On June 10, the Ministry of Local Government issued a statement saying the postponement was "in order to pave the way for a successful end to the siege on Gaza and for continued efforts at unity."
Unofficially, however, observers and inside sources say ranks within Fateh are at odds over candidate lists, with the party fearing a division so deep they would risk losing the elections in key cities such as Nablus and Hebron. Apparently, the Fateh Central Committee had planned to form united lists for each district, a decision that was not taken well by some Fateh cadres who threatened to run independently if they were not included on the list. The divisions ran so deep, Fateh feared even losses against leftist parties if elections, already boycotted by Hamas, were to go on as scheduled.
Meanwhile, Palestinians and the international community are still trying to make sense of the deadly Israeli flotilla attack at the end of May, which left nine Turks dead. While the Europeans and even the Americans are calling on Israel to agree to an international investigation, Israel has said it would conduct its own inquiry into the operation. In response to Israel's apparent lack of any sense of wrongdoing, several groups have defiantly declared they would organize their own flotillas towards Gaza as a means of breaking the siege.
On June 10, deputy head of the Iranian Association for the Defense of the Palestinian People Mohammed Ali Nourani announced that an Iranian ship carrying humanitarian assistance would sail next Friday to Gaza accompanied by a group of parliament members, physicians, students and athletes. The Rachel Corrie Ship, which sailed to Gaza just days after the Turkish flotilla tragedy, was directed to the Ashdod port and those on board detained and later deported. According to those on the boat, Israeli authorities confiscated all their belongings including passports, upon arrival at the port.
US President Barack Obama has called the siege on Gaza "unsustainable". On June 9, during his two-way meeting with President Abbas, Obama promised the Palestinians $400 million in civil assistance to be allocated to the building of houses and schools. As for the blockade on Gaza, the two leaders discussed ways in which to ease the siege, including the deployment of international troops and PA security forces at the crossings with Gaza on condition of a total ceasefire with Hamas.
On June 8, U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Crowley commented on the urgency of conducting an investigation into the deadly flotilla incident. "International participation in investigating these matters will be important to the credibility that everybody wants to see," Crowley said. "We want to see an impartial, credible, prompt, thorough investigation. We recognize that international participation, which lends itself to countries and entities being able to vouch for the results of the investigation - will be an essential element to putting this tragedy behind us."
In an apparent step in the direction of slowly easing the siege off of Gaza, on June 10, Egypt announced it had opened the Rafah border crossing last week following the flotilla debacle but did not indicate whether this would be a permanent move.
This has not calmed everyone's anger over Israel's attack on the unarmed aid ship. On June 7, Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak offered scathing criticism of Israeli officials, calling them "global gangsters." During a speech before the parliament, Razak demanded that Israeli leaders be prosecuted before the International Court of Justice for their attack on the Freedom Flotilla. "Such behavior as this has become possible because the global gangsters in Israel know that they are protected by global powers."
In Jerusalem on June 11, 38-year old Ziad Julani was shot and killed when he apparently failed to stop at a checkpoint in the Wadi Joz neighborhood in the eastern sector of the city. According to Israeli reports, the man drove towards the border guards, crashed his truck and fled by foot after which he was shot dead. One eyewitness however said Julani was taking an injured man to the hospital and was therefore speeding at the time.
On June 10, Palestinian prisoner Mohammed Abdeen died during his incarceration at the Ramleh Prison inside Israel. While the circumstances surrounding Abdeen's death remain unclear, Minister of Prisoner Affairs, Issa Qaraqe said he held Israel completely responsible for the death and demanded an investigation into the incident.
On June 7, four men from the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades were killed when an Israeli naval force opened fire at them near the Gaza shore. The men were conducting daily training when they were killed. The bodies of two other men, who were originally reported missing, were found the next day.
In the West Bank, Palestinian sources announced on June 8 that Israeli authorities handed over a new list of dozens of wanted Aqsa Martyrs Brigades members, the military wing of Fateh, who were included in the 2007 amnesty agreement.
According to Israeli sources, of the 73 wanted men, 13 were given full amnesty while the remaining 60 were given freedom of movement in Area A or near the security headquarters they serve in, on condition that they hand over their arms.
Palestinians are also waiting on the delivery of an Israeli pledge to ease restrictions on movement announced by Israeli authorities on May 24. According to OCHA, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs on June 11, Israeli authorities have removed two dirt mounds at the entrances of Kufr Al Dik and Jamain near Salfit and Nablus respectively. However, according to the UN agency, the original package included the removal of 60 obstacles, only 10 of which are actually gone.
In a disturbing move aimed at hindering the growing international and local move to boycott Israeli settlements and their products, a new draft law was presented to the Knesset on June 9 that would allow the transfer of Palestinian funds held by Israel to factories in settlements as compensation for the money lost from the boycott. Furthermore, Israeli law makers are pushing to criminalize involvement in any type of boycott against Israel by punishing non-Israelis with an entry ban into the country of up to 10 years if they are proven to be part of the boycott movement.
Also on June 9, extremist Jewish Israelis vandalized the Omar bin Khattab mosque in the village of Ibtin near Haifa, scrawling racial slurs in Hebrew on its front that called for its demolition. The vandals also wrote graffiti calling for war against the Arabs, especially those from the West Bank.
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.
