President Mahmoud Abbas addressed his nation on September 16 to clarify the leadership’s move next week at the United Nations. He could not be clearer. We are going to the Security Council," he said. "We need to have full membership in the United Nations ... we need a state, and we need a seat at the UN."
The speech comes one week before Abbas is scheduled to make a speech at the UN General Assembly after handing in an official request for statehood to the Security Council. But, the president kept it real. "Let's be practical here. We're not going there [to the United Nations] to become independent," Abbas said. "We will come back to negotiate the other issues," he said. The negotiations however, he said did not fail because of the Palestinians.
"We have been willing to take part in serious negotiations," the president said. "But we received nothing from the Israeli government except wasting time and imposing facts on the ground."
The September bid has become the talk of the hour, both locally and internationally. At noon on September 17, hundreds of Palestinians marched to Qalandiya rallying for a Palestinian state. Israeli left wing supporters were rallying at the other side of Qalandiya checkpoint, unable to reach the West Bank side after Israeli authorities shut it down in anticipation of the demonstration.
While most Palestinians are behind the move to head to the UN next week, Hamas has voiced its reservations. On September 16, Ghazi Hamad, Hamas deputy minister of foreign affairs said "No one in Hamas is against the right of the state; we are all fighting to achieve a state within the 1967 borders, but the question now is whether we can be sure that after the declaration [of statehood], will the occupation be over? Will the Palestinians have their independence and dignity? Now we have no answers."
Hamad described Abbas’ speech as "full of expectations and promises and dreams,” adding that the most important issue at hand was to focus on reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah. "Otherwise any state would be very weak".
Fateh veteran, Mohammed Shtayyeh acknowledged the fact that no magic wand would instantly rid the Palestinians of the Israeli occupation. On September 13, Shtayyeh said to the media, "Things on the ground are not going to be different. The difference will happen on the political level. Palestinians will join UN institutions... and the Palestinian territories will no longer be considered 'disputed lands' but occupied lands," he explained.
In answering another question, also on September 13, President Abbas rejected the claim that the UN move would mean obliterating the role of the PLO. “We must not forget that the PLO was the body that announced the declaration of independence in Algiers in 1988 and the PA is only responsible for the West Bank and Gaza Strip,” he said in Cairo. “The PLO is responsible for everyone in Palestine and outside Palestine and the PLO’s status will remain.”
The bid, meanwhile, is making many international players uncomfortable, the United States and Israel in particular. In a change of plans, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address the General Assembly hours after President Abbas is scheduled to give his speech.
“The General Assembly is not a place where Israel usually receives a fair hearing, but I have nonetheless decided to tell the truth to anyone who wants to hear the truth,” he said.
As part of its endeavors to stymie any acceptance for Palestinian statehood, Netanyahu said on September 15 in talks with European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton that it would agree to upgrade the PA’s status at the United Nations as long as it is not declared a state.
The pressure is not only from Israel though. The United States has vowed to veto any Security Council vote and is trying to convince others to follow suit. . A spokesman for the US State Department called the PLO's plan "unhelpful" and "counterproductive" on September 16.
A French-Spanish initiative has also come under fire from the U.S. and Quartet envoy Tony Blair. Under the initiative, the EU's 27 members would unanimously support a General Assembly resolution upgrading the PA's status at the United Nations to that of a nonmember state. This initiative would give the PA the same status of the Vatican. In exchange, the PA would not ask the Security Council to grant it full UN membership or file charges against Israelis in the ICC.
On September 14, US envoys David Hale and Dennis Ross, returned to the region for their second visit in as many weeks, in a last-ditch effort to convince Abbas to abandon his plans. It didn’t work though, according to Nabil Shaath, a senior Palestinian official who described the meetings as "useless," and said Hale and Ross did not offer any new proposals to the Palestinians.
"They presented nothing, really, that was different [from] what the Americans presented to the Quartet two months ago," Nabil Shaath told Al Jazeera.
"There was not a word said about stopping settlements. All of their efforts were useless."
On September 12, US President Barack Obama said the Palestinians UN bid for statehood is a "distraction" from the peace process, and would not help in ending the conflict. In a statement, Obama reiterated his administration's stance that the so-called unilateral move was perilous. The vote, he said, "Will not change reality (on the ground)."
Meanwhile, Israel is gearing up for any confrontations between its forces and Palestinians during the UN voting. Settlers in the West Bank said they would face off with Palestinians if the bid goes through and Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman said any approval of statehood would have “harsh and grave consequences.” Senior Israeli officials have hinted to what they say is a “basket of tools” the military establishment has for responding to the vote on statehood, ranging from restricting Palestinian movement to harsher measures.
On the ground, Israel has not let up on its measures against the Palestinians. On September 15, settlers burned three cars in Beit Fourik and confiscated a plot of land in Jericho. Two homes and roads were destroyed in the Nablus area village of Aqraba and demolition orders issued against five homes in Hebron. On September 12, settlers burned a sit-in tent in Sheikh Jarrah and uprooted trees in Hebron.
On September 13, Israel’s government also announced its decision to “relocate” close to 30,000 Bedouins from their homes in the West Bank. The Israeli civil administration is expected to evict all Bedouins from Area C from lands they have been living on for years. The bulk will be kicked out of their homes in an area east of Jerusalem, thus making it easier for Israel to implement its plan to expand the settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim and other settlements.
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.
