US President Barack Obama has met his match in obstinacy in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Just as Obama and his administration insist that illegal settlement expansion must be halted, Netanyahu is just as adamant it will continue. On July 24, the US administration warned Israel not to build in the highly contentious E-1 area between the West Bank settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim and Jerusalem. The US has long called on Israel to halt construction there given its detriment to any geographical contiguity of a future Palestinian state. Even George W. Bush forced Israel into freezing work on the E-1 belt. However, after Netanyahu took the premiership, he vowed that the project would be picked up again. The American message warned that the E-1 project would be "extremely damaging, even corrosive" if it continued.
Tensions have been high between the two strategic friends over other issues, such as the recent Jerusalem municipality approval to tear down the Shepherd Hotel in Sheikh Jarrah and build 20 settlement housing units in its place, funded by none other than Irving Moskowitz.
On July 18, Michael Oren, the Israeli ambassador to Washington was summoned to the US State Department and told that Israel must stop the settlement construction at the hotel site, which pre-dates Israel's independence and was originally owned by Jerusalem's Grand Mufti, Sheikh Amin Al Husseini.
On the 19th, Netanyahu rejected the US call outright during a cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.
France followed suit on July 21, summoning its Israeli ambassador to Paris, Daniel Shek and bringing up the same issue. France insisted that it does not accept Israel's continued settlement construction in east Jerusalem.
Still, the US has yet to budge. “Our views are not new either, that this kind of construction is the type … of issue that should be subject to permanent status negotiations, and that we are concerned that unilateral actions cannot prejudge the outcome of these negotiations,” said State Department Spokesman PJ Crowley on July 20.
Israel's stronghold in Jerusalem goes even beyond settlement activity. On July 21, Israeli police forces and border guards raided a press conference at Al Hamra Palace on the occasion of the First Hotels Fair in Palestine (Hot ex 2009). The event was to be part of Jerusalem, the Capital of Arab Culture 2009. However, the press conference was cut short when Israeli forces gave participants two minutes to evacuate the premise, saying they had a court order banning the press conference signed by the Israeli Internal Security Minister. Israel continues to ban any real or perceived activities of the Palestinian Authority in Jerusalem under the claim that this compromises Israel's sovereignty over the city. The press conference, they said, was held under its auspices.
While settlement expansion in Jerusalem made most of the headlines this week, there was also hostile settlement activity in the West Bank. On July 20, settlers set fire to 2,000 olive trees in the Nablus-area village of Bureen and threw stones at passing cars near the Huwwara checkpoint. According to the Israeli army, settlers were agitated and hostile after the army evacuated mobile homes from a nearby settlement outpost. They were back, unfortunately on July 24, when dozens of settlers seized 40 dunums of Palestinian land in the same area. According to eyewitnesses, the Israeli army was present but did nothing to intervene. The land, which is located near the Huwwara checkpoint falls between the villages of Kufr Qalil and Burin and is privately owned by two local families.
Israel took on a different sort of battle with the Palestinians on July 22 when the Israeli education ministry announced it would remove the word "Nakba" (catastrophe) from textbooks in Israel in reference to the 1948 war and subsequent creation of the Palestinian refugee problem. "It is inconceivable that in Israel we would talk about the establishment of the state as a catastrophe," said Yisrael Twito, a spokesperson for the ministry said. Palestinians, inside and outside of Israel, are appalled by the move, saying it aims at distorting the truth given that 800,000 Palestinians were forced from their homes during the war, never to return.
Censorship issues are on both sides of the fence unfortunately. After a brief freeze on Al Jazeera's work last week, Prime Minister Salam Fayyad revoked his decision on July 18, thus allowing the Qatari Satellite Channel to resume business as usual. Fayyad reiterated, however, that the PA would proceed with its lawsuit against the channel for what he said was its continuous incitement against the PA and PLO.
Last week's freeze came after PLO Executive Committee and Fateh veteran member Farouq Qaddumi claimed he had proof that President Mahmoud Abbas was part of a plot to assassinate late President Yasser Arafat.
Fayyad received some good news on July 24 when US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that her country would transfer $200 million to the Palestinian government to help alleviate its budget deficit. In a video conference with the Secretary of State, Fayyad said the deep deficit was largely due to Israel's restrictions on the economy, the failure of donors to come through with their financial commitments and Israel's continued blockade on the Gaza Strip.
Unfortunately, it is not only Israel that uses the Strip and its dire conditions as leverage for political gain. In a bid to put pressure on Fateh to release its prisoners, Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahhar said on July 24 that his government would allow Fateh members to travel out of the Strip for the Sixth Fateh Conference in Bethlehem next month if the latter agrees to halt the political arrests of its activists. "If Fatah says they won't stop political arrests until the division is over, we say that when the division is over each side will move freely," Zahhar warned during Friday prayers in Gaza City.
The PA has played its part as well. On July 21, Fateh spokesperson Ahmad Abdul Rahman, warned Hamas of preventing Fateh members from participating in the Bethlehem conference, saying the movement would pay a heavy price for this decision. He "reminded" Hamas that the PA spends more than $150 million per month on the Gaza Strip, something which would be reconsidered if its members were not allowed to travel out of the Strip.
Finally, two Hamas fighters were killed in an explosion on July 24 near Gaza City. According to a statement released by the Izzedin Al Qassam Brigades, the two were on their way to carry out a jihad mission when the bomb exploded, killing Osama Nabaheen and Baker Nebaheen from the Bureij Camp.
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.
