This week, a prisoner swap for years in the making finally came to fruition on October 11 between Israel and Hamas. For captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, held in the Gaza Strip since June, 2006, 1,027 Palestinian prisoners will be released from Israeli jails.
Hamas politbureau Chief Khaled Meshaal announced the swap at a press conference in Damascus, saying the deal – finalized with Egyptian mediation – would be implemented in two phases. In the first phase, which is most likely to take place on October 18, 450 prisoners including 27 women will be released concomitantly with Gilad Shalit who will be first transferred to Egypt. In the second phase, two months later, the remaining 550 prisoners will be released.
Of the 450 prisoners, 110 will return to their homes in the West Bank including 55 lifers; 131 prisoners will return to their homes in the Gaza Strip. The remaining prisoners are being released from jail but will not be allowed to return home; 163 prisoners from the West Bank and Jerusalem will be exiled to the Gaza Strip and over 40 prisoners will be exiled abroad. In total, 315 prisoners serving life sentences will be set free.
The second phase will include 550 prisoners of Israel’s choosing, although it has said they would be political and not criminal prisoners.
The prisoner exchange was announced with much fanfare by Hamas and with cautious joy by others among the Palestinians who were unhappy with the terms of release for many of the prisoners and the fact that high profile prisoners such as PFLP leader Ahmad Saadat and Fateh leader Marwan Barghouti were not included in the release.
While Hamas has agreed to release Shalit, it has not agreed to disclose any information on his whereabouts. On October 14, one of the groups responsible for Shalit’s capture, the Popular Resistance Committees, said the soldier’s location and circumstances surrounding his capture would not be revealed after the exchange is finalized.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Palestinian prisoners entered their 19th day of hunger strike, some whose health is reportedly deteriorating. The prisoners, who began their strike on September 27, are protesting poor and cruel conditions, including solitary confinement, lack of medical care, shackling during trial and sparse family visits. Hundreds of solidarity tents have gone up in various Palestinian districts and youth groups have joined the hunger strike alongside the prisoners.
On the ground, Jewish settlers continued to attack Palestinian homes and properties throughout the week in what they call “price-tag” attacks.
On October 14, Israeli settlers from the settlement outpost of Nira in the central West Bank set fire to 120 olives trees belonging to farmers in the village of Ras Karkar. In Salfit in the northern West Bank, area-settlers set fire to 300 Palestinian olive trees.
Furthermore, on October 14, the Israeli army blocked residents of Nablus-area villages from picking their olive trees, which are in close proximity to Israeli settlements. According to Maan News Agency, Israeli troops told harvesters from the villages of Qaryut and Azmut that the Palestinian-Israeli “security coordination” had expired and then blocked them from picking olives.
According to international activists accompanying the farmers, Israeli forces in Burin told them that the area was a closed military zone and subsequently barred them from the harvest.
"There are dozens of olives on the top of the hill (near the Israel settlement of Yitzhar)," one activist said, "but villagers were only given four days permission to do two weeks' work."
Settler price tag rampages were not only limited to Palestinian property this week. Following the news of the prisoner exchange, right wing Israeli Shvuel Schijveschuurder vandalized the memorial of assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, spray painting the words “price tag” and “release Yigal Amir” (Rabin’s assassin) on the memorial stone. Schijveschuurder was protesting the release of two Palestinians said to be responsible for the 2001 attack on the Sbarro restaurant in west Jerusalem in which he lost his parents and three siblings. According to Schijveschuurder, the Shalit family “traded Israel for their son.”
In other news, on October 11, the Israel Lands Administration published a plan for the east Jerusalem settlement of Givat Hamatos. The plan calls for building 2,610 housing units, which would constitute the first new settlement in east Jerusalem for 14 years. Givat HaMatos lies within Bethlehem's original municipal borders and will cut off from the West Bank from east Jerusalem destroying any possibility of a territorial solution in Beit Safafa and Shurafat," according to Peace Now.
On October 14, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon criticized Israel for its plan to build 2,600 housing units in east Jerusalem, saying further settlement activity was "unacceptable."
"The Secretary-General is deeply concerned at continued efforts to advance planning for new Israeli settlements in occupied East Jerusalem," Ban's press office said in a statement.
"The Secretary-General reiterates that settlement activity in East Jerusalem and the remainder of the West Bank is contrary to international law," the statement said, adding such activity "must cease."
A few days earlier, on October 11, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced he was seeking ways to legalize settlement building – namely outposts – on what he called “private Palestinian land” as opposed to the so-called “state land” which is also within the 1967 borders.
On October 10, 22- year old Ahmad Al Azazmeh from Beit Hanoun was killed when an Israeli missile shell hit him while he was planning a military operation against occupation forces in the area. The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine said Al Azazmeh was a member of its military wing.
Finally, in the ongoing battle to win full membership recognition in the United Nations, Fateh veteran Nabil Shaath said on October 10 that the PLO has obtained the nine necessary votes from the Security Council needed. He said Gabon, Bosnia, Brazil, India, Lebanon, Nigeria, South Africa, China and Russia all told the Palestinians they would vote for them when the issue of statehood is broached in the Security Council.
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.
