah also gathered in their weekly protest, joined by international and Israeli activists and groups. Israel troops shot tear gas and rubber bullets at the protesters.
On February 12, Israeli troops raided the home of Bahjat Jayyousi, a high-level Palestinian Authority official, in the West Bank town of Jayyous, who was assaulted during the raid. Israeli forces also seized at least 20 Palestinians from their homes across several regions in the West Bank in dawn raids, in addition to four Palestinians seized along with their computers and mobiles in Bethlehem. It is unknown where they were taken to.
On February 10, 42% of Israelis went to the polls to elect their next government. The results, released the next day, revealed that Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni’s centrist Kadima party scraped by Benjamin Netanyahu’s rightist Likud party with a very narrow margin of one seat. Despite this slim victory, it is still unclear who will become Israel’s next prime minister and what kind of coalition government that person will create. Both Livni and Netanyahu, however, have claimed victory and say that they are seeking to form governing coalitions. More disturbingly, an extremist right-wing party, Yisrael Beitenu, under the leadership of Avigdor Lieberman, won 15 seats.
The outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced on February 9 that he had approved the allocation of 2.4 billion Israeli shekels, or more than half a billion US dollars, to the Israeli military establishment following the Israeli war in Gaza. The funds will re-arm and re-equip the Israeli army after its 22-day offensive on Gaza. Ironically, that same say, five young Israelis who refused to serve in the Israeli army, and labeled ‘refuseniks’ because of their decision, explained their reasons and experiences to young Palestinians in Bethlehem. Four of them have already served a prison sentence because of their refusal.
On the international front, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon announced plans to set up a commission to investigate Israeli attacks on UN buildings during the assault on Gaza. A committee will be formed and reportedly led by Ian Martin, a British citizen who was the former UN special envoy to Nepal and as well as the former secretary general of Amnesty International.
In Britain, 22 members of the Church of England wrote an open letter on February 9 to the British daily The Guardian, calling on the General Synod to implement their resolution adopted in 2006 to divest from companies profiting from an illegal occupation of the Palestinian Territories. Despite passing the resolution, there still remains $3.26 million of investments in companies such as CAT (Caterpillar), whose equipment is used to bulldoze Palestinian homes and land. Across the ocean, on February 8, students of the University of Rochester began an occupation of university buildings until their university divests from occupation-supporting companies. The Rochester Students for a Democratic Society (UR-SDS) who organized the event claimed they were inspired by similar actions taken in 16 British universities. On February 12, Hampshire College in Massachusetts became the first university in the US to divest from six companies involved in the occupation of Palestine. The six corporations, all of which provide the Israeli military with equipment and services in the West Bank and Gaza are: Caterpillar, United Technologies, General Electric, ITT Corporation, Motorola, and Terex.
In internal Palestinian politics, on February 9, thousands of Palestinians rallied in Ramallah to show support for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). This came after Hamas leader Khaled Mesha’al suggested that the PLO should be replaced. Relations between the Palestinian factions Hamas and Fateh worsened this week, after Hamas claimed one of its members had died in suspicious circumstances while in a PA-run prison on February 8. Accusations of political arrests and abuse have been flying back and forth between the two groups for weeks. Still, on February 10, the Palestinian People’s Party (PPP) announced that Egyptian officials had invited Palestinian factions to unity talks in Cairo on February 22. Fateh and Hamas officials also met for the first time in a year on February 12 in preparation for the Cairo talks.
On February13, a Hamas official, Dr. Mousa Abu Marzouk, announced that a truce between Hamas and Israel is likely within the next few days. However, according to a Hamas statement, the truce will not involve a prisoner exchange.
Finally, on February14, the mother of late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish died after a battle with a long illness. Not six months after burying her son, she will be laid to rest in her home town Jadeidi, north of Acre. Darwish’s mother was a central figure in his poetry, immortalized as a symbol for the earth of his homeland in his famous poem, “For My Mother”.
UN Resolution 1325
Date posted: February 03, 2021
By MIFTAH
Kerry talks peace while Israel bars UNESCO mission [May 19 - May 25]
Date posted: May 25, 2013
By MIFTAH
President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu both met with US Secretary of State John Kerry this week in the latter’s fourth visit to the region since he assumed office.
