On May 2, the PLO Executive Committee approved US-backed proximity talks with Israel, after the Arab League endorsed the move a day before. According to President Mahmoud Abbas, the talks will last for four months – the same time period designated when the Arabs first approved indirect negotiations last March. Abbas, who announced the PLO's approval, told Al Ayyam newspaper, "I don't want to give up hope, in spite of the obstacles I see and the fact that there are many who oppose peace." The President went on to say, "The Americans concluded that the establishment of an independent Palestinian state is an American interest, and that’s why they exert efforts despite the impediments laid by Israeli lobbies, and despite the efforts of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu."
For his part, Netanyahu considers himself to be bending over backwards for the "sake of peace." On May 3, the Israeli Premier said his government would open indirect talks with the Palestinian Authority with a discussion of West Bank security arrangements and water resources. This is already a setback, given that Palestinians and Americans have insisted that talks should involve the core final status issues, including Jerusalem and borders. According to Israeli media reports, Netanyahu told his closest aides that he intends to open the talks in person and had asked to be briefed on a so-called eight-point plan set by former Israeli PM, Ehud Olmert, pertaining particularly to final status issues.
On that note, US special Middle East envoy George Mitchell will arrive today, May 3 to the region to officially launch the talks, meeting first with Netanyahu and later with Abbas, thus shuttling between Jerusalem and Ramallah in the talks' first phase of implementation.
While the Palestinians remain wary of Israel's good intentions in entering the talks, they say US President Barack Obama has made them guarantees that Israel would freeze settlement activity, at least during the four months of talks. Proximity talks were first called off in March when Israel announced the construction of 1,600 housing units in an east Jerusalem settlement. Only after a promise to halt further construction, say the Palestinians and Arabs, was the green light given for a resumption of negotiations.
Palestinians, who have taken some criticism from Hamas and certain Arab states such as Syria for agreeing to re-enter peace negotiations say their red line is not written in sand. On April 30, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat warned, "If Israel builds one house in the West Bank, Palestinians will immediately stop the negotiations."
On April 26, Jerusalem Councilman Meir Margalit said Netanyahu's government declared a "de facto freeze" on new settlement projects in east Jerusalem even though this was done in private, ostensibly to avoid a clash with right wing opponents. According to Margalit, the Israeli government ordered its Interior Ministry not to talk about new settlement construction in east Jerusalem,” especially after the whole fiasco last month with US Vice President Joe Biden. As a result, he says construction has all but ceased in the eastern sector.
That is not what the Islamic-Christian Commission for Jerusalem and the Holy Sites said on April 26. The commission says three Israeli building plans have been ratified by the municipality to build 321 new settlement units and a yeshiva in the heart of Jerusalem's Palestinian quarters, namely Sheikh Jarrah.
Meanwhile, Israel is working hard to quell Palestinian resistance to the occupation in all its forms. On March 2, an Israeli military court sentenced a 16-year-old boy from Hebron to three months in prison while six others were sentenced to three years of probation and a 2,000 shekel fine for participation in a demonstration against the separation wall. They were protesting the continued detention of Abbas Zaki, Fatah Central Committee member and others, who were arrested by Israeli forces during a peaceful march on Palm Sunday while trying to enter Jerusalem, which was closed off to Palestinians because of Passover. The boy's family is protesting the sentence, saying it is in blatant violation of international law and children's rights.
Furthermore, on May 3, Netanyahu said he was considering a bill to propose sanctions on Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails in a bid to further pressure Hamas to release Gilad Shalit. The bill, introduced by Likud member Danny Danon, was created apparently to make conditions for Palestinian prisoners similar to those of Shalit. Danon said the legislation was to, "fix the absurd situation in which terror organizations abduct Israeli citizens as bargaining chips, totally depriving them of visits, while members of the same terror organizations who are imprisoned in Israel are permitted to receive visitors." Danon's bill would end all visits to Palestinian security prisoners, with the exception of their attorneys and one visit every three months from the ICRC.
In Gaza, the morning of May 2 saw the tragic death of Ibrahim Malalha, who was killed when a projectile mistakenly struck him in his Khan Younis home. Another man was killed on April 28 by Israeli troops in the Shujayieh quarter of Gaza.
Also tragic is the deaths of four Palestinians who died on April 30, apparently from the inhalation of toxic gas sprayed inside one of the smuggling tunnels between Rafah and Egypt. Hamas authorities in Gaza said on May 2 that a committee had been set up to investigate the deaths of the four, the blame for which many have placed on Egypt as part of is crackdown policy on tunnels.
It is no wonder east Jerusalem settlements and settlers are at the top of the Palestinians' negotiating agenda given the constant threat they pose to Palestinians in the city. On May 2, a family home for 40 members in Beit Safafa was evicted by a group of settlers who forced them out and immediately hung up a string of Israeli flags. Mohammed Saleh, one of the members said settlers began "dancing in the yard" after kicking the family out.
On April 28, another Beit Safafa home belonging to the Saleh family was also evacuated by Israeli settlers. Hajj Ail Saleh and his wife Sheha, both in their 90s said they had been living in the home since they were married.
It was only days earlier that dozens of right wing settlers marched through Silwan on April 25 demanding that the municipality tear down "illegal" Palestinian homes. That day, Silwan residents pushed back the settlers, who tried to march to Silwan's center carrying large Israeli flags.
In the West Bank, Yitzhar settlers assaulted Palestinians from Huwwara near Nablus on April 29, burning fields and vandalizing private and public properties. Also on April 29, Israeli occupation forces demolished Bedouin barracks in the Ein Al Hilwa area in the Jordan Valley declaring the area a closed military zone. On April 26, Israeli forces stormed a home in the Hebron-area village of Beit Awwa, assassinating Izzedin Al Qassam Brigades operative Ali Sweiti, who has been wanted by Israeli forces for years. The army then demolished the home he was holed up in.
Finally, Israeli occupation troops deported yet another Gazan resident from the West Bank on April 27. Fadi Azazmeh, 19, was sent back to the Gaza Strip after being arrested from his workplace in the Hebron market. Azazmeh says he refuses to return to the Strip and is staying in the protest tent at the Beit Hanoun crossing along with three other Gazans recently deported.
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.
