Two Israeli soldiers were killed on March 26 near the Gaza-Israel border in what was described as some of the fiercest fighting between armed Palestinian groups and Israeli troops. Two other soldiers were injured in the confrontation. Two Palestinians were also killed in the heavy crossfire when Israeli troops crossed over into Gaza. Official Israeli sources claim soldiers saw Palestinians trying to plant explosives along the border.
On that same day, 23 year old Haytham Arafat also died from wounds sustained from Israeli fire after tanks entered the south of Gaza and opened fire. In the West Bank, Mohammed and Saleh Qawareek were shot and killed on March 21 by Israeli troops as they worked their land in Awarta. Another Palestinian man was injured.
While four different Palestinian groups including the Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees claimed responsibility for the Gaza clashes and death of the Israeli soldiers, Israel is eagerly looking to pin it on Hamas. On March 26, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Hamas would be held responsible for all actions carried out by Gaza-based groups against Israel. If Hamas was proven to have been behind the death of the two soldiers, Barak warned that, "There would be ramifications for it."
Meanwhile, Hamas supporters took to the streets in celebration, praising the resistance. Hamas parliamentarian Mushir Al Masri addressed the crowd in Gaza City. "Entering Gaza is not a picnic," he said. "The Zionists cannot come in anytime they wish and leave anytime and however they want," Masri warned. "The Qassam Brigades were ready and taught them a lesson and they should not repeat such a foolish act."
Israel suffered another fatality this week in Gaza as well when a soldier was killed by friendly fire on the Israeli border.
Gaza also welcomed UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on March 21. While the UN Chief toured the area and assessed the overall devastation, families of prisoners and prisoners' rights groups were peeved at the fact that Ban visited the family of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit on the same day but did not take the time to talk to or about Palestinian prisoners or their families. While in Gaza, Ban said the siege on Gaza should be lifted and restrictions eased on the people.
The UN chief was also articulate this week about Israel's continued settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. On March 24, Israel announced approval for the building of 20 settlement units in the east Jerusalem Shepherd's Hotel, located in the already targeted Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. The hotel, which is owned by the Husseini family, was taken over and bought out by right-wing Jewish millionaire Irving Moskovich, a staunch supporter of Jewish construction in Arab east Jerusalem. After a closed session of the UN Security Council, Ban said in a press conference, "Settlements are illegal under international law. This must stop." On the same day the Geneva-based Human Rights Council also passed a resolution on the subject. The resolution said Israeli settlement expansion was not only in violation of international humanitarian law and relevant United Nations resolutions, but also undermines the efforts of the international community to advance the Middle East peace process. Forty-six of the 47 member states voted in favor of the resolution. Only the United States voted against.
Jerusalem settlement building has been the hot topic of the week and has caused considerable strain in US-Israeli relations. During Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's meeting with US President Barack Obama, the two supposedly discussed ways of easing this tension, but not without Obama reportedly making demands on the Israeli leader, which include a settlement freeze and good will gestures towards the Palestinians along with continued efforts to get proximity talks back on track.
Netanyahu, however, has made it clear he would not compromise on the issue of building in Jerusalem. During his March 22 address before AIPAC's annual conference in Washington DC, Netanyahu told the group of pro-Israeli Americans that "Jerusalem is no settlement" and that construction would continue in the city as it has been for the past 42 years. Netanyahu had made earlier statements that enflamed, not only Palestinian sentiments but also American sensibilities when he said that building in Jerusalem was just like building in Tel Aviv. Netanyahu's idea of being "sensitive" to US demands came in the form of asking his housing minister not to participate in the dedication of a new neighborhood in the illegal east Jerusalem settlement of Pisgat Ze'ev so as not to make the settlement construction so public.
In response, US State Department spokesperson Philip Crowley said on March 23 that his country believed the issue of Jerusalem could only be solved between the two parties through direct negotiations.
His boss, Hillary Clinton also threw in a line or two about the detrimental effect of settlement expansion in the city. While her address to AIPAC first ensured the audience of the US's unbreakable bond with Israel, Clinton then said that new construction in east Jerusalem and the West bank "undermines mutual trust and endangers proximity talks." She then went on to defend the US's uncharacteristically harsh response to Israel's announcement of an additional 1,600 homes in the Ramat Shlomo settlement quarter earlier in the month. "We objected to this announcement because we are committed to Israel and its security, which we believe depends on a comprehensive peace, because we are determined to keep moving forward along a path that ensures Israel’s future as a secure and democratic Jewish state living in peace with its Palestinian and Arab neighbors," she said.
It remains to be seen whether these infamous proximity talks will ever get off the ground. The Palestinian leadership called off the talks after Israel's Ramat Shlomo announcement and has since stuck to its guns about not returning to talks until Israel completely freezes settlement construction, Jerusalem included. On March 25, presidential advisor Nabil Abu Rdeineh said President Mahmoud Abbas was briefed by George Mitchell assistant, David Hale in Amman who told him Netanyahu and Obama had not reached an agreement on halting settlements, which he added, would make the launch of indirect talks between the two parties even less likely than before.
EU foreign policy direct Catherine Ashton seems to share this same sentiment. "How we can keep the pressure on to get the proximity talks moving ... We think that the settlements should stop, most importantly we believe the talks should begin," she said on March 22 after returning from her visit to he region.
The EU is "very disappointed by the position of the Israeli government, I think I can say very clearly that Jerusalem is not Tel Aviv," added Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn, stressing the EU's position that Jerusalem should function as the capital of both the Israeli and a future Palestinian state.
Finally, today, March 27, the Arab Summit will take place in Libya where the leaders will discuss the recent efforts to begin indirect Palestinian-Israeli talks and a possible withdrawal of the 2004 Arab Peace Initiative given Israel's intransigence in the peace process and insistence on settlement expansion.
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.
