The United Nations announced on July 23 that it felt all aid to Gaza should be delivered by proper means through land routes. The announcement, made by UN spokesperson for Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon Martin Nesirky, came after Israel said it would block a Lebanese flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip. ""There are established routes for supplies to enter by land. That is the way aid should be delivered to the people of Gaza," he said.
Meanwhile, Israel said it had urged Lebanon to convince the flotilla to change course, warning them that it would ensure that the flotilla does not make it to Gaza. The two-boat flotilla, Junia and Julia, were "an unnecessary provocation," said Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on July 23. "We hold the Lebanese government responsible for preventing the flotilla from departing today, and if it does depart it will be accompanied by Israel's Navy to the Ashdod port," he said. If the boats refuse to change course, Barak added, Israel would have "no choice but to apprehend it in open waters."
Meanwhile, in an apparent bid to boost President Mahmoud Abbas' government, the United States and France have both upgraded their diplomatic relations with the Palestinian Authority. France, the first to make the move on July 22, upgraded the Palestinians' general commission to the status of Palestine Mission. The US made its announcement a day later, on July 23, upgrading the PA's status to a "general delegation". While this is still a lower status than most countries and does not give the Palestinians diplomatic privileges or immunities, it now means the Palestinians are allowed to fly their flag outside their offices in Washington D.C.
The US is also trying to convince President Abbas to move to direct negotiations with Israel, something which the Palestinian president is still resisting. On July 17, US envoy George Mitchell admitted he had failed to convince the Palestinian president to sit down directly with Israel. He said that although his meeting with Abbas was "candid and productive" his government understood the "difficulties and complexities" in trying to realize the vision the US has for Middle East peace. Still, he said, "we are determined to continue."
Abbas, for his part, told Mitchell he would report back to the Arab Follow Up Committee during its meeting on July 29 to see how the Palestinians should move forward. On July 20, Abbas repeated his stance in front of the Fateh Revolutionary Council where he said that unless there was tangible progress in proximity talks before July 28, [that would warrant a move to direct negotiations] he would continue with indirect talks until the Arab League deadline in September.
Neither Abbas nor anyone else should expect much positive developments given the negotiating "partner" on the other side of the table. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has never been one to hide his real intensions and a leaked videotape released on July 19 only further confirms this. In the video, taped nine years ago in the settlement of Ofra, Netanyahu [then former prime minister] is visiting a family whose son was killed in a Palestinian attack, and talks about his stint as Israeli premier. He boasts of how he deceived US President Bill Clinton into believing he really wanted to implement the Oslo Accords, later saying he "destroyed them." He also said the US was "easily moved to the right direction" and that the harsh Israeli military response to the Intifada was aimed at crushing the PA and its late President Yasser Arafat.
Furthermore, Israel is escalating its provocations on the ground against the Palestinians with each day. On July 23, dozens of settlers were seen building a new settlement outpost near Hebron between the city center and the illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba on July 23. On July 21, two Palestinians were killed in Beit Hanoun and nine others injured when Israeli forces near the border fence shot artillery shells at the men, who they say were armed and approaching the barrier. The two were identified as Mohammed Kafarneh and Qassem Shinbari, both in their early twenties.
Another Palestinian, 25-year old Bilal Abu Libdeh was also killed this week by Israeli occupation forces near the settlement of Barqan near Salfit. Another man was injured in the attack that took place at dawn on July 22. Israeli sources say the guards spotted the men and believed them to be armed infiltrators and opened fire, however they could not later confirm if the two were carrying weapons. PA press spokesperson Ghassan Khatib said the incident was "illegal and unjustified" and that the soldiers who opened fire should be held accountable for their crime. "“The Israeli practice of shooting first and asking questions later has become the norm,” Khatib said in a statement.
In the Ramallah-area village of Saffa on July 22, Jewish settlers set fire to olive trees under the eye of the Israeli army, according to eyewitnesses. According to Yousef Karajeh, member of the popular committee against the wall, the settlers were able to burn down seven square kilometers of land.
On July 20, the village of Farisiyeh in the Jordan Valley was completely bulldozed to the ground by Israeli bulldozers; the Israeli Civil Administration claims the village has been declared a "live fire zone" and that 10 families had been handed eviction orders on June 27. In total, 55 structures were torn down including tents, shacks, huts, sheep pens and outhouses, which served 120 farmers and their families who lived in the village. Some had been living there for decades.
In Lubban Al Gharbiyyeh near Ramallah, Israeli authorities demolished two houses and industrial barracks on July 21 along with one house and a sheep stable in Bani Naim near Hebron.
Israel was also tightening measures in Jerusalem, claiming on July 19 that it would apply the law on abandoned properties in the eastern sector of the city. This would mean that Israel can "legally" take over thousands of acres of Palestinian land from people who were forced to leave their homes in 1948 and could never return, as well as east Jerusalemites who make their homes in the West Bank.
Finally, Israeli police in Jerusalem have shown that Palestinians cannot even carry plastic guns in the city. On July 20, according to Wisam Syouri, an eight year old boy from the city, an Israeli policeman beat him up for having a toy gun in his hand. The boy had apparently been given the toy by his grandfather and was walking in the Old City with his mother when the policeman tried to take the gun away. "He beat me on my chest and head and pulled my hair. He used bad words and I started shouting for my mother to come and help me," the boy said.
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.