After meeting with the two to ostensibly find ways to restart stalled negotiations between the two sides, Kerry urged on May 24 both Israeli and Palestinian leaders to take "hard decisions" to revive the peace process.
"We're getting toward a time now when hard decisions need to be made," he said at the end of his visit.
Kerry admitted a day before after meeting with the two leaders that there was skepticism and cynicism about his efforts to revive talks.
"I know this region well enough to know there is skepticism, in some quarters there is cynicism, and there are reasons for it. There have been bitter years of disappointment," he said. Still, he maintained: "It is our hope that by being methodical, careful, patient, but detailed and tenacious, that we can lay on a path ahead that can conceivably surprise people and certainly exhaust the possibilities for peace."
British foreign secretary William Hague was also in the region visiting with leaders on both sides and even visited the Bedouin community of Khan Al Ahmar between Jerusalem and Jericho, whose residents are under the threat of displacement.
On May 23, Hague was poignantly clear on where his country stands on Israeli settlements in the West Bank. "Israel has lost some of its support in Britain and in other European countries over time - this is something I've often pointed out to Israeli leaders -because of settlement activity, which we condemn,” he said.
"We strongly disagree with settlements on occupied land. Israel is a country we work with in many ways but we do disapprove of settlements,” he maintained, adding that: "We want to see both Israelis and Palestinians really commit themselves to the peace process while there is still a chance of a two-state solution."
In Khan al Ahmar, Hague listened to the residents’ grievances from Israeli efforts to push them out to make way for more settlement expansion. "We (in Britain) strongly condemn the building of settlements and recognise they are a severe threat to a two-state solution,” he told the people there.
On March 21, Israeli forces demolished two residential buildings in the Jabal al-Mukabbir in East Jerusalem. Earlier, they demolished two Palestinian homes in al-Tur, all under the pretext of unlicensed construction. Dozens of people have been left homeless from the demolitions.
A UNESCO fact-finding mission was supposed to arrive this week to look into Israeli measures in the Old City of Jerusalem and their impact on the archeological, cultural and heritage significance of the place, but was denied entry by Israel on May 20. Israel justified its decision by saying Palestinians were trying to politicize the visit.
"The Palestinians were not respecting the understandings,” an Israeli foreign ministry official said. “The visit was supposed to be professional, (but) they were taking measures that showed they were politicizing the event and not letting the delegation focus on professional sides of it," the official said.
UNESCO maintained that the mission was not cancelled, but postponed, the agency’s spokeswoman Sue Williams said.
The Palestinians said they expected Israel to pull something like this. “We weren't surprised by this decision because we believed that Israel's agreement to (allow the mission) was not convincing," minister of foreign affairs Riyad Al Malki said.
The Rafah crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt was reopened on May 22 after a five day closure. Egyptian soldiers and policemen closed the crossing following the kidnapping of seven Egyptian soldiers in Sinai, only reopening it after the soldiers were freed. Over 2,400 Palestinians had been stranded on both sides of the crossing during the days of the closure.
Extremist Israelis extended their attacks this week all the way to the Negev desert. On May 19, residents of the Retamim Kibbutz attacked the nearby Bedouin village of Bir Hadaj and set fire to a tent, according to head of the local village council, Salman Ibin Hamid
"The setters of Retamim are acting like they are in the West Bank," Ibn Hamid said. "These people have the mentality of the occupying settler to attack every Arab."
Finally, on May 23, the US appointed Gen. John Allen as special envoy on security issues in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. According to a US official, Allen will deal with the U.S. position on Israeli security needs and the security arrangements that would accompany the establishment of a future Palestinian state.
Al Nakba commemorated amid increasing settler attacks [May 12 - May 18]
Date posted: May 18, 2013
By MIFTAH
This week Palestinians commemorated the 65th anniversary of the Nakba, the catastrophe of 1948 on May 15, with a variety of activities, demonstrations and events throughout the Palestinian territories and outside of its borders. Festivals were held in Ramallah and Nablus in addition to several protests and confrontations with Israeli occupation forces. In Jerusalem, clashes broke out between protesters and Israeli police and border guards when Palestinians commemorating Al Nakba, raising Palestinian flags and facing off with Jewish settlers and soldiers. Thirty people were wounded or arrested during the clashes in addition to six Israelis.
