After months of waiting, President Mahmoud Abbas announced during his speech in commemoration of late President Yasser Arafat and on the occasion of the Declaration of Independence on November 16 that he would be meeting with Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal on November 23. Abbas said the meeting would tackle the hurdles between the two sides over the terms of the reconciliation while also forming a vision for future plans. The president said they would discuss the formation of a transitional government that would oversee presidential, legislative and PNC elections, which he added were scheduled for next May.
Another important point made by the president during his speech was his insistence that, one the Palestinians were not backing out of their UN membership bid regardless of how many times they were forced to return to the Security Council for a vote, and two, that any final peace deal would have to include a release of all Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails.
Hamas, in a rare statement, said Abbas’ speech was positive and had a number of promising points. The two sides have even said they have found a way to overcome the obstacle of the prime ministerial position, which Hamas says cannot be filled by current premier Salaam Fayyad. This has been one of the main sticking points which reportedly stalled reconciliation efforts since the memorandum of understanding between the two factions was signed back in May.
Fateh leader Azzam Al Ahmad said on November 15 that the two sides had bridged many gaps in secret preparatory meetings in Cairo prior to the Abbas-Meshal meeting, including the Fayyad issue. “Fayyad was an obstacle before reconciliation because Hamas insisted on rejecting him and therefore I hope this obstacle will not be there this time,” he said.
In response to this, Fayyad has said he would not be an obstacle to unity. On November 18, Fayyad, who has been accused of being “non-democratic”, posted comments on his Facebook page hitting back at the charges. "I am more than ready to leave respectfully," he wrote, vowing that he "will never be an obstacle or an element of instability since I am a responsible person and I care."
While the Palestinians are looking forward to the meeting between Abbas and Meshaal with much hope, the United States and Israel are already warning the Palestinian Authority of the consequences should they unite with Hamas. According to the Israeli newspaper, HaYom on November 18, US Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns is bringing the Palestinians a sharp message from US President, Barack Obama, warning of “serious consequences” for the Palestinians should the unity meeting succeed.
According to the newspaper, Burns will tell President Abbas that if he intends to form a unity government, Hamas must renounce violence, recognize Israel, and agree to abide by previous agreements.
As for Israel, it is still withholding the tax revenues is collects for the Palestinians, as a punishment for their UN bid and their recent acceptance into UNESCO as a full member state. On November 14, the Israeli cabinet decided to continue to withhold the transfer of these funds to the PA by a narrow vote in favor of the freeze.
The money, which includes duties on goods being imported to the Palestinian territories, amounts to about $100 million each month. In response, PLO official Saeb Erekat called the move "blackmailing, bullying and stealing."
Not everyone is against the Palestinian statehood bid, however. On November 17, the European parliament passed a resolution calling the Palestinian bid for statehood legitimate.
”The right of Palestinians to self determination and to have their own state is unquestionable, as is the right of Israel to exist within safe borders,” the resolution read. The parliament also reiterated its endorsement of the 1967 borders as the basis for negotiations, saying that “no changes to the pre-‘67 borders including with regard to Jerusalem other than those agreed by the parties should be accepted” urging the Israeli government to halt settlement construction.
This, however, is not a recommendation Israel is likely to take, if actions on the ground are any indication. On November 15, Israel announced plans to invite tenders for the construction of 2,230 new homes in settlements in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, according to Peace Now, with 800 to be built in the east Jerusalem settlements of Har Home and Pisgat Zeev.
A day later, on November 16, Palestine’s ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour complained to the president of the Security Council over Israel’s latest settlement expansion plans which said were “greatly due to the international community’s failure to hold Israel accountable.”
In other evidence that Israel is out for as much land as possible, on November 18, Israeli and Palestinian media reported that Israeli authorities carried out a de facto annexation of Palestinian land northeast of the Jordan Valley. The land was given to Kibbutz Merav. According to reports, the route of the separation wall in that area was changed so that the plot of land in question, about 1,500 dunams, would be on the Israeli side.
Ashraf Madrasa, from the nearby village of Bardallah, produced an ownership deed from 1961 for a 36-dunam tract of the land. He said the Israeli army seized the land, declared it a "military area," drove out the owners and ordered them never to return.
Meanwhile, on November 17, Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now accused the Israeli Custodian of Absentee Properties and the settler group Elad of colluding to expel the Sumrein family from their home in Silwan. Israeli authorities have given the family until the 28th of this month to evict the Sumrein’s, claiming this home and several others belong to Jewish owners.
On November 18, several Palestinians suffered tear gas inhalation and wounds from rubber coated steel bullets during protests in the West Bank areas of Bilin, Nabi Saleh and Masara against the separation wall. In Kufur Qaddum, approximately 1,000 villagers took to the streets after Friday prayers to protest the Israeli military closure of the main entrance to the village.
On November 17, three teenagers from the Qalqilya area village of Azzun were arrested, including 13-year old Rashad Shbetah after Israeli soldiers raided their homes.
Finally, Israeli forces continued to harass prisoners freed in the recent swap between Hamas and Israel, raiding the homes of seven of them on November 13. Many have been banned from travelling abroad while Jerusalem prisoners and those from inside the Green Line have been banned from entering the West Bank or from traveling abroad for a minimum of three years. Others have been ordered to report back periodically to Israeli police stations for security checks.
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.
