Palestinian factions returned to Cairo on May 15 to begin the fifth round of unity talks amid controversy over whether President Mahmoud Abbas will announce a new transitional caretaker government or not. The President, who is also the head of Fateh, has been met with a barrage of criticism over both his government announcement and also his handling of internal Fateh affairs.
The new 24-minister government was to be sworn in on May 14 but was stopped after opposition came from within Abbas’ own faction in the Legislative Council. The Fateh block in the PLC called on Abbas to postpone the new government until after the fifth round of conciliation talks took place. They also voiced their opposition to reinstating Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad to his post for another term.
Fateh’s problems do not stop here, however. Abbas caused further dissent among the ranks when he announced on May 11 that Fateh’s 6th Conference would be held in Palestine rather than abroad, on July 1. The announcement was met with strong opposition from within Fateh’s membership, including head of the preparatory committee, Abu Maher Ghneim. Abbas had said that if Israel did not allow its Gaza members to travel to the West Bank, the meeting would be off. Opponents to Abbas’ plan say holding the conference in the homeland would result in the movement’s heeding to Israeli dictates in terms of who attends and the agenda.
Meanwhile, Hamas and Fateh are back to the drawing board in Cairo, trying once again to reach an agreement over the formation of a national unity government. The last four rounds of talks did not bear any real fruit, even though there were reports that some agreements had been reached on certain issues. Still, the main issues of the government formation and mechanism for elections remain unresolved between the two.
The Fateh parliamentary bloc and other Palestinian factions such as Hamas, the PFLP and the PPP also opposed Abbas’ call for a new government, saying this would drive the final nail into any hopes for national conciliation.
Fayyad tried to calm these fears on May 14, saying that any “New government will not be an obstacle to reconciliation,” he said.
So far, Abbas is holding out on the announcement, most likely until he allays fears within his own party and gauges the success of this round of conciliation talks.
This week, the President was also busy with the visit of Pope Benedict XVI, who made a five day visit to Israel and Palestine. The Pope, who left on May 15, visited Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth and the Aida Refugee Camp in addition to meeting with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. On May 12, the Pope visited the Aqsa Mosque and met with the Grand Mufti who briefed him on the hardships faced by Palestinians living under Israel’s occupation.
At the departing ceremony at Ben Gurion Airport, the Pope told Israeli President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that "one of the saddest sights for me during my visit to these lands was the wall." The Pope was directly exposed to Israel’s West Bank separation fence during his visit to Bethlehem and Aida on May 13.
"As I passed alongside it, I prayed for a future in which the peoples of the Holy Land can live together in peace and harmony without the need for such instruments of security and separation, but rather respecting and trusting one another, and renouncing all forms of violence and aggression," he said. He also expressed support for the two-state solution. "The Palestinian people have a right to a sovereign independent homeland, to live with dignity and to travel freely. Let the two-state solution become a reality, not remain a dream."
While Palestinians and much of the international community still adheres to the idea of a two-state solution, the practicality of this possibility on the ground is becoming dimmer by the day. On May 15, US Senator John Kerry told the World Economic Forum in Amman that he believed the window of opportunity for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was closing.
"It's closing for a number of reasons - crushed aspirations, demographics, realities on the ground," he said. For Palestinians, these realities on the ground are primarily represented in Israel’s continued settlement building and expansion on West Bank land, the separation wall and ongoing land expropriation by the Israeli occupying authorities.
King Abdullah II, whose country hosted the forum, also reiterated his and his fellow Arabs’ commitment to a peaceful solution embodied in the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative.
"The Arab peace initiative has offered Israel a place in the neighborhood and more - acceptance by 57 nations, the one-third of the UN members that do not recognize Israel," he said during his speech to the Forum. "This is true security - security that barriers and armed forces cannot bring."
Unfortunately, it seems as though Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu is having nothing of the sort. On May 12, Israeli officials said Netanyahu would inform US President Barack Obama during his May 18 visit to Washington that Israel would continue to expand settlements to accommodate “natural growth” but would not build new ones. Netanyahu has so far not endorsed the two-state solution as a means of resolving the conflict. President Abbas is to meet the US President on May 28.
This week was also the commemoration of Al Nakba, the Palestinian catastrophe of 1948 when 800,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes by incoming Jewish and Israeli armed forces. Over the past 61 years, Palestinians have insisted on the refugee right of return, a right that is enshrined in international law but has yet to be implemented. Marches, rallies and activities were carried out in the West Bank, Gaza and inside Israel in commemoration of the Nakba, all under the slogan of the Palestinians’ inalienable right to return to their homes.
On May 12, Israeli authorities in Jerusalem issued new demolition orders to 31 homes in the Thor and Beit Hanina neighborhoods. Three hundred people are threatened with losing their homes.
On May 11, Israel Railways announced it would expand its Jerusalem-Tel Aviv railway by cutting into West Bank lands belonging to the village of Beit Iksa. According to Peace Now, an Israeli organization, the move is illegal because it uses private-owned land without any attempt at purchasing it or declaring it state lands. According to international law, it is illegal because it impinges on occupied territory, which is impermissible under law.
Israel has also begun erecting a security fence, not in the West Bank but along the Egyptian border with the Gaza Strip. The construction, which began on May 13, is according to Israel, aimed at deterring infiltrators into crossing into the coastal strip.
Finally, during the weekly protests against the separation wall in Bilin and Nilin on May 17, a 12-year old girl was shot with live ammunition by Israeli forces. Samar Amira was reportedly shot in the lower arm while standing near the window of her home in Nilin. Once the separation wall is completed, this village will lose approximately 2,500 dunums of agricultural land.
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.