The Jerusalem clashes come at a time when settler break-ins to Al Aqsa have been on the rise amid increasing calls by extremist Jewish groups to make a presence at the compound. The break-ins have become a near daily event. Muslim worshippers and Palestinian youths have kept constant vigil at the mosque to stave off the break-ins which included settler groups who used children as a cover to enter the compound on the occasion of Shavuot.
Settlers in the West Bank have wreaked havoc this week as well. On May 17, three Palestinians were injured in clashes in Urif south of Nablus when dozens of settlers set fire to lands in three area-villages: Urif, Einabus, and Asira al-Qibliya. The settlers also attacked citizens and threw burning tires at people’s homes.
Jewish extremists attacked inside the Green Line as well. On May 14, extremists set fire to three cars and sprayed racist graffiti on a mosque south of Haifa, according to Israeli media reports.
"Price-tag" and "Eviatar," which is thought to refer to the name of a settler stabbed to death last week, were found on the mosque’s walls in addition to the Star of David. In Safed, even farther north, racist graffiti with the words "Arabs out" was found on walls in the city.
On May 13, Israeli settlers exhumed a number of graves and sprayed racist graffiti in the Sawiya village in Nablus. Ghassan Daghlas, head of the PA settlement activity file, said settlers from the Alia settlement were responsible for the damage.
On the same day settlers from Tel Hatimar begin building a religious school for children on Al Khader lands in the Bethlehem area.
The Israeli army meanwhile, uprooted over 1,200 olive tree saplings on May 16 and razed land Palestinian farmer in the northern West Bank, according to Daghlas. He said the army dug up over 40 dunums of farm land and demolished a water tank and stone walls in Ras Karker, near Nablus.
On May 17, three Palestinian laborers were wounded in Beit Ula northwest of Hebron after Israeli forces fired rubber-coated steel bullets and unleashed police dogs at them according to Issa al-Amla, coordinator for the popular struggle committee. He said Omar Al-Amla, 31, and Abdulkadir Al-Amla, 28, suffered multiple dog bites to the neck and hands. A third laborer, Jihad Saleem, was shot in the leg.
In Jerusalem on May 17, Israeli forces raided the home of Iyad al-Awar and insisted on taking his two children 6-year-old Qassam and 5-year-old Nasrallah for “interrogation”. While their father prevented the forces from arresting his boys, Israeli soldiers handed him a warrant ordering him to bring his children to the Russian Compound for questioning.
"We arrived to the Russian Compound and the troops wanted to take my kids for investigation; I refused and they beat me in the ear and the leg. My kids started crying and were so scared from the troops. They took my kids by force," al-Awar said.
Israeli Intelligence officers apparently questioned the children about their detained cousin Shadad, and asked if they had seen him throwing stones or Molotov cocktails at Israeli forces, Al Awar said.
On the same day however, Palestinians scored a tiny victory in the Jerusalem suburb of Abu Dis when they were able to tear a hole through part of the separation wall. Protesters marking the Nakba anniversary ripped a 4-meter hole in it, eyewitnesses said. Clashes ensued between the protesters and Israeli soldiers who fired tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets. Several injuries were reported.
Peace Now reported on May 16 that the Israeli government planned to grant retroactive approval to four West Bank settlement outposts it had previously pledged to at least partially demolish.
The Israeli state attorney's office said that settlers had purchased the private Palestinian land on which they built, thus paving the way for the government to give its blessing.
"In the response, the government declares its intention to legalize four outposts, in isolated areas," Peace Now said in a statement, adding that the strategy was an affront to US Secretary of State John Kerry's efforts to revive dormant Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. "The intention to legalize outposts as new settlements is no less than a slap in the face of Secretary Kerry's new peace process," Peace Now said.
On May 14, Hamas and Fatah agreed in Cairo to form a national unity government within three months during which they would finalize and approve the Palestine National Council elections law. The two sides, represented by Fatah leader Azzam Al Ahmad and Hamas politburo member Mousa Abu Marzouq, came to the agreement under Egyptian sponsorship and said President Abbas would immediately begin talks on the new government formation. Once the government is formed, general elections can be held.
